SS und Polizei

SS und POLIZEI: Myths and Lies of Hitler's SS and Police looks at the SS and police chronologically by comparing the statements and stories and rumors created by the SS and police about themselves with the actual reality, and points out the glaring discrepancies. E.g. the Nazis believed that racial purity was of paramount importance, and they believed the SS was the vanguard of white supremacy, specifically German supremacy. But the reality was that the race restrictions for membership in the SS were ignored or bent with feeble excuses, such as the enlistment of soldiers from Asia and Africa.The police of the Third Reich have got to be the most non-stick body of men ever to squeeze through a series of horrific events and emerge smelling like a rose. Hitler's regime was the police state par excellence, yet at the end of the war none of the Allies thought of blaming his police.The first part of the book explains the breeding ground of the SS philosophy and the importance of the police and Freikorps in shaping that philosophy. Then follows an explanation of how the SS was accepted into the government. This is followed by a description of the compartmentalizing of the SS into a myriad of departments often totally unrelated, such as an archaeological team, a psychiatric research section, a firing squad and a tank warfare school, to name but four.After this comes the story of how the Waffen SS grew in World War Two from a poor man's army operating with hand me downs and despised by the German generals into an elite 'fire brigade' force that rescued those same generals on many an occasion. Within the narrative is an analysis of the interweaving between the police and the SS. This was so intricate that in some units SS and police insignia were both worn at the same time, and some members literally did not know if they were SS or police! This was further muddied when Himmler insisted on assigning duties without regard to the 'job description' of SS and police members, such as sending police regiments to the front line to battle Soviet tanks!In addition the book details that 'SS' did not necessarily mean 'Nazi', nor did 'police' mean 'Nazi'. Many did not join the Nazi party, though it would have been easier for them if they had. Even some Gestapo personnel did not join the SS or the Nazi Party.The book ends with the disgusting tale of back-stabbing and betrayal, fanaticism and cowardice that marked the SS and police in the last months of the war.