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00:00As the Nazi
00:29Reich staggers towards final extinction, desperate resistance continues amidst the rubble
00:36of Berlin.
00:39Accusing all around of treachery, abandoning the German people and his yet faithful lieutenants
00:45to the pleasure of the victors, Adolf Hitler kills himself in the deep bunker of the Imperial
00:51Chancellery.
00:53Obedient to his last orders, two SS men burn the body in the Chancellery Garden.
01:00For the nations of Europe, a long agony is ended.
01:07Hitler had sent his armies marching and ravaging over a continent and beyond.
01:13Throughout all that vast sphere of conflict, there was one band of fighting men who were
01:19everywhere known.
01:21In their brief but extraordinary existence, they won a unique reputation for daring Elan
01:27and unfailing professionalism in combat.
01:30Yet, if their courage was beyond dispute, so too was the fear and loathing which they elicited,
01:39even eventually among their own people and in the regular soldiers alongside whom they fought.
01:47In many of the most signal triumphs of German arms, they played a conspicuous role.
01:53One far disproportionate to their numbers.
01:57In the long period of decline and retreat, despite repeatedly sustaining appalling casualties,
02:03their discipline remained unbroken, their fighting ardour unimpaired.
02:09Almost to the very end.
02:12Subsequently, they were burdened with the near-exclusive blame for the blackest crimes of the Nazi regime.
02:20And for all their high undoubted bravery, they bear a reputation forever shrouded with infamy.
02:27They were the Waffen SS.
02:31Although the Waffen, or armed SS, was not so formally named until late 1939, its origins reach back to the troubled, violent years that followed on the Treaty of Versailles.
02:52The peace that finally succeeded to the Great War brought no lands fit for heroes to live in.
03:00Instead, and inevitably, Europe for many years laboured in the troughs of bitter economic recession.
03:07No country escaped the prevailing misery.
03:11In such fertile conditions, political extremism of every variety flourished.
03:17Movements combining intense nationalism, authoritarianism and intolerance achieved widespread prominence.
03:26As meetings often culminated in open violence, the physical safety of speakers became a serious consideration.
03:34Unofficial private armies sprang up.
03:37In Germany, the rising Nationalist Socialist Workers' Party was led by the ranting but mesmeric demagogue Adolf Hitler.
03:49His personal protection was assigned to the men of a specially selected Schutzstaffel, or Guard Echelon, otherwise known as the SS.
04:01They supplied their own boots and trousers.
04:05The SS organization grew steadily, acquiring a number of disparate functions.
04:11From 1929, it was led by Heinrich Himmler, a former chicken farmer who had shown himself reasonably efficient at administration.
04:22Short-sighted, of mediocre intellect, and physically unprepossessing, Himmler saw in his shabby entourage the revival of a medieval order of keen-eyed warrior knights.
04:36This mystical side of Himmler's character was a source of much amusement to Hitler.
04:41But the future dictator valued his SS leader for what he rightly judged to be an unconditional loyalty.
04:49For Himmler knew that without Hitler, he would be nothing.
04:53With the early 30s, fascism was rife across Europe.
04:58Mussolini was already established in Italy.
05:01And from the Balkans to Great Britain, would-be imitators were not lacking.
05:06All preached one shrill message – hate.
05:13Easy scapegoats were sought.
05:16Nowhere was this dangerous new breed of politics more completely successful than in the German Republic,
05:22where, in 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor.
05:27Henceforward, there would be only one party in Germany – the Nazi Party.
05:39Neither then or thereafter did Hitler ever trust the German army.
05:45And soon, Berliners remarked a different set of guards outside the Imperial Chancellery.
05:51They were drawn from an independent and freshly created new military formation – the SS Leibstandard Adolf Hitler.
06:00The 120 picked men of this Adolf Hitler lifeguard regiment were the first SS members to bear arms
06:09and formed the true nucleus of what was to become the Waffen SS.
06:14Himmler's organisation was by this time some 30,000 strong.
06:20From it would also develop the Allgemeine, or General SS,
06:25eventually to become a huge and unwieldy part of the chaotic Nazi administration.
06:31Though Hitler's most devoted acolyte, Himmler, in common with all the other Nazi courtiers,
06:38nourished fervent ambitions of expanding his own sphere of authority within the new Germany.
06:45To construct, indeed, a state within a state remarkably similar to that which the Jews were supposedly concerned to promote.
06:54He saw the SS, and particularly the Waffen SS, as a prime means of realising that dream.
07:01In his turbulent ascent to power, Hitler had made many enemies.
07:07At no time in his reign would he ever feel entirely secure and unassailable.
07:13Himmler offered him a body of men to be drawn from the finest Germanic stock and imbued with the purest Nazi ideals,
07:21whose unshakable loyalty and implicit obedience would be owed to Hitler alone.
07:28It was not to the German state that the soldiers of the SS Leibstandard pledged their allegiance.
07:34I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Supreme Leader and Imperial Chancellor, loyalty and bravery.
07:43I vow to you, and to those you have named to command me, obedience unto death, so help me God.
07:52The concept of an elite force, separate from army and police, above both party and state,
08:03was easily accommodated within the framework of the Nazi propaganda machine,
08:08which intentionally sought to mimic the grandeurs of imperial Rome.
08:14The Leibstandard would be Hitler's Praetorian Guard.
08:18Sepp Dietrich, a Bavarian, was the regiment's first commander.
08:23The German word, Dietrich, means picklock, so a key was adopted as the regimental emblem.
08:31Though scarcely literate, Dietrich possessed genuine leadership qualities and was much admired by Hitler,
08:39who described him as unique, a man who is simultaneously cunning, energetic and brutal.
08:47These qualities were soon in requisition.
08:51By 1934, Hitler had become increasingly concerned about the SA,
08:55a ragged street army of brawlers and murderers, which had done much to help the Nazis to office.
09:02The SA was commanded by Ernst Röhm, still a committed Hitler supporter,
09:07but one now seeking a reward, and too powerful to be ignored.
09:13In a swift, secret and bloody operation, Röhm and the SA leadership were seized and executed.
09:20In the night of the Long Knives, Dietrich and a select band of Leibstandard gave impeccable service.
09:29This display of SS willingness to turn their hands unhesitatingly against yesterday's comrades
09:36won Hitler's admiration and enduring gratitude.
09:40Yet, he did not wish Himmler's promising creation to grow too rapidly,
09:44for the army was both disdainful and suspicious of SS pretensions to be a fighting force.
09:53Hitler needed the political support of the generals to whom he had promised rearmament,
09:58and he would need them again, sooner than they thought, when he embarked on his military adventures.
10:03Consequently, the armed SS was for the moment restricted to four regiments of special purpose troops,
10:15or more briefly, the SSVT, and the elite Leibstandard.
10:22The SSVT set exacting entry requirements in respect of height and fitness.
10:28The standards of racial purity were higher than in the regular armed forces.
10:33Good Nordic features were indispensable,
10:37but little inquiry was made into a candidate's education nor morals.
10:43But not every graduate of the SS cadet schools could find a place in the SSVT,
10:49and many had to enter another, less glamorous, branch of the SS.
10:53The Totenkopf, Fairband, Death's Head Regiments, ran the concentration camps,
11:00in which the regime's political opponents were interned and, if necessary, executed.
11:06The inspector of concentration camps, Theodor Ecker,
11:11insisted on the routine beating of inmates as part of his men's training.
11:15Although Ecker and many in the Totenkopf units nourished dreams of military glory,
11:23they were not highly regarded.
11:25But Himmler was at pains to emphasize the value of concentration camp duties.
11:30If the officers handled it correctly,
11:33it can provide the best indoctrination there is about inferior beings.
11:37However, not too much was known about this burgeoning part of Himmler's domains,
11:46and in the mid-30s, membership of the General SS was temporally almost fashionable.
11:51The Leibstandert, frequently on call for ceremonial occasions,
12:02acquired the subriquet, Asphalt Soldiers.
12:05It was an unfair job.
12:08When Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland in 1936,
12:12they spearheaded the way for the reluctant German army,
12:15fully prepared to fight if need be,
12:17as they were again when Czechoslovakia was annexed in 1938.
12:25Europe was preparing for war,
12:27and when it came, the SS troops were perhaps better trained for it than most.
12:33Many of the men who had joined the armed SS
12:35had done so to escape dull, unrewarding jobs,
12:39or merely for the splendid uniform.
12:42They underwent a strict regimen,
12:45but one not without compensations.
12:47If the discipline was strict, camaraderie was strong.
12:53The training program, drawn up by Paul Houssier,
12:56an outstanding former army officer,
12:59laid much stress on physical prowess.
13:02Field and team sports were emphasized in preference to barrack square drilling.
13:08Unlike, as in most other armies,
13:10there was no wide gulf between officers and men.
13:13Instead, warm, informal contacts fostered mutual respect and trust.
13:19A preponderance of all ranks derived from the peasantry,
13:24which Himmler, though himself sycophantic before aristocracy,
13:28regarded as representing the purest strain of German manhood.
13:31Howser's system encouraged initiative and an openness to new ideas.
13:43The SS camouflage jacket, at first laughed at,
13:46was subsequently widely imitated.
13:49Their battle training, though dangerous, was highly realistic.
13:52As their bodies hardened and their martial prowess advanced,
13:57the young recruits developed an intense pride in themselves and their units.
14:03A pride that they were different,
14:05and a burning determination to prove that they were better.
14:08Nazi ideology was an integral part of every SS training course.
14:18The turgid ramblings of the official Nazi theorist, Rosenberg,
14:22and even the windy rhetoric of Mein Kampf itself,
14:26made limited impact on men,
14:28many of whom had not progressed beyond the stage of elementary education.
14:32It scarcely mattered.
14:38Their true indoctrination into the fundamental Nazi tenets had begun long since,
14:43and the bacillus, implanted early, received constant nourishment.
14:50Dr. Goebbels was one of Hitler's few efficient ministers.
14:55His propaganda was subtle, ceaseless, and all-pervasive.
14:58The young SS men knew that the Aryans were nobler and purer than all other,
15:05that the inferior races were not only despicable, but actively malign,
15:10and that compassion was to be striven against
15:13as a dangerous treachery to one's own kind.
15:16It was the autumn of 1939.
15:32Uneasy forebodings hung heavy over Europe.
15:35The gambler in the imperial chancellery
15:38contemplated his past amazing run of luck.
15:42Were he to stop now, all he had gained would be safe.
15:45But Hitler was resolved on another hazard at Fortune's wheel.
15:51Germany was irrevocably committed to the path of destruction.
15:56The inevitable war began in September,
15:59with Hitler's invasion of Poland.
16:02It was a rapid war.
16:04The SS forces involved in the campaign numbered only 18,000
16:09and did not fight as a unit,
16:11but were dispersed throughout the two army groups.
16:13The Totenkopf being held in reserve,
16:17it fell to the SSVT regiments and the Leibstandert
16:21to uphold the honour of the SS in this first test of battle.
16:25It was demonstrated that their courage was beyond question.
16:33As Himmler exultantly declared,
16:36these are men who glory in battle.
16:39But controversy arose as to whether the high SS casualty rate
16:43had come about as a result of over-reckless bravery,
16:47poor officer performance,
16:49or of deliberate and callous policy on the part of the German army.
16:53Previously, the army had successfully interfered
16:57with both the recruiting and arming of the SS.
17:01It was now claimed that the army
17:03was both assigning the SS the most hazardous tasks
17:06and then intentionally failing to render proper support.
17:10Moreover, when some 50 Jews were murdered in a synagogue,
17:19it was largely army pressure
17:21which brought about the trial of the SS malefactor.
17:25He pleaded that he'd been much upset
17:27at the harm the Jews had done to Germany
17:29and was eventually released.
17:31Poland succumbed in a matter of weeks.
17:41Hitler's Soviet allies moving in from the east
17:44came with lists of those to be arrested
17:46in every town and village.
17:48They introduced a variety of anti-Jewish measures.
17:53The two occupying powers
17:55had previously agreed on concerted secret action
17:58to annihilate all possible centres of Polish resistance.
18:03As Stalin's agents began rounding up
18:05the Polish intelligentsia and killing captured officers,
18:09the German order police began implementing
18:12the first stages of the awesome programme
18:15of deportation, ghettoisation and murder.
18:20One of the great races of Europe
18:22stood now at the threshold of a terrible destiny.
18:26Germany celebrated her victory
18:30and for the battle-proven SS,
18:33higher recognition was not lacking.
18:36Despite the continued misgivings of the generals,
18:38on the 1st of December,
18:40the various SS detachments
18:42were together formally constituted
18:44as the Waffen SS,
18:47an independent fighting force,
18:48though still subordinate in battle
18:51to the army high command.
18:56Further expansion was permitted,
18:59though the army which controlled recruitment
19:01was still able to siphon off
19:02a high proportion of the candidates
19:04eager to wear the SS runes.
19:07To some extent,
19:09this was offset by Gottlob Berger's formation
19:12of reserve police regiments,
19:14from which the front-line units
19:16could draw replacements.
19:17All were under the virtual sole control
19:21of Himmler,
19:23who was also steadily groping for supremacy
19:25over all Germany's various police forces.
19:30Though a competent intriguer and bureaucrat,
19:34Himmler was also partly a crank,
19:36whose high position allowed him freely
19:38to indulge his fantasies.
19:41Thus, in another part of the SS Empire,
19:44investigators probed the mystical connotations
19:47of the eaten top hat
19:49and the homeopathic virtues
19:51of the milk of the wild mare of the steppes.
19:55Comparative studies were made
19:57into old runes and oriental ideograms,
20:00with a view to proving
20:01that the Japanese, too, were Aryan.
20:06SS men, who had to produce a sun
20:08before they were allowed into action,
20:10were exhorted to copulate in graveyards
20:13that they might be assured
20:14of heroic offspring.
20:17In laboratories,
20:18vain efforts were made
20:19to discover what distinguished Aryan
20:21from non-Aryan blood.
20:25For their other experiments,
20:27the SS scientists enjoyed a resource
20:30unavailable to all other medical researchers,
20:33a ready supply of living,
20:36expendable human beings.
20:43for the now rapidly expanding Waffen-SS,
20:45the next great challenge came
20:46with the Western Offensive of spring 1940.
20:49For the now rapidly expanding Waffen-SS,
21:03the next great challenge came with the Western offensive of spring 1940.
21:09The Leibstandert and SSVT,
21:12being among the Germans' comparatively few motorized formations,
21:16were assigned to the faster-moving spearheads of the attack.
21:19The first thrust was against the Low Countries.
21:25Breaking through the weak frontier defenses,
21:27the Leibstandert drove forwards to the support of the parachute troops
21:31and to secure communications links.
21:35Where they found the bridges destroyed, they constructed their own.
21:39SS Deutschland struck sharply through to the east.
21:46Holland was overrun within a week,
21:48and the major battle, that for France, commenced.
21:53To the deep satisfaction of Ecker and his 7,000 erstwhile concentration camp guards,
21:59Totenkopf was taken out of reserve and sent into action in northeast France.
22:05Everywhere, the Waffen-SS troops proved themselves the most eager for combat,
22:11the most ardent in pursuit.
22:12Individual men refused to give ground even to approaching tanks,
22:17and died making futile resistance.
22:27In the SS ethos, nothing was more despised than weakness or cowardice,
22:33and near-suicidal bravery was commonplace.
22:36Another consequence was that leaders always tended to favor the most drastic course of action.
22:43One disgusted regular army officer told Ecker that he was conducting mere butcher's warfare.
22:50What does it matter, was the reply, so long as we win.
22:56High casualty rates were an inevitable concomitant.
23:00But it was also argued that, as in lightning war itself,
23:05a sudden, overwhelming onslaught saved lives in the long run.
23:08Even so, very soon, replacement officers were being sent to the front
23:14direct from the schools, their training incomplete.
23:18The Leibstandard followed keenly in the harrowing pursuit
23:21of the broken Allied forces to the Dunkirk pocket.
23:25And when Hitler issued his famous halt order of the 24th of May,
23:30one reason may have been to ensure a share for his favorites
23:34in the envisaged final triumph.
23:38Alone among the commanders, Dietrich discreetly ignored Hitler's directive,
23:46slipping across the river with his men to capture the Wattenberg Heights opposite.
23:55The Totenkopf were badly hit in the small but fierce British counterattack
23:59at Arras on the 20th of July.
24:03Claiming that the British had massacred some German prisoners,
24:06they subsequently shot 100 of their own captives at Le Paradis.
24:12The next day, the Leibstandard carried out a similar exercise.
24:18It was a harbinger of darker things to come.
24:20For the remainder of the French campaign,
24:28all Waffen-SS formations were strongly to the forefront,
24:32as Kleist's armoured group forged relentlessly through central France
24:36to the final overwhelming victory.
24:40Unlike many of the trumpery decorations dispensed by the Nazi state,
24:45the medals issued to the Waffen-SS soldiers were true emblems of bravery.
25:00After France, there was further expansion of the Waffen-SS,
25:04and the first-site dilution of early standards was permitted
25:07in order to allow the recruiting of suitably Germanic types
25:11from the conquered countries.
25:14A new division, Viking, was formed under Felix Steiner.
25:18It included Scandinavians and Dutch as well as Germans.
25:23The SSVT was brought up to divisional strength and renamed Das Reich.
25:28Hitler had always seen his greatest struggle as lying in the east,
25:34where he had immense designs.
25:37But first, it was necessary to secure the Balkans.
25:41In April of 1941, he moved against Yugoslavia.
25:46A German army in Bulgaria was poised for the offensive.
25:50For the Waffen-SS, it was but new lands to conquer.
25:58Swiftly and brutally, Yugoslavia was subdued.
26:03Das Reich marched in triumph through shattered Belgrade.
26:08The German offensive swung onwards into Greece.
26:12And the Leibstandert was assigned the arduous and highly dangerous task
26:16of fighting its way across the mountains to outflank the Metoxus line.
26:21The forcing of the Cledi and Clezura passes
26:27was an extraordinary achievement by any standards.
26:31The natural hazards alone were daunting.
26:34The recoil from an 88mm gun
26:37was liable to sweep away gunner and battery.
26:41At one point, Meyer only persuaded even these battle-hardened veterans
26:46to move by exploding a hand grenade at their heels.
26:49They persevered and went on to capture the key town of Castoria
26:56in a supreme display of bravery and professionalism.
27:01On this occasion, no stain marred the glory.
27:06Had the Leibstandert's history ended with their victory parade through Athens,
27:10its reputation might still stand fair today.
27:13By the summer of 1941,
27:21Hitler felt ready to launch the longest cherished
27:24and most extravagant of all his schemes of conquest.
27:28The German people needed space to live.
27:32The greater German empire required lands, colonies and serfs.
27:36All three lay to the east.
27:39He would hurl his matchless German soldiers
27:42against the rotten edifice of Bolshevism
27:45and send it crashing to the ground.
27:48He would fling the Slavic hordes back into Asia.
27:54Them or us, said Hitler,
27:57will be the motto of this pitiless clash.
28:00To this momentous undertaking,
28:06three million men had been committed.
28:09The invasion front extended from Finland to the Black Sea.
28:13News of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union
28:16flashed round an astonished world.
28:19In Germany, there was no rejoicing.
28:21The Waffen SS units taking part,
28:27comprising in all some 160,000 men,
28:30were spread between the three army groups.
28:33In an invading force heavily dependent on horse-drawn transport,
28:38motorized units were of key importance
28:40in sustaining a rapid advance.
28:44In its initial stages,
28:46Operation Barbarossa was dramatically successful.
28:49The German army surged onwards,
28:52easily brushing aside the disorganized attempts at opposition.
28:57Stalin had ignored all warnings of the attack.
29:01Like Hitler, Stalin was distrustful of the military
29:03and had severely weakened the Red Army
29:06by repeated bloodlettings.
29:08Paralysis afflicted his high command.
29:13The Germans found a frequent welcome
29:15in the border republics,
29:17where Stalin's rule had been especially high.
29:19In the abundantly fertile Ukraine,
29:22within the previous decade,
29:24over 10 millions had died
29:26in an artificially created famine.
29:33As the spearheads penetrated deeper and deeper
29:36into Soviet territories,
29:38it seemed to many Germans
29:39that they were going into not merely another land,
29:42but another age,
29:43amongst a people unbelievably backward,
29:47drab and primitive.
29:51To the delight of Dr. Goebbels,
29:53the propaganda minister,
29:54it was found that many jails were choked
29:57with the bodies of hastily slaughtered political prisoners.
30:00The general backwardness of the country
30:05made for some military disadvantages.
30:09Even light summer showers
30:11turned the dust roads into morasses,
30:14temporarily immobilizing entire columns.
30:16All the Waffen-SS formations
30:20performed outstandingly well during the advance,
30:24and the real combat value
30:26of these resilient fighting men
30:27began at last to be appreciated
30:29in the regular army.
30:31In the center,
30:33Das Reich was heavily involved
30:34in the drive on Smolensk,
30:37subsequently winning a rare accolade of praise
30:39from General Guderian.
30:42Another general reported admiringly
30:44on the incomparable dash
30:46displayed by the Leibstander.
30:48In the spirit of the most devoted Brotherhood of Arms,
30:52they intervened on their own initiative
30:54in the arduous struggle
30:56and routed the enemy,
30:58destroying numerous tanks.
31:03Leibstander and Viking
31:05accompanied Army Group South,
31:07which had been given a large remit
31:09of isolating and destroying
31:10the Red Army forces west of the Dnieper.
31:14The distances traversed were enormous
31:16compared to any previous campaigns.
31:19After a full 300 miles to the river,
31:21they faced another 700 miles
31:23to Rostov-on-Don.
31:26In huge encirclements,
31:28hundreds of thousands of prisoners were taken.
31:34Dealing with these large number of captives
31:37was one of the many problems
31:38for which the Nazi war machine
31:40had made absolutely no firm preparations.
31:44Behind the front,
31:45administrative anarchy reigned.
31:48Numerous competing authorities,
31:50military and civilian,
31:52jostled for power, profit and pillage.
31:54It was a reflection of the muddle
31:57purposely encouraged at the Nazi court
31:59by the ever-insecure dictator.
32:01As one result,
32:07uncountable prisoners starved.
32:09Cannibalism was not unknown.
32:13Soviet troops no longer surrendered readily.
32:16Many of those cut off behind the German lines
32:18took to guerrilla warfare.
32:20Even the minimal well-being
32:26of the newly subject populace
32:27was a matter of little moment
32:29to senior Nazis.
32:32Regarding Slavic women,
32:34Himmler told his men,
32:35we Germans who are the only people in the world
32:39who have a decent attitude towards animals
32:41will also assume a decent attitude
32:44towards these human animals.
32:46But it is a crime against our own blood
32:49to worry about them
32:50and give them ideals.
32:54Inevitably,
32:55popular support for the invaders
32:56ebbed away.
32:57Summer passed into autumn.
33:07The German columns continued ever onwards
33:10across the unending,
33:11unfriendly expanses.
33:15Progress was maintained,
33:17but even so,
33:18there were disquieting auguries.
33:22The French had made Paris an open city,
33:25not wishing that their beautiful capital
33:27be damaged.
33:28The Soviets had no such inhibitions.
33:32In Kiev,
33:33they unhesitatingly sacrificed
33:35entire streets
33:37in order to delay the German advance.
33:47The SS Viking
33:49were amongst the first German units
33:51to encounter the new Soviet T-34 tanks.
33:55Somehow,
33:55the backward Slavs
33:57had produced a machine
33:58superior to any
34:00that German industry could offer.
34:04More alarming still,
34:05it became clear
34:06that German intelligence
34:08had badly underestimated
34:09Red Army strength.
34:11It was thought that Stalin
34:13might muster
34:14around 200 divisions.
34:16By mid-August,
34:17360 had been identified,
34:20and they offered
34:20increasingly stern resistance.
34:22many Germans found
34:26the mere vastness
34:27of the country oppressive.
34:30The spaces
34:31seemed endless,
34:33the horizons nebulous.
34:35We were depressed
34:36by the monotony
34:37of the landscape
34:38and the immensity
34:40of the stretches
34:40of forest,
34:41marsh, and plain.
34:42The villagers
34:46looked wretched
34:47and melancholy
34:48with their
34:48straw-thatched
34:49wooden houses.
34:51Nature was hard,
34:53and in her midst
34:54were human beings
34:55just as hard
34:56and insensitive,
34:58indifferent to weather,
34:59hunger,
35:00and thirst,
35:01and almost
35:02as indifferent
35:02to life and losses,
35:04pestilence,
35:05and famine.
35:05The Russian civilian
35:08was tough,
35:09and the Russian soldier
35:10still tougher.
35:12He seemed to have
35:13an illimitable capacity
35:14for obedience
35:15and endurance.
35:21Meanwhile,
35:22a great and cruel work
35:24was in hand.
35:26Fanning out behind
35:27the fast-advancing
35:28German lines
35:28came the terrible
35:30SS Einsatzgruppen,
35:32special-purpose units,
35:34charged with the
35:35grisly task
35:36of organizing
35:36the secret extermination
35:38of Jews
35:38and other undesirables.
35:41Waffen SS men
35:43could be assigned
35:43to such units
35:44as a disciplinary measure.
35:49They are late
35:50or fall asleep on duty.
35:52They are court-martialed,
35:53but are told
35:54they can escape punishment
35:56by volunteering
35:57for the special units.
35:59When the young men
36:00realize what they are
36:01being asked to do
36:02and refuse to take part
36:03in mass murder,
36:04they are told
36:05the orders are given them
36:06as a form of punishment.
36:08Either they can
36:09take that punishment
36:11or they can disobey
36:12and be shot.
36:13In any case,
36:15their career is over
36:16and done with.
36:18By such methods,
36:19decent young men
36:20are frequently turned
36:21into criminals.
36:22during the only execution
36:31he is definitely known
36:32to have witnessed,
36:33Himmler felt physically ill.
36:36But this embarrassment
36:38in no way blunted
36:39his capacity
36:39to organize large-scale killings
36:42from the safe remoteness
36:43of committee rooms
36:45or by telephone.
36:45By October,
36:51it appeared just possible
36:52that the breathtaking gamble
36:54might succeed.
36:56Army Group North
36:57and with them
36:58the SS der Führer
36:59were approaching Leningrad.
37:02In the south,
37:03Targenroge
37:04had fallen
37:04after five days
37:05hard fighting
37:06and the Leibstandard
37:07were striking down
37:09for Rostov.
37:10And soon,
37:11Moscow itself
37:12would be under threat.
37:13Hitler triumphantly declared,
37:19the Russian bear is dead.
37:21It merely refuses
37:22to lie down.
37:25He ordered demobilizations
37:26and cutbacks
37:27in munitions production.
37:31The German supply lines
37:33were now very long.
37:35The more prolonged rains
37:36created intolerable
37:37problems of movement.
37:39And despite the appalling
37:40losses they had suffered,
37:42the Soviet defenders
37:43grew yet more.
37:43more numerous.
37:49Then,
37:50exactly when it always did,
37:53the Russian winter set in.
37:56With the first frost,
37:58the tanks were able
37:59to move again.
38:00But not for long.
38:03Remorselessly,
38:04the temperature
38:04continued to drop.
38:06Guns jammed,
38:08machinery froze,
38:09frostbite took
38:10an agonizing toll.
38:11In sight of the glittering
38:15Kremlin domes,
38:16the advance came
38:17to a dead halt.
38:19Moscow did not fall.
38:21Leningrad held out.
38:27The campaign should have been over
38:28by Christmas,
38:30and Hitler had forbidden,
38:31for reasons of morale,
38:33the issue of any winter clothing
38:34to the army.
38:36Some of the Waffen SS
38:37were luckier.
38:39Through Himmler's prudent foresight,
38:41they were supplied with furs
38:42stripped from the inhabitants
38:43of the new ghettos.
38:44If the Germans were desperately
38:51unprepared for the cold,
38:53their opponents
38:54were accustomed to it.
38:56Zhukov,
38:57the most brilliant
38:57of all Soviet generals,
38:59launched a well-prepared
39:00counter-offensive.
39:02The T-34s
39:03were present in strength.
39:05The German lines wavered.
39:07Hitler,
39:08who had angrily
39:09divested himself
39:10of a group
39:11of his most senior commanders,
39:12ordered that there be
39:14no retreat.
39:17Throughout the winter,
39:19that inflexible will prevailed.
39:22Amazingly,
39:23and by dint
39:24of stupendous efforts,
39:26the German front held.
39:30Outside Moscow,
39:32Das Reich
39:33bore the brunt
39:33of the defensive battles
39:35of the New Year period,
39:36suffering over
39:374,000 casualties.
39:39The SS de Fuhrer
39:41moved to repel
39:42a Soviet thrust
39:43west of Moscow.
39:44continuing to fight
39:45in temperatures
39:45of 50 degrees
39:47below zero.
39:50They were successful,
39:52but of the original
39:532,000 men,
39:55only 35 survived.
39:59Operation Barbarossa
40:00had begun
40:01on the anniversary
40:02of another invasion.
40:04And in the minds
40:05of many German soldiers,
40:06as the chill
40:07of winter deepened,
40:09there rose up
40:09the thin and mocking
40:11spectre of another
40:12great army.
40:13Of half a million men
40:14perished utterly
40:15in a long,
40:17long retreat
40:17from Moscow.
40:24One novel
40:25was widely read.
40:26War and Peace
40:27had been written
40:28by a Russian aristocrat
40:29who astonishingly
40:30had given away
40:31all his estates
40:32and died as poor
40:33as any labourer.
40:36The novel told
40:38the fearful story
40:39of how Napoleon's
40:40fabled Grand Army,
40:41toiling through
40:42the frozen steppes,
40:43met everywhere
40:44and only
40:45a desolation.
40:47Of how,
40:48at the end,
40:49Napoleon had been
40:50beaten not by
40:51the shining sabres
40:52of the Imperial Cavalry,
40:54but by the blunt,
40:55crude cudgel
40:56of the Russian peasant.
41:15The iron-fighting qualities
41:17of the Waffen-SS
41:18were now beyond any doubt.
41:21And in the course
41:22of 1942,
41:24the Leibstandert,
41:25Das Reich,
41:26and Totenkopf
41:27were all sent
41:28to France for rest
41:29and refitting
41:30as armoured divisions
41:31in a newly created
41:33SS Panzer Corps.
41:38They left
41:39and returned
41:40to a war
41:41of unexampled ferocity,
41:43a war crueler
41:44and more barbarous
41:45than any Europe
41:46had known
41:47since the Middle Ages.
41:50In so huge
41:51a clash of ideologies,
41:53it could not
41:53be otherwise.
41:54There were many
41:56besides the SS
41:57who genuinely believed
41:59what Himmler had said.
42:01When you,
42:02my men,
42:02fight over there
42:03in the East,
42:04you are carrying on
42:05the same struggle
42:06against the same
42:07subhumanity,
42:09the same
42:09inferior races
42:11that at one time
42:12appeared under the name
42:13of the Huns,
42:15another time
42:15under the name
42:16of the Tatars,
42:17and still another time
42:19as the Mongols
42:20of Genghis Khan.
42:23Today,
42:23they appear
42:24as Russians
42:24under the political
42:26banner
42:26of Bolshevism.
42:30Within a fortnight
42:31of the invasion,
42:32Viking had carried out
42:33the reprisal killing
42:34of 600 Galician Jews.
42:38At Targenrog,
42:39when the Leipstander
42:40discovered some
42:41mutilated bodies
42:41of captured comrades,
42:43Sepp Dietrich
42:44ordered that
42:45no prisoners
42:46be taken
42:46for four days,
42:48and several thousand
42:49Red Army soldiers
42:50died.
42:53In any case,
42:55for the hordes
42:55of prisoners
42:56that were taken,
42:57the chances
42:58of survival
42:58were low.
43:01Disease,
43:02malnutrition,
43:02and exposure
43:03took an horrific toll.
43:05And behind
43:06the German lines,
43:08spreading throughout
43:08a continent,
43:09the vast and hideous
43:10machinery of Himmler's
43:12final solution
43:13was swinging
43:13into perfect,
43:14smooth-running operation.
43:21Both sides
43:22endeavoured
43:22to live off the land.
43:24Both sides
43:24took frequent
43:25and severe reprisals
43:26against any civilians
43:28suspected of abetting
43:29the foe.
43:31Both sides
43:32were determined
43:32to leave nothing
43:33to the enemy,
43:34and as the lines
43:35advanced and receded,
43:37the land
43:38was twice devastated.
43:43Zhukov cleared
43:44minefields
43:45by marching
43:46a penal battalion
43:47over them.
43:48When the Red
43:49infantryman attacked,
43:50he did so knowing
43:51that to be captured
43:52was a crime,
43:54and that behind him
43:54lay the well-equipped
43:55security police formations,
43:58machine guns ready
43:58to deal with
43:59any stragglers.
44:04But it was not
44:06fear alone,
44:07not propaganda,
44:08nor even the widespread
44:09hope of better times
44:11to come
44:11that drove on
44:12so many headlong
44:13to oblivion.
44:16Simple fear
44:17could not explain
44:18the scornful defiance
44:19with which so many
44:20hurled themselves
44:21against the German guns.
44:24It was not the words
44:26of Stalin
44:26that inspired
44:27a single infantryman
44:28to knock out a tank
44:30at the cost
44:30of certain
44:31self-immolation.
44:35The fact was
44:36that the Germans
44:37were incapable
44:38of understanding
44:39their foe.
44:41Himmler talked
44:42much claptrap
44:42about blood
44:43and soil.
44:45Here,
44:46his killers
44:46met a people
44:47despised alike
44:48by Tsar
44:49and Commissar,
44:50but bound
44:51to their land
44:52by the ties
44:52of generations.
44:55In the face
44:56of so huge,
44:57so brutal
44:57a violation,
44:58they could not
44:59but respond.
45:01Thus it was
45:02that a man
45:03would rather
45:04his whole family
45:05starve
45:05than one German
45:06soldier should eat.
45:09The Russian peasant
45:10had taken up
45:11his cudgel.
45:201943 opened
45:21for Germany
45:22with the somber
45:22disaster of Stalingrad
45:24and the loss
45:25of the 6th Army.
45:27Even more stridently,
45:29Hitler would issue
45:30only one order.
45:32Do not yield
45:32up one inch
45:33of ground.
45:38The ban
45:39on foreign
45:40recruitment
45:40to the SS legions
45:42was now
45:42considerably relaxed.
45:44The Nordic element
45:45was less insisted upon.
45:47However,
45:48when a new
45:49SS armoured corps
45:50was formed,
45:51its non-Germanic
45:52volunteers
45:52were mainly
45:53from Europe.
45:54Some had belonged
45:55to neo-Nazi parties.
45:56Many more
45:57were confirmed
45:58anti-communists.
46:00The SS Hitler
46:01Jugend
46:02was in large part
46:03recruited from
46:04former members
46:05of the Hitler
46:05youth movement.
46:07It soon acquired
46:08a reputation
46:08for fanaticism.
46:12Despite their
46:13continuing high
46:14casualties
46:14and the lower
46:15standard of the
46:16new soldiers
46:17coming into the ranks,
46:18the original
46:19Waffen SS
46:20formations retained
46:20their fighting
46:22effectiveness
46:22to a remarkable
46:23degree.
46:25The later
46:26SS divisions
46:26were of generally
46:27poorer quality,
46:29far removed
46:29from Himmler's
46:30earlier ideal
46:31of an elite force.
46:34In the July
46:35of 1943,
46:37the German forces
46:38were compelled
46:39to an awesome
46:39trial of strength
46:40in the Korsk
46:42salient.
46:43Hitler hoped
46:44for a victory
46:45that would shine
46:46like a beacon
46:46to the world.
46:48By now,
46:49powerful new
46:49German tanks
46:50were available.
46:51But there'd been
46:52insufficient testing
46:53of the Panthers
46:54and Ferdinands,
46:56many of which
46:56broke down
46:57before even
46:58reaching the field.
47:00The Soviets,
47:00too,
47:01had new tanks.
47:03After intense
47:03fighting,
47:04the Germans
47:05failed to close
47:06the salient.
47:07Zhukov brought
47:08overwhelming force
47:09to bear,
47:10leaving the Germans
47:11no option
47:12but retreat.
47:14Emphatically,
47:15the Germans
47:15were no longer
47:16invaders.
47:18Though still
47:18far outside
47:19their frontiers,
47:20they were
47:20defending
47:21their homeland.
47:26In the long
47:27collapse,
47:28the German lines
47:29never broke.
47:30And for that,
47:31much of the merit
47:31is borne by the
47:32principal Waffen
47:33SS divisions,
47:35whose courage,
47:36skill,
47:36and resolution
47:37survived unaffected
47:38through unremitting
47:39months of battle
47:40and repeated
47:41decimations
47:42of their ranks.
47:43amongst the
47:50Waffen SS,
47:51there were many
47:52who still
47:53clung blindly
47:54to their
47:54unquestioning
47:55confidence in
47:56Adolf Hitler
47:56and ultimate
47:57victory.
47:58They were driven
47:59on, too,
48:00by a sincere
48:01but hideously
48:02deluded belief
48:03that they were
48:04defending
48:05Western civilization
48:06against an evil
48:08and unregenerate
48:09foe.
48:09Himmler's
48:13personal empire
48:14burgeoned.
48:15He acquired
48:16supreme control
48:17of all of
48:17Germany's
48:18various police
48:18forces.
48:20With Goering
48:20out of favor,
48:21he was recognized
48:22as first in line
48:23of succession
48:24to Hitler.
48:25several Waffen
48:30SS divisions
48:31were sent to
48:31France after
48:32the Western
48:33Allies landed
48:34in Normandy
48:34in June 1944.
48:37Thus,
48:37Reich's progress
48:38across France
48:39was marked
48:40by a series
48:40of reprisals
48:41against civilians
48:42and executions
48:43of prisoners.
48:46The SS divisions
48:47helped to thwart
48:48a British attempt
48:49to break out
48:49of Caen,
48:50but were soon
48:51on their way
48:52back east.
48:55The former
49:00sergeant major
49:01finally rose
49:02to be an army
49:03group commander.
49:05But his troops
49:05were in large
49:06measure drawn
49:07from the underaged,
49:08the elderly,
49:09the sick,
49:10and the disabled.
49:13Himmler took
49:14sharp steps
49:15to counter
49:15the mood
49:16of defeatism
49:17now sweeping
49:18Germany.
49:19The German people
49:20have shown
49:20some signs
49:21of weakness
49:22and we've had
49:23to shoot
49:23a certain number.
49:25Today,
49:25we punish
49:26a little more.
49:28We've had
49:28to shoot
49:28a lot of people.
49:33Hitler made
49:34one last dabble
49:35in grand strategy.
49:37The Ardenne
49:38offensive in December
49:39was a foredoomed
49:41attempt to regain
49:42some military initiative.
49:44An armoured battle
49:44group under the SS
49:45commander
49:46Joachim Piper
49:47made a remarkable
49:48foray before
49:49running out of fuel.
49:50The SS men
49:55had been enjoined
49:56to remember
49:56the innumerable
49:57German victims
49:58of the bombing terror
50:00and enjoined
50:01to fight
50:01in the old
50:02SS fashion.
50:05There were more
50:06killings of the captured.
50:08Following a massacre
50:09at Malmody,
50:11US army units
50:12were ordered
50:12to take
50:13no SS prisoners.
50:14in the nightmarish
50:38last months
50:38of the fast-crumbling empire,
50:40the increasing
50:41deranged Nazi leader
50:43continued
50:43to demand
50:44impossible
50:45and wasteful
50:46sacrifices
50:46from his remaining
50:48forces.
50:49A near-suicidal
50:50life standard
50:51attack in Hungary,
50:52carried out
50:53at Hitler's
50:53insistence
50:54despite pouring rain,
50:56inevitably failed.
50:59Angrily accusing
51:00his most
51:01unswervingly
51:02devoted fighting band
51:03of cowardice
51:04and treachery,
51:06Hitler ordered
51:06them to remove
51:07their regimental
51:08armbands.
51:10The men
51:11collected their
51:12decorations
51:12in a chamber pot
51:13together with
51:14the limb
51:15of a dead
51:15comrade
51:16and sent it
51:17to Hitler.
51:23If the territories
51:24of the empire
51:25were shrinking,
51:26Himmler's power
51:27remained absolute.
51:29Fanatical SS
51:30supporters
51:31roved the streets
51:32carrying out
51:33on Himmler's orders
51:34summary executions
51:35of defeatists
51:36and deserters.
51:40Himmler had of course
51:42realized that the
51:43Nazi state was
51:44finished and that
51:45Hitler would not
51:46last.
51:47The high priest
51:48had lost his idol.
51:50For the first time
51:51in his life,
51:52he was forced to
51:53think seriously
51:54and made tentative
51:55approaches to the
51:56Allies.
51:58His treachery was
51:59discovered,
51:59but the furious
52:00Hitler cut off in
52:01Berlin lacked power
52:03to exact any
52:04vengeance.
52:04operations.
52:22Almost the last
52:23organized resistance
52:24outside the imperial
52:25capital was mounted
52:27by Waffen SS
52:28under Steiner.
52:30It was impossible
52:32that they could hold,
52:32and Hitler's great
52:34adventure into the
52:35Soviet Union
52:36ended at last
52:37in a bunker
52:38in the Tiergarten.
52:49After Hitler's death,
52:51Himmler appears
52:52to have believed
52:53he could continue
52:53to hold some sort
52:55of position
52:55in a new German state.
52:57It was the last
52:58of his many fantasies.
53:00Disabused,
53:01he attempted to
53:02escape in disguise,
53:03but was captured.
53:05A bitter SS officer
53:06described Himmler's
53:07end in his own
53:08suicide note.
53:10And when he was
53:11caught,
53:12he swallowed cyanide
53:13instead of accepting
53:14responsibility
53:15before the victor's
53:16court,
53:17and saving from
53:18the gallows
53:18a hundred poor
53:20devils who had
53:20done nothing
53:21but carry out
53:22their duty.
53:22whatever their faults,
53:32Steiner and Dietrich
53:33did not betray
53:34their men.
53:36They led the remnants
53:37of their units
53:37safely behind
53:39Allied lines
53:40and surrendered
53:41to the Americans.
53:41In their brief
53:52but extraordinary
53:53existence,
53:55the Waffen SS
53:55won a unique
53:57reputation
53:57for daring elan
53:59and unfailing
54:00professionalism
54:01in combat.
54:03Had that
54:03marvelous courage,
54:04that unflinching
54:05endurance,
54:06the blood so
54:07freely shed,
54:08been devoted
54:09to a cause
54:09in any way
54:10honorable,
54:11the Waffen SS
54:12would have assured
54:13themselves of
54:14fame eternal.
54:17But it was not.
54:19They served
54:20and were
54:20inextricably
54:21interlinked with
54:22a system
54:23unutterably evil
54:24in conception.
54:27Nurtured by lies,
54:29upheld by corruption,
54:31impelled by avarice,
54:33ambition,
54:34and naked lust
54:34for power.
54:36And thus,
54:37although the ranks
54:38of the Waffen SS
54:39included many
54:40who were blameless,
54:42its arms will be
54:43forever stained
54:44with the darkest
54:45hues of infamy.
54:47unuttered by the
54:56end of the day.
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