Thomas F. (hardtack) -
An interesting---and yes, heartfelt---account from a young soldier who experiences conflicting feelings at the end of World War II in Europe. He felt he served honorably in the combat Waffen-SS on the Eastern and Western fronts. But as a POW he was assigned to help a U.S. Army lawyer in the prosecution of identified war criminals. While doing so he is confronted with the evidence of what the other Waffen-SS units---especially the non-combat units---did in the concentration camps and in the countries the Nazis occupied.
The young soldier jumps back and forth between his experiences before the war, during it and after he became a POW.
Yet we must not forget that not all combat Waffen-SS units acted as honorably---if that was so---as did his unit. A number of combat Waffen-SS units, on both fronts, committed horrific atrocities during World War II. Perhaps this soldier's experiences were different because his unit was engaged in combat in areas without civilian populations.
What made this book particularly interesting to me is that, while I was aware Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union during the war, resulting in German units having to leave that country, I was totally unaware that after a certain date, Finnish army units were required by the terms of that separate peace to fight against any German units still in Finland. The author devotes a few chapters to that experience. One surreal event had his unit fighting a Finnish unit directly across a river from a small village in Sweden, a neutral country. The people who lived in that village actually came out of their homes to watch the battle.
The young soldier jumps back and forth between his experiences before the war, during it and after he became a POW.
Yet we must not forget that not all combat Waffen-SS units acted as honorably---if that was so---as did his unit. A number of combat Waffen-SS units, on both fronts, committed horrific atrocities during World War II. Perhaps this soldier's experiences were different because his unit was engaged in combat in areas without civilian populations.
What made this book particularly interesting to me is that, while I was aware Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union during the war, resulting in German units having to leave that country, I was totally unaware that after a certain date, Finnish army units were required by the terms of that separate peace to fight against any German units still in Finland. The author devotes a few chapters to that experience. One surreal event had his unit fighting a Finnish unit directly across a river from a small village in Sweden, a neutral country. The people who lived in that village actually came out of their homes to watch the battle.
