INTRODUCTION:

The SS was an organization led by a man who believed he was the spiritual reincarnation of the Saxon King Heinrich I, founder of the German Reich. It involved street fighters and convicted criminals becoming Ministers of State and police commanders; charitable works and mass extermination were administered from the same building; boy general directing vast heterogeneous armies on devastating campaigns of conquest. Here, indeed, fact is stranger that fiction.

Himmler's Black Order examines in detail the origins, development and organization of both the Waffen-SS and the Allgemeine-SS. The latter has been sorely neglected in post-war literature, yet it was the real body of the SS from which the more famous branches grew. The wide-ranging effects which the SS had on the police, racial policies, German history education, the economy and public life are all described. Chapters are also devoted to uniforms and regalia which were carefully designed to set Himmler's men apart as a new elite in Third Reich society. The SS at war is considered, and a balance struck between the substantial battlefield achievements of the Waffen-SS and the atrocities of SS and police forces in the occupied territories. The little-known story of the Germanic-SS, staffed by foreigners in Western Europe, is also related.

Fully illustrated with a wealth of contemporary photographs and drawings, Himmler's Black Order will appeal not only to students of Hitler's Third Reich, but also to readers with an interest in the history of the twentieth century.