Enhance Your Quote Experience
Enjoy ad-free browsing, unlimited collections, and advanced search features with Premium.
Over 400,000 persons were mobilized to carry out fortification work in Berlin. Select police and SS units were concentrated in the city. Many SS regi… - Waffen-SS
" "Over 400,000 persons were mobilized to carry out fortification work in Berlin. Select police and SS units were concentrated in the city. Many SS regiments and detached battalions which had been deployed in adjacent areas were pulled up to defend the special sector of Berlin. These SS troops were commanded by the chief of Hitler's personal bodyguard, Monke.
The German Fascist command was counting on forcing us to inch our way through one line after another, which meant the battle would be dragged out as long as possible to the point where our forces would be bled white and finally stopped on the close approaches. It was hoped to do to our forces what the Soviet troops had done to the Germans on the approaches to Moscow. But these calculations were not destined to come true.
English
Collect this quote
About Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS (transl. Armed SS) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands. Members of the Waffen-SS were involved in numerous atrocities. At the post-war Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and direct involvement in numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former members, with the exception of conscripts, who comprised about one third of the membership, were denied many of the rights afforded to military veterans.
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Waffen-SS
On paper an SS-Panzergrenadier division was organised and equipped in much the same manner as an equivalent Heer (Army) division, which consisted of two Panzergrenadier regiments supported by a Panzer battalion, an artillery regiment, a tank-hunter battalion, an assault gun battalion, an anti-aircraft battalion, a reconnaissance battalion, and a pioneer battalion.
The biggest difference was the amount of armour available. Whereas the Heer division has just one battalion, SS-Panzergrenadier divisions had an entire regiment and eventually, for a while, including a company of heavy Tiger tanks. Additionally, unlike the motorised army Panzergrenadier divisions, the Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier division included a full battalion mounted in armoured half-tracks. The only Heer division that was comparable to the organisation of an SS division was the elite Grossdeutschland division.
The Waffen-SS also accepted Ukrainians, Slovaks and Croats. With every passing month after Stalingrad, the criteria for Waffen-SS membership grew more elastic, forcing Himmler to cite the multinational structure of the old Habsburg army as a precedent. Ukrainians were recruited; so were Hungarians, Bulgarians and Serbs. In February 1943 the first of three divisions was formed of Bosnian and Albanian Muslims, who wore fezes decorated with SS runes and were led in their prayers by regimental imams notionally under the supervision of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Out of all forty-seven Waffen-SS divisions, twenty were formed wholly or partly out of non-German recruits or conscripts and a further five out of Volksdeutsche. Towards the end of the war, in fact, there were more non-Germans than Germans serving in Himmler's army.
Believing that Germany would be victorious in war, SS chief Heinrich Himmler intended to strengthen the position of the SS relative to the established German elites after the war. To this end, Himmler persuaded Adolf Hitler in late 1939 to permit the establishment of an armed SS force known as the Waffen-SS.
Although initially restricted to four divisions, the Waffen-SS eventually fielded more than 20 divisions. This created an armed force of about half a million men and established a command and operations structure to rival the German army.
As military defeat reduced the prestige of the generals, the SS further encroached on the authority of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). Already in 1942, the SS took over—from the armed forces—coordinating anti-partisan operations in the occupied Soviet Union. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life of July 20, 1944, Hitler appointed Himmler Commander of the Replacement Army (a position responsible for training and overseeing military personnel) and gave him command of matters relating to prisoners of war.
Loading...