The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922-1945 - Softcover

Reitlinger, Gerald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306803518 ISBN 13: 9780306803512

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1989

Synopsis

The SS--short for the German Schutzstaffeln--was a far-flung organization, of which the Gestapo was only one branch, that served as the tyrannical expression of Nazi bureaucracy, a politics of terror. Germans in high places still use the SS as a standard excuse for the acts of murder, extortion, and genocide that were facts of daily life under the Nazis. Reitlinger explores the complex social machinery that allowed the SS to operate--the administration and internal rivalries, the SS field divisions, German military intelligence, and the organization of the concentration and death camps. He shows how the SS was embedded in the basic government of the country during those years and how its members were not so much lunatic killers as loyal citizens doing the bidding of a country that had gone insane. Powerful, objective, and based on original German documents and interviews--including information from Himmler's statistician--this book rejects the SS as an alibi for a nation's responsibility in the most far-reaching racial massacre in history.

About this title

About the Author

Gerald Reitlinger (1900-1978) wrote three books on Nazi Germany, including The Final Solution and The House Built on Sand.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306803518
• ISBN 13: 9780306803512
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528