Hitler’s Renegades: Foreign Nationals in the Service of the Third Reich

Superbly illustrated with 200 photographs, this objective and fascinating book tells the full story of those foreigners - ranging from renegade Russians to British-hating Indians - who served in the Nazi armies and paid a high price for their choice.

One of the great contradictions of the Second World War is that the racial idelogues of the Nazi party and the SS were prepared to use foreigners - some from non-Aryan racial stock, such as the French, the Ukranians and the Indians - to fight their wars for them. This book, lavishly illustrated with many fascinating photographs - some previously unpublished - tells the story of these renegades. As the author explains, their motives were as varied as their military records. Some, such as the Waffen SS Wiking Division, composed of Scandinavians, became an integrated and valued part of the Wehrmacht. Others - such as the Ukranians - mistakenly believed their struggle would be rewarded by Hitler with national independence; while the Indian Nazi volunteers thought they were striking a blow for freedom from the Briitsh Raj - (although in fact HItler was a great admirer of British rule in India). Still others, such as the Kaminski Brigade and the Skanderbeg Division - were little more than thuggish murderers. There was even an Islamic Division - the Handschar- recruited in the Balkans and allowed to wear the fez. Most of the European volunteers - Frenchmen, Belgians (Flemish and Walloons), Spanish and Italians among others - thought they were fighting in a crusade against Communism, or sincerely believed in fascism - and in the snows of the Eastern Front they paid the price for their misguided commitment. Objective and informative, this book tells a Second World War story that is too often forgotten.

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Details


Product Code:	10645
Author:	Christopher Ailsby
Format:	192pp. hb. Fully illustrated with over 200 b/w pictures. Published price £20.00
Shipping Time:	This item is usually dispatched Next Day
Retail Price:	~~£20.00~~
Our Price:	£9.95 save 50%