Ss, Alibi Of A Nation, 1922-1945

Description: The SSshort 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 operatethe 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 interviewsincluding information from Himmlers statisticianthis book rejects the SS as an alibi for a nations responsibility in the most far-reaching racial massacre in history. Table of Contents: * The SA and the SS, 1920-1933 * The SS as a Political Police * The Second Revolution, 30 June 1934 * Himmlers Fight for Army and Police Control, June 1934-February 1938 * Conspiracy and War, November 1937-September 1939 * The SS Goes to War, September 1939-May 1940 * The High Tide of Conquest, Spring 1940-Winter 1941 * Recession, October 1941-March 1943 * Himmler and the Rival Satraps, June 1942-October 1943 * The SS State * Himmler and the Plotters, October 1942-July 1944 * The 20th July and After * Rebellion in Eastern Europe * Himmler the War Lord, July 1944-March 1945 * Eclipse * Extinction * Bibliography * Dramatis Personae: A Guide to the more Important Personalities