Interviews met leden van de Vlaamse Waffen-SS, die onder Duitse vlag in Rusland vochten tegen het Rode Leger in 1941-1945.

Niet minder dan 23.000 Vlamingen namen dienst bij de Waffen-SS, de paramilitaire tak van de Duitse nazipartij NSDAP. Hun motivatie was complex: van flamingantisme over anti-communisme tot nazisme. Velen sneuvelden tijdens de bloederige nederlaag aan het oostfront in Rusland. Overlevenden werden na de Tweede Wereldoorlog gestraft voor hun militaire collaboratie. Meer dan zeventig jaar later vertellen de laatste nog levende Oostfronters zelf - en vaak voor het eerst - hun verhaal. Soms met berouw, soms niet.

In this issue we start with an article dedicated to the use of the SS Prinz Eugen division during the 'Schwarz' operation, conducted on the Balkan front in May 1943. This is followed by the biography of Philipp Theiss, extracted from the new book by our Peter Mooney. We continue with the first part of the article dedicated to the recruitment of the Cossacks into the German armed forces and with the second part of the monumental work dedicated to the Krüger brothers by our Mike Miller. Finally, we close with an equally voluminous work on foreign nurses who served in the German Red Cross, a topic little treated by official historiography.

What motivated men to fight for an enemy that had invaded their own country? These are last voices of the Flemish Waffen-SS; there are very few left and they tell their story with absolute candour. After 70 years, why would they not?

Jonathan Trigg reveals the human agony behind such statistics through the words of the Germans who were there: ‘You’ll regret this insulting, provocative and thoroughly predatory attack on the Soviet Union! You’ll pay dearly for it!’ (Dekanazov, Soviet Ambassador in Berlin). The Germans did. But the butcher’s bill was huge for both sides.

This is an important book on one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War. 'When we came out above ground there was rubble everywhere, asphalt on the roads had melted in the heat. My only thought was to get out of this hellhole.’ Ivar Corneliussen, Waffen-SS trooper

Picturing Death: 1200–1600 brings together essays considering four key centuries of imagery related to human mortality, from tomb sculpture to painted altarpieces, from manuscripts to printed books, and from minute carved objects to large-scale architecture.

‘We weren’t afraid of the Allies as soldiers, but we were afraid of their materiel – it was going to be men versus machines.’

'If Germany stays united and marches to the rhythm of its revolutionary socialist outlook, it will be unbeatable. Our indestructible will to life, and the driving force of the Führer’s personality guarantee this.' (Joseph Goebbels, 4 June 1943.) It wasn't and it didn't.

The story of the world’s largest ever invasion through the voices of the men – and women – who witnessed it first-hand.