Talk:Richard Landwehr

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Depiction of Waffen-SS

Landwehr's works about the Waffen-SS show the Nazi organisation in a favorable light. His article "The European Volunteer Movement in World War II" (20 1981 JHR 59-84) lauds the Waffen-SS and the ideals they fought for while assiduously avoiding any mention of war crimes (real or alleged). The world view that permeates Landwehr's work is best summed up in his own words from the 1981 article in JHR:

After a generation of slander, vilification and falsehood concerning the European volunteers, the first rays of light are beginning to shine through. Slowly, but surely, their story is being told. As for the soldiers themselves, many are of the belief that they were ahead of their time, both militarily and philosophically, and that their legacy is yet to be fulfilled. For myself, perhaps the most incisive observation was made by the former Waffen-SS Colonel Joachim Peiper in a letter to his comrades while he was being held in American confinement under sentence of death: 'Don't forget that it was in the ranks of the SS that the first European died'.

After citing the example of the Dutch SS volunteers, Landwehr claims that "the men who got into the Waffen-SS usually represented the best human material that their respective countries had to offer" (1981 JHR).

Dr. van Hoesel's 1948 study (cited in both George Stein's "The Waffen SS" and Henry L. Mason's 1952 "Purge of the Dutch Quislings") of 450 Dutch SS volunteers revealed some joined to avoid prosecution for petty crime or delinquency. Others joined out of boredom and a desire for adventure, some for prestige, better food or to avoid labour service.
The records left by the Nazis themselves serves to contradict Landwehr's misleading image of the idealistic European SS volunteer. Stein notes that Gottlub Berger, who dealt with foreign volunteers, was aware of the prevalence of criminal elements and noted that "many criminals are quite outstanding soldiers if one knows how to handle them" (Berger to Gruppenfuhrer Rauter, April 9, 1942, Geheim, RFSS/T-175, 111/2635463ff.).
In A European Anabasis - Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS 1940 - 1945, historian Kenneth Estes authoritatively documented the motivations of the western European volunteers and came to markedly different conclusions than those of Landwehr.

Above is copy/paste from the article, as possibly OR and uncited. The Criticism section covers this area sufficiently. K.e.coffman (talk) 20:28, 4 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]