# Black Edelwiesse : By Johann Voss = Best book I have ever read



## Johnny_H (28 Dec 2004)

* Black Edelwiesse : A Memoir of Combat and Conscience By a Soldier in the Waffen SS BY : Johann Voss*

Amazon.com Link to Reviews that share my enthusiasm for this book.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0966638980/ref=sib_rdr_dp/104-2836806-7925567?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

Ok so Let me start off by saying, I am no Read-A-Aholic, Infact since I started using the internet lol I barely read at all, My grammer can be a little off as well. So I would appreciate it if you could bare with me through this.

 This book simply put is the best I have had the privilege to read, The author wrote it in American Captivity in 1945 and he was in the Waffen SS "_Nord_" Division fighting the Russians up in the Kaerellian Sector bordering Finland. 

 His reasons for Joining the Waffen SS seem no differant than that of someone who would join the USMC or the Canadian parachute regiment ( I know it was disbanded in '95 I just thought I would cite it as a example due to how ELITE the unit was perceived to be ). There is a tendency in German First hand memoirs of self pity, disagreeing with Hitler the "None of us were Nazi's " argument which can not be clear as to wether this was truly felt at the time or a revisionist point of view, to let the author be accepted by his readers. Voss wrote this while in captivity while he was revealed the horrors committed by the Nazi's the Perversions of the values he thought he was fighting for. He doesn't shirk his share of responsibility for he realises hes guilty by association and has to deal with the fact he was fighting for and supporting a regime that was one of the greatest evils of the 20th century. On the other hand None of his comrads nor himself were even in a position to commit an act that would deem his comrads "A Criminal Organisation" ( The Waffen and Allegmine SS were labled a Criminal Organisation and its members all subject to prosecution" . 

 This was of course warrented from the acts of the Totenkoph, Deaths head and of course the Allgemine SS who ran the Death and Labor camps were all prosecuted. But this guys unit was a SS Gerbigsjager unit ( Gerbigsjager = Mountain Trooper like the US 10th Mountain etc. ) And these guys were too busy Recce'ing Russian lines or patrolling deep into enemy territory on ski's, or even holding the line in fixed positions against a stronger more determined Russian Army with the rest of the grunts, many if not most of his comrads were KIA and taken prisoner and he has to deal with the fact they died for essentially a criminal cause. And he guides you through his thoughts as well as bringing you day to day with his experiences in the Arctic supporting the Finns, who were later forced to switch sides and the very people he enlisted to defend ended up being his enemy. Its a incredible book nothing I have written here even begins to do the book justice. I have read ALOT of WWII personal accounts both Allied and German, and this one by far sticks out as the most honest and real feeling accounts I have been lucky enough to read.


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## Johnny_H (29 Dec 2004)

lol so this book didn't grab anyones interest?
Oh well I tried


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## Michael Dorosh (29 Dec 2004)

Johnny_H said:
			
		

> lol so this book didn't grab anyones interest?
> Oh well I tried



It's hard to read that dense block of words in your post - break it down into paragraphs and go easy on our poor eyes!


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## Fishbone Jones (29 Dec 2004)

Johnny_H said:
			
		

> lol so this book didn't grab anyones interest?
> Oh well I tried



So Johnny,
Let me see if I got this right. You post a review of a book you've just read. Roughly twelve hours later you post again, all put out because no one else has given their opinion. When were we supposed to go out and purchase it (if we could find it), read it, draw our own conclusions and post them, if it was worth it? Give us a break and relax buck, we haven't all spent our money on the Evelyn Woodhead Speedreading Course.


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## Johnny_H (29 Dec 2004)

Nah   I didn't mean to sound pushy, its just kind of hard to settle into a new board. 
So I thought I would post a review of a book I would personally reccomend to anyone, and I would reccomend it more so to someone who may have an interest in the subject.

My Apologies if it seemed pushy.

I Also cut it up a little more to make it more easily ledgable.


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## Michael Dorosh (29 Dec 2004)

Johnny_H said:
			
		

> * Black Edelwiesse : A Memoir of Combat and Conscience By a Soldier in the Waffen SS BY : Johann Voss*
> 
> Ok so Let me start off by saying, I am no Read-A-Aholic, Infact since I started using the internet lol I barely read at all, My grammer can be a little off as well. So I would appreciate it if you could bare with me through this.
> 
> This book simply put is the best I have had the privilege to read, The author wrote it in American Captivity in 1945 and he was in the Waffen SS "_Nord_" Division fighting the Russians up in the Kaerellian Sector bordering Finland.



He's lucky, then, because most SS men were turned over to the Russians if they were from divisions noted for fighting there.



> His reasons for Joining the Waffen SS seem no differant than that of someone who would join the USMC or the Canadian parachute regiment ( I know it was disbanded in '95 I just thought I would cite it as a example due to how ELITE the unit was perceived to be ).



When did he write the book?  It is funny how no one after 1945 seems to remember joining the military because they hated Jews or loved Hitler; that attitude became less and less apparent as time went on...



> There is a tendency in German First hand memoirs of self pity, disagreeing with Hitler the "None of us were Nazi's " argument which can not be clear as to wether this was truly felt at the time or a revisionist point of view, to let the author be accepted by his readers. Voss wrote this while in captivity while he was revealed the horrors committed by the Nazi's the Perversions of the values he thought he was fighting for. He doesn't shirk his share of responsibility for he realises hes guilty by association and has to deal with the fact he was fighting for and supporting a regime that was one of the greatest evils of the 20th century. On the other hand None of his comrads nor himself were even in a position to commit an act that would deem his comrads "A Criminal Organisation" ( The Waffen and Allegmine SS were labled a Criminal Organisation and its members all subject to prosecution" .



You practically had to be a criminal just to get into the SS.  You had to agree that judging people based on their race was "ok", you had to believe in the Nuremberg laws, and you had to prove that you yourself were "racially pure" going back x number of generations.  That was true of the Waffen SS (though not the higher numberered divisions which had large numbers of "ethnics" in them , as they scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel.



> This was of course warrented from the acts of the Totenkoph, Deaths head and of course the Allgemine SS who ran the Death and Labor camps were all prosecuted. But this guys unit was a SS Gerbigsjager unit ( Gerbigsjager = Mountain Trooper like the US 10th Mountain etc. ) And these guys were too busy Recce'ing Russian lines or patrolling deep into enemy territory on ski's, or even holding the line in fixed positions against a stronger more determined Russian Army with the rest of the grunts, many if not most of his comrads were KIA and taken prisoner and he has to deal with the fact they died for essentially a criminal cause. And he guides you through his thoughts as well as bringing you day to day with his experiences in the Arctic supporting the Finns, who were later forced to switch sides and the very people he enlisted to defend ended up being his enemy. Its a incredible book nothing I have written here even begins to do the book justice. I have read ALOT of WWII personal accounts both Allied and German, and this one by far sticks out as the most honest and real feeling accounts I have been lucky enough to read.



I obviously can't judge without reading it, but once - just once - I'd like to read an unrepentant Nazi's memoirs.  Trouble is, publishing them is like preaching race hatred, so we're not likely to see many books like that....


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## Hunter (29 Dec 2004)

Well it has definitely grabbed my interest.  I've ordered it from Amazon - I'll let you know what I think!

Thanks for the link.

Hunter out.


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## Johnny_H (29 Dec 2004)

_You practically had to be a criminal just to get into the SS.   You had to agree that judging people based on their race was "OK", you had to believe in the Nuremberg laws, and you had to prove that you yourself were "racially pure" going back x number of generations.   That was true of the Waffen SS (though not the higher numberered divisions which had large numbers of "ethnics" in them , as they scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel_

I agree for the most part but for a unit such as a SS Fallschirmjager or Gerbigsjagers, where skilled professional soldiers were needed for duties that were far more demanding then those of regular front line troops, he comes from a Military Family in a noted conservative part of germany one of his family members was arrested by the gestapo for speaking out against Hitler and his regime. He would of ended up dead if the Nazi SS administrator who had his case file wasn't a child hood acquittance.

So I having read allot of German memoirs I do agree, there seems to be alto of Self pitying, Denial and shirking of responsibility but this book is differant its what makes it Unique and worth reading.


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