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

by Christopher Ailsby

Cover for Hitler's Renegades: Foreign Nationals in the Service of the Third Reich
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Summary

One of the least palatable but most fascinating aspects of World War II was the integration of willing foreign volunteers into the German Army and Waffen-SS. From countries ranging from India to the Balkans, entire divisions were made up of non-German combatants who saw action in every theater. Some of these units evolved into tenacious and elite formations, equal in fighting ability to any of the Wehrmacht's regular troops. Hitler's Renegades is the story of the two million men who made the conscious decision to side with Hitler, even when some of them found Nazi Germany itself and its ideals abhorrent. World War II historian and photo archivist Christopher Ailsby attempts to explain why they made that fateful choice. Illustrated with vivid black-and-white photographs (many previously unpublished) of the non-German units in action, this book is the first to chronicle the story of all the foreign troops in Hitler's service, to detail their significance to the war, and to describe how they fared in its aftermath.

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