Building a Nazi Europe
The SS's Germanic Volunteers

A compelling account of the men who worked and fought for Nazi terror organization, the SS, during the Second World War.

Martin R. Gutmann (Author)

9781316608944, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 December 2018

253 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'The book as a whole is highly original, illuminating and well?written. Above all, it sheds fresh light on transnational developments in the history of the Third Reich and the history of fascism more generally, as well as highlighting lesser?known institutions within the SS's colonial apparatus. Ultimately, Gutmann demonstrates that the logical conclusion of Nazi chauvinism utterly precluded true respect and cooperation between nations - illuminating the fundamental incoherence of the competing visions of a New Europe which lay at Nazism's heart.' Helen Roche, History

In a compelling new study, Gutmann offers an in-depth examination of the Swedish, Swiss and Danish men who worked and fought for the SS, during the Second World War. Dispelling a host of myths regarding foreign collaboration with Hitler's regime, it reveals how these men were highly motivated to affect a National Socialist revolution across North-Western or 'Germanic' Europe. Working behind Berlin desks, they played a pivotal part in shaping the Nazi New Order and actively participated in the regime's brutal atrocities on the Eastern Front and on the streets of Western Europe. The book argues that these men became a focal point for infighting in the regime regarding the role of non-Germans in National Socialism. Building a Nazi Europe sheds new light on historical conceptions of fascism, collaboration, transnational history and the Holocaust.

Introduction
1. Germanic dreams: the Waffen-SS and foreign recruitment
2. Restless youth: prewar biographical sketches
3. Joining the burgeoning Waffen-SS
4. Building a Germanic Europe
5. Molding the Germanic political soldier
6. The end of the Germanic project
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]