The Waffen-SS were the armed division of the feared Schutzstaffel, and the private army of Adolf Hitler. They developed a reputation as elite soldiers, willing to face any danger and to carry out any order, no matter how terrible.

Fanatically devoted to Nazism and unswervingly loyal to the Führer, they were deployed in the invasion of Poland in 1939, of France in 1940, on the Eastern Front in Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and in many more theatres of the war, and they continued to fight even as the Third Reich fell. Unburdened by conscience, they were committed some of the most horrific atrocities of World War II as they sought to enforce the racial policies of the Nazi state.

In this fascinating overview, Nigel Cawthorne examines the origins, the deeds, the politics, the crimes and the legacy of this most important organization.