SS Totenkopf Photos

[Mansal D]

Not a problem Reb. We can all make some mistakes like this.

[Helmut]

Servus,
I have been reading the TK Divisonal History SODATEN KAEMPFER KAMERADEN. To get a perspective of time, I have been reading the history at a rate of day by day. What I mean is, I have been reading about what happened on January 1, 1942 on January 1st 199_ and then reaading what happened on January 1st 1943 approximately a year later.
I am now at March 1945. Reading avbbout some of these men and following them from when they were privates and Untersturmfuehrers and now are Oberscharfuerhers and Strumbannfuehers, i almost feel like i know them. I realize that a divisional history is not exactly the most objective book on the subject but I also cannot believe that the men of the Division who came in during the war were the "thugs" who guarded the concentration camps.

I also knew some men who served in the Division. Sadly most of them have passed but I numbered them among my friends.

I guess this is all meaningless babble and I know men change over the years but the men I knew and read about just don't seem like the monsters they are sometimes portrayed to be.

Regards,

Helmut

[John W. Howard]

Hi Helmut:
I would imagine that camp guards came in all personality types just like other people; some were swine, others were indifferent due the inevitable hardening one would go through doing such miserable work, and others, who did not want to be there and were bothered by their work. Whatever they were like in the camps, they certainly made awfully good soldiers in the field. Best wishes.

[werfermann]

SS Totenkopf Artillery in Lithuania Enjoy . Note Deathshead on Gunshield ....

Landser 18233871.jpg (11.58 KiB) Viewed 1748 times

Landser 18233872.jpg (15.93 KiB) Viewed 1748 times