Which SS Generals biographies should be published?

[Phil Nix]

For the people wanting bios why not trying to write one your selves
Phil nix

[trespasser07]

Might purchase Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Third Reich for next SS book has anyone read it?

[Peter]

I would like to see a proper biography written on Gestapo Müller with proper coverage of his Great War and pre-WW2 police service.

[trespasser07]

I second that Peter!

[trespasser07]

Will also try and find Blood and Soil: Walther Darré and Hitler's Green Party at a reasonable price. Darré is high on my list of interesting Obergruppenführers who were early members of the regime and I would like to know more about him.

[Mark C. Yerger]

Obviously from the books I've written I have an extreme interest in biographical material. I can offer these small insights into the potential or lack of, regards some names previously listed listed.

Black's Kaltenbrunner biography is superb and in my opinion one of the 10 best SS topic books written to date. So I assume biographies wanted are of that "3 dimensional and personality insight" type. A simple Personalakte alone is FAR from accurate in itself for any detailed undertaking, Black also having the added advantage degree of family input.

Bittrich, agreed, would be a good topic. Unfortunately, a primary source would have been his large amount of diaries, notes, award documents, etc. His home was broken into and all this precious material was stolen by militaria related individuals. Being stolen property, to whom it was sold is obviously unknown. Nor have I even heard rumors as to the materials location.

I was told by several senior Waffen-SS veterans that Streckenbach's somewhat significant personal possessions and material were sold in the immediate postwar period due to financial need (interesting interest in that period to own). The location of any of the scattered remnants I was never able to ascertain. Similarly, I had the least luck (though some) in having extensive veteran cooperation in the history recording sense with the Latvian veterans of higher rank for insights, diaries, etc related to him. Combining a rather massive amount of material, as far as his posts in specific, corrected dates, predecessors/successors, etc I'm fully confident the biography of him in volume 4 (Kavallerie) of my German Cross in Gold volumes is the most detailed and correct published to date.

SD and RSHA personnel material (Personalakte) are notoriously lacking in even superficial details though I've never understood why. An Ohlendorf biography (I have his file) would be difficult even to find a detailed starting point with the rather massive amount of haphazard filed RUSA documentation that survived. However, his testimony and this insight as an individual, as well as a considerable abount of personal data, can be found in the Green series of trials volumes encompassing the Einsatzgruppen Case. Streckenbach was a POW at the time so he is absent so contributes another blank factor to his biography.

I had very close contact with Pohl's son with a full grasp what the family had and willingness to co-operate with historical recording. Obviously there were strong feelings in general regards the father's eventual fate. I don't recall the tile, but years ago I saw but did not buy (!!) a very detailed book in German on the WuVHA and Pohl. I can even physically describe it but for the life of me can't remember the title.

Daluege, an overlooked and very significant individual regards power, position, and other aspects, has been being researched by someone for well over a year for the type of extended text biography of the type I assume is wanted by those expressing interests in this thread. I saw some of the early research and documentation early in 2011 and is something I anticipate with great interest. And a nightmare project at the least.

Mail I receive often wants an Eicke biography. Though he has a massive personnel file, it basically stops at the forming of "Totenkopf" (my period of interest) but his prewar documentation is massive. I've always thought some senior rank files were kept aside (unknown where) by Himmler for certain officers. My own interest is in Hausser and Keppler, both of whom have a dozen or less generally non-detailed pages and incorrect personnel documentation. Although those I've published are the most correct and detailed, they are far than the single volume I would have created if the material was available for those two. And, sadly, neither kept diaries or notes to even a rudimentary level. Extremely frustrating.

Unfortunately depending on case, some excellent biographies or memoirs of senior members have been done but are limited to the original language edition with no prospect (that I'm aware of) for being translated into other languages. And personnel offices or higher echelon documentation is widely wrong compared to the actual events in the time line of a career in war years. With veterans of senior rank who would have known individuals gone, and many families having had no cooperative interest (such as Hausser's daughter and several others I've met) Waffen-SS topics at Black's level are very difficult.

I had total cooperation with more than a dozen divisional commanders. Even with that cooperation, specific participating details from decades ago were only possible when I helped with related documentation or photo images to create "recall an event or person" I can't remember where I was or what I did on a specific day last year, much less decades ago.

A biography in English of "Leibstandarte" commander and Swords holder Theodor Wisch will be released in the early months of 2012. The author had total cooperation of the family and several veterans close to him. I was told the general format and design is similar to those I did on Otto Weidinger and Ernst August Krag, Wisch's having some 50-60 unpublished images and a slightly longer text with the author owning many of his period award documents and other similar material..

Mark C. Yerger

[coburg22]

Hello Mark,

Good to hear from you and thank you very much for your insight as it is always appreciated.

Best Regards,

James

[Michael Miller]

Indeed, Mark, thanks for a superb post from a uniquely well-informed perspective.

Sincerely,
~ Mike

[J. Duncan]

Mark,
Thankyou for your informative post. Can you tell us anything about your older book on Otto Kumm? Did you meet with him or his family members for your research? I have not viewed the book (it's hard to find used) but I have have come close to buying several times but didn't know enough about the man or the book to decide (it can be quite expensive used). I've seen the old Otto in the Guido Knopp SS documentary discussing his years in the SS. He seems like a man who was tough as nails...."we showed no mercy"...as you know, the SS preached "hardness" as a virtue. Did he remain the SS man into old age? This particluar book is not generally known by the lay reader. Yours is the only book I've seen on this man. I think he was a partisan hunter. Wanted to know more about him and your book.
Best regards, John Duncan.

[pim]

Phil Nix makes a good point = why don't some us try to do a bio on a SS General we want one on.
The challenge is, to make it good, one needs to like a Mark Yerger. Obtaining a university degree in history, etc. is relatively easy and one would think a qualified historian could with the right amount of available time and resources write a good bio on someone. Unfortunately this is not true, and I could provide numerous examples that attest to this. What our "hobby" needs is a lot more people of the calibre of Mark Yerger. That is someone with the right balanced passion, detective skills, networking skills, the knack of pouring over masses of primary resources and extracting what is important and a geniune love of sharing information. You have either got that in you or your haven't. Mark's bios, albiet relatively short in pages (eg: Kumm, Weidinger, Krag, 2 Vol W-SS Commander, GCC series) contain so much more gems of information than most 400+ page books by "qualified historians". I wish we had more Mark Yergers.

BTW: I'd love to see a good bio on Eicke and Gottlob Berger.

[J. Duncan]

I too would love to see a biography on Eicke although there is quite a bit of information provided on him by the secondary literature such as Syndor's "Soldier's of Destruction" and Segev's "Soldiers of Evil". I would like to know more about his time as a policeman, his famous feud with Josef Bürckel, his terroristic activities, his time in a mental institution (he wrote begging letters to Himmler during this period), and his exile in Fascist Italy. His men called him "Papa" Eicke. He was one of the toughest of the lot. A very hard man.

[Mark C. Yerger]

Mark,
Thankyou for your informative post. Can you tell us anything about your older book on Otto Kumm? Did you meet with him or his family members for your research? I have not viewed the book (it's hard to find used) but I have have come close to buying several times but didn't know enough about the man or the book to decide (it can be quite expensive used). I've seen the old Otto in the Guido Knopp SS documentary discussing his years in the SS. He seems like a man who was tough as nails...."we showed no mercy"...as you know, the SS preached "hardness" as a virtue. Did he remain the SS man into old age? This particluar book is not generally known by the lay reader. Yours is the only book I've seen on this man. I think he was a partisan hunter. Wanted to know more about him and your book.
Best regards, John Duncan.

The format was as per the updated Weidinger and Krag bios, though I had no hand in the physical layout of Kumm's and much prefer the latter ones that I did design. The information in updated form to include Kumm's award proposals is in volume 1 of my SS/Police German Cross series. Yes, I knew him well and met with him multiple times. Somewhere is a thread with postwar images of veterans, several showing me with Kumm, Kreutz, Baum, and other higher award holder/commander Waffen-SS veterans. Kumm was circumspect, had a natural sense of presence, and one could easily see he was (for want of other term) fearless in high stress combat situations with the highest degree of being naturally inspiring to his men. All that, including a trait with both shared, made him a man I both respected and admired (and still do). Of course it's impossible to study every battle, campaign, individual of WW II. But the actions of Regiment "Der Führer" under Kumm at Rzhew in my opinion was the most astonishing performance at regiment or detachment level I've studied to date.

There is also, to whatever degree, the "roundness" of an individual's life in forming an opinion. At least for me. In the case of Kumm, Lehmann, Weidinger, and others, the compiling of their unit history, along with having a family and normal/successful civil career are obvious and of note. That being rather than some, in all wars or any country, who become immobilized in the past with difficulty moving forward.

In what I understand the thread, the length of, acts, interplay, personal opinions and reasons, etc are what would constitute a "full length" biography and in my prior post the difficulty of finding that I hope I gave some small insight to. I've again no idea what the term is, but if asked I refer to myself as a biographical and unit structural development researcher. That is the where, when, and what, such as the 3 dates technically correct for a command (appointed, arrived, assumed) with the confirmation of a predecessor, successor or both. Temporary absences, who replaced them then, etc are really never in a personnel file. In conjunction with that, a stated post/position is worthless data if specifics to it are not explained. Thus the structural research be it unit, school, etc.

The admittedly somewhat massive but necessary detailed footnotes I incorporate are for that, to gain an "over grasp" of events. While that is more "flat" data than a full length biography per se, I can assure all it is as insanely complex to find, comprehend, and explain !! But it allows a degree of consistency, at least in what I write, for individual personnel data. Still, it's also extremely frustrating for me to not have more. I just looked over my Streckenbach biography and though very detailed, I'd have added more if available. But at the same time, the biographical parameters I've used also allow many individuals to be examined in detail who would not otherwise be known. It is the same for lower ranks (German Cross holders) but that is a separate area that creates gray hair for me.

Be it SS, Army, Luftwaffe, etc, the most sad aspect is the fact input by the individuals is now gone due to their death. In many cases even close younger family members are gone. So a biographer selects from available or chosen documentation, formulates an opinion or perspective, and writes his book. Not everyone has the same opinion, perspective of the period or situation, and other facts. So I'm satisfied with my own type that are data and facts, with a reader then having the ability to pursue reading about a campaign, battle, etc for more insights into those scenarios. I've never stopped reading (different that research) and never will. One must absorb all possible, in pieces a "full length" biography can be grasped to a degree.

I'm proud to have had Weidinger, Kumm, and Krag give me full permission and assistance in their smaller format biographies. It was the personal contact, trust, and permission that mattered most. But for readers their help with confirming various facts, etc was priceless, be it on them or another topic. Even though it has always been a "race" for me to get as much on paper as possible, one only has so much time or opportunity to work with. 2 other Ritterkreuzträger and Generals wanted me to do a similar book on them, but illness then death prevented it before completion. Others there was insufficient text material surviving even to fill the minimal printing requirements for a book of even that size, though another 2 of that category instead are in "Waffen-SS Commanders", the actual only reason I wrote those volumes. One must remember my interest is Waffen-SS, not SD, Gestapo, etc

While those incorporated at higher rank I've covered in the most detail thus far, this is not for "singing my song" but to understand the restrictions of more elaborate studies. Some outside my interest, Heydrich, camp commanders, etc have books on them due to diaries (already noted essential) or large numbers of individuals who survived and had contact to them during their career that was recorded. IMO Walter Krüger was one of the best Waffen-SS commanders in both ability and character. But more than I've written is not possible due to lack of sources. As with every book or research area, one is limited by what material is available. A biography of Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger is potentially possible, but for me he was a generally lackluster commander in his Waffen-SS role, non-Waffen-SS topics I find boring, and for other reasons outside my own interests.

Others, such as Jeckeln, Wolff, and von dem Bach would have interest to various subject readers (especially Wolff for proxmity to Himmler and others) but all are dead, though some questionable German texts have been done. Massive data on operations (and their documentation) conducted by others under an individual's command give little specific insight into the primary biographical topic (Jeckeln). As a category I included those 3 (of 12) in volume 6 of the SS/Police series that is being printed, but beyond what I wrote there was literally nothing else available or to be covered in the "flat" type biographies I do; no family, no diaries, etc. A percent of individuals tended to significantly inflate their importance or accomplishments in wartime or the postwar period, such as Wolff.

And a small number for whom a biography was possible, individual alive, mentally sharp, all diaries, etc, was not for the most frustrating of reasons. In the early 1980s few knew the survivors were alive other than fellow veterans or where they were. Books were less in number on all SS areas but interest by those who read was as much as now. I went to lunch or dinner, and talked with multiple times, some who would have had extraordinary insight into the war as regiment and division commanders, as well as having senior rank. Knowing the later value, I literally pleaded with them to do that, let me help, or do whatever else needed to write a "full length" biography or memoir.

In vivid detail I told one his significance included his high combat awards. He put his hand in his pocket while I ate my salad, casually threw his Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords (the original) on the table like a bread stick and calmly said "If you mean that, it's not mine. It belongs to my men." Typical of the US Medal of Honor holders I've met. But in the case of the Waffen-SS men I knew, they simply could not grasp that anyone would have even the slightest interest in a book about them. I was always "keep doing what you are doing, write about the men." No one on this forum can understand the frustration and sense of loss I felt (and still do). Some of them just made me speechless in an admiring way to the point of a near ulcer. Some had dozens of hours of reels recording their opinions, thoughts, etc. Again, I begged they use them in a book. But they were considered of "no real interest to anyone except maybe for my children to hear when I'm gone." Many considered my interest a singular "oddity" and not reflective of others. Even Weidinger, my closest friend and mentor, bluntly said any of the books on my list of wanting to write was simply impossible. They only grasped or "got it" when "Knights of Steel" volume 1 came out. That was fine for further assistance, but in the ensuing 8+ years of research many of the most senior commanders had died.

The situation is the same for Army notables. Model, a superb commander, destroyed his personal material before his suicide. Thus a recent biography of him not only lacks what most would want to know (no research material available) but adds opinion and subjective enough to create a rather worthless and biased end result that didn't tell me any of what I wanted to know.

For myself I must add a politely intended comment on a statement in the thread. One must understand the vocabulary of the period in documents and assimilate it in the manner meant. I've met dozens of Junkerschule graduates, leaders and subordinates , etc. The USA has the regular Army, Paratroops, Rangers, Green Beret, Seals. Each having a difficulty level of training and then expectations. The postwar over used term "hardness" for Waffen-SS is rather distorted. It is the ability to significantly ignore the natural human reaction in a combat situation and focus on an objective or solving a situation. These men were not automatons incapable of individual thought. They were not lost if an officer was killed, they improvised and adapted. Subordinates were already trained at all levels and took command, they were not "blind" as some imply if a leader fell.

Likewise is the hundreds of award recommendations I've examined, so other specific types of correspondence or documentation as well. The literally translated term "cold blooded" (or others) in a counterattack or defensive situation is not the "murderous" trait implied by some in that literal translation. In English, it is "steely nerved" or "total fearlessness" while ignoring the personal danger, or its potential happening, to the individual described. Be it horrendous amounts of enemy fire or attacking/defending against an obviously far superior enemy opposition.

My apologies for a high degree of absence from detailed forum posts. But I am still (I guess always) participating in that "race" to get on paper. I'm a full volume ahead of the publisher and simply am trying to focus all time on getting as much done as I can and assisting others.

I'll welcome reading any full length biographies in any SS areas, particularly my own. Should anyone compile such a study and be at the point where anecdotal material I have may be of use, I'd be happy to help as would any historian.

Best holiday wishes to all (as I get back to the GC series)
Mark C. Yerger

[J. Duncan]

You too Mark, and thankyou. Always enjoy your commentaries. The lay readership needs to understand such things as you explained. I appreciate your patience with those such as myself who are learning more about these specifics.
I would have loved to have picked Kumm's brain on what he thought about 9-11 since he was alive when it happened, although he was into 90's by then (he died in 2004). WWII veterans here in America I've talked to always mention Pearl Harbor in relation to it, but Kumm's experience with adversity and overcoming enormous odds plus his unique European perspective of history would have made for an interesting discussion! Sadly, as you mentioned, they are dying out. They lived in such a different world in their latter days from that which formed their most developing years. Kumm adapted himself well, taking advantage of the boom years and building a successful business. A well rounded life. It must have been quite an experience for you to have got to know him.

[coburg22]

Hello Mark,

Once again thank you for your insight and Happy Holidays.

Best Regards,

James

[trespasser07]

Thank you Mark I can't wait for the Daluege biography any idea when it is due to be published? Thanks again