French L. MacLean Knihy

Two thousand nine hundred forty-five men lined up in four motorized columns immediately behind the German Army on June 22, 1941 as it prepared to launch Operation Barbarossa the German attack on the Soviet Union an attack designed to win the war. The

Kursk is often labeled the "Greatest Tank Battle in History." The Wehrmacht fielded a total of just 120 Tiger tanks during the engagement, including 35 from the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. This corps comprised the three most controversial divisions of the Second World War: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf. The war crimes committed by these units (at places like Oradour, Malmedy, and Le Paradis) remain contentious topics of discussion to this day, and their fighting qualities have been analyzed for decades. By examining a focused group of men in great detail, specifically the 226 Tiger crewmen at Kursk, the author provides an insight into the sprawling and enigmatic organization that was the Waffen-SS. This project aims to scrape away the mythology surrounding the most-feared soldiers, who crewed the most iconic tank, at one of the most vicious battles of the Second World War.

Inside these pages, you will meet over 960 infamous men, the officers of Nazi Germany's Totenkopf (Death's Head). You will encounter the 256 SS officers who worked at Dachau, a concentration camp that also served as a training ground for death. You will also learn about twelve SS officers who served in Treblinka and other secret camps involved in Operation Reinhard, Heinrich Himmler's extermination plan for Polish Jews. Additionally, you will confront the 161 SS officers who operated Auschwitz, the largest killing center in history. These Death's Head officers, many of whom later joined the Waffen-SS, were not merely bureaucrats planning the Final Solution from afar; they were frontline participants in the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews. They poured gas pellets, conducted gruesome medical experiments, supervised crematoria, and ordered guards to shoot victims. They were at the heart of darkness. The book features a photographic section with over one hundred images, many previously unpublished, representing the largest collection of SS camp personnel photographs ever compiled. These images come from extensive archives, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, as well as private collections, including rare pictures from the Gross-Rosen camp kommandant's personal album.