Never before has the history of the SS - the military arm of the Nazi Party - been presented in such an easily understandable form, woven around the life and career of SS commander Heinrich Himmler. G. S. Graber avoids the usual dry listing of facts and reveals aspects of the SS that have not been widely known until now: the SS rituals, how the SS operated as a business organization, and how key SS figures (Himmler, Heydrich, Eichmann, and others) behaved within the SS and often stood against each other. Throughout the narrative, major historical moments in the history of the SS are highlighted: the occupation of Europe, Kristallnacht, the assassination of Heydrich, the suppression of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, the operation of concentration camps, the assassination attempt on Hitler, and the end of the Third Reich. With a very unusual approach to the SS, the author also shows how various aspects of SS life survive - and take on new forms - in today's world.
