Dietrich's Boys: the Leibstandarte is the story of a military unit. It began quite literally one man strong, with Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich assigned to be the personal bodyguard of Adolf Hitler. It ended as an armored division of the German armed forces in World War II that saw more than fifty thousand men serve in its ranks. Its prestige was great, but this was hard come by. Tarnished by misdeeds of a few of its members, and held in high respect by the German people owing to the deeds of most of its personnel, this formation was unique in the units of World War II on all sides. It began with...

This is the history of the SS Totenkopf units established by Eicke, which can easily be placed into three stages. The first was the establishment of the original formations as concentration camp guards. Excerpt: When Eicke arrived at Dachau he was appalled. First of all, Eicke decided, the current guards must go, bar a few, and requested permission to form a new SS-Wachverbaende (Guard Bands) whose sole purpose would be to guard the camp. Himmler agreed, and as these new volunteers arrived they replaced the existing guards, who were most grateful to be relieved. The recruits underwent a...