Customer Reviews

Waffen-SS Encyclopedia

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Marc J. Rikmenspoel's Waffen-SS Encyclopedia is a tour-de-force piece of military history. Certainly encyclopedic in content but written with a literary flair that makes it readable - this is not Encyclopedia Britainica der Waffen-SS! Rikmenspoel wastes few words in the 285 pages of Waffen-SS Encyclopedia. For example, right at the outset he states that his purpose is not to "rehash, cut or paste material from previously published works to create a new volume on the subject", but rather to provide in one work a source of valuable and accurate information related to five basic topics: 1) the order of battle for various Waffen-SS formations; 2) the personnel makeup of these units - with added emphasis on "Germanic" formations; 3) summaries of some of the more notorious and decorated leaders of the Waffen-SS; 4) generalized and specialized weapons usage in various units; and 5) an introduction to some common misconceptions and controversial topics associated with the Waffen-SS. Rikmenspoel hits a home run on all counts!

The most encyclopedic portion of the book is the first section dedicated to the order of battle for various units (pp. 1-58) and structure of Waffen-SS divisions (pp. 59-82). As is inherent in this type of information, the facts are the facts. Rikmenspoel doesn't clutter the facts with a lot of non-sense drivel. Yet, he provides enough text to make this section readable. In addition to the dry facts (unit makeup, history of command, etc.) the author provides a synopsis of combat history and organization-reorganization of these combat units. These histories are expanded and tied together textually in later sections, thus tying in the "dry" matter (basic facts) with the "meaty" matter (larger stories). The section on weapon usage (pp. 235-250) is also a bit dry textually but provides ample information. Each of these encyclopedic sections is further supplemented for the reader with great photographs and illustrations - again not a la Encyclopedia Britainica, but tastefully and not wastefully.

The second and third sections of the book provide the most griping prose. The second section is divided between discussion of Germanic (pp. 83-180) and non-German/non-Germanic units (pp. 181-194) of the Waffen-SS, with the first section clearly providing the most interesting fodder for both the author and reader. Rikmenspoel has more than competently melded an information-rich treatise on the subject with minimal use of space and words. This in no way should imply that the author cut corners or did minimal research. Quite the contrary, Rikmenspoel simply condenses material to its minimal components that are necessary and sufficient for reader understanding and education. Few authors can take such information-dense material from disparate sources, rework it, and put it to paper in a readable prose that maintains the content sufficiently. Rikmenspoel can and has! Another perfect example of Rikmenspoel's talent is the third section of the book that is dedicated to some of the leading personalities of the Waffen-SS. Rikmenspoel chooses to deal not with just the most well known personalities (in fact he doesn't give space to some that might be expected based on previously published works), but with men who "deserve" to be discussed in an encyclopedia of the Waffen-SS - armed combat units. In brief, Rikmenspoel presents short histories of the major military leaders of the Waffen-SS, generally those most competent as soldier-leaders and sculptors of the armed SS, not simply those with the most notoriety. Again, this is a unique talent. Certainly some will feel that Rikmenspoel has "slighted" some personalities by not discussing them, but his narrative of lesser-known, but not lesser deserving leaders is worth more than "rehashing of previous works" (as the author himself states in his Introduction).

The last section of the book is by far the "hot potato" of Waffen-SS Encyclopedia as it deals with issues Rikmenspoel labels "misconceptions" and "controversies." Anytime an author attempts to examine the crimes of the Nazi regime and the role of the Waffen-SS he/she rides a razor edge. Rikmenspoel does not attempt to condemn or apologize for war crimes or the roles of Waffen-SS men. Rather he attempts to point out how historians and students alike can and should approach the subject objectively and with the proper mindset to make logical and historically accurate assessments. This section of the book could certainly be expanded further in a second volume - one can only hope!

If all of these things weren't enough, Rikmenspoel and Aberjona Press have provided the reader with an extra bonus is the form of an annotated bibliography. The author give a short synopsis of positive/negative attributes of works used to research the book. Too few authors provide this kind of insight into their own thoughts. Although clearly a serious historian, Rikmenspoel also gives away what is obviously a wonderful sense of humor in the annotation to one of his previous works (Soldiers of the Waffen-SS: Many Nations, One Motto)...you'll just have to pick up Waffen-SS Encyclopedia to see for yourself!

Waffen-SS Encyclopedia is a 5 star book from both the perspective of content and readability. Aberjona Press has yet another "classic" on its hands, and with Rikmenspoel, another talented historian in their stable. This book should be on the shelf of every serious student of WWII history with even a passing interest in the Waffen-SS.

Aberjona Press' "The Waffen-SS Encyclopedia" is a revised addition of "Waffen-SS The Encyclopedia" which was written and published for a military book club in 2002.

With the "Waffen-SS Encylopedia" author Marc J. Rikmenspoel tries to do what many authors before have tried- to write a thorough overview of the Waffen-SS. This is not an easy task, the Waffen-SS might be one of the most complex fighting force in modern history. Long before Rikmenspoel George Stein tried to write an overview of the Waffen-SS, he did a good job but his book contained a lot of mistakes and even some consistent myths that have surrounded this organization. In the Encylopedia Rikmenspoel tries to have as accurate information as possible and his analysis are well-grounded. The strength of Rikmenspoel's book is the reliable and accurate information that is presented. Surely, many books have been written about the Waffen-SS but unfortunately old errors have been repeated without the authors doing the necessary checking of facts. With that in mind Rikmenspoel presents a whole chapter about the misconceptions and inaccuracies that have surrounded the Waffen-SS. This he do a great work with.

What I miss in Rikmenspoel's book is some tables with figures and statistics. This would have been very usable and if presented in the right way these can often alter an inaccurate view of something. For example it would have been interesting to see some statistics about awards and such recieved by members of the Waffen-SS.

There's also a part about the weapons of the Waffen-SS which feels somewhat superfluous. There are plenty of books which goes into the depth of that subject and very little differed between the Waffen-SS and the regular German army when it came to weapons, vehicles, equipment and so on. A chapter about uniforms, ranks and insignia would have been more suitable as the Waffen-SS had to develop these from scratch rather than relying on old traditions like for example the German army did.

At the end of the book there's an annotated bibliography where Rikmenspoel presents more or less all books connected to the Waffen-SS that have been written. Unit histories, bibliographies, photo books, all sorts of topics concerning the Waffen-SS. With a few sentences about each title Rikmenspoel gives a good presentation of the literature written about this field of research.

The author stays objective throughout the book. He focus on accurate information and keeps the focus on the basic things. He has done a good work and I personally believe that this book has the potential to be the leading reference book on the Waffen-SS for many years to come. I would like to recommend "The Waffen-SS Encylopedia" to anyone who has an interest in this organization. No matter if the reader has read many, few or no books on the subject before she will find this book very useful.

Ok, this is the last review until I finish a few more books.....anyone got any titles, LOL
OK, I found this book really well done and to the point. I would say it is more along the research type of book, as it is NOT a memoir or not really a story.
The chapters cover everything I would want to know about the SS. SS units, weapons used, Bio's on major characters (brief but with good information, and a good read). How the SS DIV were broken down and of course where the Divisions fought, and how they ended the war. One of the chapters covers all the countries that supplied volunteers to the German elite units and has a break down of wounded/killed and what happened to the soldiers at wars end. This is a really good read in my mind.
Most of the photos have not been seen by me. I found myself going back to this book to re-read certain chapters to help explain other books. I know I will be using this book to compliment later books.
Highly recommended as a research book.

Whether your interest lies in hard core research of World War II or you just happen to watch the History Channel too often, this book will be an enjoyable source of information.

Personally, being of the second group, I had rarely been exposed to unbiased views toward anything in 20th century Europe, particularly not early century Germany. This book was fantastic with providing in depth information with every topic touched upon. Formations of, Nationalities of, Personalities of, and Weapons of the Waffen-SS were all well researched and well presented.

While the book could possibly contain more information, it truly seems to hold the most pertinent information about the Waffen-SS. To effectively go more in depth would have required a separate published work for each separate topic.

This is a complete, unbaised work on the Waffen-SS and would make a pleasant experience for anyone interested in topics relating to early 20th century Europe. I personally was shocked how much I enjoyed this title.

Marc Rikmenspoel has done an admirable job collating a wealth of information about the Waffen-SS in this volume. Labelling this book an encyclopedia is a bit of a misnomer though as it is far from comprehensive. This book is divided into four major sections (eight chapters). In the first two chapters, MR describes the formations and the organization of the Waffen-SS from the highest levels (SS Panzer Armies) down to batallion sized units and smaller. A brief history of the each of the SS divisions is given along with the names of commanding officers. Virtually all of this information can easily be found elsewhere (like Wikipedia). This is certainly not the `home run' as another reviewer put it. The second section contains detailed descriptions of the diverse national members of the Waffen-SS. This section is divided into two chapters, Germanics and non-Germanics, and is the real meat of this book in my opinion. The Waffen-SS was truly a diverse army and took in men from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. The third section contains short biographical sketches of thirteen famous (or infamous, such as Oskar Dirlewanger) members/officers of the Waffen-SS. The final section contains a brief (15 page) discussion of the weapons of the Waffen-SS and a final chapter that is essentially an apologetic for Waffen-SS war crimes.

Overall, this work is more for popular consumption (or the type of thing that a cadet who is enamored with the image of the victories of the Waffen-SS may be interested in reading), and I suspect that any serious student of WWII will find this book to be little more than a light snack. Despite some of the claims of the other reviewers, this is certainly not a scholarly work, and it is not the kind of work that one will return to again and again for information. This is definitely not an encyclopedia, in spite of the title, there are way too many holes. There are several things that I really disliked about this book. There is no discussion about any of the actual battles, nor is there anything said about the relationship between the Waffen-SS and the higher levels of the SS and/or the political leadership of Germany. I found the final section about the apology for SS war crimes to be particularly egregious, especially for a book that claims to be an encyclopedia. In particular, I think the author does make some good points here, but completely avoids (throughout the entire text really) ALL the complex issues related to the SS's (not just the Waffen-SS) role in implementing Nazi racial policy. A BALANCED view would present both the admirable qualities of the soldiers of the Waffen-SS as well as their crimes. This work is certainly not balanced, and is a virtual hagiography of the exploits and men of the Waffen-SS. This last section makes it clear that MR is trying to ameliorate the image of the Waffen-SS while avoiding uncomfortable truths. There are many positives to this book though. It is well written with a deft prose that is direct and easy to read. As described above, MR does a fine job describing the diverse ethnic/national makeup of the Waffen-SS. There are two additional aspects about this book that make it worth a look. First, at less than 14 dollars (as of 24NOV06) this price is easy on the wallet. Second, the book contains an annotated bibiliography that points the interested reader to other references.

Bottom line - a light snack for a serious student, but may still be a worthwhile addition to your collection (particularly given the price).

This is a somewhat revised version of the book originally published in 2002 by The Military Book Club as "Waffen-SS: The Encyclopedia" and it is divided into the following sections:

Formations of the Waffen-SS
Structure of Waffen-SS Divisions
Germans in the Waffen-SS
Germanics in the Waffen-SS
Non-Germans and Non-Germanics in the Waffen-SS
Leading Personalities of the Waffen-SS
Weapons of the Waffen-SS
Misconceptions and Controversies about the Waffen-SS
Apart from the above sections it also includes rank tables, weapons tables with basic data on some of the weapons used and an annotated bibliography.

An index listing the personalities and units would make the book even more useful as would more information on the units that were made up of Germans and not foreign volunteers, but this is in my opinion probably the best one-volume work on the Waffen-SS, especially for those looking for a good impartial and well-researched introduction as well as reference on the topic, in particular the brief unit histories and the information on the different nationalities serving in the Waffen-SS use (the 100 pages dealing with the "Germanics" is particularly good) will be of great use to those reading about the Second World War.

This book is excellent in breaking down the origin of the Waffen SS units and in providing information on important Waffen personnel. I especially liked how it avoided lumping all the units and all the individuals into a single group. It recognizes the differences between elite combat formations and thugs behind the lines who are commiting genocide. It also recognizes that individuals within a given unit differ in terms of fanaticism and indoctrination. It does not address general German (or European) antisemitism and its role, which is probably better tackled by holocaust books like the excellent Hitler's Willing Executioners. I would have preferred more battle history though. This book goes into extreme detail on the role of Germanics (non-Germans of German racial stock) in the SS, but there is relatively little detail on the key battles. All in all, I would say that this book and The Waffen SS at War are complementary. This book tells about the real people involved very well, but does a poor job with the battle history. Waffen SS at War tells the battle history but does a poor job making the people real, rather than simple demonic Nazi stereotypes.

I would not rate this book a detailed encyclopedia. This book gives the general reader an overview of the Waffen SS. Therefore, the volume is a good source of basic information. However, one can go online to Wikipedia for much of the same general information in articles that are easy to read (8th grade level) on the Waffen SS.

I agree that the best sections of this volume are the first two covering: the Waffen-SS unit formations, the history of the divisions and order of battle. The rest of the book is painted with a broad brush. The weakest sections are the later ones of short biographies of thirteen members/officers of the Waffen-SS and weapons of the Waffen SS (which is short and seems to have been included as more of a passing thought). I don't know how the author decided who should be included and not included as far as the biographies. Certain men one would expect to be included are not, such as: Wilhelm Mohnke, Joachim (a/k/a Jochen) Peiper, Kurt "Panzer" Meyer and Michael Wittmann.

For a long-time history buff or student of the World War II era, it makes a good quick reference guide. In the end, there are other books in combination that cover the Waffen-SS in greater detail and depth, such as:

J. J. Fedorowicz publications: "The Leibstandarte: (Volumes) I to IV/2", "Das Reich: (Volumes) I to IV";

R. James Bender Publishing (book): "Uniforms, Organization and History of the LAH: Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"; R. James Bender Publishing (book series): "Foreign Legions of the Third Reich (Volumes) 1 to IV";

Paladin Press publication: "Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations Of The Waffen-SS".

This is a finely done work on certain matters involving the Waffen-SS. On those matters the book can be considered inclusive of its subject matter and thus an encyclopedia of sorts. On several other matters, however, the consideration of the subject matter is cursory at best and can in no sense be considered encyclopedic. On still other subject matters involving the Waffen-SS there is no significant discussion at all.

The author starts out with a very well done chapter on the Order of Battle for each Waffen-SS unit from the two Waffen-SS Armies (the 6th Panzer and short-lived 11th Panzer) to the 18 Waffen-SS Corps down to the almost 40 operational Waffen-SS Divisions. This chapter includes a brief history of each such Waffen-SS unit. It is very well done and takes up the first 58 pages (i.e., about a fifth of the book).

(Unfortunately, this chapter, which begins the book, has two minor errors on the first 3 pages: First, the English "1st" is stated as being the equivalent of the German "1;" but in fact the German "1." is the equivalent of "1st" in English. Second, it is my recollection that the naming of the 32nd Division as "30. Januar" (i.e., in English, "30th of January") was not in tribute to the Nazis taking power on Jan. 30, 1933 but was named in reference to Hitler's being named Chancellor on that date (i.e., the Division was named in honor of Hitler not the Nazi party).)

Next there is a brief, but excellent, discussion on the general structure of the various types of Waffen-SS Divisions (e.g., panzer, panzer-grenadier, mountain, cavalry). (This takes up 10 pages.)

This is followed by a well-written review of the origins of the Waffen-SS (titled, "Germans in the Waffen-SS"). (This takes up almost 15 pages.)

The next chapter, "Germanics in the Waffen-SS," is the heart of the book, taking up about 100 pages (or over a third of the book). It examines the broad base upon which a great number of members of the Waffen-SS were drawn, e.g., Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, and reviews the number of members from each nation or region (11 altogether), who led them, and where and when they fought and the multi-national Waffen-SS Divisions to which they were assigned.

Also included is a short chapter (about 15 pages) on the "Non-German and Non-Germanic" nations that contributed soldiers to the Waffen-SS, including their number and general history. (The largest such contingents were Bosnian (up to 15,000 Muslims and 4,500 Catholics (Croatians)), Estonians (over 25,000), Hungarians (over 50,000 ethnic Magyars), Latvians (over 60,000), and Russians (about 20,000, not including 15,000 Cossacks), and Ukrainians (over 20,000).) This chapter is also well done.

The next chapter is on "Leading Personalities" of the Waffen-SS. Unfortunately, of the approximately 1,000,000 men who served in the ranks of the Waffen-SS, a mere 13 are included, making this chapter woefully inadequate. Many famous Waffen-SS figures are missing, which hardly makes the book encyclopedic. There are thus no entries, for example, of the following well-known (and even infamous) Waffen-SS members:
1.) Leon Degrelle
2.) Hermann Fegelein
3.) Bronislav Kaminski
4.) Fritz Klingenberg
5.) Kurt Meyer
6.) Wilhelm Mohnke
7.) Johannes Muehlenkamp
8.) Jochen Peiper
9.) Artur Phleps
10.) Fritz Witt
11.) Michael Wittmann
(Although these Waffen-SS members may be discussed or mentioned in other parts of the book, that is of little use to the reader looking for information on them since the book lacks an index.)

The following chapter, on "Weapons of the Waffen-SS," also seems to be an afterthought, taking up a bare 15 pages.

The final chapter, on "Misconceptions and Controversies of the Waffen-SS," does make its points clearly and cogently, despite its brevity (another dozen or so pages). It is by no means an apology for the Waffen-SS. It is instead a lucid explanation of many issues surrounding the Waffen-SS. Many of these issues are purposely misconstrued or ignored by many writers pretending to be historians. These imposters fail each of the three litmus tests set down by Cicero two millenia ago to separate the true historian from the mere propagandist. These are: (1) to never tell an untruth; (2) to never suppress the truth; and (3) to always be free of malice (i.e., be impartial).

In sum, this is a very well-written and researched basic work on the Waffen-SS but it is more of an handbook than an encyclopedia.

Author tries to cover ALL the SS formations in this work. This sacrifices detail to fit them all in, but does seem to hit all the formations. There's general information on the SS as a whole. I particularly like the section on common myths of the SS.