When in June 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet
Union, the SS appealed to young men in occupied areas
to support the crusade against Bolshevism. At least 20.000
Dutchmen came forward to put their names down for
this cause. The vast majority of them served in what was
first called the legion, later the brigade and later still the
'Nederland' division. In From Leningrad to Berlin the history
of the largest Dutch Waffen-SS unit on the eastern
front is described for the first time.
The main sources drawn on when writing this book
were documents that survived the war, such as unit diaries
and Berlin-generated paperwork on Dutch volunteers preserved
in archives in Moscow and Prague, which can now
be consulted in Dutch archives. By extensively studying
the relevant literature the author has endeavoured to place
the history of Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers in its rightful
political and military context.
The history of Dutch volunteers in the Waffen-SS
forms a black and, until now, unwritten page in Dutch
history.
Perry Pierik is historian and author of several books.
The book Hungary 1944-1945 The forgotten Tragedy
has been published in English by Aspekt Publishers