Waffen-SS im Einsatz

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Waffen-SS im Einsatz (Waffen-SS in Action) is a 1953 German book by Paul Hausser, a former high-ranking SS commander and a leader in the Waffen-SS lobby group HIAG. The book argues that the Waffen-SS was only a military force and not connected to Nazi crimes, a core claim of HIAG’s revisionist campaign.

HIAG formed in 1950 as a loose group of former Waffen-SS members; Hausser became its first spokesperson in 1951. The group pushed to present the Waffen-SS as the “fourth branch of the Wehrmacht” and to rehabilitate its image. The book was published by Plesse Verlag and features a cover with SS symbols and a foreword by Heinz Guderian praising the Waffen-SS.

Historians view the work as propaganda that portrayed the Waffen-SS as a multinational force with foreign volunteers fighting for a “European idea,” a claim they say was used to recruit and legitimize the organization. It is considered one of the most important works of Waffen-SS apologist literature. The book and other HIAG publications aimed to rewrite history and to aid legal rehabilitation, with Munin Verlag helping spread these narratives.

Hausser later published Soldaten wie andere auch (1966) in a similar vein. In West Germany, Waffen-SS im Einsatz was listed as an objectionable war book for youths due to its glorification of violence. Historians describe these works as influential efforts to promote a favorable memory of the Waffen-SS.