But SS divisions were not the only ones who were generously decorated, well equipped, and regularly replenished with select young personnel. Elite units within the Wehrmacht also enjoyed such privileges. One good example is the armored grenadier division “Greater Germany,” which the Wehrmacht leadership purposely built up as an army “praetorian guard” to complete with the Waffen SS.⁷⁶² There were also a number of elite units within the Luftwaffe as well as paratroopers and the armored division “Hermann Göring.” All enjoyed special status. Members of these groups were also perceived as “others,” thanks to their special uniforms and helmets and the favoritism many claimed was shown to them when decorations were handed out.⁷⁶³ Their arrogant behavior also engendered resentment. “The famous or infamous Hermann GÖRING Division,” Colonel Hans Reimann complained while speaking of his time in Tunisia, “was there, a lot of swine, nothing but puffed up—the officers were so loud-mouthed that young puppies and the older ones as well, they were so loud-mouthed that you simply didn’t know what sort of people they were; at the first attack they were scattered and ran away so fast from the tanks that we had to stop them!”⁷⁶⁴

^{Two Waffen SS soldiers in camouflage uniform, date unknown. (Photographer: Weyer; BA 10 III Weyer-032-2BA)}

BRAVERY AND FANATICISM

Applying great effort and skill, Nazi propagandists promoted the image of the Waffen SS as a “fanatic” fighting troop with an incredible “capacity for sacrifice,” and these categories crop up regularly in the surveillance protocols. Wehrmacht soldiers generally agreed that SS troops were “bullish” extremists, heedless even of death, marching forward into the crossfire to the strains of “Deutschland über alles” and suffering “terrible,” “insane,” and “senseless” losses.⁷⁶⁵ “One regiment, the Standarte Germania, had 2500 men killed in three months,” reported a horrified Luftwaffe sergeant.⁷⁶⁶

^{A group of German soldiers in Normandy in summer 1944. Their helmets and uniforms distinguish them as paratroopers. (Photographer: Slickers; BA 101 I-586-2225-16)}

Most of the generals interned at Trent Park had fought on the Eastern Front in 1941 and ’42, which is where they first encountered the Waffen SS. They, too, told of senseless sacrifices among SS units: