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Some of those whose views were recorded in the protocols do reveal a more differentiated picture of the Waffen SS, including doubts as to whether they truly were more willing to fight to the death. General Cramer recalled the mood among three units of the Waffen SS during the defense of Charchow Ksiezy in Poland in February 1943: “They are just as fed up. They were more or less compelled, too, they didn’t… at all of their own free will. They took part in all the dirty work and they are just as fed up as we are.”⁷⁸² Whether or not this was a fair assessment of the three newly deployed regiments, “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler,” “The Reich,” and “Death’s Head,” is an open question. The point is that there was more to the Waffen SS than fanaticism and willingness to sacrifice, as is evidenced by the decision by these three units to defy a command by Hitler and withdraw from the Polish town. One of the units also attracted the ire of General Erhard Raus six months later for operating “listlessly.” Raus even tried, unsuccessfully, to get the division leader, SS Brigadeführer Heinz Krüger, stripped of his command.⁷⁸³

Further reports from other battles also suggest that Waffen SS men were not invariably prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. General Heinrich Eberbach opined that the “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” regiment in Normandy fought “worse than ever before.”⁷⁸⁴ That estimation is supported by Allied sources and by the relatively small number of decorations handed out.⁷⁸⁵

Interestingly, one of the few POWs who admitted to desertion in the British protocols was an SS man named Reichheld from the division “Frundsberg.”⁷⁸⁶ Moreover, a statement by SS Obersturmführer Otto Woelcky from the “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” division reveals a striking lack of fanaticism from an officer who joined the SS early on. In September 1944, Woelcky’s unit was ordered to help defend the West Wall of the Siegfried Line between Germany and France. In a village behind the line of bunkers, he was quartered at the house of a woman who asked him a question: