Epic-The Story Of The Waffen SS.pdf

Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS

LEON DEGRELLE

Introduction

You are about to hear Leon Degrelle, who before the Second World War was

Europe's youngest political leader and the founder of the Rexist Party of

Belgium. During that cataclysmic confrontation he was one of the greatest

heroes on the Eastern Front. Of Leon Degrelle Hitler said: "If I should have a

son I would like him to be like Leon."

As a statesman and a soldier he has known very closely Hitler, Mussolini,

Churchill, Franco, Laval, Marshal Petain and all the European leaders during

the enormous ideological and military clash that was World War Two. Alone

among them, he has survived, remaining the number one witness of that

historical period.

The life of Leon Degrelle began in 1906 in Bouillon, a small town in the

Belgian Ardennes. His family was of French origin.

He studied at the University of Louvain, where he acquired a doctorate in law.

He was -and is -also interested in other academic disciplines, such as political

science, art, archeology and Tomistic philosophy.

As a student his natural gift of leadership became apparent. By the time he

reached twenty he had already published five books and operated his own

weekly newspaper. Out of his deep Christian conviction he joined Belgium's

Catholic Action Movement and became one of its leaders.

But his passion has always been people.

He wanted to win the crowds, particularly the Marxist ones. He wanted them

to 5hare his ideals of social and spiritual change for society. He wanted to lift

people up; to forge for them a stable, efficient and responsible state, a state

backed by the good sense of people and for the sole benefit of the people.

He addressed more than 2,000 meetings, always controversial. His, books and

newspaper were read everywhere because they always dealt with the real

issues. Although not yet twenty-five, people listened to him avidly.

In a few short years he had won over a large part of the population. On the

twenty-fourth of May 1936 his Rexist Party won against the established

parties a smashing electoral victory: Thirty-four house and senate seats.

The Europe of 1936 was still split into little countries, jealous of their pasts

and closed to any contact with their neighbors.

Leon Degrelle saw further. In his student days he had traveled across Latin

America, the United States and Canada. He had visited North Africa, the

Middle East and of course all of the European countries. He felt that Europe

had a unique destiny and must unite.

Mussolini invited him to Rome. Churchill saw him in London and Hitler

received him in Berlin.

Putting his political life on the line, he made desperate efforts to stop the

railroading of Europe into another war. But old rivalries, petty hatreds and

suspicion between the French and the German, were cleverly exploited. The

established parties and the Communist Party worked on the same side: for

war. For the Kremlin it was a unique opportunity to communize Europe after

it had been bled white.

Thus, war started. First in Poland, then in Western Europe in 1940. This was

to become the Second World War in 1941.

Soon the flag of the Swastika flew from the North Pole to the shores of Greece

to the border of Spain.

But the European civil war between England and Germany continued. And the

rulers of Communism got ready to move in and pick up the pieces.

But Hitler beat them to it and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. For

Europe it was to be heads or tails; Hitlers wins or Stalin wins.

It was then that from every country in Europe thousands of young men made

up their minds that the destiny of their native country was at stake. They

would volunteer their lives to fight communism and create a united Europe.

In all, they would grow to be more than 600,000 non-German Europeans

fighting on the Eastern Front. They would bring scores of divisions to the

Waffen SS.

The Waffen SS were ideological and military shock troops of Europe. The

Germans, numbering 400,000, were actually in the minority.

The one million-strong Waffen SS represented the first truly European army

to ever exist.

After the war each unit of this army was to provide their people with a

political structure free of the petty nationalism of the past. All the SS fought

the same struggle. All shared the same world view. All became comrades in

arms.

The most important political and military phenomenon of World War Two is

also the least known: the phenomenon of the Waffen SS.

Leon Degrelle is one of the most famous Waffen SS soldiers. After joining as

a private he earned all stripes from corporal to general for exceptional bravery

in combat. He engaged in seventy-five hand-to-hand combat actions. He was

wounded on numerous occasions. He was the recipient of the highest honors:

The Ritterkreuz, the Oak-Leaves, the Gold German Cross and numerous other

decorations for outstanding valor under enemy fire. One of the last to fight on

the Eastern Front, Leon Degrelle escaped unconditional surrender by flying

some 1500 miles across Europe toward Spain. He managed to survive constant

fire all along the way and crash landed on the beach of San Sebastian in Spain,

critically wounded.

Against all odds he survived. Slowly he managed to re-build a new life in

exile for himself and his family.

For Degrelle philosophy and politics cannot exist without historical

knowledge. For him beauty enhances people and people cannot improve their

lives without it.

This philosophy is reflected in everything he does. In his Spanish home art

blends gracefully with history.

The work of Leon Degrelle has always been epic and poetic. As he walks in

the environment of his home one feels the greatness of Rome with its marbles,

its bronzes, its translucent glass; one feels the elegant Arabian architecture, the

gravity of the Gothic form and the sumptuousness of Renaissance and

Baroque art. One feels the glory of his flags.

In this atmosphere of beauty and greatness, the last and most important living

witness of World War Two awaits you, Ladies and Gentlemen: General Leon

Degrelle.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am asked to talk to you about the great unknown of World War Two: the Waffen SS.

It is somewhat amazing that the organization which was both political and military and which

during World War Two united more than one million fighting volunteers, should still be

officially ignored.

Why?

Why is it that the official record still virtually ignores this extraordinary army of volunteers?

An army which was at the vortex of the most gigantic struggle, affecting the entire world.

The answer may well be found in the fact that the most striking feature of the Waffen SS was

that it was composed of volunteers from some thirty different countries.

What cause gathered them and why did they volunteer their lives?

Was it a German phenomenon?

At the beginning, yes.

Initially, the Waffen SS amounted to less than two hundred members. It grew consistently

until 1940 when it evolved into a second phase: the Germanic Waffen SS. In addition to

Germans from Germany, northwestern Europeans and descendants of Germans from all

across Europe enlisted.

Then, in 1941 during the great clash with the Soviet Union, rose the European Waffen SS.

Young men from the most distant countries fought together on the Russian front.

No one knew anything about the Waffen SS for most of the years preceding the war. The

Germans themselves took some time to recognize the distinctiveness of the Waffen SS.

Hitler rose to the chancellorship democratically, winning at the ballot box. He ran electoral

campaigns like any other politician. He addressed meetings, advertised on billboards, his

message attracted capacity audiences. More and more people liked what he had to say and

more and more people voted members of his party into congress. Hitler did not come to

power by force but was duly elected by the people and duly installed as Chancellor by the

President of Germany, General von Hindenburg. His government was legitimate and

democratic. In fact, only two of his followers were included in the Cabinet.

Later he succeeded always through the electoral process in increasing his majority. When

some elections gave him up to 90% of the vote, Hitler earned every vote on his own merit.

During his campaigns Hitler faced formidable enemies: the power establishment who had no

qualms whatsoever in tampering with the electoral process. He had to face the Weimar

establishment and its well-financed left-wing and liberal parties and highly organized bloc of

six million Communist Party members. Only the most fearless and relentless struggle to

convince people to vote for him, enabled Hitler to obtain a democratic majority.

In those days the Waffen SS was not even a factor. There was, of course, the SA with some

three million men. They were rank and file members of the National Socialist Workers Party

but certainly not an army.

Their main function was to protect party candidates from Communist violence. And the

violence was murderous indeed: more than five hundred National Socialists were murdered

by the communists. Thousands were grievously injured.

The SA was a volunteer, non-government organization and as soon as Hitler rose to power he

could no longer avail himself of its help.

He had to work within the system he was elected to serve.

He came in a state of disadvantage. He had to contend with an entrenched bureaucracy

appointed by the old regime. In fact, when the war started in 1939, 70% of German

bureaucrats had been appointed by the old regime and did not belong to Hitler's party. Hitler

could not count on the support of the Church hierarchy. Both big business and the

Communist Party were totally hostile to his programs. On top of all this, extreme poverty

existed and six million workers were unemployed. No country in Europe had ever known so

many people to be out of work.

So here is a man quite isolated. The three million SA party members are not in the

government. They vote and help win the elections but they cannot supplant the entrenched

bureaucracy in the government posts. The SA also was unable to exert influence on the army,

because the top brass, fearful of competition, was hostile to the SA.

This hostility reached such a point that Hitler was faced with a wrenching dilemma. What to

do with the millions of followers who helped him to power? He could not abandon them.

The army was a highly organized power structure. Although only numbering 100,000 as

dictated by the Treaty of Versailles it exerted great influence in the affairs of state. The

President of Germany was Field Marshal von Hindenburg. The army was a privileged caste.

Almost all the officers belonged to the upper classes of society.

It was impossible for Hitler to take on the powerful army frontally. Hitler was elected

democratically and he could not do what Stalin did: to have firing squads execute the entire

military establishment. Stalin killed thirty thousand high ranking officers. That was Stalin's

way to make room for his own trusted commissars.

Such drastic methods could not occur in Germany and unlike Stalin, Hitler was surrounded

by international enemies.

His election had provoked international rage. He had gone to the voters directly without the

intermediary of the establishment parties. His party platform included an appeal for racial

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