Review - Black Edelweiss

Black Edelweiss
Johann Voss
ISBN: 0966638980


This is the memoir of a veteran of the 6. SS-Gerbisjaegar Division 'Nord'. Mr Voss describes his combat experiences in Finland, the retreat from Finland and the Western Front a fluid, well written readable way (unlike dry unit histories) and explains why he decided to join the Waffen-SS instead of the Heer, namely anti-Bolshevism and the view that the Waffen-SS was a pan-European army fighting against it. Mr Voss reconciles his justifiable pride in his comrades and his unit which fought for their country with the fact that many other less noble men of the other branches of the SS Organisation running the Concentration Camps wore more or less the same uniform. Mr Voss ends the book with the justifiable and correct fact that despite having to fight for the corrput Berlin gang, the youthful patriotic sacrifice of his comrades is something that each nation much have.

The excellent combat descriptions might have had something to do with the author writing the book in US captivity just after the war, when memories were still fresh, added on by the excellent English translation. The maps by Tom Houlihan were simple and helps to understand the military situation better than other much complicated ones in unit histories. There are a few unpublished photographs in the book of the author in uniform and his surroundings from Mr Voss's collection, a few of the 'Nord' from a collection of a collector named Warfield and a few known ones from 'Gerbijaegar in Bild' by Alfred Steurich with permission from the Munin-Verlag. Overall the book is well written, honest, and I would recommend it to anyone intrested in the Waffen-SS or the German side of the war.

K