The glorification of the Nazi SS troops, who fought in their own so-called “elite” units alongside the Heer, is terribly disconnected from the reality of what they stood for and were fighting to establish. In short, lionizing such units obscures the their true nature and intentions, which makes it more likely our future will see other versions thereof but only with different victims and different privileged classes or groups.
The goal of the SS was to create and maintain an absolute top-down dictatorship, to build a planned economy, to eliminate Christianity, and to exterminate or enslave all races save the fictional Aryan race. Unlike Wehrmacht soldiers and sailors, who may have not been as deeply knowledgeable of the true nature of the racist, totalitarian, Nazi slave state’s true nature, the SS knew full well and embraced that with gusto.
Every individual case is different, but the organizers and leaders of the SS combat units were, to put it simply, monsters of the worst kind. It therefore becomes immoral to extol this band of barbaric thugs as elite units. True, they were tougher fighters, but their unit tactics emphasized bravery and willingness to die over intelligence and efficiency. SS troops knew how to kill and how to die, but they weren’t necessarily the most efficient fighters: they wasted manpower and equipment in foolish attacks or suicidal defenses of no strategic value.
Depictions of the Germans in World War Two through living history actually tend to be more judicious in how they treat this. The goal is to show people something we must never forget.
It is true that German kit and combat gear was sharp and remains basically sharp today. I own many items, both original and reproduction, from WW2 and before, as well as modern, and in fact actually wear parts of these outfits, without any insignia of any kind, as “civilian” clothes. But sharp kit, which, again, I myself have no compunction repurposing, cannot and mustn’t be allowed to detract from the true nature of America’s World War Two foe.
My own love of military style clothing and accessories, from many nations and periods, and my love of living history, wherein I may depict an American, German, or other combat soldiers, doesn’t in any way distract me from the fact the Germans in WW2, especially the SS, were engaged in a war of extermination and were pursuing absolute dictatorship.
For some, even wearing a reproduction of this kit, even without the insignia, seems to glorify the “bad guys.” I don’t agree, I find this rather strict interpretation of these things overbearing, but I definitely prefer this to any attitude that says the SS were “elite” and not simply genocidal thugs.
Lionizing the SS in particular is morally repugnant to decent people who know what this organization of in-bred psycho thugs stood for. They are not elite, they are barbarians, criminals, and the worst kind of humans.
If we do not remind ourselves of what was done in history and what the beliefs of the bad actors were, we will eventually see some version of the SS emerge again to haunt our future.
