Waffen-SS in popular culture

Waffen-SS in popular culture refers to the representation of the Waffen-SS, the paramilitary formation of the SS in Nazi Germany, via ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images that are within the mainstream of a given culture, from the post-war period to the present time.

The portrayal of Waffen-SS men, commanders and units has been a subject of significant revisionist efforts, undertaken by HIAG, a lobby group founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS officers in 1951 in West Germany, and its key leaders—Paul Hausser, Felix Steiner and Kurt Meyer, who directed the propaganda campaign to promote the perceptions of the force as elite, apolitical fighters who were not involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime.

Although these notions have since been discredited by historians, the uncritical, often admiring, tradition continues to the present time, through popular history books, web sites and wargames. It can be found in the works by Franz Kurowski, Richard Landwehr, Bruce Quarrie, and Gordon Williamson, among others.

The Waffen-SS ("Armed SS") was the armed wing of the Nazi Party's SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied European countries. The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the German army (land forces), Ordnungspolizei (uniformed police) and other security units. According to Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection, the Waffen-SS had played a "paramount role" in the ideological war of extermination (Vernichtungskrieg), and not just as frontline or rear area security formations: a third of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) members who were responsible for mass murder, especially of Jews and communists, had been recruited from Waffen-SS personnel prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union.

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