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Author, film researcher and member of the Swedish Military History Commission.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Franciscan Waffen-SS Soldier

I thought it was pretty amazing when German author Günter Grass in 2006 disclosed that he had been a soldier of the Waffen-SS. But perhaps one could consider Gereon Goldmann an even more unlikely Waffen-SS soldier?

Before WWII the early Waffen-SS (then basically the SS-VT) was purely a volunteer formation. After the war broke out it became increasingly based on conscription, which was how even some persons strongly opposed to the SS ended up in the Waffen-SS.

Wikipedia sums up Goldmann quite well I reckon. And here is the book in English about him. I have yet to read the book myself though. I will order it next time I order books - it recently came out in Swedish, which is how I learnt about this man.

There used to be a website devoted to his life, but it is now down, so I have removed the link to it. However, please comment here if you know of any other sources about Gereon Goldmann, both books and on the web.

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