Looks like a fairly low-budget foreign film about the Waffen SS. Might be worth a look, although I’m not sure it’s available in the US:
Awesome. Neo Nazi propaganda from Italy, named after the SS’ motto.
Jesus. The SS were pretty damn evil. Not all wars are clear-cut on issues of morality. WWII, for the most part, was, especially when it came to the SS and the Japs.
It should be pointed out the Waffen SS isn’t exactly the same as the SS. Now, just so there is no mistake, many people have tried to use that distinction to suggest the Waffen SS “never did anything to nobody” and we’ve learned that isn’t exactly true either. Even elements of the regular Wehrmacht did some bad stuff from time to time. This is what happens under a statist government.
The film doesn’t look completely terrible, but the CGI muzzle flashes are hard to take.
The low-numbered Waffen SS divisions (1-12 chiefly) had an enviable combat reputation, although I think most of this action was against the Russians. I think they were the first military formation to issue camouflage uniforms on a large scale.
Yeah, at first I thought Fallschirmjaeger[sp?] with the camo?
But then there was an actual SS division “Liebstandarte” so I’m taking the title to guess this would be about that specific unit?
Or maybe in typical movie fashion they’re mixing units/uniforms into whatever looks/sounds cool…
Either way, these guys, especially given what they endured on the eastern front, were seriously badass. In fact I’m going to go out on a heretical limb here and say that some of what went down on the eastern front makes the western front look almost easy…
As far as the whole propaganda thing, I mean, geez, it’s been what, darn near 70 years since WW2 ended, and some folks still can’t get it that not every German wearing a Nazi uniform was evil, and not every Allied soldier was a saint. Kind of like how the French aren’t actually all cowards…
Desperation and resentment can make people do some crazy shit, and non of that was exactly in short supply post-WW1…
The guys on the other side of the line went through the same thing our guys did, experienced the same successes and failures of leadership, the same highs and lows of morality and immorality, the same losses of friends and families. In some ways almost worse, since a lot of the German units were formed from the same villages, imagine having half the friends you grew up with blown away, and then come home to nothing but a pile of bombed-flat rubble and the eternal hatred of the rest of the world…
And yet the movie about the “good guys” is kosher while the “bad guys” movie is nothing but propaganda for no other reason than it’s about the bad guys.
Anyway /rant, back on topic;
If the movie plays out from the angle I’m guessing it will, it should be an interesting piece, albeit as stated a little “low budget”.
Another one from back in the day that some might find interesting is “Cross of Iron” 1977. The full version is floating around on youtube somewhere.
Seems kind of ironic that the last defenders of Hitler’s bunker in the ruins of Berlin were the Frenchmen of the 33rd Waffen SS Grenadier Division “Charlemagne”.
And some units were just plain, well…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS
Nothing heretical about it.
Most historians that I’ve spoken to and read agree: The only time the Western Front saw combat that came close to what had happened, was happening, and continued to happen on the Eastern Front from Barbarossa to Berlin was the Battle of the Bulge.
It was not uncommon for the Germans to send units and individuals to act as a reserve for the Western Front while on R&R from the Eastern Front (which is pretty much the entire reason Op: Market Garden went sideways - apart from faulty intelligence that didn’t show the recuperating units being in the AO and the wishful thinking that dismissed all evidence suggesting that the Germans were in much greater strength in the AO).
That is because they were fanatical nazi’s, true idealogical warriors. Their combat reputation came at a high casualty rate, 30% plus for the LSAH. The 1st 5 divisions notably 1,3 and 5 were involved in many atrocities against allied troops and civilians where ever they fought. The LSAH fought in every offensive from Poland on except N Africa. There is a reason that SS as a whole were listed as a criminal organization at the Nuremburgh tribunal.
The winners write the history.
I lived in Germany for a decade and got to speak to a few German WWII vets. To a man all were regretful, to a man all denied knowing what was going on back in Germany.
I do not know and can not say that in the same circumstance I would not have worn that uniform and fought. I know I am not a murderer.
WWII being the last ‘good war’ is a complete crock.
Germany thought in the 30s it might be Germany and Britain against France and Russia.
Why did the Allies declare war on Germany but not Russia for invading Poland?
The role of Vichy France, Russia not declaring war on Japan till literally the last hour, the whole mess in China.
You can justify the bombing of cities any number of ways, but compare that to how people go ape-excrement when we vaporize a couple of civilians of dubious intentions with a drone strike.
What to make of Finland?
How many German POWs disappeared into gulags in Russia after the war?
It was no more a good or bad war than Vietnam, it was just that the message was controlled on all sides better.
I’m not saying anything should be apologized or rationalized- just that WWII was not nearly as ‘good’ and clear cut as our Reader’s Digest view of history would have us believe.
With out doubt the fighting on the Eastern Front was more barbaric and at a larger scale than the Western Front- Hello, Kursk or Stalingrad anyone? That said, I think they play second fiddle to fighting in the Pacific that the Marines faced. That was true elimination warfare, winner take all.
Because Stalin waited an entire week.
The worst part of that who theater of operations is prior to the allies forming an alliance with Stalin, Germany produced evidence of Russian massacres in Easter Poland, most notably the Katyn Forest massacre and Churchill and Roosevelt decided to believe the Russian story that the Germans actually did these things.
When all was said and done, the war that was started to protect the freedom and independence of Poland ended with Poland abandoned to Stalin who was one of the original co invaders.
Great, another movie about my mother-in-law. 
Then it should also be pointed out that the motto “My honor is my loyalty” is a more accurate translation.
The Waffen SS was the first to issue camo. The Heer and Luftwaffe was later.
It’s funny how everyone talks about the evil Germans but Americans weren’t saints. I find it strange that we supported the commies when Lenin and his red terror killed at least 20 million Christians and Stalin killed another 30 million long before WWII started.