In the Fire of the Eastern Front is Hendrick Verton’s account as a Dutch volunteer in the SS during the Second World War. He saw action with the 5th SS Panzer Division ‘Wiking’ during 1941-42 and then with SS Regiment Besslein during the siege of Breslau/Wrocław in 1945. After the war, Verton settled in West Germany as he was barred from returning home to the Netherlands, only doing so after an amnesty by the Dutch government several years after the war.
Much of Verton’s account features clichés, omissions and a victim narrative that is a feature in so many accounts by non-German SS veterans.[1] He claims he enlisted as in 1940 because ‘very many Europeans…began to see a new National Socialist Europe, through Germany’s successes…Such people hoped for, and imagined, a new Europe as another Commonwealth of equal partners, the most competent on the continent being the leader.’[2] Verton’s brother enlisted in the SS at the ‘dictate of his conscience and belonged to those willing to make a sacrifice for his father land, in the Europe of the future’.[3] Verton followed his brother out his ‘ambition for a new Europe’ and realising that this ‘would not be realised by lounging around in dressing gowns and slippers.’[4]
However, in an apparent contradiction, Verton says the vision of a ‘new Europe’ for which he had joined the Germany military to fight for had nothing to do with Nazism. There was ‘definitely no connection, for the volunteers, with National Socialist ideology’.[5] He added later that soldiers fighting in the Waffen SS ‘were not the “Upstanding stalwarts of the Party”, as they are deliberately depicted today.’[6]
The other theme that runs through the book is that of the Soviet Union being a corrupt, brutal and dehumanising political system that is hell bent on the destruction of Western civilisation. Verton concluded that the ‘population was passive and resigned, showing us no hostility. The reason for that undoubtedly was the social misery that they had had to endure under Stalin’.[7] He believed that living conditions under the ‘Bolshevik Regime’ meant that ‘sexual morals sank to the lowest imaginable, without boundaries or control…Such scenes made a very grave impression upon us. It confirmed to every one of us that Communism had to be repulsed at all costs. It also justified our presence in the land’.[8]
On the battlefield, the Soviets were barbaric opponents. He recalled that ‘very soon we learned that the Soviets would shoot any prisoners that they took. When thinking about falling in their hands, it gave us nightmares.’[9] On recapturing Soviet held village of ‘German soldiers found a picture of sheer barbarism against the human being, an apocalypse…There are no words to describe the barbarity of the atrocities in the many cases committed by the Red Army, one being the case of Nemmersdorf’.[10] He concluded that ‘the hate against Germans was brought to boiling point by extensive propaganda, until it was pathological. The disease became an epidemic’.[11]
Much of what Verton claims is supported by evidence; the Red Army did execute and ill-treat prisoners of war, massacres and the sexual violence of Soviet troops in Germany against German women is well documented. However, Verton suggests that the record of the SS, and to a lesser extent the Wehrmacht, was not comparable. Other people were responsible for the war crimes. The Germans had to suffer the consequences for atrocities because the Romanians slaughtered the prisoners they captured; this was down to the fact that they ‘possessed much of the basic characteristics of the Russians, including a very wild nature’.[12] The partisans fighting the German occupiers were to blame for the ‘the reprisals of the Wehrmacht’ which could have been avoided if they had not undertaken ‘illegal activity [i.e partisan attacks]’.[13] Verton argues that the ‘illegality of partisan activity is ignored and a very one-sided presentation is the norm, the disadvantage of Germany…No one took the time or trouble to present the unadulterated truth’.[14] Dutch historian Evert-Jan van Roekel has proved that the Wiking Division was responsible for war crimes; Verton’s account makes no reference to this or the Holocaust or the death camps.
The final theme to mention is the portrayal of Verton and others like as patriots fighting for high European ideals misunderstood by the allies, the authorities in his own country, academics and the public at large. He equates his own choice to serve the Germans with those Dutch people who resisted the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands because both had chosen their destiny.[15] However, Verton choosing his destiny is unable to accept the consequences that came with that decision. In the last chapter he bemoans the fact that ‘sacrifice was the fate of the ‘volunteers,’ The harvest of sowing their anti-communist seeds was defamation, and persecution was the tragedy of their honour.’ [16]
Despite these problems, Verton’s account gives an interesting perspective on a foreign fighter in the SS. His motivation for fighting and continuing to fight is based on four factors.
Firstly, he was motivated by a strong sense of duty. Verton had given an oath to serve and stuck to this throughout his service.[17] In Spring of 1945, during the siege of Breslau, he recalled ‘the situation back home gave us our first serious doubts as the first cracks appeared in our ability to hold on. However, what would we do? Firstly, we have given an oath, one which was ‘holy’ for us. Secondly, we would rather die than be taken prisoners.’[18]
Secondly, was the cohesion with his mates. He found that travelling to Russia the ‘ countryside through which we travelled was depressing…In that twilight sleep our minds nudged the pangs of home-sickness…With daybreak and our soldiers’ songs, we were our old selves again especially after our first fight with snowballs.’[19] He makes frequent references to the ‘trusted company’ of his unit and the fact they were a ‘close and faithful clique’.[20][21] He rated the ‘disciplined soldier’ over the ‘courageous one’ as he wanted someone ‘whom I could count, who took no unnecessary risks and knew what he was doing was worth his weight in gold, in my eyes.’[22]
Thirdly, leaders were important for his morale. His officer Leo Habr ‘was a very popular with the men and was a good officer and comrade.’[23] His sergeant major…was a man loved by his men, who fulfilled his duty as ‘mother of the company’…His death was a very bitter affair for us.’[24]
Finally, letters from home were important. He recalled ‘when the post-courier managed to get through, the post from home always raised our spirits very quickly. We were so thankful for post…A single letter…bound you home together with the Front and was a bond that could not be severed.’[25]
Overall, this is an interesting account if irritating at times. Verton’s descriptions of serving in the SS, his motivations to enlist and views give an interesting perspective of why German combatants fought so bravely and doggedly until the end. This is a rare account, Henk Kistemaker’s Wiking, A Dutch SS-soldier on the Eastern Front (Just Publishers, 2019) being one of the only other accounts in English. Nevertheless, the account becomes very tiring and tedious with Verton’s attempt to justify his service in the SS by denying it had any serious National Socialist overtones or convictions and his portrayal his service in the army of a foreign invader as a noble patriotic cause which was misunderstood by the Dutch government, the allies and others.
Notes
[1] See Paul Martelli, On the Devil’s Tail: In Combat With the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front 1945, and With the French in Indochina 1951–54 (Solihull: Helion & Co, 2015); Gerry Villani [Account of Raymond Lemaire], The Crusade of a Walloon Volunteer (Lulu: 2019); and Herbert Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty (London: Frontline, 2018).
[2] Ibid., p.41.
[3] Ibid., p.45.
[4] Ibid., p.45.
[5] Ibid., p.45.
[6] Ibid., p.106.
[7] Idid, p.65.
[8] Ibid., p.66.
[9] Ibid., p.79.
[10] Ibid., pp.114-115.
[11] Ibid., p.115.
[12] Ibid., p.58.
[13] Ibid., p.97.
[14] Ibid., p.97.
[15] Ibid., p.51.
[16] Ibid., p.260.
[17] Ibid., p.52.
[18] Ibid., p.175.
[19] Ibid., p.64.
[20] Ibid., p.117.
[21] Ibid., p.63.
[22] Ibid., pp.84-85.
[23] Ibid., p.138.
[24] Ibid., p.147.
[25] Ibid., p.92.