Reddit Reddit reviews Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS

We found 9 Reddit comments about Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS
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9 Reddit comments about Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS:

u/yellowking · 4 pointsr/IAmA

This is of genuine historical value. Publish it pseudononymously, like Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS.

My wife is German and a native speaker; her father was conscripted into the Luftwaffe at age 15 near the end of the war. If you're interested in translating it, let us know.

u/Tyrfaust · 3 pointsr/PropagandaPosters

Initially, there were Wehrmacht foreign units (The Free Arabian Legion and Tiger Army were originally Wehrmacht formations) but all non-German fighting forces were later transferred to SS command. The fact that the Waffen-SS had MANY non-German units was actually something that appealed to some, since it felt more like the "crusade against bolshevism" that the party touted so heavily. Johann Voß, who served with the 6.SS Nord in Finland and France, even specifically mentions that he volunteered for the Waffen-SS BECAUSE it had many non-Germans despite being a German himself in his amazing memoir Black Edelweiß.

u/Toxirine · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

Tigers in the mud is the first hand account of Otto Carius and his experiences, mostly revolving around his usage of the Tiger tank. It is no foot solder, how ever, but he was one of the big tank aces during the war and he did survive through it.

Black Edelweiss is the biography of a young german Waffen-SS soldier. It is written by a Johan Voss, which is a pseudonym so I can't comment on it's credibility. How ever I have not seen any reviews that dismiss it as fiction as of yet.

Hope that was helpful.

u/sofa_king_awesome · 2 pointsr/GermanWW2photos

Just finished Black Edelweiss not long ago. So this picture is extra interesting! It follows some SS GJ in the Lapland war & later their combat on the Western Front. Although, I'd assume the stuff against the American fighting units was toned down since he wrote it as a German POW in an American camp, still very interesting. Thanks for the upload.

u/Praetor80 · 2 pointsr/Documentaries

What is the feeling in Finland about the Germans and the assistance they gave your country in its defense from Russia?

Thousands of young German men died in Finland, and they really felt betrayed when you abandoned them later in the war when it was opportune.

Would really suggest you read: http://www.amazon.ca/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-Ss/dp/0966638980

u/Gorthol · 2 pointsr/CombatFootage

It is a great book and its still in print. That's not really a great description of the book though. Its about a Waffen SS infantryman who fought most of the war in Finland and was captured by American troops in the Winter of '45. He makes the point that not all SS units participated in war crimes and that his unit fought honorably, and he joined the SS to be with the elite rather than for racial ideology.

(http://www.amazon.com/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-SS/dp/0966638980/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394503269&sr=1-1&keywords=black+edelweiss)

u/PreviouslySaydrah · 1 pointr/politics

EPIC LENGTH WARNING

One way terrible things can happen is for many people to take on small pieces of responsibility for making an evil thing happen. This is all hypothetical and blind guessing with no research into how this hospital happens to be run, so don't take it as analysis, but as a thought exercise, let's say that the hospital is owned by a corporation and the Board of Directors tell the CEO that his job is on the line if he doesn't reduce costs.

Does the CEO say "dump patients?" Does the board say, "CEO, dump patients?" No. The CEO says "Our corporate goal is a XX% reduction in the costs of treating uninsured patients across our network of hospitals."

The CFO now analyzes which facilities have the highest costs and through a chain of intermediaries, tells this facility in Vegas, "YOUR goal is a greater percentage cost reduction, because your costs are overrunning by more than the other facilities' costs do. You are to get this done, period, and it comes directly from the CEO."

The hospital director knows his job is in danger, so he gathers the staff and says, "We need you all to impress upon your teams that the cost of treating uninsured patients must be reduced dramatically. We will reward teams that reduce their cost overruns for uninsured patients." Nowhere in that meeting does he give more than a token mention to the hospital's code of ethics or the Hippocratic oath -- of course, it's a hospital, if you asked him he'd say it went without saying, but the managers hear, correctly, "Forget ethics, we MUST meet this goal or this facility may be closed as too costly."

The department heads go back and tell their teams, "Anyone who is running up big bills for uninsured patients is in danger of being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. You need to be more cost-conscious. We're spending too much. Find ways to cut costs."

Then in this environment, an uninsured schizophrenic walks in the door for the 17th time off his medication and self-harming again. They know he has family in Iowa. They know the last time he came in, he ran up $35,000 in costs that were denied by Medicaid and were never recovered and written off. Night nurse looks at night doctor looks at night orderly looks at custodial staff, and somehow it's decided that they'll put him on a bus to Iowa, because everyone just got an ass-chewing about costs and someone's going to lose a job if a $35,000 bill that will never be paid gets run up tonight, and then who's supposed to care even for the patients who can pay?

The night staff say, "It wasn't our fault. We just did what we had to do to keep our jobs to keep providing patient care."

The department heads say, "It wasn't our fault. We just told them to watch the costs. We didn't tell them to dump patients."

The director says, "It wasn't my fault. I expected our department heads to explain that the cost-cutting goal wasn't an excuse to violate our Code of Ethics here."

The CFO says, "It wasn't my fault. I just crunched numbers and told them what numbers to hit. I'm just the math guy. I don't make the decisions as to how you hit numbers."

The CEO says, "It wasn't my fault. I just set an ambitious goal to deliver shareholder value by reducing cost overruns throughout our network of care facilities. That's what I'm here for. I'm very disappointed that facility made the decision it did."

The BoD says, "It's not our fault. We invested our own money in this corporation. We just want value for money. All we asked is that the CEO do what we hired him for, and get this business growing by reducing costs."

The President says, "It's not my fault. I tried the public option, and I had to trade it away to get anything at all, because insurers wouldn't budge."

The insurer says, "It's not our fault. We pushed for a national insurance mandate so we can cover every patient. It'll be in effect soon. There may be some continued challenges in delivery of care in the meantime."

The voters say, "It's not our fault. This is all too complicated to understand, and there's nothing we can do about the influence of money in politics. We can't afford higher taxes--we need to save and scrimp already in case we ever need health care, so we don't end up in that position."

And nobody takes responsibility, because nobody made the whole decision, and the person who looked a patient in the eyes and gave him a bus ticket instead of care sleeps soundly thinking they're just a victim of the system--and unfortunately, they're right, because even with a nationwide nursing shortage, the quickest way to lose your job as a healthcare provider is to take personal responsibility for patient outcomes, because that creates costs and liabilities to the hospital.

References/suggested reading:

On Killing

Black Edelweiss

The Sociopath Next Door

Confidence Men

Note that none of these are about the health care industry and only one is about politics at all. They're just about how people work and what kinds of people can do bad things.

and for the record I don't have any connection to any of the authors or publishers or anything similar

u/dmt477 · 1 pointr/OldSchoolCool

It's a complex topic most don't bother to understand. Easier to categorise every German soldier including Waffen SS as "evil Nazi".

If you want to read some very interesting (and entertaining) first hand accounts of Waffen SS and what it was like to fight in their units, I recommend the following books (can be found and downloaded online):

u/roosterrugburn · 1 pointr/HistoryPorn

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-SS/dp/0966638980

You should read this. It's about the SS mountain troops fighting in Finland, would've been close to the same areas as your grandfather.