From Leningrad to Berlin: Dutch Volunteers in the Service of the German Waffen-SS, 1941-1945 (review)

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, over 20,000 Dutch volunteers fought on the eastern front. Most served in the Dutch Waffen-SS unit "Nederland" whose status changed from legion to brigade to division during its short existence. Assigned to the front's northern sector, "Nederland" participated in a number of bloody battles, especially during the last year of the war. Several of the Dutch volunteers proved to be quite skilled at destroying Soviet tanks. Pierik promises "to place the history of Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers in its rightful political and military context" (p. 10). Unfortunately, he is only marginally successful.

Pierik writes for a general readership rather than professional historians. The book has no foot- or endnotes, and the bibliography is rather meager. The author's style, which at times borders on the naïve, is decidedly nonacademic. Further, one learns surprisingly little about the unit. Pierik makes a brief, amateurish attempt at identifying its social composition. But he fails to explore carefully the extent of the anti-Semitism and racism of its members. The same applies to the issue of war crimes. Pierik reveals "Nederland"'s involvement in mass executions in Kurland but limits his discussion to the statement that the Dutch volunteers "had been closely following Himmler's orders" (p. 277). Consequently, one is left with a rather uninspired and not particularly well-written blow-by-blow account of the legion's establishment and military exploits as well as the promised "political and military context."

But even the general reader will have many reasons to be dissatisfied with this volume. For example, the maps Pierik provides are clearly insufficient. In fact, the chapters covering "Nederland"'s retreat from Narva and the unit's final year feature no maps (the reader has to refer to a small, general map on p. 10). Transitions between paragraphs are often rough. Further, there are a number of serious errors. The Wannsee Conference did not occur before December 1941 (p. 24), Himmler was not around in the early fifties (p. 27), under Stalin the name for the Soviet political police was not the K.G.B. (p. 49), and by Christmas 1941 the German invasion of the Soviet Union had been underway for half a year, not half an hour (p. 77). There are many other examples. In addition, many German words are misspelled. Albert Speer was in charge of "Rüstung" rather than "Röstung" [roasting] (p. 27). The spelling of Russian names is inconsistent. Last but certainly not least, the translation leaves much to be desired. The punctuation is frequently incorrect. Many sentences are awkward, some are worse. Constructions like "As he left the meeting room, Bismarck's burning eyes in Lenbach's portrait of him pierced through him" (p. 252) are unfortunately all too common.

Pierik correctly perceives the activities of the Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers as a blemish on his country's history. However, his book falls short in too many areas. As a historian, he could and should have done better.