From Finland to North Africa, from Spain to India, thousands of men and women volunteered to fight for, or alongside, Nazi Germany in the Second World War. In particular, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the war in the east was presented in Nazi propaganda as a European ‘crusade’ to ‘save’ Europe from Bolshevism. Volunteers from most European countries flocked to join this ‘crusade’: from occupied countries such as Norway, France and the Netherlands; from Germany’s allies – Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Finland etc; even supposedly neutral countries, such as Spain, sent volunteers to fight in the east.
This course will explore differing types of collaboration, the reasons and motivations why individuals and states chose to fight alongside Germany, as well as exploring specific topics, such as the creation of Moslem formations within the Waffen-SS and the place of collaboration as part of the Holocaust.
Given the crimes of the Nazi regime and its accomplices and the reality of the Cold War, the story of Hitler’s ‘foreign legions’ was largely forgotten after 1945. But with the fall of the Soviet Union and re-emerging national and ethnic tensions in central and eastern Europe, the motivations and experiences of those who fought for Hitler in the Second World War provides a radically different perspective on that war. Together we will explore something of that different perspective.
What our students say
"Dr Lacey was brilliant in delivering the course. Each day as the lesson would come to a close, Dr Lacey would leave it as a kind of cliff-hanger so students were desperate to find out more."