For the Homeland

by Rudolf Pencz

- Groundbreaking history of a rarely covered German unit - Numerous eyewitness reports from members of the division - Detailed maps to illustrate the division's actions Composed of ethnic Germans living in Hungary, the 31st Waffen-SS Volunteer Grenadier Division fought against the Red Army in Hungary starting in late 1944. Early the next year, it was sent to Silesia for the final battle southeast of Berlin, where it surrendered in May.

Genres: World War II

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2009

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could be argued that this book is worth reading from a certain antiquarian viewpoint, as one follows the fate of the Volksdeutsche community of Hungary once pressed into German military service, except that the author has relatively little to say about the unit in actual battle; though one learns quite a lot regarding what it took to pull an infantry division together at the end of the war. What Pencz really wants to vent about is how unjust the Trianon settlement was to Hungary, or the ferocity of Tito's partisans, not to mention the disloyalty of the Czech Republic in regards to turning on the ethnic German folks in their midst. There is not one admission of the role of the Hitlerian regime in terms of unleashing the disaster that befell Europe, or of the willingness of the Horthy Regime in Hungary to exploit the situation. It would almost be funny except there are folks in contemporary Hungary who are throwing this sort of rhetoric around in the pursuit of irredentist politics; nothing good will come of this. I was trying to give the author some benefit of the doubt until the point where he took the Czechs to task for failing to respect the Munich Accord.

Originally written: November 27, 2017.

[Bronze Age Barbarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very valuable history on a very under represented unit that has scant documentation. The 31st SS division sprung out of Hungary in late 1944 that was comprised of ethnic Germans recruited to fight the rapidly approaching Soviets. This book details their story with many unpublished sources and first hand accounts. Paints a grim picture of the state of the German war machine towards the end of the war.