Libro: Die Freiwilligen der Waffen - SS Idee und Opfergang: The Volunteers of the Waffen – SS

Felix Steiner was a German Reichswehr and Waffen-SS officer who served in both World War I and World War II. On 1 December 1940, SS-Brigadeführer Felix Steiner was appointed to command the new Wiking Division of the Waffen-SS. This unit was mainly manned by non-German volunteers, primarily from Holland, Denmark and Sweden, motivated by a desire to fight the Bolsheviks. Steiner proved to be a skilful divisional commander and was popular with his men. Steiner commanded this division during the first two years of the fighting in the Soviet Union and was awarded the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross on 23 December 1942. Until recently, the name of Felix Steiner has been largely unknown among English language speakers, mainly because he never faced an English speaking army. Most of his World War II years were spent fighting the Russians and, earlier, the French. However, the name of Felix Steiner has suddenly become well-known to millions of youtube.com viewers on the Internet because of videos taken from the movie “DOWNFALL: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich” which have now been added with English language sub-titles. The original title of the movie was Der Untergang. The section most watched on Youtube is based in the last meeting Der Führer had with his top commanders on April 22, 1945. When his top generals, including Krebs and Jodl, first inform Hitler that Berlin is surrounded by Russian troops, Hitler brushes them off, saying that Steiner is about to attack and will clear the area of Russians.