Hitler's Gauls: The History of the 33rd Waffen Division Charlemagne

The divisions of the Waffen-SS were among the elite of Hitler's armies in the Second World War. But alongside the Germans in the Waffen-SS fought an astonishingly high number of volunteers from other countries. By the end of the Second World War these foreign volunteers comprised half of all Hitler's Waffen-SS, and filled the ranks of over 24 of the nominal 38 Waffen-SS divisions. So during the most brutal war that mankind has ever known hundreds of thousands of men flocked to fight for a country that was not theirs, and for a cause that was one of the most monstrous and barbaric in history. Who were these men, and why did they fight? Hitler's Gauls examines one of these legions of volunteers, the Charlemagne division, who were recruited entirely from conquered France. The men in Charlemagne fought hard on the Eastern Front, often motivated by an extreme anti- communist zeal.