In Nazi Germany the SS was an instrument of terror and repression. From them sprang the Waffen-SS, a superbly trained paramilitary force which rolled back the Allied Armies in Poland, Russia and France, numbering over half a million men by the end of the war. This detailed history looks closely at the dual identity of the SS formations - as a hand-picked elite of magnificent fighting men and as a force of cruel fanatics capable of hideous atrocities.