Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty by Herbert Maeger
As an 18-year old Belgian, Herbert Maeger was blackmailed into volunteering for the Waffen-SS in 1941 in order to save his mother from being sent to a concentration camp. After enduring harsh training with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, considered by some to be a worse experience than serving at the fighting front, Maeger went on to be selected as a front line driver in Russia. He saw combat at Kharkov and at the legendary Battle of Kursk. In 1944 he was transferred out for training as an SS paramedic, but after two months was sent, again against his will, for SS-officer training. Overheard making a defeatist remark, he was sent to the notorious SS penal division Dirlewanger on the Oder Front, with which he survived the horror of the Halbe pocket. On 1 May 1945, Maeger was captured by the Russians near the Elbe. Held in a Russian prisoner of war camp, he served in its infirmary as a volunteer, which won him the admiration of the Russian female doctor. It was with her help that he gained his early release the same year. This is an unrivalled account of one man's service in the elite Waffen-SS Leibstandarte division, principally on the Eastern Front.
HERBERT MAEGER was born at Hergenrath/Eupen in Belgium on 10 November 1922. After release from Soviet captivity in late 1945 he settled in West Germany and began pre-clinical training. He obtained German citizenship on 21 June 1971. He was unable to return to Belgium for decades after the war, having been sentenced to life imprisonment in his absence, by a military tribunal at Verviers on 19 February 1947, for having borne arms against Belgium's allies, in particular as a member of the Waffen-SS.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781526768858 |
| ISBN 10 | 1526768852 |
| Title | Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty |
| Author | Herbert Maeger |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pen & Sword Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2019-11-06 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |