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- Waffen-SS veterans in post-war Germany played a large role, through publications and political pressure, in the efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the Waffen-SS, which had committed many war crimes during World War II. High ranking German politicians courted former Waffen-SS members and their veteran organisation, HIAG. A small number of veterans, somewhat controversially, served in the new German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. Apart from war-time leaders of the Waffen-SS like Paul Hausser or Kurt Meyer, who published a number of revisionist or uncritical books on the Waffen-SS, former enlisted members also rose to prominence, like Günter Grass, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 and actor Hardy Krüger. In the post-war years HIAG exercised some political influence in West Germany, and made attempts to appeal to the mainstream parties, but this changed in the 1960s when the veteran organisation, having achieved its aim, shifted to extreme right-wing politics. HIAG itself greatly exaggerated its influence and, at no point, represented more than eight percent of all the Waffen-SS veterans in West Germany. A historical review in Germany of the impact of Waffen-SS veterans in post-war German society continues, and a number of books on the subject have been published in recent years. (en)
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| rdfs:comment
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- Waffen-SS veterans in post-war Germany played a large role, through publications and political pressure, in the efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the Waffen-SS, which had committed many war crimes during World War II. High ranking German politicians courted former Waffen-SS members and their veteran organisation, HIAG. A small number of veterans, somewhat controversially, served in the new German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. (en)
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