During their short history, the SS troops went through a difficult path. Like much that was created in the Third Reich, at the end of their existence they were not at all what they were actually created for. In the process of their development, they changed the very idea of their existence, turning into a very real and effective fighting force, in fact, into a separate branch of the German armed forces. In 1945, almost 900 thousand people who took a direct part in combat operations, paradoxically, were not de jure Wehrmacht soldiers, although in essence and in position they differed little from them. This book is a new approach to the history of the SS troops . It seems to combine two independent books. On the one hand, the author of the part telling about the combat path of the SS divisions is SS Obergruppenführer and Colonel General of the SS troops Paul Hausser, on the other hand, materials based on the latest research prepared by the domestic historian Konstantin Zalessky. One part - written more than half a century ago - complements the other and vice versa, making it possible to create a complete picture, free from political conjuncture, of what the SS troops actually were...