Campaigning: The Journal of the Joint Forces Staff College 26 May 2022

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Dueling Book Review

SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of Lithuania, Latvia and 

Estonia, 1941-1945: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

Reviewed by1

CDR Vincent Bove

U.S. Navy

The images held in most people’s minds of 

the European Theater during World War II 

consists of landing crafts approaching the 

beaches of Normandy, soldiers marching 

through shelled cities in France and Germany, 

and emaciated and starving victims of the 

Nazi Party’s “Final Solution.” Few 

understand the cost and participation of 

nations beyond the big three of both 

belligerent sides. In SS Foreign Divisions & 

Volunteers of Lithuania Latvia & Estonia, 

1941-194: Rare Photographs from Wartime 

Archives, Ian Baxter, through limited words 

and previously uncollected images taken in 

the Baltics from 1941-1945, brings the story 

of the nations other than Germany and Italy 

who fought against the Allied Powers. The 

images provide a narrow view into the 

recruitment and services performed in the 

name of Nazi Germany by volunteers and 

conscripted soldiers and police officers from 

the three Baltic States throughout the war in 

Eastern Europe. Though all images are well 

captioned, Ian Baxter fails to tell a coherent 

story from the Nazi Invasion to the Russian 

liberation of Eastern Europe from German 

rule. He largely ignores the participation of 

all three nations in the Holocaust. 

SS Foreign Divisions and Volunteers is a 

collection of photographs and propaganda 

Reviewed by2

Todd Healey

U.S. Dept. of State

Pictures are worth a thousand words. In 

instances when words are unable to 

completely describe a situation, photographs 

may be priceless. Under such logic, Ian 

Baxter’s SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers 

of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia 1941-1945: 

Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

might be considered priceless. The book is 

part of the Images of War series and covers 

the German SS Foreign divisions of 

volunteers and conscripts from Lithuania, 

Latvia, and Estonia during World War II. 

Baxter is a military historian and a prolific 

collector of war time photographs, which he 

uses to tell the horrific stories of war.

In SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of 

Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia, Baxter presents 

a series of photographs used by the German 

Wehrmacht for propaganda. During World 

War II the Germans were adept at using 

propaganda, particularly images, to 

manipulate populations to mobilize support 

from the Baltic states—since images convey 

information so readily. Baxter starts each

chapter with a contextualizing explanation of

how the German Wehrmacht eastward 

advance stalled because of Russian 

resistance. Within that context, Baxter’s 

selection of images develops a narrative of 

German forces running out of basic supplies, 

1 The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Joint 

Forces Staff College, National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. 2 The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Joint 

Forces Staff College, National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
Campaigning: The Journal of the Joint Forces Staff College 26 May 2022

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taken by Nazi Germany photographers in the 

Baltic Region and the Eastern Front of World 

War II, starting with over 3 million German 

Soldiers attacking the Russian Red Army in 

the Baltics and ending with the surrendering 

of German forces in 1945. Each chapter 

begins with a few pages of context for the 

images that follow. Still, those pages lack the 

detail and analysis necessary to be taken as a 

serious history book. Notably, there are no 

citations or references to where the author is 

drawing his conclusions. Without sourcing, it 

is challenging to reach one of the author’s 

most significant claims: Lithuania did not 

provide a National Legion of volunteers to the 

Nazis as both Latvia and Estonia did. The 

author comes off as apologetic for Lithuania, 

even though over 50,000 Lithuanians 

volunteered to serve in various German 

occupation forces. The images collected in 

the chapter dedicated to “Foreign 

Recruitment” are Latvian and Estonian 

soldiers. The reader is left to wonder if the 

author concluded that Lithuania did not 

participate on the Eastern Front because of a 

lack of images in the wartime archives or if 

there simply were not many photographers 

who captured Lithuanians in action east of the 

Baltics. In either case, the author does not 

adequately address the role of Lithuania in the 

war.

One of the few images in the book that places 

Lithuanians as the subject of the photograph 

is a formation of people dressed in ragged 

clothes behind a uniformed soldier with an 

armband displaying the swastika of the Nazi 

party. The author’s caption describes the 

murder of 80% of Lithuanian Jews, with the 

remaining 43,000 lives sent to work in 

concentration camps for the remainder of the 

war. The photograph is of a Lithuanian 

policeman who has rounded up Lithuanian 

Jews and Romani for execution, forced labor, 

or, perhaps, both. Considering how little 

written text is in the book, the author goes to 

great lengths to paint Lithuania as expecting 

liberation from Russian forces and as nonparticipants in the German fight against 

ammunition, and men as they battled against 

the Red Army. The images in the book 

depict the German SS as good-hearted forces 

welcomed by the civilian population of the 

Baltic States. Many of the civilian 

population perceived the German soldiers as 

liberators from Russian oppression. Some 

photographs show women carrying water to 

the SS soldiers as they marched through 

villages, while other images depict 

freiwillige—volunteer soldiers—happily 

posing with their families before going off to 

war. While Baxter’s empathetic take may 

strain credulity for some, it is also honest. 

War is often a choice between the lesser of 

two evils. While people often have 

involuntary reactions against propaganda, 

Baxter’s is a fascinating study into how 

propaganda works. Baxter’s provocative take 

should incite a critical response, wondering 

why the image works and maybe what is 

happening off camera. In one of Baxter’s 

photographs, a Lithuanian recruit stands in 

front of a group of Lithuanian Jewish citizens 

lined up in formation. It begs questions about 

the circumstances that would drive someone 

to support a clearly vicious force.

Most of the volunteers from Latvia, Estonia, 

and Lithuania took up arms alongside the SS 

Divisions to free their countries from Stalin’s 

rule. According to Baxter, volunteers from 

Latvia and Estonia were more apt to join the 

German SS divisions while Lithuanian 

volunteers were hesitant to join the German 

Wehrmacht. From 1941-1945, almost 

100,000 men from the Baltic States joined to 

fight off the yoke of communism. The 

recruitment of east European men meant that 

the SS had to alter Henrich Himmler’s 

original recruitment requirements with 

regards to “racial purity.” Propaganda is 

ultimately about practical means to an end: 

The Germans needed soldiers to fight and the 

men from the Baltic states were keen to fight 

the Red Army. The men of the Baltic were 

not alone. Hundreds of thousands of foreign 

troops flocked to Germany to fight under the 

swastika in World War II. Most were far-
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Russia while ignoring the Lithuanian 

participation in the genocide. As for Latvia 

and Estonia, the author focuses on their 

National Legion efforts and is silent on 

genocidal programs in their nation. 

The third chapter of four, titled “The Last 

Year, 1944-1945,” is likely the inspiration Ian 

Baxter had for writing the book. Even 

skipping the captions, the reader can quickly 

distill the harsh conditions faced by Latvian 

and Estonian troops fighting alongside 

German Forces. Mud and bone-chilling cold 

drove the battlefield conditions. The 

composition of the everyday events of the 

images almost leads the reader to compassion 

for these souls.

SS Foreign Divisions and Volunteers is a 

thought-provoking story of the role of the 

Baltic States in the battles fought across 

Eastern Europe. The lack of references for 

further study and investigation and the gaping 

void of information on the role of the Baltics 

in the Holocaust leaves this book as a 

forgettable collection not worthy of a prime 

spot on a coffee table, save if your passport is 

from Lithuania. 

right nationalists who looked to the Nazis to 

liberate their homelands from communists or 

Western imperialists. Others were motivated 

by racial hatred. Some were simply enemy 

POWs who chose to enlist rather than spend 

the war in prison camps.

If taken as a study of Wehrmacht 

propaganda, the quality of the photos 

becomes an important issue because the 

details of the composition were carefully 

selected and crafted. The images are printed 

in a medium quality on flat paper, which 

does them a disservice. Most of the photos 

lack a specific location or provide a time 

frame when the image was taken. For 

instance, on page 16 there is an image of a 

German motorcycle unit driving through a 

war-torn city somewhere in Lithuania but 

lacks a specific city and year. On the 

opposite page, a crowd of people are 

surrounding what appears to be a German 

tank and other military vehicles. The caption 

describes the SS soldiers being hailed by the 

crowd of people; however, the image is low 

quality. The low-quality images make it hard 

to determine what is actually happening and 

undercuts Baxter’s research.

The book makes a reasonable contribution to 

the scholarship of World War II, particularly 

through the revealing of previously 

unpublished photographs. It certainly will be 

helpful to scholars looking for war time 

photographs and images of the German 

Wehrmacht as they traversed the Baltic 

region in pursuit of the Red Army. Readers 

may be troubled by Baxter’s seemingly 

empathetic take, but that is reflective of his 

scholarly approach, requiring objectivity and 

a discomfiting neutrality. That sense of 

discomfort should promote reasonable, 

critical responses not knee-jerk opposition. 

With the advent of social media platforms, 

messaging apps, and other means of reaching 

wide audiences, recognizing propaganda and 

responding deliberately is more important 

than ever.
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Book Information:

SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 1941-1945:

Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

By Ian Baxter

Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2021. 119 pp.