Under Himmler's Command

The Personal Recollections of Oberst Hans-Georg Eismann, Operations Officer, Army Group Vistula, Eastern Front 1945

Author: Hans-Georg Eismann and Dr Frederick P. Steinhardt

Under Himmler’s Command addresses two areas of WWII hitherto neglected – Heinrich Himmler as a military commander, and the German staff officer corps during the last months of the war on the Eastern Front.

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Under Himmler's Command addresses two areas of WWII hitherto neglected - Heinrich Himmler as a military commander, and the German staff officer corps during the last months of the war on the Eastern Front. The author, Hans-Georg Eismann, was the Operations Officer for Heeresgruppe 'Weichsel' (Army Group Vistula), a German formation created in late January 1945 to which Heinrich Himmler was appointed as commander. Eismann's memoir of this period has remained unpublished for over fifty years, and its wider circulation is long overdue. Full of fascinating detail he recounts the disturbing and sometimes bizarre atmosphere that pervaded the German high command in the East during the final months of the war. Much light is thereby thrown on Himmler the military commander, and on the final climactic battles fought on the Eastern Front during 1945. Apart from Himmler, Eismann also had the opportunity to witness many of the other top men in the Third Reich, and wrote vivid and fascinating pen-portraits of personalities such as Göring, and Hitler, both of whom the author met in person as the war drew to a close, as well as detailed accounts of what it was like to work alongside officers such as Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici and General der Panzertruppe Walther Wenck. This is the second volume in an ongoing series of books presenting historically important material relating to the WWII German Armed Forces. b/w photographs and maps

Critic Reviews

“"...a very detailed chronology of the entire largely unknown history of AVG (Army Group Vistula)...fills in a hole that has existed in our knowledge for years.."”

-- "The Military Advisor"

About the Author

Hans-Georg Eismann was the Operations Officer for Army Group Vistula, a German formation created in late January 1945 to which Heinrich Himmler was appointed as commander. Born in 1943, Fred Steimhardt received his Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral(in Botany) degrees from Cornell University. A lifelong passion for Military History blossomed after retirement from teaching secondary school science into a second career translating and editing German Military History from World War II with a number of unit histories and other accounts from both the Eastern and Western Front. He now makes his home in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado with his wife Victoria.