1. Many of the guards at camps were women. Are all German women evil also?
First of all cut all women guards crap. This post was about Waffen SS not some women guards. They have nothing to do with the subject. But since you've asked - some were evil some weren't. Surely the WW2 opened carreer opportunities in Konzentration Lagers for thousands of low life German scum (primitives, former prostitutes, thieves). Some of them were later sentenced and hanged (like the ones from Auschwitz: Johanna Bormann, Irma Grese, Margot Drechsel, Maria Mandel or Elisabeth Volkenrath).
2.Some of the guards came over from the Wehrmacht? Is all the Wehrmacht evil?
If you think that Wehrmacht soldiers didn't commit war crimes you are very naive. Not to look very far - some examples from September campaign '39. Here's a short list:
- 2nd and 3rd of September 1939 in Silesia, between Rybnik and Wadzim, Polish soldiers from 12th Infantry were taken as POWs. They were "thrown on the ground and tanks drove over them".
- 3rd of September in Bugaj village, near Dmenin, Germans shot down Polish plane taking its 2 persons crew. One of the POWs after being tortured [his tongue, ears and nose were cut out] was killed. Crime comitted by 4th Panzer Division of XVIth Corps 10th Army of gen. von Reichenau.
- Execution of civilian staff of Post Office in Gdansk.
- Execution of 300 Polish POWs. Ciepielow - 8th of September.
- 4th of September, Opatowiec. 45 POWs killed.
- 6th of September in the fields near Moryca village Germans shot 19 officers POWs from 76 Infantry Battalion, privates were burnt alive in one of the houses in Longinowka
6th of September in Zreczyce, near Myslenice, in Jozefa Malek's yard, German soldiers executed 60 civilians, including 3 Polish POWs
- 8th of September Mszczonow, 11 Polish POWs publicly shot by German soldiers
- 10th of September Piaseczno near Warsaw Wehrmacht soldiers shot 21 POWs in the church yard
- night of 13/14th September 200 POWs murdered on the squaremarket in Zamborow. 18 Infantry Division.
- 13 September - German soldiers from 1st Light Division murdered 54 men - civilians from Cecylowka, as a revenge for previous Polish fierce defense in this area
- 20th of September in Majdan Wielki Wehrmacht soldiers massacred 42 POWs of 20th Infantry Division
- 22 IX 1939: execution of Aleksander Kurowski and Markus Slodki
- 18th of September in Sladow, near Sochaczew, 300 people shot by entering Germans (including 150 POWs). Crime comitted by soldiers of 4th Panzer Division of XVIth Corpse 10th Army.
- 20th of September near Przemysl 100 POWs from Mountain Infantry Division were burnt in a barn. One person managed to escape.
- 20th of September in Majdan Wielki Wehrmacht soldiers massacred 42 POWs of 20th Infantry Division
The list of Wehrmacht crimes in Poland goes on and on during the whole occupation period (to mention Wawer massacre from December '39 where over 100 civilians were killed.
Read about Waffen SS atrocities in Warsaw during the Uprising and maybe you're vision of what's evil will change. Yes, raping and killing nuns is evil. Execution of women and children is evil. Pillaging civilian houses and robbing the corpses is evil. Wola Massacre Sick.
3.What if I told you that some of the guards at the camps were Jews themselves who were given special perks for doing this? Believe it?
I assume that being a Pole I should know more about reality of camps better than you. I've visited Auschwitz a couple of times, have been to Majdanek, Treblinka and Gross Rosen. Read 'Medallions' by Nalkowska and 'This Way To Gas Ladies and Gentlemen' by Tadeusz Borowski. People who actually been there. Also my wife's great grandfather died in Auschwitz so there were all kinds of family stories about this issue. I think that should give your "suprising statements" a different perspective.
4.However, the Waffen-SS were largely elite troops who on the battle field fought fierce and were hated for that reason. Mostly volunteer, the best equipped, and trained, their leadership was near all combat hardened and was promoted based on merit……. these troops were notorious for not giving up very easily, they were the ones that had the nice toys (Tiger I and later II) they had the camouflage uniforms while the rest of the German Wehrmacht largely ran around in wool grey……… A young German soldier in a Waffen SS unit who went to the East front in the above named division, later went to the West front didn’t take quick breaks so he could serve as a guard in a concentration camp. But maybe that’s just my ‘revisionist’ view on history.
If you read into my post a lil harder you will miraculously find out that I stated something completely opposite. Many ex-camp guards volunteered to Waffen SS. They actually constituted the core of the 3rd Waffen SS Division Totenkopf (SS Totenkopfverbände or SSTV).
"In 1938, the Totenkopfverbande expanded also into a military division, with the founding of the Totenkopf division which would, by 1941, become a full division of the Waffen-SS."(...) "By 1944, with the Concentration Camps fully integrated with the Waffen-SS and under the control of the WVHA, a standard practice developed to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, based on manpower needs and also to give assignments to wounded Waffen-SS officers and soldiers who could no longer serve in front line combat duties. This rotation of personnel is the main argument that nearly the entire SS knew of the Concentration Camps, and what actions were committed within, making the entire organization liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Putting it simply - with all respect due your revisionist theory about Waffen SS supposed innocence simply doesn't hold the water. Some of these 'heroes' were also directly involved in crimes over American POWs:
The SS military wing, the Waffen-SS, evolved into a second German army in addition to the regular German army, the Wehrmacht. The Waffen-SS had a reputation for fanatical fighting and extreme brutality. Its units helped wipe out resistance by Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and slaughtered U.S. prisoners of war near the Belgian town of Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 (1st Waffen-SS Panzer Division 'Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler').
Schutzstaffel record in Wikipedia