For the Homeland: The 31st Waffen-SS Volunteer Grenadier Division in World War II

This is the history of the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, in which Rudolf Pencz has attempted to record a permanent memorial to the soldiers of this division.

In the near future, it may no longer be possible to present a clear picture of the insurmountable difficulties faced during this small division’s formation and its eventual commitment into battle. It is a case study of the conditions that Germany and its armed forces faced in 1944 as they conducted a hopeless struggle against nearly the entire world.

The men of this division, mostly ethnic Germans from the Batschka, some of them mere boys, were not volunteers in so far as the name is concerned, but were willing to perform their duty to their Fatherland, which stood in mortal danger.

Thus the story of the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier-Division will now enter into history and only to the judgement of history must we submit, even if the struggle was in vain. So, just as Leonidas led his outnumbered Spartans at Thermopylae against the mighty Persian army, history will also remember General Lombard and his 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division. I wish the book much success!