Twilight of the Gods

A rare, first-hand account from a Swedish Waffen-SS soldier who fought against the Red Army on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Few new personal accounts by Waffen-SS soldiers appear in English; even fewer originate from the multitude of non-German European volunteers who formed such an important proportion of this service’s manpower. Twilight of the Gods was originally written in Swedish, and published in Buenos Aires shortly after the end of WWII. It is the story of Erik Wallin, a Swedish soldier who volunteered for service with the Waffen-SS, and participated in the climactic battles on the Eastern Front during late 1944 and 1945, as told to this book’s editor, Thorolf Hillblad.

Wallin served with the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, a unit composed mainly of non-German volunteers, including Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. The division enjoyed a high reputation for its combat capability, and was always at the focal points of the fighting on the Eastern Front in the last year of the war. During this period, it saw combat in the Baltic, in Pomerania, on the Oder, and finally in defense of Berlin, where it was destroyed.

Erik Wallin served with his unit in all of these locations, and provides the reader with a fascinating glimpse into these final battles. The book is written with a “no holds barred” approach which will captivate, excite and maybe even shock the reader—his recollections do not evade the brutality of fighting against the advancing Red Army. Twilight of the Gods is destined to become a classic memoir of the Second World War.