Eismann, Hans-Georg/Steinhardt , Frederick P. (Hrsg.) Under Himmler's Command. The Personal Recollections of Oberst Hans-Georg Eismann, Operations Officer, Army Group Vistula, Eastern Front 1945

The study deals with two hitherto neglected areas of the Second World War - Heinrich Himmler as military commander and the German staff officer corps in the last months of the war on the Eastern Front. The author, Hans-Georg Eismann, was the operations officer of Army Group Vistula, a German formation formed at the end of January 1945 and of which Heinrich Himmler was appointed commander. Eismann's memoirs from this period have been unpublished for over fifty years and are long overdue for further publication. Full of fascinating detail, he describes the unsettling and sometimes bizarre atmosphere that prevailed in the German High Command in the East during the final months of the war. This sheds much light on the military commander Himmler and on the last decisive battles on the Eastern Front in 1945. In addition to Himmler, Eismann also had the opportunity to witness many of the other top men of the Third Reich, and wrote vivid and fascinating portraits of figures such as Goering and Hitler, both of whom the author met personally as the war drew to a close, as well as detailed accounts of what it was like to work with officers such as Colonel General Gotthard Heinrici and General of the Panzer Corps Walther Wenck. This is the second volume in an ongoing series of books presenting historically significant material about the German armed forces in the Second World War.