Senior German Army officers were full of praise for the performance of the Leibstandarte, Das Reich and Totenkopf Divisions. The commanders of these divisions and their staffs were also praised for their bravery under fire. Guderian described Hausser as "cool headed". Manstein dubbed the Totenkopf "probably the best Waffen-SS division I ever came across". He said, "its commander [Eicke] was a brave man". "In no circumstances should we forget that the Waffen-SS, like the good comrades they were, fought shoulder to shoulder with the army at the front and always showed themselves courageous and reliable", said Manstein (though he was very critical of the poor training of some Waffen-SS officers that led to unnecessary casualties).

While the reputation of the three "premier" Waffen-SS units grew as a result of their exploits during the first six months of the invasion of Russia, the mixed performance of the Wiking and Nord Divisions indicated that the rapid expansion of Himmler's army was not without problems.

SS atrocities

One area where army commanders were not so complimentary about the behaviour of the Waffen-SS was in its treatment of civilians. There was a growing number of complaints about the random and brutal killing of Jews and other civilians by Waffen-SS men. Ominously, other SS units started to appear in rear areas that operated outside the army chain of command. SS commands were set up in every sector of occupied Russia, ostensibly to coordinate "security" activity. But this was only a cover for the first elements of the Nazi campaign to cleanse Eastern Europe of untermenschen.

Himmler also created four special SS units, dubbed Einsatzgruppen A, B, C and D, to "clean up" occupied territory of Jews and Communist Party officials. Each group consisted of 800-1200 men and drew its personnel from the Gestapo, SD, civilian police and Waffen-SS. More than a third of the personnel for the Einsatzgruppen came from the Waffen-SS, with the personnel either drafted from depots before the invasion of Russia started or sent to them as punishment duty from units already fighting in Russia.

By the end of 1941 each of the four Einsatzgruppen had carved a trail of murder across occupied Russia, killing 500,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Jewish men, women and children (most were rounded up, taken to large pits outside towns and villages, machine-gunned and their bodies thrown into the pits). But the Einsatzgruppen were only the advance guard of Himmler's murder machine that would kill millions in occupied Russia over the following three years.

The invasion of Russia saw the Waffen-SS build a formidable reputation as a fighting force, but it also confirmed that they were warriors for a truly evil cause.

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