Understanding the pan-European nationalism of the postwar period requires that one go back to 1942, when the Third Reich began to make use of the theme of a “new Europe” as embodied in the foreign volunteers of the Waffen-SS fighting on the Eastern front.¹ This idea of pan-European unity under the Nazi umbrella became a key propaganda theme that combined a military strategy for the “Black Order” (getting more and more troops) and a political tactic for the Nazi regime (convincing the populations living under the rule of the Reich and its allies that Nazi rule was not inspired by...