After World War II he took part in efforts to shape a positive image of the Waffen-SS in popular culture.

During World War II he saw action with the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf during the Battle of France and in the Soviet Union.

Historians note that Krätschmer uncritically presented perpetrators like Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, Oskar Dirlewanger, Theodor Eicke, Curt von Gottberg and Bruno Streckenbach as honest soldiers and claimed that war criminals like Walter Reder, Fritz Knöchlein, Bernhard Siebken and Jochen Peiper were victims of victor's justice.

[2] On persons who had been actively and decisively involved in the planning and execution of the Nazi policy of extermination, like Friedrich Jeckeln, Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, Streckenbach and Dirlewanger, only basic biographical data were given.

Later editions were published by Waldemar Schütz, a veteran of the Waffen-SS himself and an active member of the HIAG and of the extreme right wing parties Deutsche Reichspartei and Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands.