The activities of HIAG, a German lobby group founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS officers in 1951, have shaped much of this portrayal. Its leaders—Paul Hausser, Felix Steiner and Kurt Meyer—directed a campaign to promote public perception of the force as elite, apolitical fighters who were not involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Although these notions have since been discredited by historians, the uncritical, often admiring, tradition continues to the present through popular history books, websites and wargames.