Any WW2 historians here?

[Alpo]

Was the ShutzStaffel all volunteer?

 

Just got a blurb in my email, trying to sell me a book. Says the book is about, "When Berlin PI Bernie (somebody or other) is forced to join the SS...".

 

And I thought " wait a minute - wasn't the SS a volunteer unit? FORCED to join?"

 

And yes I know that it is fiction, and you can do anything you want to in fiction. And I have no intention of getting the book whether it is correct or not.

 

But I just wondered.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Maybe he was forced to volunteer?

[Sedalia Dave]

Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts

 

Quote

 

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, recruits from France, Spain, Belgium (including Walloons), the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans were signed on.[14] By February 1942, Waffen-SS recruitment in south-east Europe turned into compulsory conscription for all German minorities of military age.[15] From 1942 onwards, further units of non-Germanic recruits were formed.[11] Legions were formed of men from Estonia, Latvia as well as men from Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia and Cossacks.[16] However, by 1943 the Waffen-SS could not longer claim overall to be an "elite" fighting force. Recruitment and conscription based on "numerical over qualitative expansion" took place, with many of the "foreign" units being good for only rear-guard duty.[17] In addition by 1944, the German military began conscripting Estonians and Latvians in an effort to replenish their losses.[18][19] The foreigners who served in the Waffen-SS numbered "some 500,000", including those who were pressured into service or conscripted.[1] A lower estimate for foreigners in the entire German armed forces (both Wehrmacht and Waffen SS) is 350,000.[20] Both numbers include large numbers of ethnic Germans from outside Germany.

A system of nomenclature developed to formally distinguish personnel based on their place of origin. Germanic units would have the "SS" prefix, while non-Germanic units were designated with the "Waffen" prefix to their names.[21] The formations with volunteers of Germanic background were officially named Freiwilligen (volunteer) (Scandinavians, Dutch, and Flemish), including ethnic Germans born outside the Reich known as Volksdeutsche, and their members were from satellite countries. These were organized into independent legions and had the designation Waffen attached to their names for formal identification.[22] In addition, the German SS Division Wiking included recruits from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia throughout its history.[23] The number of SS recruits from Sweden and Switzerland was only several hundred men.[24] Despite manpower shortages, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, thereby ethnic Poles were specifically barred from the formations due to them being looked upon as "subhumans", despite other Slavic groups being allowed service such as Ukrainians and Byelorussians in the 39. and 40. Waffen Grenadier regiments, also supposedly considered "subhuman".[25][26][27]

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

Just now, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Maybe he was forced to volunteer?

 

AKA Voluntold.