The SS creed

Loyalty to Hitler was at the heart of the SS code, with the force having the motto "Loyalty is my Honour". Leibstandarte chief Dietrich told new SS recruits: "We ask for and give complete loyalty to the Führer and those he has set above us. To you recruits I say even the smallest wish expressed by one of your noncommissioned officers must be interpreted as an order from the Führer."

"Obedience must be unconditional", said an SS manual. "It corresponds to the conviction that National Socialist ideology must reign supreme ... every SS man, therefore, is prepared to carry out unhesitatingly any order issued by the Führer or a superior, regardless of the sacrifice involved." Himmler considered that his SS men were unstoppable. He told them, "I must repeat - the word Ôimpossible' must never be heard in the SS. It is unthinkable, gentlemen, that anyone should report to his superior, ÔI can not arrange this or that' or ÔI can not do it with so few people' or Ômy battalion is not trained' or ÔI feel myself incapable'. Gentleman, that kind of reaction is simply not permitted."

SS training

To mould these supermen, the armed SS training regime emphasized physical toughness and moral supremacy over all enemies. Even before recruits were allowed to begin training they had to pass rigorous racial and physical selection. Himmler insisted that potential SS soldiers had to be aged between 17 and 22, be at least 1.8m (5.9ft) tall and be of the highest physical fitness. Every SS man had to be of a well-proportioned build, with no disproportion between the lower leg and thigh, or between the legs and body, to allow an exceptional load to be carried on long marches. For many years even recruits with fillings in their teeth were rejected. Recruits also had to display an Aryan appearance, with Himmler saying: "The point is that in his attitude to discipline the man should not behave like an underling, that his gait, his hands, everything should correspond to the ideal which we set ourselves."

Ancestry requirements

The Aryan recruit also had to show no traces of Jewish or other untermenschen blood in his ancestry, in the case of ordinary soldiers back to 1800, and to 1750 for officers. Those with "undesirable" blood were refused entry, and if racial impurities came to light during his service an SS man could be summarily dismissed. The future brides of SS men were also subjected to the same level of racial profiling to ensure any offspring were "pure" Aryans.

With the strength of the armed SS limited by the army, these restrictions meant that it was very hard to join the armed force of the Nazi Party. However, such was the mystique built up around the armed SS that every place was over-subscribed, helping to build its image as an élite force. Unlike army conscripts, ordinary enlisted SS men had to serve a minimum of 4 years, noncommissioned officers 12 years and officers 25 years.

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