What were the psychological reasons that induced foreign nationals to fight on the German side in World War II? For many Western Europeans, anti-Bolshevism was the main motive, rather than an attachment to Nazism. In the East, nationalism drove many to wear the German field-grey uniform.

Appealing to youth

It would be wrong to suggest that there was one overriding reason why hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals joined the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. It would certainly be false to claim that the majority did so because of an ideological allegiance to fascism, or rather to German National Socialism. Their reasons, like their nationalities, were many and varied. That said, there were certain influences that acted as psychological motivators to young men who volunteered for service with Germany's armed forces in World War II.

When we talk of foreign volunteers, of course, we mean young men aged between 17 and 25. Though recruits were sometimes older, the majority of recruits were males in their early 20s. This is important, because Nazism contained many traits that were attractive to impressionable young males. These included its brutality, its stigmatization of certain races and populations, its culture of warfare, its demands for vengeance and national revival. All these appealed to the more basic instincts within young men. However, there were other more positive attributes that were equally appealing: its sense of comradeship, its criticism of the alienating aspects of capitalism, and its struggle against political and cultural decadence.

The age of heroes

Of course, Nazism also made overtures to the more romantic side of human nature. Though totalitarian reality in the 1930s was often brutal, especially for those individuals and groups who were viewed as enemies, Nazi ideology contained many ideas that harked back to an age of heroes and myths. These included a belief in leaders of vision who commanded with a strong hand, and in return received the adulation and respect of those they commanded; a belief in the value of a strong and unified nation; and in the willing and eager sacrifice of individual goals and lives to strengthen the national purpose, with war and expansion being seen as tests of strength and arenas for heroic sacrifice. Nazism and fascism were also careful to reinforce a belief in at least some traditional hierarchies, such as the army, the family and sometimes the church (less so in Nazi Germany, where Hitler and most of the party hierarchy viewed priests with suspicion and derisively referred to them as parasitic "black crows").

Nazi Germany could also tap into the base instincts of young males in the conquered lands. Those who were members of indigenous fascist parties were already converted, of course, but others could be wooed by the Nazis' poisonous views on enemy creeds and groups. Thus, National Socialist ideology espoused a hatred of socialists and liberals; socialists because they were opponents of national self-determination (they were also portrayed as potential betrayers of the people to slavery under a foreign Russian élite), and liberals because they were unwilling to take the steps necessary to fight socialists. Nazism despised both groups for being self-absorbed individualists who weakened the nation by not recognizing that the nation, rather than the individual, held rights. Above all, there was a hatred of Jews, who were seen as rootless cosmopolitans uninterested in national destiny; thieves and deceivers; people who made their money through financial manipulation rather than through heroic feats of engineering and construction.

The new ideology

Perhaps what most attracted young males to fascism was the thing it shared with them: youth. The old system of liberal capitalism had failed. It had had its chance but had been found wanting. Above all, it had failed economically: it had not guaranteed high employment and rapid economic growth. The Great Depression destroyed the credibility of liberal democracy among many groups, and the young Western Europeans who joined the German war machine in the 1940s would have experienced at first hand the economic hardships visited upon their families during the 1930s. Fascism and Nazism were youthful ideologies that offered a brave new world. They had worked in Germany and Italy, so why not in their countries?

The allure of military might

The conquest of Western Europe in the spring and summer of 1940 would also have made an impression on the young males within the conquered states. They had witnessed at first hand the might of the German armed forces, their awesome firepower and modern military machines. Overhead had been the fearsome howl of the Stuka, while on the ground hundreds of panzers had made a lasting impression. The seemingly unstoppable progress of the Wehrmacht had led to glorious victories which were calculated in days, not years. Fortress Holland had been smashed, the mighty Maginot Line had been bypassed and the French and British armies had been defeated. At first, potential recruits were hostile to the Germans, especially after their indigenous armies had been humiliated. However, then came a turnaround. Instead of blaming the Germans, they blamed their own governments for the debacle. Young men were taken in by the notion that they, too, could be a part of Hitler's New Order in Europe.

Of course, there were other reasons why Western Europeans joined the Germans, pragmatic self-preservation being chief among them. In an occupied country one had to do what one could to survive, and serving in the Wehrmacht appeared a better option than being a Nazi slave at home or in Germany. For no matter how hard the Nazis tried to portray themselves as benevolent rulers, eventually the true face of fascism would show itself. Following Holland's capitulation, for example, and in the weeks that followed, the Dutch were in a state of bewilderment and numbness. Initially, it seemed that the German occupation might not be too unbearable. Seyss-Inquart, Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands, said that Germany would not impose its ideology on Holland and that he would respect existing Dutch law.

The occupation myth

In May 1940, German troops in Holland were on their best behaviour. There was no looting and no burning down of synagogues. The occupation soldiers were polite and even proved to be good customers at Dutch stores and cafes. In a conciliatory mood, German authorities had declared that Dutch soldiers would be not held as prisoners of war (something permissible under the rules of law), but would be allowed to return to their homes and families instead. It was German thinking, at least initially in the occupation, that the Dutch should be treated with kid gloves. The Germans were convinced that with some care it would be only a matter of time before the Dutch would accept the New Order and embrace Nazism as the Germans themselves had. Of course, the Nazis had no intention of respecting Dutch law or of sparing them Nazi ideology. Step by step, decree by decree, the Germans set out to transform Holland into a totalitarian state. The Dutch Parliament was abolished, as were virtually all elected bodies. In the courts, the existing Dutch system was quickly replaced by German justice, i.e. the law of a police state.

Young men could be conscripted for labour service by the Germans, which could mean being shipped off to any part of the Reich where they would dig ditches and haul materials for defences, an altogether unattractive proposition. Jutt Olafsen was a teacher in Norway, and his experience was typical of that of many European volunteers: "Then, when the war began in Russia, things became more difficult and the Germans began rounding up men for forced labour. But they offered me an alternative, and this was to join the Legion Norwegen and assist in the anti-Bolshevik crusade, as they called it. I hated communism, so decided I would rather join this legion than go to work in Germany."

Anti-communism

Generally speaking, conditions in the Wehrmacht appeared attractive to those who were nationalist without being National Socialist, and anti-communist without being anti-British or even pro-German. In many cases, young men left businesses and careers behind them. Pay was less than they could earn in their homeland, but most volunteers probably anticipated a brief and victorious campaign, after which they would return home in triumph to privileged positions and other advantages, having thrown in their lot with the Germans.

A prime motivator among Western Europeans, and something that was exploited to the full by the Germans after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, was anti-communism. In the 1920s and 1930s, both fascism and Nazism had gained popularity as defenders against an imposing communist menace. With the coming to power of the communists in Russia, and with Moscow's assertion that the revolution would be exported and abolition of private property would sweep away class differences, much of the middle class in Europe had a very real fear of the "Bolshevik menace" and the possibility of the forceful overthrow or subversion of the existing social and political order.

Both Mussolini and Hitler made opposition to communism a major element of their ideologies. For Hitler, communism and Nazism were competing world systems, locked in mortal combat. As he stated in his closing speech to the Nazi party rally at Nuremberg in September 1936: "Bolshevism has attacked the foundations of our whole human order, alike in State and society; the foundations of our concept of civilization, of our faith and of our morals - all alike are at stake."

The threat of the Bolshevik horde

Germans efforts to recruit foreign nationals in Western Europe continually played upon the communist threat and the importance of taking part in the anti-Bolshevik crusade. Thus, a Waffen-SS recruiting brochure of early 1943 aimed at Frenchmen stated: "It is evident that the constitution of a unit of French volunteers at the heart of the Waffen-SS represents a new step that is very significant in the union of European youth against Bolshevist nihilism." The text went on: "Volunteers from almost all countries in Europe, side by side with their German comrades, have distinguished themselves by their valour at the Eastern front, [and because of this] the SS, the essential basis of the National Socialist Party that originally was merely of German internal political value, has now transformed itself into an indissoluble community of European youth struggling for the maintenance of its cultural values and its civilization." Lieutenant-Colonel Kryssing, commander of the Danish Freikorps, urged his countrymen: "Along the Eastern Front the fight against the world enemy is in full swing. Join the fight against our common enemy for the safety of our Fatherland which shall give our children security and peace." It is interesting to note that Kryssing was a rabid anti-communist rather than a pro-Nazi.

The oath that was sworn by those who served in the foreign legions raised in Western Europe by the SS reinforced the myth that they were defending Europe, not just Germany, against the evils of Bolshevik Russia: "I swear by God, this sacred oath, that in the struggle against Bolshevism, I will unconditionally obey the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Adolf Hitler, and as a faithful soldier am ready, at any time he may desire, to lay down my life for this oath."

Pragmatic recruits

However, one must be careful when saying that ideology was the sole reason why men joined the foreign legions. It must be remembered that of the 125,000 West Europeans in the Waffen-SS, for example, only a third belonged to pro-Nazi nationalist parties. What reasons did the other two-thirds have for serving? A study by a Dutch psychologist in the late 1940s, Dr A van Hoesti, of young Dutchmen who had fought for the Germans revealed some interesting reasons why they had joined up. They included boredom, a desire for adventure, better food, a desire to avoid labour service, the prestige of wearing an SS uniform, and a wish to avoid prosecution for minor offences. Political idealism hardly figured at all. As Gottlob Berger himself stated: "We will never be able to prevent men from joining the legions and the Waffen-SS who are neither National Socialists nor idealists, and instead take this step for more materialistic reasons. That is the way it is everywhere in the world and it is no different in Germany during the Kampfzeit [time of struggle]."

East European recruits

When it came to East Europeans, the Baltic peoples and Russian recruits, the reasons for fighting for the Germans were much more straightforward. Felix Steiner, the commander of the Wiking Division, summed it up succinctly: "The eastern volunteers fought primarily for the freedom and independence of their countries." Of course, many served the Germans simply in order to survive, such as the many Russian prisoners of war who preferred working for the Wehrmacht in preference to starving to death. And of course, many police and security units raised by the Germans from indigenous peoples for service in Russia and the Balkans contained individuals who were attracted by the prospect of loot, rape and killing Jews.