Waffen-SS: Foreign Volunteers

Background

Hundreds of thousands of non-German nationals fought in the ranks of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Some were excellent soldiers, such as those in the Wiking Division, while others were little more than killers in uniform. For Himmler, what began as a mission to pool Germanic blood in his Waffen-SS ended up as a desperate attempt to recruit anyone in order to stave off defeat.

Waffen-SS expansion

At its peak in the autumn of 1942, Hitler's empire stretched from the Arctic circle to North Africa and from the Atlantic coast to the Caucasus mountains. The SS were instrumental in Hitler's plans to turn this empire into a racially "pure" zone, free of Jews and other untermenschen, or sub-humans. The Waffen-SS was now poised to undergo a major expansion to provide Germany with an élite fighting force to rival that of the Wehrmacht's panzer divisions.

Himmler's empire

The expansion of the Waffen-SS was an integral part of Hitler's plans to spread the tentacles of the SS into every aspect of the German state. Expanding the Waffen-SS to rival the Wehrmacht was mirrored in other sectors of government. The police and internal security forces had all been brought under SS control during the 1930s as part of Hitler's first moves to consolidate his dictatorship. As the war progressed, Himmler continued to spread his influence into as many other areas as possible. He took advantage of Hitler's paranoia and megalomania to convince the Führer that only the SS could be trusted to carry out his orders to the letter. The Führer was always suspicious of the army High Command after it disobeyed his orders not to retreat from Moscow in December 1941, and was more than happy to let Himmler clip its wings. During this period the first expansion of the Waffen-SS motorized divisions into armoured units was authorized. In 1942, Himmler was also given sweeping powers to prosecute the war against the partisans, and this allowed him to raise the first Waffen-SS anti-partisan units in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The SS's influence

The SS also spread its influence into every area of German life, from education and the police to the economy. Himmler was now in the process of transforming the SS from a security organization into a political and social élite. He recruited some 1200 leading German industrialists, businessmen and aristocrats into the SS as so-called honorary members. They provided Himmler with contacts and money to help expand the organization even further. In return, the SS chief was able to provide a constant flow of two million slave labourers to German industry, via the concentration camp system and through SS control of the occupied territories. The SS started to set up factories and businesses to exploit further its huge captive workforce. By 1943, the SS was one of the biggest businesses in Germany. Himmler also moved to take control of Germany's school curriculum and marriage regulations, and he even tried to supplant the country's religious bodies by forming his own pseudo-religion based on Aryan/Germanic legends.

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