For the defence of the West

While many brave men and women across Europe took up arms against their new rulers, millions of others readily decided to join the cause of the Third Reich. These men were dubbed collaborators for their treachery and so became some of Hitler's most enthusiastic supporters. There was no going back for them.

In a bizarre twist of fate, many of these men ended up in the Waffen-SS, an organization founded on Nazi racial-purity theories. Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, Hungarians, Ukranians and even Russians - all untermenschen according to Hitler's crazy policy of racial characteristics - ended up serving in the élite force of the Third Reich.

For Himmler, the incorporation of non-German nationals did not present any immediate ideological problems. After all, National Socialism was above all an ideology obsessed with race and the purity of Germanic blood. Himmler was determined to bring all those with Germanic blood coursing through their veins under his control. What did it matter if they were non-German nationals? Of far more importance was the fact that they were racially pure (according to Nazi ideology). For the Waffen-SS, the unifying element of race would bring foreign recruits and Germans together to fight a common enemy: Bolshevik communism. Like the crusading armies of old, the multi-national Waffen-SS would go forth as the defender of Western civilization against the barbaric hordes from the East. The names given to Waffen-SS units reflected this idea: Germania, Charlemagne and Hohenstaufen.

The thirst for manpower

There was also a practical element to Himmler's recruitment of foreign nationals. By 1940 the Waffen-SS needed an annual addition of 18,000 recruits to maintain numbers. However, the army allowed it only two percent of German draftees - 12,000 men a year - which meant a shortfall of 6000 recruits. The SS thus had to look elsewhere.

In his efforts to recruit foreigners, Himmler was aided greatly by the work of the head of Waffen-SS recruiting, SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger. He quickly saw the solution to the SS's manpower problems: "No objections against a further expansion of the Waffen-SS can be raised by the other armed forces if we succeed in recruiting part of the German and Germanic population not at the disposal of the Wehrmacht."

But it was not until the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 that Himmler had access to a source of manpower out of the grip of the generals. The so-called "ethnic Germans", or Volksdeutsche, who lived in Czechoslovakia were not officially citizens of the German Reich and therefore were not liable for conscription into the army. These were the first foreign recruits into the Waffen-SS, and they served alongside German volunteers in the early units of Himmler's élite force. At this time Himmler was considering grouping the Volksdeutsche in their own units. The conquests of Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Greece soon followed, bringing more potential recruits within range of Himmler's recruiting teams, and opening the door for the formation of the first foreign SS units.

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