SS-Das Reich

New recruits being drilled in 1938. At first the Waffen-SS were clothed in standard Wehrmacht uniforms, and were indistinguishable from their army colleagues apart from the SS runes on their collars.

CHAPTER TWO

ORGANIZATION

After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the popularity of the SS soared, and the organization grew rapidly as a result. Although initially tests for the potential recruits were stringent, as war loomed the barriers were lowered and the Waffen-SS developed into a sizeable force.

While Heinrich Himmler, Gottlob Berger and other senior officials in the SS manoeuvred their way through military politics in order to develop their own armed formations into division-size units, SS-Verfügungstruppen (SS-VT) commanders developed recruitment standards and training regimens aimed at turning their troops into élite warriors. From the time these units were established until the latter stages of World War II, SS-VT officials were vigorously selective about who could join their regiments. Specifically, they wanted perfect physical specimens of the 'Aryan superman' archetype who had a predisposition for conversion to the ideology of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).

Predictably, the high numbers of applicants that sought membership of the organization in the wake of the Nazi's seizure of power enabled such officials to select only first-rate candidates for enlistment. When young German men in cinemas saw newsreel images of Leibstandarte 'Black Guards' marching in their crisp, black uniforms in the presence of Adolf Hitler, they flocked to SS recruitment centres in droves. To expedite the admission of successful applicants and the rejection of those deemed unfit, Gottlob Berger established 17 recruiting stations in each military district within Germany and enlarged the central SS recruiting office in Berlin.

SUCCESSFUL RECRUITING

Within just a few months, the SS recruitment branch received about 32,000 volunteers. Many of these applicants were already ardent Nazis indoctrinated in the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) organization. Traditional German admiration for military institutions combined with this élite mystique to ensure abundant sources of manpower throughout the 1930s and during the early stages of World War II. Only in later years, when the conflict was going against Germany, did the Waffen-SS relax its recruitment standards, seeking volunteers from other service branches and among a wide variety of 'non-Aryan' nationalities throughout Europe.

To enter the SS-VT, volunteers had to be between the ages of seventeen-and-a-half and 22, stand at an above-average height, and be in perfect physical health. The Leibstandarte was especially thorough about height requirements and quickly gained a reputation for having true giants in its ranks. In the early days of the SS-Verfügungstruppen, inspectors purportedly rejected applicants for having minor tooth decay. During this time, only a small percentage of applicants gained admission into the organization. This selectiveness gave successful applicants a sense of superiority over other military personnel, even before they had begun their training.

Not surprisingly, for admission into the SS, new recruits also had to prove their Germanic racial purity by producing a record of family lineage which went back to 1800. Those aspiring to officer status in the SS-VT were required to prove a pure ancestry back to 1759. At recruitment centres, inspectors verified this racial status by measuring facial features and other physical attributes, rejecting those who appeared to be Slavic, Semitic or 'Mongolian'. Such inspections began at the top of the head and proceeded to the bottom of the feet. In addition, many other perceived physical 'imperfections', such as short legs, also provided grounds for rejection. Moreover, SS-Verfügungstruppen volunteers had to prove the racial purity of their current or future wives.

MORAL CHARACTER

In addition to these physical and racial standards, applicants for the SS-VT also needed to possess the right moral character to join the organization. Thus, criminal records, past involvement in political activities deemed repugnant to Nazi ideology, and other undesirable traits were grounds for rejection or expulsion. At first, actual membership of the NSDAP was not a prerequisite for membership in the SS-VT. However, recruits had to show a sense of idealism and enthusiasm for helping to build a stronger and better German fatherland, and it was imperative that they shared the anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik views held by Hitler and other high-ranking National Socialist leaders. Such a mindset would enable SS officials to mould their young volunteers into faithful Nazi warriors with careful indoctrination.

When potential recruits succeeded in joining the SS-VT, they were obliged to serve for a period of time, and this varied according to rank. A common Grenadier or SS-Schütze (Private) enlisted for a four-year term of service. A Scharführer (Sergeant) or other NCO (non-commissioned officer) served for 12 years, while commissioned officers had to serve in the SS-VT for 25 years. In order to gain admission to cadet school and thus earn an officer's commission, a recruit first had to serve in the ranks as a common soldier for two years. Unlike the Wehrmacht, the SS-VT did not offer any preferential treatment for the educated or the affluent.

With a promising crop of healthy, loyal and enthusiastic recruits in their ranks, Paul Hausser, Felix Steiner and other SS-VT commanders were able to develop their own training programs for their units. When first established, the SS-Verfügungstruppen initially consisted of three Standarten (regiments): Deutschland, Germania, and the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. While the Leibstandarte remained in Berlin to serve as the bodyguard detachment for the Führer, the other two regiments served in other parts of the Third Reich as the foundation upon which the SS-Verfügungs Division (later re-named Das Reich) and other Waffen-SS formations would be built.

As the armed SS formations grew and formed more units, veterans from these two regiments transferred to new groups and instilled the tactics, training and values that they had learned serving in the Deutschland and Germania formations. When first formed, the two regiments collectively possessed roughly 5000 volunteers, while the Leibstandarte had 2600. A large percentage of these recruits came from rural areas and were thus accustomed to spending long periods of time living a rustic lifestyle while bivouacked in the countryside. Many of them also hailed from the lower classes and were all too grateful to the NSDAP for providing them with the opportunity to rise from the drudgery of their existence.

Perhaps the most important of the SS-VT formations in the history of the Waffen-SS, the Deutschland Regiment, was a horse-drawn infantry group that consisted of four battalions. First established in October 1933, the 1st Battalion of this formation included volunteers that mostly hailed from southern Germany. In 1936, it received a permanent home in the Munich Freimann barracks. Three years later, the facility became the headquarters of the regiment. Like many standard German army infantry units, this and other battalions contained anti-tank, motorcycle and other specialized companies.

Four Rottenführers (corporals) of the Waffen-SS pose for a studio shot during leave from the front line. The man second from left wears a Deutschland cuff title, and they all wear Infantry Assault combat badges.

In the spring of 1935, a group of Austrian SA and SS expatriates under the command of Carl-Maria Demelhuber joined the Deutschland Regiment and became its 2nd Battalion. In earlier years, these men had been serving in an independent Nazi-affiliated outfit that was first known as the Austrian Legion, then the Hilfswerk Österreich, and finally the Hilfswerk Schleissheim. Poorly funded, badly fed and ill-equipped, many of its members did not even have uniforms until March 1934.

DIPLOMATIC ROW

By the spring of 1935, the Hilfswerk Schleissheim became involved in a diplomatic controversy when the governments of Austria and Italy demanded the dissolution of all Austrian Nazi organizations operating in Germany. Determined to preserve the independence of Austria, the two governments were wary of the NSDAP and its known support for an Anschlüss (the political unification of the German-speaking peoples of Austria and the Third Reich). Because Nazi Germany was not yet a major power in Europe, and because the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was not yet an ally of Berlin, Hitler was forced to respect this demand.

To avoid conflict with its neighbouring countries without disbanding the Hilfswerk Schleissheim, Nazi officials found a simple solution merely by granting German citizenship to the members of the legion. Within the Deutschland Regiment, the 2nd Battalion maintained a barracks in the Ingolstadt Landstrasse, situated...