They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, and without a criminal record.
Former Waffen-SS members, with the exception of conscripts, who comprised about one third of the membership, were denied many of the rights afforded to military veterans. ==Origins (1929–39)== The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men on 17 March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin.
By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a commemorative ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
A total of 38 were formed, beginning with the initial three in 1933 and ramping up to nine alone in 1945.
47 ] ==Further reading== ==External links== The Nazi German Armed SS 1933-1945 (Schutzstaffel) German words and phrases Military history of Germany during World War II Military wings of political parties
On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The Leibstandarte demonstrated their loyalty to Hitler in 1934 during the "Night of the Long Knives", when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political killings and the purge of the Sturmabteilung (SA).
The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934, claiming up to 200 victims and eliminating almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power.
This action was largely carried out by SS personnel (including the Leibstandarte), and the Gestapo. In September 1934, Hitler authorised the formation of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), a special service troop under Hitler's overall command.
Instructors such as Matthias Kleinheisterkamp (an army has-been and alcoholic), or future war criminals, such as Franz Magill of the notorious SS Cavalry Brigade were of questionable competence. In 1934, Himmler set stringent requirements for recruits.
Among later Waffen-SS generals, approximately six out of ten had a "university entrance qualification (Abitur), and no less than one-fifth a university degree". Hausser became the Inspector of the SS-VT in 1936.
Members of the SS could be of any religion except Judaism, but atheists were not allowed according to Himmler in 1937. Historian Bernd Wegner found in his study of officers that a large majority of the senior officers corps of the Waffen-SS were from an upper-middle-class background and would have been considered for commissioning by traditional standards.
By 1938, the height restrictions were relaxed, up to six dental fillings were permitted, and eyeglasses for astigmatism and mild vision correction were allowed.
This aligned with Hitler's intentions to maintain these troops exclusively at his disposal, "neither [a part] of the army, nor of the police", according to Hitler's order of 17 August 1938. On 17 August 1938, Hitler declared that the SS-VT would have a role in domestic as well as foreign affairs, which transformed this growing armed force into the rival that the army had feared.
In 1938, a battalion of the Leibstandarte was chosen to accompany the army troops in occupying Austria during the Anschluss, and the three regiments of the SS-VT participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland that October.
These troops used police ranks and insignia rather than those of the SS. In August 1939, Hitler placed the Leibstandarte and the SS-VT under the operational control of the Army High Command (OKH).
Himmler retained command of the Totenkopfstandarten for employment behind the advancing combat units in what were euphemistically called "special tasks of a police nature". In spite of the swift military victory over Poland in September 1939, the regular army felt that the performance of the SS-VT left much to be desired; its units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army.
It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en-masse of the leaders of the Jewish community.
On 29 September the Standarte travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an "intelligentsia action". ====First Divisions==== In October 1939, the Deutschland, Germania, and Der Führer regiments were reorganised into the SS-Verfügungs-Division.
The weapons arrived only slowly and, by the time of the Battle of France, only the Leibstandarte battalion was up to strength. ===1940=== ====France and the Netherlands==== The three SS divisions and the Leibstandarte spent the winter of 1939 and the spring of 1940 training and preparing for the coming war in the west.
It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en masse of the leaders of the Jewish community.
The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Nazi propaganda claimed that the war was a "European crusade against Bolshevism" and subsequently units consisting largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts were also raised.
In both actions no resistance was met. Recruiting ethnic Germans from other countries began in April 1940, and units consisting of non-Germanic recruits were formed beginning in 1942.
Hitler next authorised the creation of four Motorized Artillery battalions in March 1940, one for each division and the Leibstandarte.
The weapons arrived only slowly and, by the time of the Battle of France, only the Leibstandarte battalion was up to strength. ===1940=== ====France and the Netherlands==== The three SS divisions and the Leibstandarte spent the winter of 1939 and the spring of 1940 training and preparing for the coming war in the west.
Hitler expressed his pleasure with the performance of the Leibstandarte in the Netherlands and France, telling them, "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack." ====1940 expansion==== Himmler gained approval for the Waffen-SS to form its own high command, the Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS within the SS-Führungshauptamt, which was created in August 1940.
It received command of the SS-VT (the Leibstandarte and the Verfügungs-Division, renamed Reich) and the armed SS-TV regiments (the Totenkopf-Division together with several independent Totenkopf-Standarten). In 1940, SS chief of staff Gottlob Berger approached Himmler with a plan to recruit volunteers in the conquered territories from the ethnic German and Germanic populations.
By June 1940, Danish and Norwegian volunteers had formed the SS Regiment Nordland, with Dutch and Flemish volunteers forming the SS Regiment Westland.
The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Nazi propaganda claimed that the war was a "European crusade against Bolshevism" and subsequently units consisting largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts were also raised.
Operation Marita began on 6 April 1941, with German troops invading Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in an effort to secure its southern flank. Reich was ordered to leave France and head for Romania, and the Leibstandarte was ordered to Bulgaria.
By the end of 1941, Nord had suffered severe casualties.
Over the winter of 1941–42 it received replacements from the general pool of Waffen-SS recruits, who were supposedly younger and better trained than the SS men of the original formation, which had been drawn largely from Totenkopfstandarten of Nazi concentration camp guards. The rest of the Waffen-SS divisions and brigades fared better.
At first, they fought Soviet partisans and cut off units of the Red Army in the rear of Army Group South, capturing 7,000 prisoners of war, but from mid-August 1941 until late 1942 they were assigned to the Reich Main Security Office headed by Reinhard Heydrich.
In the Autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust.
The three brigades were responsible for the murder of tens of thousands by the end of 1941. Because it was more mobile and better able to carry out large-scale operations, the SS Cavalry Brigade had 2 regiments with a strength of 3500 men and played a pivotal role in the transition to the wholesale extermination of the Jewish population.
In the summer of 1941, Himmler assigned Hermann Fegelein to be in charge of both regiments.
On 19 July 1941, Himmler assigned Fegelein's regiments to the general command of HSSPF Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski for the "systematic combing" of the Pripyat swamps, an operation designed to round up and exterminate Jews, partisans, and civilians in that area of Byelorussian SSR. Fegelein split the territory to be covered into two sections divided by the Pripyat River, with the 1st Regiment taking the northern half and the 2nd Regiment the south.
Fegelein's final operational report dated 18 September 1941, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, 699 Red Army soldiers, with 830 prisoners taken and losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing.
Another new division was formed at the same time, when the SS Cavalry Brigade was used as the cadre in the formation of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer. ====Panzergrenadier divisions==== The front line divisions of the Waffen-SS that had suffered losses through the winter of 1941–1942 and during the Soviet counter-offensive were withdrawn to France to recover and be reformed as Panzergrenadier divisions.
In both actions no resistance was met. Recruiting ethnic Germans from other countries began in April 1940, and units consisting of non-Germanic recruits were formed beginning in 1942.
A sufficient number of volunteers came forward requiring the SS to open a new training camp just for foreign volunteers at Sennheim in Alsace-Lorraine. ===1941=== At the beginning of the new year, the Polizei-Division was brought under FHA administration, although it would not be formally merged into the Waffen-SS until 1942.
At first, they fought Soviet partisans and cut off units of the Red Army in the rear of Army Group South, capturing 7,000 prisoners of war, but from mid-August 1941 until late 1942 they were assigned to the Reich Main Security Office headed by Reinhard Heydrich.
Historian Henning Pieper estimates the actual number of Jews killed was closer to 23,700. ===1942=== ====1942 expansion==== In 1942, the Waffen-SS was further expanded and a new division was entered on the rolls in March.
By the second half of 1942, an increasing number of foreigners, many of whom were not volunteers, began entering the ranks.
They each received nine Tiger tanks, which were formed into the heavy panzer companies. ====Demyansk Pocket==== The Soviet offensive of January 1942 trapped a number of German divisions in the Demyansk Pocket between February and April 1942; the 3rd SS Totenkopf was one of the divisions encircled by the Red Army.
"For his excellence in command and the particularly fierce fighting of the Totenkopf", Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on 20 May 1942. ===1943=== ====1943 expansion==== The Waffen-SS expanded further in 1943: in February the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and its sister division, the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, were formed in France.
The Red Army liberated Demyansk on 1 March 1943 with the retreat of the German troops.
"For his excellence in command and the particularly fierce fighting of the Totenkopf", Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on 20 May 1942. ===1943=== ====1943 expansion==== The Waffen-SS expanded further in 1943: in February the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and its sister division, the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, were formed in France.
The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) was created in 1943, using compulsory military service in the Ostland.
The final new 1943 division was the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, which was created using the Sturmbrigade Reichsführer SS as a cadre.
By 1943 the Waffen-SS could not longer claim to be an "elite" fighting force.
Two days later, the German forces recaptured Belgorod, creating the salient that, in July 1943, led to the Battle of Kursk.
After the Italian surrender and collapse of 8 September 1943, the Leibstandarte was ordered to begin disarming nearby Italian units.
The final new division of late 1944 was the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, formed from Hungarians and conscripted Volksdeutsche. In November 1944 the 1st Cossack Division, originally mustered by the German Army in 1943, was taken over by the Waffen-SS.
Peiper's battalion then disarmed the remaining Italian forces in the area. While the Leibstandarte was operating in the north, the 16 SS Reichsführer-SS sent a small battlegroup to contain the Anzio landings in January 1944.
In recognition of their performance, Himmler declared the unit to be fully integrated into the Waffen-SS. ===1944=== ====1944 expansion==== The Waffen-SS expanded again during 1944.
The 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) was formed via general conscription in February 1944, around a cadre from the 3 Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade.
The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) was formed in March 1944 from Albanian and Kosovan volunteers, which as with other "eastern formations" were intended for use against "irregular forces".
A second Waffen-SS cavalry division followed in April 1944, the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia.
One regiment from the Hungarian Army was ordered to join, but they mostly consisted of Hungarian and Romanian volunteers. The SS Division Langemarck was formed next in October 1944, from Flemish volunteers added to the 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Langemarck, but again it was nothing more than a large brigade.
The final new division of late 1944 was the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, formed from Hungarians and conscripted Volksdeutsche. In November 1944 the 1st Cossack Division, originally mustered by the German Army in 1943, was taken over by the Waffen-SS.
With the transfer of the Volunteer Cossack-Stamm-Regiment 5 from the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division on the same day the takeover of the Cossack units by the Waffen-SS was complete. ====Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket==== The Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket was formed in January 1944 when units of the 8th Army withdrew to the Panther-Wotan Line, a defensive position along the Dnieper River in Ukraine.
The offensive took place in April and May 1944.
Latvian Waffen SS and German army units held out in the Courland Pocket until the end of the war. ====Normandy==== Operation Overlord, the Allied "D-Day" landings in Normandy, took place on 6 June 1944.
In preparation for the expected landings, the I SS Panzer Corps Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was moved to Septeuil to the west of Paris in April 1944.
The Corps was restructured on 4 July 1944 and only the 1 SS Leibstandarte and the 12 SS Hitlerjugend remained on strength. After the landings, the first Waffen-SS unit in action was the 12 SS Hitlerjugend, which arrived at the invasion front on 7 June, in the Caen area.
Both had been formed in June 1944 from staff and students at the SS-Junkerschule.
It then formed the rear guard for the three German corps withdrawing from Finland in Operation Birch, and from September to November 1944 marched 1,600 kilometres to Mo i Rana, Norway, where it entrained for the southern end of the country, crossing the Skagerrak to Denmark. ====Arnhem and Operation Market Garden==== In early September 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps (9 SS Hohenstaufen and 10 SS Frundberg) were pulled out of the line and sent to the Arnhem area in the Netherlands.
On Sunday 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, and the British 1st Airborne Division was dropped in Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem.
Between August and October 1944, the Dirlewanger Brigade (recruited from criminals and the mentally ill throughout Germany), which included Aserbaidschanische Legion (part of the Ostlegionen), and the S.S.
The behaviour of the RONA during the battle was an embarrassment even to the SS, and the alleged rape and murder of two German Strength Through Joy girls may have played a part in the eventual execution of the brigade's commander. ====Vistula River line==== In late August 1944, 5 SS Wiking was ordered back to Modlin on the Vistula River line near Warsaw, where it was to join the newly formed Army Group Vistula.
Together, they helped force the Red Army out of Warsaw and back across the Vistula River, where the Front stabilised until January 1945. ====Ardennes Offensive==== The Ardennes Offensive or "Battle of the Bulge", between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945, was a major German offensive through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium.
Created on 26 October 1944, it incorporated the I SS Panzer Corps (1 SS Leibstandarte, the 12 SS Hitlerjugend and the SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101).
It is infamous for the Malmedy massacre, in which approximately 90 unarmed American prisoners of war were murdered on 17 December 1944.
The soldiers had their fingers cut off and legs broken, and one was shot while trying to bandage a comrade's wounds. ====Siege of Budapest==== In late December 1944, the Axis forces, including IX Waffen Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian), defending Budapest, were encircled in the Siege of Budapest.
The siege lasted from 29 December 1944 until the city surrendered unconditionally on 13 February 1945.
Formations such as the Dirlewanger and Kaminski Brigades were singled out, and many others participated in large-scale massacres or smaller-scale killings such as murder of 34 captured allied servicemen ordered by Josef Kieffer during Operation Bulbasket in 1944, the Houtman affair, or murders perpetrated by Heinrich Boere.
The counts of indictment related to the massacre of more than 300 American prisoners in the vicinity of Malmedy, between 16 December 1944 and 13 January 1945, and the massacre of 100 Belgian civilians mainly in the vicinity of Stavelot. During the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organisation for its major involvement in war crimes and for being an "integral part" of the SS.
Both divisions were placed under the command of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps on 1 February 1945.
The Allied airborne operation was a failure, and Arnhem was not liberated until 14 April 1945. ====Warsaw Uprising==== At the other end of Europe, the Waffen-SS was dealing with the Warsaw Uprising.
Together, they helped force the Red Army out of Warsaw and back across the Vistula River, where the Front stabilised until January 1945. ====Ardennes Offensive==== The Ardennes Offensive or "Battle of the Bulge", between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945, was a major German offensive through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium.
The IV SS Panzer Corps (3 SS Totenkopf and 5 SS Wiking) was ordered south to join Hermann Balck's 6th Army (Army Group Balck), which was mustering for a relief effort code named Operation Konrad. As a part of Operation Konrad I, the IV SS Panzer Corps was committed to action on 1 January 1945, near Tata, with the advance columns of Wiking slamming into the Soviet 4th Guards Army.
The siege lasted from 29 December 1944 until the city surrendered unconditionally on 13 February 1945.
Only 170 men of the 22 SS Maria Theresia made it back to the German lines. ===1945=== ====1945 expansion==== The Waffen-SS continued to expand in 1945.
It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in north-eastern France, and it ended on 25 January.
It was the 'last gasp' attempt for the Luftwaffe to take back air supremacy from the western allies. ====Operation Solstice==== Operation Solstice, or the "Stargard Tank Battle" (February 1945) was one of the last armoured offensive operations on the Eastern Front.
The Waffen-SS units involved were the 11 SS Nordland, 20 SS Estonian, 23 SS Nederland, 27 SS Langemark, 28 SS Wallonien, all in the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, and the X SS Corps, which did not command any SS units. In March 1945, the X SS Corps was encircled by the 1st Guards Tank Army, 3rd Shock Army, and the Polish 1st Army in the area of Dramburg.
This pocket was destroyed by the Red Army on 7 March 1945.
On 8 March 1945, the Soviet forces announced the capture of General Krappe and 8,000 men of the X SS Corps. ====Operation Spring Awakening==== After the Ardennes offensive failed, in Hitler's estimation, the Nagykanizsa oilfields southwest of Lake Balaton were the most strategically valuable reserves on the Eastern Front.
Dietrich did not relay the order to his troops. ====Berlin==== The Army Group Vistula was formed in 1945 to protect Berlin from the advancing Red Army.
Among the men were French, Latvian, and Scandinavian Waffen-SS troops. A heavy artillery bombardment of the centre government district had begun on 20 April 1945 and lasted until the end of hostilities.
A total of 38 were formed, beginning with the initial three in 1933 and ramping up to nine alone in 1945.
The counts of indictment related to the massacre of more than 300 American prisoners in the vicinity of Malmedy, between 16 December 1944 and 13 January 1945, and the massacre of 100 Belgian civilians mainly in the vicinity of Stavelot. During the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organisation for its major involvement in war crimes and for being an "integral part" of the SS.
According to The Times of Israel, "The benefits come through the Federal Pension Act, which was passed in 1950 to support war victims, whether civilians or veterans of the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS." On 22 June 2005, the Italian military court in La Spezia found ten former Waffen-SS officers and NCOs living in Germany guilty of participation in the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment.
A small number of veterans served in the new German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, something that raised national and international unease in regards to how it would affect the democratic nature of the new army. SS Major General Heinz Lammerding, who commanded the SS Division Das Reich that perpetrated the Tulle and the Oradour-sur-Glane massacres in occupied France, died in 1971, following a successful business career in West Germany.
However, extradition requests from Italy were rejected by Germany. ===Baltic states=== In 1990, Latvian Legion veterans started commemorating Legionnaire Day (Leģionāru diena) in Latvia.
It was disbanded in 1992 at the federal level, but local groups, along with the organisation's monthly periodical, continued to exist at least into the 2000s. While the HIAG leadership only partially achieved the goals of legal and economic rehabilitation of Waffen-SS, falling short of their "extravagant fantasies about [Waffen-SS's] past and future", HIAG's propaganda efforts have led to a reshaping of the image of Waffen-SS in popular culture.
It was disbanded in 1992 at the federal level, but local groups, along with the organisation's monthly periodical, continued to exist at least into the 2000s. While the HIAG leadership only partially achieved the goals of legal and economic rehabilitation of Waffen-SS, falling short of their "extravagant fantasies about [Waffen-SS's] past and future", HIAG's propaganda efforts have led to a reshaping of the image of Waffen-SS in popular culture.
According to The Times of Israel, "The benefits come through the Federal Pension Act, which was passed in 1950 to support war victims, whether civilians or veterans of the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS." On 22 June 2005, the Italian military court in La Spezia found ten former Waffen-SS officers and NCOs living in Germany guilty of participation in the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment.
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