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111-04-23
MILITARY CULTURE IN THE WAFFEN-SS: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
CONTEMPORARY MILITARY CULTURES
Prof. Niels Bo Poulsen, Royal Danish Defense College
211-04-23
Structure of my presentation
• What was the Waffen-SS (W-SS)?
• Military culture in the W-SS• Factors structuring the
military culture of the W-SS• The erosion of military culture
in the W-SS• Concluding remarks
Danish SS-soldiers passing though a burning village in Russia.
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The Waffen-SS – a multinational army
Out of app. 900.000 soldiers:
•400.000 Germans from Germany•150.000 Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans)•60.000+ Latvians•40.000 Dutch•25.000 Yugoslav Moslems•22.000 Flemish•20.000+ Ukrainians•20.000 Estonians•16.000 Wallonians•French, Danes, Norwegians, Italians, etc…
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What was the Waffen-SS?
• An integral part of Himmler’s SS- and police empire
• A self proclaimed racial and political elite within the Nazi movement
• A volunteer force to be used against domestic unrest in war
• The W-SS grew from a few thousand men in 1934 to 36 divisions in 1945
Norwegian Waffen-SS recruitment poster, 1942. The poster refers both to the “Aryan” ideal and to Norway’s Viking past.
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Military culture in the Waffen-SS
• Based on Nazi norms, values and assumptions = political soldiers
• Aggressive style of warfare• High losses (?)• Formal military education less
emphasized• High degree of unit cohesion,
low desertion rate• No quarter to POWs or civilians
The French village Oradour in which SS-soldiers killed around 650 unarmed civilians in June 1944 .
6
6th South African Armoured Division
• Fights 16 SS Panzergrenadier division “Reichsführer-SS” in Northern Italy fall 1944
• The 6th SAAD on the fighting qualities of the SS troops:- “The morale very high”- “Strong and fanatical band”- “Fanatical disregard of [our] defensive fire”
• In two large massacres the 16 SS div. kills around 1.000 civilians
6th SAAD Victory Parade at Monza, Italy. 14 July 1945.
Ruins of Marzabotto where the W-SS killed 770 civilians.
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Structuring factors
• Age• Political
indoctrination/totalitarian framework
• Hard discipline and SS jurisdiction
• Generous allotment of equipment and manpower
• Reputation as a modern force with careers open to all
• Fear of capture
SS-tank commander Michael Wittmann and his crew in front of a Tiger tank.
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Challenges to the mil. cult. of the Waffen-SS
• Enormous expansion during the war
• Volunteering is partly replaced by draft
• Recruitment of “non-aryan” nationalities
• Sönke Neitzel (2002):“The Waffen-SS never existed: instead there was a hotchpotch of 36 divisions…”
Above: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Husseini in 1943 inspecting Bosnian Moslem troops under SS command.
