The British SS
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192571/Three-Lions-Black-Shirt-Rare-Nazi-badge-striking-resemblance-England-squad-logo-discovered.html
An interesting article, seemingly written by two different people, as one part is much more accurate than the other. Yes, there were a VERY few British who (theoretically) joined the Waffen SS, mostly drawn from POW's. The unit was NOT elite, was never in combat, (at least as a unit, though I suppose it's possible that individual members got caught up in the shooting at the end). There is a debate as to how many members it had, most sources agree it was only 10-20 "strong". As a portion of the article points out, it was a simple, minscule, propaganda tool; but mostly was yet another example of Himmler's romanticism for the SS being some sort of international force. I've always been interested in this particular aspect of the 3rd reich - here you have THE guy who's responsible for "cleansing" Europe of all of its "racial undesirables", and taking over most of it, and yet he's also trying to make the Waffen SS, (supposedly the blonde-haired blue eyed elite of father Germany), into a real hodgepodge of nationalities, all under the banner of an anti-Bolshevik crusade. There's quite a bit that's been written about these units over the years, and it's quite interesting. At least on paper, by the Spring of 1945, probably a third of the SS divisions were (theoretically) foreign-based. Besides those few losers from the British, there were units (ranging in size from platoons to full-fledged divisions) of Cossacks, French, Arab, Indian (!), Flemish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Bosnian, Croatian, Romanian, Magyar, Russian (!), Ukrainian, Belorussian, Dagestani, Khazak, Uzbek, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Georgian, Armenian, Crimean Tartars, and Kurelians, (and I've probably missed a few). Some of these people were quite publicly slated for outright enslavement should a nazi victory occur, so were' talking a very confusing (dare I say, stupid) dynamic going on.
An interesting article, seemingly written by two different people, as one part is much more accurate than the other. Yes, there were a VERY few British who (theoretically) joined the Waffen SS, mostly drawn from POW's. The unit was NOT elite, was never in combat, (at least as a unit, though I suppose it's possible that individual members got caught up in the shooting at the end). There is a debate as to how many members it had, most sources agree it was only 10-20 "strong". As a portion of the article points out, it was a simple, minscule, propaganda tool; but mostly was yet another example of Himmler's romanticism for the SS being some sort of international force. I've always been interested in this particular aspect of the 3rd reich - here you have THE guy who's responsible for "cleansing" Europe of all of its "racial undesirables", and taking over most of it, and yet he's also trying to make the Waffen SS, (supposedly the blonde-haired blue eyed elite of father Germany), into a real hodgepodge of nationalities, all under the banner of an anti-Bolshevik crusade. There's quite a bit that's been written about these units over the years, and it's quite interesting. At least on paper, by the Spring of 1945, probably a third of the SS divisions were (theoretically) foreign-based. Besides those few losers from the British, there were units (ranging in size from platoons to full-fledged divisions) of Cossacks, French, Arab, Indian (!), Flemish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Bosnian, Croatian, Romanian, Magyar, Russian (!), Ukrainian, Belorussian, Dagestani, Khazak, Uzbek, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Georgian, Armenian, Crimean Tartars, and Kurelians, (and I've probably missed a few). Some of these people were quite publicly slated for outright enslavement should a nazi victory occur, so were' talking a very confusing (dare I say, stupid) dynamic going on.
posted by mendip at
11:31 AM
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