True, but as always, reality was even more complex.
Initially, yes absolutely. SS members were absolutely nazis. Exceptions either became nazis very fast or had deadly accidents (being killed by their peers).
As the overture to WW2 started playing, things got muddier. Germany aquired territories whos people were not german citizens according the bonkers laws they had, likewise non-german voluteers started showing up. The problem was that only german citizens could serve in the Wehrtmacht. Fear not, we germans are inventive! So Volksdeutsche (ethnic germans, but not german citizens) tended to get force conscripted into the SS and the SS was more than happy to receive “aryan” volunteers (brits, yanks, nordics, benelux, french).
As the War finally started and soon went bad for germany in the USSR, Germany tried to make sense of various nationalist movements willing to fight for it and the collaborateurs. This repeated the situation mentioned above. With the exact same solution: Collaborateurs went directly to the SS. Teh nationalists posed a problem, they were not exactly “aryan”, but Indian, Bosnia, Serbian, Cossak, Russia, Chechen and so on. So the SS was effectively partitioned: The “aryan” fanatics went to the “chapter SS”(only true with occult bullshit), got the highest status. The collaborateurs and force conscripted guys were footslogger SS scrubs. Leaves the rest. They were grouped into “SS legions” and essentially cannon fodder.
By the end of the war, the force conscription became even weirder. The education minister gifted Hitler (and thus the SS) a entire graduation year of students. Because germany is not only the country of thinkers and poets, sometimes also of stoned thinkers.
True, but as always, reality was even more complex.
Initially, yes absolutely. SS members were absolutely nazis. Exceptions either became nazis very fast or had deadly accidents (being killed by their peers).
As the overture to WW2 started playing, things got muddier. Germany aquired territories whos people were not german citizens according the bonkers laws they had, likewise non-german voluteers started showing up. The problem was that only german citizens could serve in the Wehrtmacht. Fear not, we germans are inventive! So Volksdeutsche (ethnic germans, but not german citizens) tended to get force conscripted into the SS and the SS was more than happy to receive “aryan” volunteers (brits, yanks, nordics, benelux, french).
As the War finally started and soon went bad for germany in the USSR, Germany tried to make sense of various nationalist movements willing to fight for it and the collaborateurs. This repeated the situation mentioned above. With the exact same solution: Collaborateurs went directly to the SS. Teh nationalists posed a problem, they were not exactly “aryan”, but Indian, Bosnia, Serbian, Cossak, Russia, Chechen and so on. So the SS was effectively partitioned: The “aryan” fanatics went to the “chapter SS”(only true with occult bullshit), got the highest status. The collaborateurs and force conscripted guys were footslogger SS scrubs. Leaves the rest. They were grouped into “SS legions” and essentially cannon fodder.
By the end of the war, the force conscription became even weirder. The education minister gifted Hitler (and thus the SS) a entire graduation year of students. Because germany is not only the country of thinkers and poets, sometimes also of stoned thinkers.