Waffen-SS: Elite or Mass-Army?

Waffen-SS divisions are often portrayed as an elite formations, yet, this view misses that the Waffen-SS had a large amount of divisions with very different combat records. This video takes a closer look at the Waffen-SS based on academic sources and will also explain why many statements of the Waffen-SS divisions are just wrong, since they don't account for the heterogeneity of the various divisions.

Cover: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101III-Zschaeckel-159-08 / Zschäckel, Friedrich / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Cover colorization and modification design by vonKickass.

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Wegner, Bernd: Hitlers politische Soldaten: die Waffen-SS 1933 - 1945: Leitbild, Struktur und Funktion einer nationalsozialistischen Elite. 9. Aufl. (unveränd. Nachdr. der 8. Aufl. 2008), Schöningh: Paderborn, Germany, 2010.

Böhler, Jochen (Ed.); Gerwarth, Robert (Ed.): The Waffen-SS: A European History. Oxford University Press: New York, NY, USA, 2017.

Schulte, Jan Erik (Hrsg.); Lieb, Peter (Hrsg.) Wegner, Bernd (Hrsg.): Die Waffen-SS: Neue Forschungen. Schöningh: Paderborn, Germany, 2014.

Leleu, Jean-Luc: La Waffen-SS: Soldats politiques en guerre. Perrin: Paris, France, 2007.

Kroener, Bernhard; Müller, Rolf-Dieter;Umbreit, Hans: Organisation und Mobilisierung des deutschen Machtbereichs – Teilband 2: Kriegsverwaltung, Wirtschaft und personelle Ressourcen 1942 bis 1944/45. Bd. 5/2. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart, Germany, 1999.

Müller-Hillebrand, Burkhart: Das Heer 1933-1945. Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Band I. Das Heer bis zum Kriegsbeginn. E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1954.

Müller-Hillebrand, Burkhart: Das Heer 1933-1945. Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Band II. Die Blitzfeldzüge 1939-1941. Das Heer im Kriege bis zum Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion im Juni 1941. E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1956.

Müller-Hillebrand, Burkhart: Das Heer 1933-1945. Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Band III. Der Zweifrontenkrieg. Das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende. E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1969.

Overmans, Rüdiger: Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. 3. Auflage, Oldenbourg: München, Germany, 2004.

#WaffenSS,#EliteOrMassArmy,#EliteOrNot

[MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

>> ERRORS & CORRECTIONS <<
~1:50: I say 20.37 instead of 23.7 - thanks to my Patreon Galtur for pointing this out. (This error was reported after the YouTube manual review and minor, as such I did not re-upload the video.)
~8:10: I say "It is important to point out that the concentration camp guard formations were part of and involved with all SS-Divisions and not limited to the Totenkopf Division."
It should be: "personnel" instead of "formations".

[arkadeepkundu]

_Belgium's most elite & fanatical special forces unit:_ *The Waffle SS*

[jmackmcneill]

As always, a careful examiniation of facts, and a focus on what is relevant, as opposed to "exciting" trivia. Your work is an absolute treasure.

[maxwellparadis]

The massive balls you must have to attempt to post this on youtube. Great video.

[thefrenchareharlequins]

You can't exactly be picky when you get Bagrationed, D-Dayed and Ruhred all at the same time.

[Ralphieboy]

A friend from New Mexico tells me that his dad had a silver skull ring, a common motif in the US Southwest, which he wore as an officer stationed in post-war Germany. It earned him a lot of dirty looks, as many people mistook it for an SS Totenkopf ring.

[MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

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[Inucroft]

Elite or Mass-Army?

So... both? Depending on which unit & time

[DrewPicklesTheDark]

Very impressive video. Most WW2 vids, especially when discussing Germany, and even more so the SS, are very emotionally charged, so it's very refreshing to hear such blunt impartial take on the topic.

[atomicgandhi]

Next do a video on when you think Steiner's counterattack will finally arrive.

[bigmonkey]

People: "History is written by the victors!"

Books about the Waffen SS: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."

[VechsDavion]

I think one of my biggest take aways from this video is a warning against what you might call "Monolithic Thinking". As you point out at the start, it's complicated. I had assumed the SS to generally be not very good people, but the idea that, for example, an Italian farm boy might be "convinced" to join and that a lot of them were not volunteers really paints a totally different picture of the organization.

[NickVenture]

Hello.. A question: "Sonderkommando LSSAH" was what kind of unit? The Rubber Stamp Seal definitely exists as an archaeological relic. Otto Günsche replied in a letter that he did not know about it.That Kempka may have known more but he was already dead.

[chrisschultz]

Excellent presentation that takes down some myths. I particularly enjoy the graphics, which are selected with a refined sense of humor. Thanks for your scholarship.

[starcorpvncj]

Thanks for this first class post. After so many years, as a non German speaker living in Vietnam, I finally learnt the true meaning of the word 'Waffen' and the distinctions regarding the various SS formations. Thanks a lot. Cheers.

[LPPokefan]

I am positively surprised that this video was apparently not demonitized.

[bf]

In the 70s or 80s, one of the ex-SS trooper members during WWII once commented that as the war progressed, more and more you WANTED to be able to join the SS units if you were among those Germans joining the fight. If you had a choice. This is because more and more, the SS units got first dibs on the increasingly limited supplies of (1) ammunition and (2) food. This is on the premise that if you joined the forces and then saw combat, it would be better to know you had some food in your belly and bullets in your gun. This may not be as true for the regular army wehrmacht units.

Of course, the (thus far) unspoken point to ruminate over, here, is:
How would >YOU< act if You were a [male] German during the mid- to late-war? Would you (a) avoid choosing the SS units, prefering instead to go without ammunition? (This may include full meals as well.)
OR!...
...would you (b) join be more anxious to join an SS unit, knowing that you could count on 3 square a day and be comforted to know your weapon would at least fire some rounds when te Russians came a=knockin' (looking for your head)?

Of course, there would be those pesky post-war Allied trials to look forward to...and some of your fellow SS buddies were up to some very bad antics, indeed.

[aeroaero]

Could you do a video on special forces such as the brandenburgers or ss fallschirmjäger battalions?

[amerikanerfreund]

Excellent . The production and graphics are outstanding. For all MHV programs. The topics are expressed in a clear and rational non emotional or polemic-political way. This is especially to Your credit. The same can't be said about other all the other WW-2 history content providers (TIK). :}

[穎娜]

You mentioned it's a touchy topic in your blog FAQ. Glad you've finally made it! Must be a lot of research for you.