Foreigners in the Wehrmacht, and Waffen-SS During the World War II: “Nazi Model” of Volunteering?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7976.2022.e86321Keywords:
Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Volunteering, NSDAPAbstract
During World War II, German military incorporated into their forces a significant number of men (volunteers and conscripts) without German citizenship, especially ethnic Germans and citizens from German-occupied countries. This article aims to present the complex system by which millions of foreigners ended up participating in the German war effort, their motivations, and German State´s point of view. A special emphasis is devoted to the Nazi system´s particularities (especially the overwhelming presence of the racial pyramid and the division of foreigners between the regular Army and the Waffen-SS) and to the comparison with other systems of incorporating foreigners into the military forces (such as the Western Allies and the Soviet Union), in order to raise elements to discuss the dual character of the Nazi state and its specificities.
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