Transcript Dias nummer 1

MILITARY CULTURE IN THE WAFFEN-SS: A
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
CONTEMPORARY MILITARY CULTURES
Prof. Niels Bo Poulsen, Royal Danish Defense College
21-07-2015
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Structure of my
presentation
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Danish SS-soldiers passing
though a burning village in
Russia.
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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
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The Waffen-SS – a
multinational army
Out of app. 900.000 soldiers:
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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 WaffenSS?
Norwegian Waffen-SS
recruitment poster,
1942. The poster
refers both to the
“Aryan” ideal and to
Norway’s Viking past.
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• An integral part of Himmler’s SSand 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
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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 SSsoldiers killed around 650
unarmed civilians in June
1944 .
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6th South African
Armoured Division
• Fights 16 SS Panzergrenadier
division “Reichsführer-SS” in
Northern Italy fall 1944
6th SAAD Victory Parade at
Monza, Italy. 14 July 1945.
Ruins of Marzabotto where the
W-SS killed 770 civilians.
• 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
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Structuring factors
SS-tank commander
Michael Wittmann and his
crew in front of a Tiger
tank.
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• 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
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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 “nonaryan” nationalities
Above: The Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem al-Husseini in
1943 inspecting Bosnian
Moslem troops under SS
command.
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• Sönke Neitzel (2002):
“The Waffen-SS never
existed: instead there
was a hotchpotch of
36 divisions…”
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Contact details
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +45 39 15 12 70
webpage: www.fak.dk
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