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Waffen SS| Military arm of the SS, by the end of 1944 the Waffen SS numbered 600,000 men in 34 divisions. In general the Waffen SS fought as motorized infantry, but by the end of 1944 the 6th Panzer Army was a Waffen SS formation. |
| The first Waffen SS unit was Hitler's personal bodyguard, the ‘Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler’, a 120-man company formed 1933. |
| Originally very stringent physical conditions ensured a high quality of recruit, but as the war progressed the requirements were relaxed. As German recruits dwindled, Himmler began recruiting from Scandinavian and Dutch volunteers and then abandoned the pure Aryan requirements to recruit from any occupied country, resulting in ‘Waffen SS Legions’ from Latvia, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, and other places. |
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