Back المتطوعون والمجندون الأجانب في فافن-إس إس Arabic Ausländische Freiwillige der Waffen-SS German Voluntarios y conscriptos extranjeros en las Waffen-SS Spanish Volontaires et conscrits étrangers de la Waffen-SS French Truppe straniere nelle Waffen-SS Italian Voluntários e recrutas estrangeiros da Waffen-SS Portuguese Иностранные формирования войск СС Russian 武装党卫队外籍成员及志愿者 Chinese

Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts

Ukrainian volunteers of the SS Galician Division marching in Sanok, May 1943
Bosniak volunteers of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (1st Croatian) being inspected by Haj Amin al-Husseini, alongside SS-Brigadeführer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, November 1943

During World War II, the Waffen-SS recruited significant numbers of non-Germans, both as volunteers and conscripts. In total some 500,000 non-Germans and ethnic Germans from outside Germany, mostly from German-occupied Europe, were recruited between 1940 and 1945.[1] The units were under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS Command Main Office) beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Upon mobilisation, the units' tactical control was given to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces).[2]

  1. ^ Stein 1984, p. 133.
  2. ^ Stein 1984, p. 23.