SS requirements

Does anyone know which were the requirements to enter the ss?? i heard some absurd of being good looking (lol) is that true ?
Would they take a guy with glasses (cause their leader had a pair)

 

Pages 35 and 36.

The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror - Google Book Search

 

As an example of the initial standards set for the early Verfungstruppe, this is from a leaflet called "how do I join the SS-VT' :

SSVT recruitment criteria. (1935-).



Requirements:

• Age 17-22.
• Minimum height for the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler: 178cm.
• Minimum height for SS-Standarten Deutschland, Germania: 174cm.
• Minimum height for Musicians, pioneers & signallers: 172cm.
• German Nationality
• Fit, with a national socialist viewpoint.
• Able to establish antecedents back to at least 1800.
• Single & not engaged.
• Completed their labour corps service.
• Written parental permission if minimum age.
• Completed any apprenticeships or been officially released by their journeyman.
• Pay for any dental treatment required at the time of acceptance and have the work carried out before enlistment.
• Normal eyesight without glasses.
• No criminal record.

• SS Officer careers are open to any member who has served for one year.
• Minimum length of service in the SS-VT is four years.
• Volunteers who wish to follow an NCO career must sign on for at least 12 years.
• After four years service there is a possibility of transfer to policing careers.

Waffen SS requirements post 1944:

• Can you walk?
• Hold a Rifle?
• You're in then.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Hahaha

 

The had a interesting documentary on the weapons of the SS yesterday on the military channel. They had some nice machine guns for that era.

 

Machine guns?

As in the MG 34, 42? If so they were used by all the different German forces not just the SS.

 

no criminal record.....they were all criminals,except for the ss gentlemen who never knew about the mass genocide going on all over europe,i forgot those chaps..lee.

 

Thats generalising, not all SS were criminals who hated jews, not all were mass murderes who tortured allied soldiers for fun and not all SS were Nazis, is that hard for people to understand or something.

 

SS Machine guns is actually quite an interesting subject (If you like that kind of thing). Think of just about any obscure or minor captured type from Madsen to zb26 and you'll often see them in the hands of SS troops in photographs. These are in a slightly different category to scattered captured weapons, early war they're often the only MGs available to a given WSS unit, a legacy of the separate procurement channels and the Heer & WaA's reluctance to assist them in materiel.



Cheers,
Adam.

 

I know Hitler tried to get the best weapons to the SS later in the war, but at the begining they had to scrounge around for what ever they could get, now that must have been a pain. So it would be virtually impossible to know all the different types they used, I have seen a picture of an SS Machine Gun unit using an old style ww1 machine gun.

 

Interesting how this went from a request about the SS membership requirements to weapons.

 

This is true. Eicke actually had squads go around and steal trucks and movers for the Totenkopf Division when it was first being formed. Also, there were not enough uniforms during the forming of the 12th SS and they went into battle using Leather U-Boat uniforms.

 

You funny

 

So Pvt Pyle? You stated that your father was a Waffen SS Tiger crewman on the Eastern Front. Did he join before or after the requirements were loosened?

 

Just thought I would share didn't mean to derail the thread.

 

From my research, the stringent requirements were only enforced during the pre-war years with the exception of the LSSAH. There was a big recruitment effort in the latter part of the 30's due to the expansion of the Waffen SS. Post war recruitment did not follow the stringent Aryan requirements.

 

Actually that's not really true, they simply diverted supplies of U-Boot foul weather kit to the 12th SS (mainly tank crews) for the Ardennes offensive, partly because of supply issues but also because they were warm and practical for use by tank crews. That said, due to shortages in camouflaged materials they did issue LAH and HJ troops with equipment made from Italian camouflage fabric. Both were quite popular I hear.

It's also worth noting that by 1944 the 12th SS and LAH, I imagine other SS units as well, contained many soldiers who were drafted in from other arms and even services. Luftwaffe ground crew, KM shore troops, all were known to get drafted into SS units.

 

Hi Adam, that's a great photo. Oddly enough, the machinegun pictured greatly resembles the Colt 1895 "Potato Digger." I actually had on several occasions, was allowed to handle the two that our local Museum of Science and History has in their History Collections.

 

Vz 36 I believe, czech and not a bad piece of kit:

Modern Firearms - ZB 53 / Vz.37 machine gun

 

He joined much before.....he did not start the war as an ss but he joined encouraged by his father. Passed the first 2 winters in the eastern front
(barbarossa, stalingrad)....he always told me that the t-34 where really good tanks,yet few soviet tankers were worth of using them.