Why did no one want to join the Waffen-SS ?

  • Hi,

    It would appear that the Waffen-SS struggled to fill it's allowed by having to use all sorts of underhand tricks to get it right up to its end in 1945.Even when Hitler gave it permission to expand it silently struggled to get the men.So the question is why do so many authors quiet today with all the info available to pretend like it was a mythical armed force of volunteers fighting the good fight When it was anything but?

    I did not find the right solution from the internet.


    References: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=231691




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  • Jensen,
    Well, one reason why young men were hesitant to join (especially after 1943) was that the Waffen-SS had a reputation as a tough organisation that suffered very heavy casualties compared to the Heer. And German mothers did not want their sons to die, like mothers everywhere. So you had their influence on the whole recruiting process, which Himmler & Berger had to find a way around, which they finally did.
    As to why present day authors write about the Waffen-SS as a "Mythical" armed force, I guess you can't say all of them see the Waffen-SS that way. There are some extremely good and objective accounts of the Waffen-SS by Bernd Wegner, Ronald Smelser & Enrico Syring, and Jochen Boehler & Robert Gerwarth, not to mention George H. Stein. I think if you look up their books on Amazon or other book sellers, like ABEbooks, you'll be able to easily find some of their better-known ones. So I think if you look at the literature on the Waffen-SS from 30 or 40 years ago, you would find more of the hero-worshiping books that you would find today, where authors have sought the original records and have come to quite different conclusions.
    Regards,
    Douglas E. Nash