Criminals or Soldiers?

Waffen SS soldiers of the "Germania" regiment, 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking".
(Source)

In Hollywood films, they are nearly always depicted as wearing black uniforms, typically they are also portrayed as fanatical Nazis. They were the dreaded SS. But how much do you really know about these people?

Many members of the SS were convicted of war crimes, many paid the ultimate price for that.  The entire organization, along with the Nazi Party itself, was declared by the Nuremberg Tribunal to be a criminal organization. No different from the way modern law enforcement views the Mafia.

What were they? Who were they?

I'm not going to delve deeply into the history of the SS, many thousands of gallons of ink have been spilled on that topic, Wikipedia has a fair article on them, here. To begin with, the letters SS stand for Schutzstaffel a German word meaning "protection squad." Beginning as small units whose job was to protect Hitler and other Nazi party officials, they grew into a vast organization.

We are no doubt all familiar with the Massacre at Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge, American prisoners of war murdered in cold blood by elements of the SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. A unit which began as the personal bodyguard of Hitler and became a full-fledged division in World War II.

Again, I'm not going to talk about the entire SS organization, only one part, the Waffen SS, the military arm of the SS, indeed of the Nazi Party itself. "Waffen" is the German word for  "weapon," or "arms." So Waffen SS can be translated as the "armed SS." These units were organized and equipped in similar fashion to regular German army units, but over time they received better (and more) equipment than the regular German army.

At no time was the Waffen SS a component of the German armed forces (die Wehrmacht) which consisted of the German Army (das Heer), the German Air Force (die Luftwaffe), and the German Navy (die Kriegsmarine). Though throughout the war Waffen SS units served side by side with the German army and fell under regular army commanders throughout the war.

But the SS were different from your average German soldier. A German could not be drafted into the SS, the overall leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler had a number of odd notions about racial purity. Early SS recruits could not wear spectacles and couldn't even have any fillings in their teeth (all of which had to be present). The "ideal" of the blond, blue-eyed Aryan was in Himmler's head, but as neither he nor Hitler met this so-called "ideal," it was simply that, an ideal.

The Waffen SS was noted for a number of things throughout the war: fanatical bravery, an absurd lack of tactical finesse (SS units tended to burn out quickly), and appalling cruelty to those they considered to be subhumans, Untermenschen. Which theoretically included all the Slavic peoples, Asians, Africans, etc, though Hitler did declare the Japanese to be "Honorary Aryans."

Some have argued that the Waffen SS were not the same people who guarded the concentration camps, the Totenkopfverbände, the Death's Head Units as that is often translated, called that for the skull and crossbones on their collar patches. However, one entire SS division, SS Panzer Division Totenkopf was created from those camp guards. In reality there was a great deal of cross feed between the camp staffs and the Waffen SS.

Another myth is that while the SS committed appalling crimes in Russia and Poland, the Western Front was more "civilized." As early as 1940, during the campaign in France, there were at least two instances of Waffen SS troops murdering British prisoners of war in cold blood. Le Paradis was one -

While the evacuation at Dunkirk was taking place, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, along with other British and French units, were fighting, and dying, to hold off the German floodtide.

War is brutality and cruelty, but there are certain conventions to be observed. When the fight is done, those who have been captured should be properly treated. This is something the Waffen SS never learned. For that they were branded as criminals.

Soldiers like other soldiers? I guess it depends on the soldiers they're being compared to.

You be the judge.

Schuldig im Sinne der Anklage! (Guilty as charged!)