What was the german designation for americans serving in the Wehrmacht in WWII? (a la Band of Brothers)?

Question

Specifically in the second episode of Band of Brothers, "Day of Days," in which Lt. Spiers supposedly kills five or six nazi POWs, the American nazi being one of them.

Answer 1

Wikipedia claims there was a unit called the "American Free Corps" or "George Washington Brigade" consisting of Americans who served in the SS. It is claimed, however, that this was just a propaganda unit, not an actual combat unit. Supposedy it only had five members.

Answer 2

I think you didn't watch Band of Brothers properly. That American in the Wehrmacht was half German and half American and his family moved him to Germany so that's how he ended up in the German Army instead of the US Army. So to call him a Nazi is way off base. Being a soldier of the German Army did not entitle someone to be called a Nazi. A Nazi was a card-carrying member of the National Socialist Party and therefore in theory a politician. Two totally different things. A National Socialist member in the military normally ended up in the SS or Gestapo.

So if he was half German and a soldier of the German Army, then he would not have any special designation. He would just be a normal soldier like all his colleagues.

I am cynical though because in real life, that soldier would have been put in a camp. I doubt the real life Wehrmacht would have risked a half-American being in their army. Just like the US imprisoning Japanese Americans and the British imprisoning Germans living in Britain, the Germans did the same with foreign aliens living in German occupied land. So in real life, that soldier would probably not have been allowed to serve.

Answer 3

Wehrmacht Band

Answer 4

I've never seen Band of Brothers but I think the word you may be looking for is bundist.

Oh and plenty of German Americans fought for Germany in WWII

Answer 5

Timm got it. Mr. Google's got a point, but to be diplomatic, American colloquialism at the time had "Nazi" a broad term for German forces. (ie:political, or military) It's an understandable mistake.