Is it true that half the SS were on holiday at the end of the war, escaped capture + are still out there, free

Answer 1

The SS were on holiday, when the Russians were breathing down their necks and the Allies were barrelling across France? Sounds unlikely to me.

Answer 2

Some people do find fanciful ideas to query. There were some parts of some SS units that decided to take themselves away from the battle area and many more Wehrmacht units followed suit. But the majority, as far as I know, fought until it was clear that it was a lost cause. Those, especially the officers in the SS, if not taken prisoner were hunted down by American, British and Israeli units. Indeed, one or two names are still on the 'most wanted' list for holocaust and genocide atrocities. Time, though, will cancel all this before long, though I am sure that some did evade capture and re-started their life elsewhere or with their background changed sufficiently..

Answer 3

No. The United States Army captured all the SS records and simply rounded up any stragglers. Members of the SS were treated quite differently from soldiers of the Wehrmacht [German Army]. Many members of the SS were simply shot out of hand, particularly if they fell foul of the British SAS who were still hunting them down in Germany into late 1946, well after the war had ended.

Answer 4

Oh please! The Waffen SS (Army units) and SS Panzer and Panzergrenadier units where all fighting hard right up to the last day. The SS units on Security where slightly different and although they where fighting in places, many had slipped away and where trying to flee from Allied forces that what have prosecuted them and probably shot them out of hand once the full extent of the atrocities was known about.
Do not confuse the two.

Answer 5

Don't be silly

Germany was in its death throws and the Slavic hoards where at the gates of Berlin, and Hitler tells his loyalist troops to get their buckets and spades to traipse of to the Baltic beaches?

I know Hitler was barking mad but he wasn't that mad!

Besides which half of the SS are you talking about? The half that was not German? there was only four truly German regiments/corps in the SS, Libstandarte (Hitlers body guard) Das Reich, Tottenkopf, and Hitler Jugand. The other 33 where effectively a foreign legion of non German volunteers, including a Muslim regiment from Bosnia that had fez's with the deaths head on the front.

Answer 6

I don't know wether they were on holiday but many did escape, most went to South America. Many have been traced to that part of the world and have since either died or been captured. There are still a handful whos' whereabouts are unknown.

Answer 7

Achtung
vee are not in Sud Amerika und if vee were vee vere only obaying orders!

Frederick Van Vivensburg (near Scunthorpe)
Heil Hilter

Answer 8

Yes, they were all 12 years old and on holiday at EuroDisney and are now working undercover for the CIA.

Answer 9

More than half, if you count the Waffen SS, there were tens of thousands.

Answer 10

they are the stars for the new HBO hit - 6 feet under