who was the waffen ss?

Answer 1

abbreviation OF SCHUTZSTAFFEL (German: "Protective Echelon"), the black-uniformed elite corps of the Nazi Party. Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a state.

From 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler, who built up the SS from fewer than 300 members to more than 50,000 by the time the Nazis came to power in 1933. Himmler, a racist fanatic, screened applicants for their supposed physical perfection and racial purity but recruited members from all ranks of German society.

By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy, divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS).

The Waffen-SS was made up of three subgroups: the Leibstandarte, Hitler's personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death's-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps; and the Verfügungstruppen (Disposition Troops), which swelled to 39 divisions in World War II and which, serving as elite combat troops alongside the regular army, gained a reputation as fanatical fighters.

SS men were schooled in racial hatred and admonished to harden their hearts to human suffering. Their chief "virtue" was their absolute obedience and loyalty to the Führer, who gave them their motto: "Thy Honour is Thy Loyalty." During World War II the SS carried out massive executions of political opponents, Gypsies, Jews, Polish leaders, Communist authorities, partisan resisters, and Russian prisoners of war. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies, the SS was declared a criminal organization by the Allied Tribunal in Nürnberg in 1946.

Answer 2

These were the soldiers of the Nazi state that rivalled their counterparts in the German Wehrmact (the regular army). Not all Waffen units were elite, however. The so-called 'classic' divisions were the elite, they were formed early in Hitlerite Germany, the most notable being the 1st (LSAH), 2nd (Das Reich), 12th SS (Hitler Jugund), Viking, Nordland, Hohenstauffen and Frundsberg. The other formations formed later in the war lacked the elan and had alot of foreigners among them.

Answer 3

The waffen ss were a 'what', not a 'who'. It was a group of elite troops of the 3rd Reich.

Answer 4

Yes were elite soldier who fought with the with the german arm forces but were not part of the german arm forces

Answer 5

Hitler's personal storm troopers.