Is it true that many Scandinavians joined the German Army?

Question

is it true that many scandinavians joined the nazi army such as the Wehrmacht and SS during the war. For it doesn't seem possible that 3 countries like Japan, Germany and Italy could take on the whole world like they did. Is it true?

Answer 1

Yes, Scandinavians, (Danes, Norweigians, Swedes, Finns,) did join the German Armed Forces, some just for a chance to fight against the communists. Others because they believed in what the Nazi creed stood for.

In most European countries there were Fascist Organizations / Youth movements modeled along the lines of the German Nazi party and often affiliated with them.

Italy had no intention of taking on the world, Mussolini believed that Nazi Germany would help him to enlarge the Italian Colonial colonies in Africa.

Hitler hoped for the British to join him in partnership.

The USA were only dragged into the European War in a large way when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, prior to this Germany and Japan had announced they were allies, so when war was declared on Japan it gave a green light to get more involved in attacks on Germany.

The three countries you mentioned did not wake up one day and say wow! lets form a pact and take over the world, all of what happened , happened because of a great many small things happening over a period of time , a little like the ripples in a pond when a stone gets thrown in.

Answer 2

No. They did not join the German Army.

There were foreign troops that either were volunteers or conscripted into the SS however.

The SS Division Wiking was a mix of German, Nordic and Lowland (Dutch, Belgium) troops.

There were also units compromised of Latvian,Lithuanian, Estonian, and Albanian troops.

There were two reasons why these people volunteered to join the SS. First, many were swayed by the Nazi Propaganda and joined to combat the evils of communism. Second, in many of the countries, there were no jobs and the only two groups hiring were the German labour battalions and the SS. I know of one sixteen year old dutch boy who lied about his age and joined so that he could send money home to feed his mother and five siblings (Dad was off in England with the Free Dutch, but they thought he was dead). He joined the SS over the labour battalion because the uniform looked better and he thought it would impress the girls. (Remember, he was 16)

He survived the russian front and won two iron crosses.

As for if the three countries thinking they could take on the whole world.... they all had limited ambitions really. Germany wanted Europe, Italy wanted Africa, Japan wanted Asia.

For quite a while from 39-42, they were looking pretty good at winning what they wanted. If FDR had not driven the US into the Lend/Lease acts and also had not decided to win in Europe before fighting in Asia, They still might have.

Answer 3

Many Germans did, some went back to Germany to fight for Germany instead of America. But yeah, they could easily join the US Army back then, but they of course needed to speak English.

Answer 4

I've heard about people from different countries were made to fight with the Germans, but they usually surrenderd at the first possible chance. Either way it wasnt numbers that caused the Germans success early in the war, it was their lightning fast tactics with their tanks. Caught Europe off guard how fast they moved.

Answer 5

SS division Wiking

every country invaded by Germans had a nationalism-sensitive minority, that tended to cooperate with the Nazis.

Answer 6

Probably! Did you know the Nazi's also had a british
regiment! Now that's a shock, isn't it?