SS candidate
SS- Anwärter ( SS-Anw. ), Also relay candidates or relay candidates , was the collective name of all SS soldiers ( available troops , skull associations , from 1940 Waffen SS ) during their first three years of service. Also for those who, according to SS order No. A / 9434 of November 9, 1935, had not yet been accepted as full members of the General SS . They had successfully completed the first two stages of the admission and probation rituals in the SS divisions and met the requirements of the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA).
The term thus includes all SS members who were assigned an SS number. have been provisionally taken over into the Schutzstaffel, d. i.e. all relay men and relay ranks.
In 1941, the party rank of SS candidate was renamed the Army rank of Rifleman.
With effect from June 1, 1936, the rank designations for SS candidates were:
- Relay contenders,
- Relay man,
- Relay storm man etc.
The relay candidate , as a rank or status designation, is preceded by the designations SS applicant (relay applicant) and SS young man (relay young man).
Ranking and insignia
| lower: SS-Jungmann (Staffel-Jungmann) |
current: SS candidate / relay candidate |
higher: SS full candidates (relay full candidates) |
The squadron candidate was allowed to wear the SS uniform with collar tabs, had a final SS identity card and had to take the SS oath of allegiance and the oath of kin . People who wanted to become a member of the General SS passed further examinations and qualifications as SS full candidates ( full relay candidates).
- See also
SS disposable troops
As a general rule, like all SS applicants, volunteer applicants for the SS auxiliary force had to comply with the requirements of the RuSHA and be German citizens . Interested male adolescents reported to the responsible registration office of the Wehrmacht or to an SS standard . The SS candidates for the available troops were immediately actively involved in the service.
However, from the outset there were differences for SS candidates in the SS disposal troop compared to the Allgemeine SS. In contrast to the Allgemeine SS, the trial period in the SS disposal troop was only three months.
After the probationary period, members of the SS disposal troops were sworn in on Adolf Hitler in front of the Feldherrnhalle in Munich on the night of November 8th to 9th . With the swearing-in, the official promotion from SS candidate to SS man in the SS disposable troops was completed. Afterwards the service began in the units and formations of the SS disposable troops.
After a total of two years of service, general military service was considered to have been completed, and if the qualifications or requirements were met, the pending promotion to SS Rottenführer usually took place .
Armed SS
From March 1940, the SS disposal force was officially renamed the Waffen SS. From this point in time, the uniform rank designation SS-Schütze or SS-Oberschütze was binding for SS volunteers when they entered the corresponding Waffen SS unit or the corresponding association . This applied equally to foreign volunteer applicants .
General SS
In contrast to the members of the available troops , SS candidates for the General SS had a six-month probationary period during which Himmler could revoke their membership in the General SS at any time. During this probationary period, the candidate for the General SS had to acquire the SA military badge and the German Reich sports badge in bronze and learn the so-called SS catechism between being sworn in to Hitler (April 20) and being drafted into the Reich Labor Service (October 1) . This was conveyed to the candidate in the subject "Weltanschauung" and was often designed as a question-answer game.
On October 1, the SS candidate left his home unit and began his six-month Reich labor service as a staunch National Socialist . However, simultaneous party membership in the NSDAP was not compulsory in the SS , although this was always demanded by the Reichsführung SS . A random sample for 1938 showed that, for example, 1144 people or 8.3% of the top and middle SS leadership corps were not NSDAP members. The labor service was followed by military service, which the SS candidate did mostly in the Wehrmacht . A small part joined the available troops to do their military service there. After completing his two years of military service, the SS candidate returned to his home unit and repeated his SS service there.
The Wehrmacht assessed all conscripts. If the assessment for the SS candidate in question, who was now considered to be a so-called "full candidate", was positive, he was sworn in again on November 9th: He swore a life worthy of the SS for himself and his future family and all of them were imposed by Himmler To comply with regulations. With the handover of the SS service dagger introduced in 1933, the previous squadron candidate became an SS man recognized by Heinrich Himmler and thus a full member of the SS .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Andrew Mollo: Uniforms of the Waffen-SS , p. 152
- ↑ Heinz Höhne : The order under the skull. The History of the SS, pp. 138–139. Weltbild Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-89350-549-0 .
- ^ John F. Steiner: Power Politics and Social Change in National Socialist Germany: A Process of Escalation into Mass Destruction , p. 252
- ↑ Heinz Höhn, The Order under the Skull, The History of the SS, p. 139
- ↑ Gordon Williamson: The Waffen SS 1933-1945 , Chapter Two “Recruitment”, p. 10.
- ^ Source: SS list of seniority 1938, appendix "Statistics", leader corps according to ranks and party affiliation , p. 527.