I first learned about the Schutzstaffel nearly two decades ago when I read about Doom II: Hell on Earth’s characters. A website succinctly described them as the head of state’s bodyguards, but the Schutzstaffel did more than just protect somebody, or even commit war crimes, which is the likelier reason that you are familiar with them. Members of the Schutzstaffel had a great deal of responsibilities as well as privileges:

The SS in general had a multitude of duties that included but were not limited to police work, honor guard rôles, concentration camp duties, and eventually combat operations. The Waffen SS fulfilled the personal guard and army aspect of what the SS would be to the [Fascists] but could also be considered the élite within the élite. If the SS were to be the Third Reich’s general élite then the Waffen SS was the method through which the SS could use an élite group for extreme force.

John Steiner stated SS members across all sections were encouraged to think of themselves with an “Elitebewusstsein (élite consciousness) as a group.”¹⁶ This quote is important when looking specifically at the Waffen SS regarding statements that gave the Waffen SS the title of the Imperial Guard of the [Third Reich].¹⁷ It was very clear that the Waffen SS was designed to be Adolf Hitler’s and by extension, the [NSDAP’s] personal army, police force, and political enforcers.

Moreover, the Waffen SS was encouraged to take their imperial guard idea beyond the confines of Germany. Historian Evertjan van Roekel stated that the SS had to think of themselves as “the advocate and protector of the Germanic or Nordic race.”¹⁸ This quote shows that the SS assumed a peculiar hybrid rôle in society. They were intended to serve as a [Fascist] praetorian guard while also serving as the military will of the Germanic race according to [Germanic Fascism’s] ideology.

If this wide variety of responsibilities sounds similar to the knights of the Middle Ages, that is because it is supposed to be:

The new aristocracy was not new in the sense that it had never been done before. It was new in its combination of élite warriors with a modern fascist régime and the fact that many [Fascists] thought [that] the nobility of old was lost and had to be reintroduced. There were many references to ancient knights, Vikings, and Prussian imperial guards all of which were respectively considered élite in their native cultures. The naming conventions of certain SS units were indicative of these references.

If you ever tried Wolfenstein 3D, you likely noticed that the Élite Guard was an abnormally tall (as well as blond and blue‐eyed) foe. At first I thought that this was a quaint reference to the Aryan archetype conceived of by European protofascists, but in fact the Schutzstaffel did have rules pertaining to physique:

The Waffen SS as an élite group had a difficult selection process. Waffen SS requirements were stringent regarding aspects like height, race, and health. Here is where physical aspects played a part in the general notion of SS élite status. Before the start of the Second World War height requirements for the SS was a minimum of five feet, ten inches which was noticeably taller than the average German man of military age in the 1930s.²⁶

Furthermore, the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler stated “Until 1936 we did not accept a man in the Leibstandarte (1st SS division) or the Verfügungstruppe (2nd SS division) if he had even one filled tooth.”²⁷ These strict physical requirements established the SS as a physical élite. This naturally made the SS appealing to the physically fit in Germany or young men who saw tall and active men who boxed, ran, rode horses, or competed in other sports.

The reputation of being tall, strong, and racially pure was just one part of what made the SS achieve its own place in the [Third Reich]. The SS being physically larger and more fit on average made them seem better than other groups in society due to their participation in major athletic events and the publicity that followed. For example, the SS was involved in the 1936 Olympic Games which shows a certain degree of elevation above normal people.²⁸ Hans Woellke broke the Olympic record in the shot put.²⁹

The Schutzstaffel participated in the Olympics! That surprised me.

Now, let us focus on understanding the privileges that came with joining the Schutzstaffel.

Job security and future career prospects were a large component of volunteering for the SS both domestically and outside of Germany. The long service requirements while a disadvantage for some did provide the potential for years of steady employment. For the volunteers who were not from Germany proper, there was a hope that in their nation of origin, there would be some level of autonomy or favorable job placement in a post‐war context.

A case of study for favorable post‐war status is the case of Léon Degrelle, the commander of the Walloon Legion of Belgian SS collaborators.⁴⁵ Degrelle is problematic because he was a member of Belgium’s far‐right Rexist party and was an SS apologist.

However, in his memoir, there were potentially good outcomes for Belgium to Degrelle and his fellow Belgian SS men. When [the Western Axis] declared war on the Soviet Union there was a need for more men. Degrelle and many Rexists viewed this as the opportunity “to command respect of the Reich” and a chance to win a position of prestige that would be favorable for them after the war when Europe would be reorganized under the Third Reich.⁴⁶

These men under Degrelle’s command were eventually deployed to the Ardennes forest in Belgium in 1944 where they were given the task of recognizing Belgium.⁴⁷ Despite Degrelle’s complicated past, he and his Belgian SS men believed that for their service they would gain something for Belgium.

The logic that encouraged Belgians to join the SS also applied to the Dutch. According to historian Evertjan van Roekel, the Waffen SS made membership appealing. Rationing was common during the period due to the war and the need for supplies but “SS soldiers and their families received supplies as a matter of priority.”⁴⁸ Dutch SS volunteers were also promised that they could receive job training and civil jobs whenever they returned home like their Belgian counterparts.

Diary entries from a Dutch SS volunteer named Mr. Luiken states, “They are conscripted into the SS for 6 months. On their return to the Netherlands, they are placed in a secretarial office and, after a longer period of study, may also qualify for higher‐level jobs. My interest has been piqued.”⁴⁹ He wrote this when describing friends who were about to depart for Munich for their SS training. Belgian and Dutch volunteers were told that they would be rewarded for SS service.

Aside from jobs, education was a large perk that the SS could offer. In many countries, different classes have different levels of education. Historians acknowledge this and bring up examples of attempts at “élite” education throughout the rest of the world.⁵⁰ One would think of the stereotypical delineation between public and private schools or finishing academies as a certain barrier that is difficult to cross. While the lines are not always strict, they do represent a distinction in education among class lines.

The Waffen SS provided a partial bypass on the notion of an educated versus uneducated distinction amongst the classes. The SS created officer cadet schools and worked with the [Fascist] idea of education to foster institutions that would fuel the SS. Despite the demanding racial and physical requirements, educational requirements were less stringent. Due to a different set of standards, roughly 40% of officer candidates pre‐1938 had an elementary school education.⁵¹

While this appears as though the SS was watering down the quality of their officers, this was not the case due to the SS being a form of social mobility. For those who were racially worthy, it did not matter how educated one was. One could be molded by the schooling that the SS said was a “holistic approach to individual development.”⁵²

If a farmer’s son could prove that he was Aryan, not communist, and physically fit, he could go and be educated to move into the new breed of [Fascism’s] élite men. Upon acceptance to an SS officer school a candidate would learn sports, basic military history, and tactics along with other “élite” activities like fencing and sailing.⁵³

[…]

Protection from arrest was the most unsavory perk the SS could provide. Herbert Maeger (1922–present) is the case study for this benefit of SS membership. […] Despite being ethnically German, his parents were not fans of Adolf Hitler, and this caused tensions when the [Fascists] occupied Belgium. Maeger’s mother openly called Hitler a criminal and a local official pointed out this was “ a very grave matter, and serious consequences could only be avoided by a very broad‐minded course of action.”⁵⁸

Maeger recalled that given his situation, “It would be extremely helpful in this respect if I volunteered for the Waffen SS and my father agreed.”⁵⁹ He joined the SS as a teenager and was assigned to the 1st SS division in exchange for his mother not being arrested.

(Emphasis added.)

If you haven’t the time to work your way through a book such as Herbert F. Ziegler’s Nazi Germany’s New Aristocracy, this forty‐page document is mostly worth reading. It is naïve to believe that any Fascist seriously wanted to realize a classless nation (at best, he might have wanted to somehow render class irrelevant), but liberal blemishes aside, you’ll learn a good deal about the SS and why so many men chose to join it.