Waffen-SS murderous and savage in antipartisan sweeps and during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 In addition to whole units organized by ethnic origin, Germans or “Germanics” of “pure Nordic blood,” ideological or opportunistic recruits, served in many Waffen-SS outfits They came from the smaller Axis states of Croatia, Slovakia, as well as the Czech lands, but also from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, “Turkestan,” and Ukraine Waffen-SS volunteers thus came from all over Europe, a fact used in propaganda to portray the Waffen-SS as an army defending European civilization against “Jewish-Bolshevism.” An effort was even made to recruit British prisoners of war to fight on the Eastern Front in January 1944 Only 57 agreed to so Organized as the “St Georgs-Legion” (Legion of St George) or “Britisches Freikorps” (“British Free Corps”), this merely platoon-sized unit served a propaganda function only While often reported as having fought in Berlin in April 1945, there is no evidence the tiny band of deluded Englishmen ever saw combat Indian troops were absorbed into the Waffen-SS in 1944, forming the “Indische Freiwilligen Legion.” At the start of 1945 the international Waffen-SS was a hodgepodge of units of varying nationality, competence, and loyalty It hardly resembled Heinrich Himmler’s original vision of new elite guard of the “Aryan Volk.” In a further compromise of SS principles, while no ethnic German Waffen-SS unit was allowed military chaplains foreign SS units were permitted clerics: Muslim SS-divisions had imams, Baltic divisions were served by Lutheran pastors, and Catholic priests traveled with Flanders divisions Unit-for-unit, Waffen-SS divisions saw less combat than comparable Heer divisions Some fought only partisans, which was often a euphemism for killing Jews or starving peasants, while others served solely in backwater garrison duty No Waffen-SS unit was used in defending fixed fortifications or trapped in mid-war mass surrenders at Stalingrad or El Alamein Two SS-Panzerarmee and 18 SS-Panzer Korps were formed at different times from various Waffen-SS divisions and regiments At its peak the Waffen-SS was a major force of 910,000 men, of whom 60 percent were non-Germans All SS-units were badly ravaged by the end of March 1945 Some SS-divisions were destroyed and wholly reformed, several more than once All others were reduced to their last men and tanks, and bereft of transport by the end Waffen-SS units were scattered across central Europe during the last months of the war, from the Austrian border through Hungary, from the Elbe to the Rhine Many of the foreign volunteers were killed during the conquest of Germany, fighting to the last in and around Berlin Upon the failure of 6th SS-Panzerarmee to hold Vienna in April 1945, Hitler turned on Himmler and the Waffen-SS, stripping whole divisions of cuff insignia and other battle honors after they were already decimated fighting for his cause By the end of the war at least 253,000 Waffen-SS were dead or missing in action Hundreds of thousands more were wounded See also various campaigns and battles, and Eicke, Theodore; Hausser, Paul; Hitlerjungend; Indian Legion; Jagdverbände; Ordnungspolizei; Rassenkampf; resistance; Résistance (French); Steiner, Felix; Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA); Wehrmacht 1154