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The Waffen-SS was formed as a subdivision of the regular SS
(Schutzstaffel) corps in Nazi Germany in order to perform a wide
variety of functions:
- Regular Troops (Verfügungstruppe, SS-VT) served as elite troops and fought alongside the regular Wehrmacht army
- Hitler's personal guard, the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
(LAH)
Later there were the SS Freiwilligenverbände (SS Volunteer Units) from countries and regions such as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia, Britain and the Commonwealth (Britisches Freikorps), Bulgaria, Belorussia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, North Caucasus, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sudetenland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Ukraine.
The SS Order of Battle included numerous units ranging in
size from small detachments to entire corps.
Examples are the SS Division Nordland, formed from Norwegian, Danish and Baltic volunteers; an SS Hitlerjugend Division (enlisted ranks were volunteers from the Hitlerjugend); and an SS Totenkopf Division, formed from excess guard detachments who had almost all died out by 1942
in the Valdai Hills of Russia (these were
replaced by volunteers not affiliated with the concentration
camps).
Until 1944, service in the Waffen-SS was more or less voluntary (less so among the
ethnic Germans in the occupied territories). Beginning then, whole units were assigned to the Waffen-SS.
See also: Comparative military ranks of World War II
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