Waffen-SS Commander Felix Steiner's Foreign Volunteers and Conscripts

SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Felix Steiner

Flemish volunteers of the Waffen-SS

In 1942, the Waffen-SS was further expanded and an increasing number of Western European volunteers and conscripted ethnic Germans, so-called Volksdeutsche, began entering the ranks. The officer and decorated combat veteran of WWI SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Felix Steiner created a capable formation from these disparate elements. He had served in the anti-communist paramilitary Freikorps in the East Prussian city of Memel and in the German Reichswehr before joining the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1935. Felix Steiner commanded the multinational SS-Division Wiking competently through the many battles in the east from 1941 until April 1943. SS-Division Wiking Division Command Post 22 January 1942. Combat leadership and treatment of personnel. More than any other formation, this Division must be careful to ensure that the treatment of its soldiers by the chain-of-command is handled in the correct manner. The most important consideration for enlightened treatment of personal is the tireless and continuing care of the superior for the well-being of his subordinates. He must reach the state where all of his subordinates have complete trust in him and know without a doubt that he is always their best comrade. In particular, platoon leaders and company commanders must always be near their men. They must be their men´s model and example, have their confidence in all manners and never be standoffish. The more sensible, conscientious and warmhearted the leadership of a unit is, the greater is its cohesiveness and fighting value. It is exactly in regard to our Nordic volunteers that this humane treatment of our forces appears to me to be of quite decisive importance. /signed/ SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner. Credit: Peter Straßner: European Volunteers. Top image: a formal studio portrait of SS-Gruf. Felix Steiner by Adolf Hitler's official photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Hoffmann Postcards Knight Cross Holders Series R 201 - R 250. Bottom image: Flemish Waffen-SS volunteers during military training in order to fight against Bolshevism and Soviet supremacy in 1941. Photo by German press photographer Hanns Hubmann. Credit: Karl Mensburg. FU.