Nordic Volunteers: Frikorps Danmark

SS-Freiwilligen-Verband Dänemark

Danish SS recruits leaving for further combat training in Austria

That SS-Division Wiking performed so well during its first campaign suggested that troops drawn from outside the Reich's borders might be an effective way of fulfilling the Waffen-SS manpower requirements. SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Felix Steiner, the innovator who brought his tactical insights to the Waffen-SS embraced the Germanic volunteer movement and helped to make it a success. Certainly, the invasion of the Soviet Union marked the beginning of a vast expansion of foreign recruitment. Frikorps Danmark was a Danish volunteer free corps. At the outset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Germany asked Denmark to form a military corps to fight with the Germans against the Soviets. Its formation was subsequently sanctioned by the democratically elected Danish government which authorized officers of the Danish Army to join the unit. Of 13,000 volunteers, the Waffen-SS was able to select 7,000 of the best, including 77 officers of the Royal Danish Army. At least three of them won the Knight's Cross during the war. Approx. 3,500 of them were killed in action. On June 6 1943, the corps was disbanded. Most soldiers were transferred to the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 24 Dänemark, one of the three regiments of the then newly formed 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland. The bottom picture was taken at the railway station of Hellerup in København on July 19 1941. Photo: F. Aggersbo. National Museum of Denmark. PD.