# Did all Nazi members of the infamous "SS" have skulls on their uniforms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116 "2012-11-06T18:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/21 "2012-11-11T19:26:15Z")
Weren’t all SS members also Nazi party members? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/22 "2012-11-11T21:29:17Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > Weren’t all SS members also Nazi party members? They did draft people to fight in the SS. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/23 "2012-11-11T21:36:29Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > Weren’t all SS members also Nazi party members? Doubtful. One thing people forget is that Himmler had ambitions beyond just Germany - he saw the SS as an international organization. Germany was considered the heartland of the Aryan race but the SS recruited members from all over Europe. There were over 300,000 non-Germans in the SS and I don’t think the Nazi Party was interested in accepting them for membership. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/24 "2012-11-12T06:57:41Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > They did draft people to fight in the SS. I had thought the SS was supposed to be some elite group, thus probably not interested in lowering their standards to any Hans Schmoe off the street. ---
**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/25 "2012-11-12T21:32:18Z")
They started out with very stringent standards,yes, but with the attrition of war (and the SS units suffered higher attritions than Heer units due to being elite forces being pushed into whatever scrap seemed worst), by the end of the war they were drafting virtually anyone with a heartbeat to maintain unit numbers (not combat efficency of course). ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/26 "2012-11-12T23:05:00Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I had thought the SS was supposed to be some elite group, thus probably not interested in lowering their standards to any Hans Schmoe off the street. To be absolutely clear I intend not the slightest mote of sympathy for this murderous organization in using the word misunderstood, but the SS is highly misunderstood in this regard. The elite SS formations were kept to high standards of ‘racial purity’ as understood by Nazi ideology; but by the end of the war they were a minority of the SS. By the end of the war the size of the Waffen SS had ballooned to about 1,000,000. In an effort to expand the size of his personal army, Himmler was able to have the SS take control of most foreign troops serving in the German military. Wiki has a list [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS_divisions) of Waffen SS divisions raised during the war and the origin of the troops. There were also a number of non-divisional sized SS formations raised during the war formed of foreign troops. Note that no less than 3 SS divisions were formed from Russian troops, and the Slavic race was considered untermenschen (subhuman) by Nazi ideology. The infamous [Dirlewanger Brigade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS), later raised to divisional strength consisted of: > [@](#): > > In its final phase, Dirlewanger’s men came to include, besides common criminals, increasing numbers of political prisoners, homosexuals, Gypsies (likely recruited from Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps) and patients from psychiatric hospitals, as well as others considered unfit to serve in normal military units. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116/27 "2012-11-12T23:15:09Z")
Thanks for the info, gang. Ignorance on this topic beaten to a pulp. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-all-nazi-members-of-the-infamous-ss-have-skulls-on-their-uniforms/640116.md?page=1)