Don't deny it. Their outfits were the best looking in... dare I say it... all of Europe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Boss#History

Chicks dug the uniform... at least to start with.

What do you mean "smart to say no"? There were no repercussions.

Yes I would have done it I like to think I don't lie to myself as much as some.

Thucy, if you think that you are lying to yourself.

If I was in Germany in August of 1939...\

I'd probably be seeking a way of there, before I was wearing the striped pajamas, so I'd escape to France...

Er, I mean, to Poland--

Er, well, maybe Austria--

The USSR--

Denmark--

Sweden--

...

I'd hope to sneak aboard to England and lay low just long enough for them to set sail before they started hating on me, and then do the same thing on a boat to the US, and hope it wasn't one FDR was turning away...

And if it was...

MEXICO, BABY! (I know the words for "bathroom" and "drinks, please!" at least...that's enough, right?)

;)

Haha, according to Belano, it sure seems like enough.

lol yeah youre probably right about that manganese.

regardless i try to answer these kinds of questions honestly.

i've thought more about whether i;d have supported slavery and the CSA if i'd lived in texas in 1860, i think the answer is probably yes there too. though i'd like to think maybe just maybe i'd have morally opposed slavery on a personal level but seen as some kind of necessary evil. probably the best i could hope for realistically.

obiwan why not go the "defiance" route and become an immortalized by the likes of cracked.com

Because cracked.com is...well...cracked.

(If I could, I guess I might try and join the Frech Resistance...at least I might get to meet Albert Camus!) ;)

I appreciate Thucy being able to admit that. As bad as it might be...

Seriously guys, my grandpa actually WAS on the waiting list to join the Waffen SS.

And my grandma once got locked in a basement for a night because she kept yelling at the nice mister in the black trenchcoat while scavenging for food.

I was under the impression that only the most ideologically committed party members joined this group.

Not only Aryans were in the SS... 30.000 Slavic Muslims from Bosnia joined SS divisions most famous being handjar division (handjar is knife they use to kills civilians who opposed their views)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Waffen_Mountain_Division_of_the_SS_Handschar_%281st_Croatian%29

here is the link about that particular unit.

This was before my grandfather and -mother met. Grandpa was pretty successful in the Hitler youth, thats why he got on the list. In spring '45 he and his group were digging trenches in the Eifel area and they got picked up by American forces. Thankfully they were treated as the children that they were.

Ahh, the stories old people spring on you over coffee and cake.

The Handzar were horrible. Izetbegovic modeled his army after them. The Ustashe committed crimes that even the Germans were appalled by.

One would have to have been pretty darn politically ignorant - or a racist/fascist - to, at 22, want to join the Waffen SS in 1939. At that point they already had been running concentration camps for 5 years... and were clearly about far more than snazzy duds and military training.

...that said, I'm more sympathetic to hitler youth - who were younger... and one could more easily rationalize their activities as scout-like with patriotic baggage... though it is still something I would have found distasteful for all the pro-Hitler/patriotism stuff. Same reason I didn't join the boy scouts - didn't like the God and Country bit they wanted to feed me.

@dexter:
I'm sure, and someone will probably be able to back this up with data, that enlistment in the military and weaponized SS branch was high up until the end of the war, especially right after outbreak.

The point, and I want to make this perfectly clear, is that the typical German at that time really WAS raised and cultured to be racist/fascist, as you said. It's part of the collective guilt the German people to this day has to bear.

@ Dexter - Besides, there is a certain part of the ego that it appealed to... Think about it you were the WARRIORS of the world's PUREST society, a cut ABOVE the ARMY. You were all 'attractive' (That was a major stereotype, it was the 'cool' job). Plus you were an elite who fought not only with brawn, but with a finely-honed intellect.

The camps they were running were for the mentally ill, prisoners, and the communists who had been blamed in a great way for prolonging the great depression. These were people that even modern society is fearful of. Camps were, with only a few specific exceptions, humane.

@ your second post.

Agree. +1

So it's clear, Rommel is in love with the Nazis.

@ Putin - Lol Why would I name myself Rommel if I was in love with the Nazis?

... are you seriously making the assertion that the Nazi concentration camp system was humane?

I don't even have words for how disgusting that is.

"Lol Why would I name myself Rommel if I was in love with the Nazis?"

That's like asking how could a guy named Zhukov be in love with Commies. Both had their reservations about their leaders, both were ultimately nothing but loyal soldiers of their regimes.

"were offered to join the SS (and you had no knowledge about what was to come) do you think you would have been smart enough to say no?" What a stupid question. Duhhh...let's see...you get an offer to join a prestigious group which TO DATE has done nothing wrong....barring some other career goal, you would be an idiot not to join. This question "smart enough" implies that somehow you COULD have knowledge that you ultimately would be joining a great force for evil....but, of course, that assumption in your question is completely false...and therefore this whole discussion is asinine.

It is my sole duty to protect and serve my nation! My greatest achievment would be to be listed as essential to Hitler's...Sorry, just my ethnicity kicking in.

But really, imagine your closest friends are enlisting, your parents are putting more pressure on you than you can bear, your sister is marrying a Nazi, everywhere you look, you see propaganda entising you. And if anyone has read All Quiet On The Western Front, (despite the fact that that was WWI) you know how much it would mean if you backed down. Unless of course, you were a Jew.

Given the circumstances, almost everyone would sign up. I can honestly say that because in Germany, practically EVERYONE signed up. That's all that is needed to be said. And it doesn't matter what you say, Germany-especially the SS-has the coolest uniforms ever.

Yes, +1 Krellin.