Were there ever any "good" SS soldiers during WW2?

Question

This is a really tough one. I read a story the other day about an SS guard fallng in love with a prisoner at Auchwitz, and was wondering if any similar stories exist. Did any young man (SS) ever break free of his intense indoctrination and actually do anything to help the Jewish people?

Answer 1

There must be.  After all Ronald Reagan visited a German cemetery which held the graves of 49 members of the Waffen-SS. Reagan issued a statement that called the n**i soldiers buried in that cemetery "victims", which ignited a stir over whether Reagan had equated the SS men to Holocaust victims

Answer 2

Wouldn't that be an oxymoron? Good & SS.

I suppose those young men loved their mothers, fathers and families etc.

I don't know if what you've mentioned did happen but the young man would have been shot if he'd been found out.

Answer 3

There had to be some - though the training and selection process would have limited the number of moral, ethical men in the SS - those that would be considered "good" by our current standards.

I'll be interested to see if there are stories that others may know of to answer this question more definitively than I can.

There must have been crises of conscience in some of these men.

An SS man doing something overt to help Jewish people would have been exceedingly risky.

' Hope some other answerers have stories to share on this.

Answer 4

SS Soldiers Were Very Well Trained And Were Hard To Defeat

Answer 5

The SS was a very diverse organisation. By 1940 it (SS) was pretty much the largest military and political power in Germany during the war. It consisted of 2 main arms: the Allgemeine-SS which pervaded much of the political and administrative aspects of the Reich, particularly the Wehrmacht; and the Waffen-SS.

This was divided into three main subgroups, the SS-Leibstandarte (Hitler's "Life guard") and SS-Verfugungstruppe(VT) - the 'combat support group' that consisted  the elite SS units. The SS-Totenkopfverbande(TV) 'death's head' units were the only part of the Waffen-SS to be involved officially with the concentration camps - this division consisted the guards. The Allgemeine-SS was charged with much of the administration. As the SS grew, other functional groups were added, such as a medical groups which began as SS-Sturmbann (division) medics, but grew to perform some of the more horrifying human experiments in concentration camps - Mengele was an SS member. A more abstruse example would be the Ahnenerbe SS, which was charged with 'proving' the Aryan heritage and dabbled somewhat in occultism.

The Einsatzgruppen were formed as needed, but were not necessarily administered by or (later) formed from the SS, but involved the Gestapo, SD, Himmler's RSHA and even local volunteers.

However, despite the differences in organisation the links between different bits of the SS, essentially within the 'third division' - the 'totenkopf' concentration camp guards and administrators - were concerned made any attributions of blame at trial difficult, but it's fairly clear that the SS-VT did not partake in the torture and slaughter of Jews in the same way the SS-TV did, but they did enact many atrocities - particularly slaughters of troops 'hors de combat'.

Generally the SS was a fairly horrifying organisation that is now regarded illegal by the international community. However, it did consist of people, and people are capable of strange and unexpected things. We are taught to view the enemy as inhuman, but ultimately it is man against man and at that level there are no real 'good guys', just people who want to survive.

Answer 6

Hitler was not universally liked or respected by his own staff, and there were several conspiracies planning to stage a coup or assasination, but not succeeded.  Whether they would have continued his policies is unknown.  There were definitely highly-placed SS officers who fed accurate intelligence to the allies, despite ostensibly following his lead.

Answer 7

I do know that there are former S.S. living in the US and Britain that receive pension checks from Germany.

Answer 8

Oscar Shindler... (sp?)

Answer 9

Would you consider Michel Wittman a 'good SS" soldier.  He was their tanker ace, most notably on the Russian front and during the Normandy campaign, receiving the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Sword.  Is that a 'good' soldierly virtue for a soldier of the 1st SS Panzer Division?