„KAŽDÝ NEMEC UVEDENÝCH ROČNÍKOV SA MÁ BEZ VYZVANIA DOSTAVIŤ PRED KOMISIE.“ NÁBOR A SLUŽBA SLOVENSKÝCH NEMCOV VO WAFFEN-SS 1939 – 1945

The recruitment and military service of Carpathian Germans in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War is one of the still little researched questions in the history of this community in the 20th century Slovakia. More than 8,200 men enlisted in the armed units of the SS in three phases: illegally, quasi voluntarily and finally as obligatory military service. Not all of them enlisted on the basis of their actual personal convictions. Some men found themselves against their will in places where crimes against humanity were committed. The study is devoted to the recruitment mechanism and analyses the motivation of the men of the German minority to join the Waffen-SS. It also focuses on their service in some Waffen-SS units and in concentration camps. The last part does not avoid the question of criminal responsibility after 1945.