Not all German soldiers in WWII were Nazis, as the Wehrmacht consisted largely of non-Nazi soldiers. The SS, however, was made up entirely of Nazi Party members and committed the worst atrocities.
There were certainly non-Nazi German soldiers in WWII (WWII), although many members of the German military were ideologically supportive of or even affiliated with Nazism and Hitler. From one point of view, however, since members of the German military were not allowed to affiliate with a political party, it could be said that all German soldiers in WWII were not Nazis. The Nazi political party, however, had its own armed soldiers in the Waffen-SS and thus these soldiers were Nazi soldiers.
The term Nazi is used to refer to members of the National Socialist Party, the political party that Hitler rose to power and eventually became the dominant political party in Germany during the war. The term, however, is often generalized to refer to all German combatants in World War II, as a way of differentiating that era of soldier from other German soldiers. Noting the fact that many soldiers in WWII were not Nazis, some people believe it seems to question all Germans at the time, some of whom did not directly support Hitler or the policies of Nazism.
The armed forces in Germany, made up largely of non-Nazi German soldiers, were called the Wehrmacht. It consisted of three main branches: the navy (Kriegsmarine), the air force (Luftwaffe) and the army (Heer). Subsequently, a fourth branch, the Waffen-SS, came under its general jurisdiction, although it was also under the Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was controlled by the Nazi political party. After World War I, severe limits were placed on the German army, the Reichswehr, limiting the number of members it could have and the equipment they could use. By the 1920s, Germany had begun to covertly circumvent these restrictions, increasing its military strength and acquiring new equipment.
When Hitler took power in 1934, he began to grow the army even more. He reinstated conscription and began the work of building Germany’s military power dramatically. One way he did this was by creating a new military body, the Wehrmacht, which would eventually grow into a powerful force. Many see the Wehrmacht as a Nazi group because it was created by Hitler and because members had to take an oath of loyalty to the Führer.
While many link the Wehrmacht to Nazism, it can also be seen as consisting exclusively of non-Nazi German soldiers in World War II, as the rules of the Weimar Republic’s constitution prohibited soldiers from having political affiliations or voting. Indeed, many members of the Wehrmacht in later years strongly opposed Hitler and Nazi policies, especially after Hitler began to display dangerous tendencies to throw away strategic intelligence in favor of emotionally driven hostility.
If the Wehrmacht can be seen as consisting largely of non-Nazi German soldiers, then we have to look elsewhere to find the majority of Nazi soldiers. This is where the Schutzstaffel, or SS, becomes important. The SS was a paramilitary organization that grew into a full-fledged army under Hitler’s leadership, and consisted entirely of Nazi Party members. It was the SS who were responsible for most of the worst atrocities committed, while non-Nazi German soldiers in WWII were mostly fighting on the different fronts of the war against foreign militaries.
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