I take it that you mean the Waffen SS? The difference would be in his indoctrination if he was a German national. The Waffen SS also had foreign volunteers. There were also conscripts. So, I guess it would depend into which catagory your uncle fits.
not all Germans were Nazis , the SS whether Waffen SS or not were Nazis and to that extend they were different from the average commoner who had to fight and sometimes die for a regime that they certainly did not all support.
Hi Skipper, that is true for pre-war and very early war SS. By even 1942 the requirements for entrance into the SS were nearly gone and by 1944 they were accepting nearly everyone who could fight and had gained access to the conscription pool. In 1943 there were the "Goering-Spende," when thousands of Luftwaffe ground troops were involuntarily transfered to the SS. As PzJgr already mentioned there were the foreign legions. Out of 38 divisions, only about 7 were really "elite," most troops in the foreign legions were not fervent Nazis
True enough. Those who wanted to fight communism but their country did not contribute units could only do so by joining the Waffen SS. The German Army would only take Germans. The Danes, Belgians, Norwegians, Finns, etc had to join the Waffen SS.
In that case he was no different than an average soldier in the Heer. He of course wore a different uniform and fought alongside other SS soldiers, but he was most likely not a Nazi and was no different than any other conscript.
I agree about the transfer of conscripts to SS units, but these were not very common, they did happen but even when the end was close the drilling officers acted like nothing was going on and were as picky as ever regarding race to recruits new volunteers. An interesting example is the Senheim SS school in Alsace that recruited and trained men from all Europe until the very last moment. Considering how easy it was to be disqualified, whether for physical "defects", health, political views, race , religion etc... I have trouble to believe former SS members who claimed they were forced to join, at least in that center.
