Free Corps Denmark - Recruitment

Recruitment

It is estimated that approximately 6,000 Danes served in the Free Corps Denmark during the course of the war.

A 1998 study showed that the average recruit to Free Corps Denmark was a Nazi and/or a member of the German minority in Denmark and that recruitment was very broad socially. Bo Lidegaard notes: "The relationship between the population and the corps was freezing cold, and legionnaires on leave time and again came into fights with civilians meeting the corps' volunteers with massive contempt." Lidegaard gives the following figures for 1941: 6,000 Danish citizens had signed up and were approved for German army duty and 1,500 of these belonged to the German minority in Denmark.

It should be noted, though, that half of the over 12,000 Danes that initially volunteered for active service were regarded as being not suitable for active service.

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