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| | Aberjona Press: Waffen-SS Encyclopedia |
 | | The latter turned a blind eye when Hitler used SS men to murderously purge the SA leadership on 20 June 1934 in the “Night of the Long Knives.” Hitler had made a gesture to the Reichswehr, demonstrating that it was the armed force for Germany’s future instead of the SA. |
 | | The SS system differed from that of the Heer in not requiring an Abitur (certificate generally gained upon matriculation from a Gymnasium, or academic high school, around age 19), and also in insisting that any man lacking military experience had to first serve time in the ranks. |
 | | The so-called “classic” SS Divisions—SS-LAH (raised to a division 1941), SS-Das Reich, SS-Totenkopf, and SS-Wiking—began receiving small quantities of ethnic German replacements by the spring of 1942, and as a rule, considered them inferior, since they were not the fine physical specimens of the pre-war era. |
| www.aberjonapress.com /catalog/wss/excerpt.html (4428 words) |
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