Quote:
chuckfourth said:
SS regiment Nordland formed from Danish and Swedish volunteers.
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hmm..., it was primarily Danes and Norwegians that were targeted for the creation of Nordland, though I would think the vast majority of the manpower were Germans. At the time of Barbarossa Division Wiking was staffed by Germans (about 90%). In 1942 the Finnish III/Nordland was added.
The number of Swedes in the Waffen SS are sometimes said to be in the range of 500, but there is little, if any, support for this figure. By adding all that could possible be considered "Swedish" - we're talking about estonians etc of Swedish decent or Germans who moved to Sweden after the war - you'll get a figure of about 200. It has been possible to confirm about 180 Swedes in German service, of those about 100 got anywhere near the frontlines.
Sidenote:
Regiment Nordland was later expanded to Division size, but the bulk of the troops were ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) from what today is Romania.