1-276-948 - Art Media/Heritage Images

French recruitment poster for the SS, 1943-1944. Frenchmen were eligible to join the SS from 20 July 1943. Several thousand volunteered and in 1944 the 33rd SS 'Charlemagne' Division was created out of an amalgamation of French units serving with the Wehrmacht and SS. The division fought on the Eastern Front. In the final days of the Third Reich, French SS troops were amongst the guards of Hitler's bunker.