“1. The SS Verfügungstruppe is neither a part of the Wehrmacht nor a part of the police. It is a standing armed unit exclusively at my disposal. As such and as a unit of the NSDAP, its members are to be selected by the Reichsführer SS according to the ideological and political standards which I have ordered for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffeln. Its members are to be trained and its ranks filled with volunteers from those who are subject to military service, having finished their duties in the obligatory labor service. The service period for volunteers is 4 years. It may be prolonged for SS Unterführer. Special regulations are in force for SS leaders. The regular compulsory military service (Paragraph 8 of the law relating to military service) is fulfilled by service of the same duration in the SS Verfügungstruppe.”
I want to quote a further short passage from that decree which will be found on Page 3 of the translation in the middle of the page and on Page 5 of the original order:
“III. Orders in case of Mobilization.
“A. The employment of the SS Verfügungstruppe in case of mobilization is a double one.
“1. By the Supreme Commander of the Army within the wartime army. In that case it comes completely under military laws and regulations, but remains a unit of the NSDAP politically.
“2. In case of necessity in the interior according to my orders; in that case it is under the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police.