DR. HAENSEL: You said yesterday that in the drafting of recruits no consideration was given to whether a man belonged to the SA or not. Is the same thing true of membership in the General SS? I mean in this sense, was no consideration given to whether the recruit belonged to the General SS, either in drafting, in training, or in promotion?
JODL: Not to such a pronounced extent as in the case of the SA. I believe that the majority of the men in the General SS came to the Waffen-SS and volunteered. But I also know that very many did not do that and were drafted in the normal way by the Army, so that they were treated in the Army just like any other German.
DR. HAENSEL: If I understand you correctly then, there were many members of the General SS on the one hand who served in the Army; and on the other hand, there were many who belonged neither to the Party nor to the SS but served in the Waffen-SS?
JODL: That is true; it does not apply to the very beginning of the war, but it is absolutely true for the second half of the war.
DR. HAENSEL: And this second half of the war contained the greater number?
JODL: Undoubtedly, that—the second half—I always call that part after the big losses in the first Russian campaign of 1941.
DR. HAENSEL: How strong was the total Waffen-SS at the end of the war, approximately?
JODL: About 480,000 men.
DR. HAENSEL: And the losses, that is the dead and captured, would be added to this number?
JODL: Yes, they would be added.