R & A No. 3113.7 / Principal Nazi Organizations Involved in the ...

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Eligible for membership were persons fulfilling the following
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qualifications:
"fiLameless character" and willingness to devote oneself
completely to tho ideas of the Führer and the tasks of the
SA; Aryan descent;
Worthiness of membership in the NSDAP;
Physical ability.
Volunteers were to report to the leader of thoir local SA Storm with
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the "voluntary declaration of their wish to enter the SA." A
special commission decided on the application after thorough ideological,
racial, a'nd political investigation.
Reliable figures on the strength of the SA are scarce. According
to official Nazi sources, the SA had eleven "bands of 100" (Hundertschaften)
in 1922; by 1930 the mombership probably exceeded one hundred thousand,
Hitler spoke of "half a million SA nen" in 1934-^ The official Party
statistics give the figure of 3,543,099 for 1 January 1935, after the
Rtfna purgeo Of the membership 28.3 percent were members of the NSDAP.
Reliable figures for the later years are not available, but the Decree
of 19 January 1939, quoted above, rac.de membership in the SA compulsory
for soldiers discharged fron active service.
3. Chief Fttnct^onp f^nd Activities. In dascribing the functions
and activities of the SA, three periods must be distinguished, cor^s-
ponding to the three nain periods in the development of the SA
1. Had.., p. 365.
2. Ibid.
3. Bayer, p^g_SA0, i2£i_Sii., P. 9.
4. Das Braune Heqi-. ^.00 Bilddokumente. Berlxn 1934, p. XIII.
5. NSDAP Partei Statistik 1935, ed. Der Kcichsorrranisationaleiter der
NSDAP, vol IIT, p. 70.
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