SS Charlemagne: The 33rd Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS

1) The line of conduct for French volunteers of all ranks could only be, in accordance with their terms of engagement, defensive fighting against the Soviet Army advancing on Western Europe.

2) Despite what Colonel Puaud had said, every volunteer had the right at the time of transferring to the Waffen-SS to terminate the terms of enlistment formerly entered into by him with other arms of the Wehrmacht. This was equally applicable to the new arrivals. Those who wanted to leave should be released without making it difficult for them. Nevertheless, they could only use this opportunity once.

3) To respect to a large extent the religious sentiments of the French volunteers, who almost without exception considered their engagements to be in defence of the Christian West, a point that had played a decisive role in their enrolment in France, and to support this point of view in the form of the divisional chaplain, Monsignor Comte de Mayol de Lupé and his auxiliaries.

4) There was no question of applying national-socialist propaganda among the volunteers. They were to remain French and not just French-speaking SS. The manner in which they saw the future of their country was their business. The troops were not to treat this matter otherwise than official. Arguments about internal political matters were to be discouraged as endangering the spirit of camaraderie.

5) The honour of the French flag and the prestige of the French soldier remained supreme not only in battle, but also in the way the German civilian population regarded them.

Krukenberg wrote of the arrival of the Miliciens: