For an organisation that could not yet boast of a glorious history, this proletarian approach was a virtue born of necessity. Those charged with grooming the new SS elite, however set their sights high. They called their academies Junkerschulen, or schools for young nobles, and devised a curriculum to transform the sons of farmers and artisans into officers and gentlemen.

The prime mover behind this effort, retired Major General Paul Hauser, was the image of genteel authority. His approach was reflected in the sites chosen for the Junkerschulen. The gracious grounds of Bad Tölz, for example, impressed on the cadets that, whatever their origins, they had been elevated to a lofty estate and must perform accordingly. For some this required basic training in matters that were not exclusively military.

Incoming cadets were issued an etiquette manual that defined table manners ("Cutlery is held only with the fingers and not with the whole hand") and even contained instructions for closing a letter ("Heil Hitler! Yours sincerely, X"). Correct form was further encouraged through cultural activities and lectures on Nazi ideology. But the heart of the regime was a mixture of athletics and field exercises, meant to yield Junkers who were nobly conditioned to command.

The classroom challenges undertaken by SS officers-in-training ranged from playing war-games in a sandbox to unravelling the meaning of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Ideology excited the cadets less that military theory. Many had already been steeped in propaganda as members of the Hitler Youth. However, ideology was an important factor in the examinations that eliminated one candidate in three during the three month course. On one test the cadets were asked to expand on these words of Hitler: "The mixing of blood, and the sinking of the racial standard contingent upon this, is the sole cause for the demise of all cultures".

Stressing racial purity proved embarrassing during the war, when the Junkers schools accepted recruits from occupied countries. Most foreigners enlisted to fight the Soviet Union, so the SS lecturers shifted from the sanctity of Nordic blood to the evils of Bolshevism. A goal of the Junkers schools was to produce officers who were fit to fight on the run. Building on mobile tactics introduced late in World War One, General Hauser prepared his cadets for rapid assaults that would leave the enemy reeling. This approach, according to Hauser’s assistant, Colonel Felix Steiner, required " a supple, adaptable type of soldier, athletic of bearing, capable of more than average endurance".

To forge these soldier-athletes, the SS spared no expense. The facilities at Bad Tölz included a stadium for football and track-and-field events, separate halls for boxing, gymnastics, and indoor games, a heated swimming pool and sauna. The complex attracted outstanding talent. At one time, eight of twelve coaches at Bad Tölz were national champions in their events.

Most of the prospects who entered the Junkers schools were experienced men from the ranks of the SS, SA, or Gestapo who had been recommended by their commanding officers. Not all the cadets, however, had been trained to the highest standard, and instruction during their early weeks at the Junkers schools had to be devoted to handling weapons, clearing obstacle courses, and other fundamentals. After the basics, the candidates learned the advanced skills required of a small unit commander, including field communications, coordinating infantry and artillery fire, and landing assault craft on a hostile shore.

Always the aim was to produce leaders who were not cogs on a wheel, but versatile players in a mobile ensemble. The schools fostered a headlong combativeness that often paid big military dividends but sometimes led young officers to expose their units to unnecessary risks. And for all the Junkers' spirit as SS men they remained political soldiers who might be called upon to carry out orders that had no military justification.

As it's combat role expanded during the war, the SS established two additional Junkers schools, in Austria and Czechoslovakia, and a number of specialized training centres throughout occupied Europe. The demanding craft of mountain warfare was taught in a majestic arena, the Tyrollean Alps on the border of Austria and Italy.

To the school's first officer candidates, who arrived in 1942, the spectacular setting seemed a world away from the savage fighting in Russia and Africa. But the war was closing in on them. By 1943 the SS mountaineers had to interrupt their training to do battle with Italian partisans, who believed the time had come to send the Germans packing.