Point well taken. Given the relatively small numbers attending the SS-Junkerschulen and the investment that the SS had in them I don�t believe that they were treated like ordinary rank and file either. I think that the original point was that an SS-Bewerber was an 18 year old at the bottom of the SS food chain on his way to becoming an SS-Anw�rter - and receiving his SS-Ausweis and becoming enrolled into the SS.
And I think that I may have misspoken somewhat regarding Joe Wotka�s comment which was questioning the use of �Bewerber� in the context of an officer candidate. Those individuals that were selected for admission to the SS-Junkerschulen started at what was essentially the bottom of that food chain as F�hrer-Bewerber while they were attending a Vorbereitungs-Lehrg�ng (preparatory course). The Vorbereitungs-Lehrg�ng were independent of the SS-Junkerschulen and were roughly four months (?) long. Upon successful completion of the preparatory course which was conducted elsewhere, the prospective officers were sent to the SS-Junkerschulen where they became SS-Junker (Unterscharf�hrer) at which point they had changed status and were NCO�s as was discussed earlier. FP
