During World War II, German men in Slovakia usually served in the Slovak army, but more than 7,000 were members of paramilitary squads ("Freiwillige Schutzstaffeln") and almost 2,000 volunteers joined the "Waffen-SS". After the beginning of the Slovak National uprising in late 1944, most of the young Germans in Slovakia were drafted in the German army, either with the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS. The very young and elderly were organized in "Heimatschutz", an equivalent of the "Volkssturm" in Germany. The Nazis ordered some of them to take action against the partisans; others participated in deportation of Slovak Jews. The Nazis evacuated about 120,000 Germans (mostly women and children) to the Sudetenland and the Protectorate.