 In 1939, Basch took the title Volksgruppenfueherer (Racial Group Leader) of the ethnic Germans in Hungary.In 1940 Hitler appointed him the leader of Germans in Hungary (the Danube Swabians and the Transylvanian Saxons).In the first two enlistment periods of ethnic Germans in Hungary in 1942 and 1943, Franz Basch, as head of the VDU, actively participated and was responsible for enlisting over 40,000 Hungarian citizens in the Waffen-SS for Nazi Germany.