The Schutzstaffel (SS) used a more stringent standard: In order to join, a candidate had to prove (presumably through baptismal records) that all direct ancestors born since 1750 were not Jewish, or they would have to apply for a German Blood Certificate instead. Later, when the stresses of the war made it impracticable to confirm the ancestry of officer candidates, the extended proof of ancestry regulation was diminished to the standard laws requiring certified evidence of non-Judaism within two generations.