SS

For other uses, see SS (disambiguation).

The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was a large paramilitary organization that belonged to the Nazi party. The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, selected on racial and ideological grounds. The SS was distinguished from other branches of the German military, Nazi Party, and German state by their own SS ranks, SS unit insignia, and SS uniforms. Their performance as a fighting unit, called the Waffen SS, was to prove undistinguished compared to the German army, the Wehrmacht. The SS were, however, notorious for their participation in enforcing Nazi policies. These acts were mainly carried out by the departments that comprised the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, such as the Gestapo, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Einsatzgruppen.

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History of the SS

The SS was formed from the ranks of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1925 to be Adolf Hitler's personal guard and to guard NSDAP meetings. On January 6, 1929 Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as the leader of the group, which then had only 280 people. With Hitler's approval, Himmler built up the SS. By the end of 1932 the SS had 52,000 members; by the end of next year, it had over 209,000 members.

Before 1932, the SS wore the same uniform as the SA, except for a black tie and a black cap with a skull symbol on it (Totenkopf, "death's head"). Later they adopted a black uniform and then, just before the war, a dove grey uniform. The Waffen or armed SS wore a field grey uniform similar to the Reichsheer. Their motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue ("My honor is loyalty.") The SS rank system was unique in that it did not copy the terms used in the Wehrmacht, but instead used the ranks of the SA.

Heinrich Himmler, together with his right-hand man Reinhard Heydrich, consolidated the power of the organisation. In 1931 Himmler gave Heydrich the assignment to build an intelligence service inside the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).

By the time World War II began the number of members rose to 250,000 and the Waffen SS was formed in December 1940 to fight alongside the Wehrmacht, Germany's regular military. The SS also received control of the Gestapo in 1936.

Hitler gave the SS jurisdiction over all concentration camps and allowed them to oversee the day-to-day control of all countries conquered by Germany during the war.

Towards the end of World War II, a group of former SS officers went to Argentina and allegedly set up a Nazi fugitive network code-named ODESSA (an acronym for Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, "Organization of the former SS members") with ties in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the Vatican, operated out of Buenos Aires, which helped Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke and many other war criminals find refuge in Latin America. Some historians however consider the story about ODESSA greatly exaggerated by sensationalist journalists.

On September 30, 1946, the judges of the Nuremberg Trials (Tribunal) sentenced the SS-organization, declaring it a criminal organization. The judges underpinned this sentence by stating that: "The SS was used for purposes which were criminal, involving the persecution and the extermination of the Jews, brutalities and killings in concentration camps, excesses in the administration of occupied territories, the administration of the slave labour programme and the maltreatment and murder of prisoners of war" (IMT, 1946, Vol. XXII, p.516, in: Höhne, 1969, p.3). The sentence continued by declaring that suspicion of crime was to be attached to all persons "who had been officially accepted as members of the SS...who came or remained members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the [London War Crimes] Charter" (IMT, 1947-1949, Vol. XXII, p.517 in: Höhne, 1969, p.3). According to Höhne 50,000 of the one million SS-men had committed crimes, such as involvement in the Holocaust (page 537 of the German version).

SS Leaders

  • Julius Schreck (1925-1926)
  • Joseph Berchtold (1926-1927)
  • Erhard Heiden (1927-1929)
  • Heinrich Himmler (1929-1945)
  • Karl Hanke (1945)

Notable SS Personnel

Organizational Structure

In 1944, the SS had become a vast and complex organization and was considered a "State within a State". The final structure and organization of the SS was as follows

SS and Police Leaders

The most powerful members in the SS were the SS and Police Leaders, divided into three levels being that of Regular Leaders, Higher Leaders, and Supreme Leaders. Such persons normally held the rank of SS-Gruppenfuhrer or above and answered directly to Heinrich Himmler in all matters pertaining to the SS in their area of responsibility. Thus, SS and Police Leaders bypassed all other chains of command. In Himmler’s grand dream of the SS, the SS and Police Leaders were eventually to become SS-Governors of the Lebensraum which would be ruled by SS-Lords, protected by SS-Legions, and worked and lived in by SS-Peasant Warriors.

Headquarters Offices

The SS consisted of twelve main offices. The following is a list of those offices in 1944 and who headed each one.

  • Personal Staff of the Reichsführer-SS: SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff
  • SS Main Office (chief administrative office): SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger
  • Main SS Leadership Office (Administrative headquarters of the Allgemeine SS and the Waffen SS): SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner
  • Main Office of the SS Tribunal: SS-Obergruppenführer Franz Breithaupt
  • Main Office for Matters Concerning Race and Settlement: SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt
  • SS Personnel Main Office: SS-Obergruppenführer Maximilian von Herff
  • Reich Security Main Office (RSHA - includes the SD and Gestapo): SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, succeeded by SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner
  • Main Office of the Uniformed Regular Police: SS-Obergruppenführer Kurt Daluege
  • Main Office for Economic and Administrative Matters (under this office stood concentration camp administration): SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl
  • Command SS-Obergruppenführer Heiβmeyer: SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. August Heiβmeyer
  • Main Office for Ethnic Germans: SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Lorenz
  • Main Office of the Reich Commissioner for Strengthening Germanism: SS-Obergruppenführer Ulrich Greifelt

General-SS

  • The Allgemeine-SS was a “part time” group of SS personnel who composed mustering formations throughout Germany. The formations were divided into Standarten, organized into larger formations known as Abschnitts and Oberabschnitts. The Allgemeine-SS were considered more or less reservists and many Allgemeine-SS personnel served in other branches of the German military, the Nazi Party, or the Waffen-SS. For those who served in the Waffen-SS, it was standard practice to hold separate SS ranks for both the Allgemeine and the Waffen-SS.
  • The Germanic-SS was a organization which was formed in conquered and allied countries to Germany. The Germanic-SS was a part time group, much like the Allgemeine-SS, that performed home service duties such as local security and Nazi indoctrination. Denmark and Belgium were the two largest participators in the Germanic-SS program. Germanic-SS members wore their own uniforms with a modification of SS rank titles and insignia. All Germanic-SS units answered to a central office in Germany, under the command of the Allgemeine-SS.
  • The Auxiliary-SS was an organization that arose in 1945 as a last ditch effort to keep concentration camps running to destroy evidence of the Holocaust. Auxiliary-SS members were not considered regular SS personnel, but were conscripted members from other branchs of the German military, the Nazi Party, and the Volksturm. Such personnel wore a distinctive tri-swastika collar patch and served as camp guard and administrative personnel until the surrender of Germany.

Waffen-SS

  • The Waffen-SS was the armed component of the SS and was considered a full branch of the German military. Within the Waffen-SS existed the “crack divisions” of the Leibstandarte, and Das Reich Division followed by a number of lesser Divisions.
  • In 1942, for administrative reasons, the guard and administrative staff of the concentration camps became members of the Waffen-SS. In 1938, a portion of the camp service had also been converted in the military Totenkopf Division and was, by 1941, considered a regular division of the Waffen-SS
  • The last component of the Waffen-SS were the Foreign Legions made up of personnel from conquered and allied countries to Germany. Such personnel wore distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix Waffen instead of SS.

Order Police

In 1936, the SS absorbed the regular German police forces and incorporated all local, state, and federal law enforcement agenices into the Ordnungspolizei. SS-Oberstgruppenführer Kurt Daluege became commander of the Ordnungspolizei (known as the Orpo) and Heinrich Himmler became Chief of the German Police. By 1944, the Orpo had also absorbed minor law enforcement agencies such as the Postal Police, Railway Security Police, Water Protection Police, and even night watchmen who were considered state employees. The Ordnungspolizei had a separate system of Orpo ranks and it was possible for Orpo members to hold dual status in both the SS and the Orpo. In 1944, all Orpo Police Generals gained equivalent Waffen-SS rank so that they would be treated as military officers, instead of police officals, if captured by the Allies. The Orpo also maintained a military division, considered part of the Waffen-SS as well as a number of Police Regiments which performed security duties under the authority of the RSHA.

See also

References

  • Arenhövel, Verlag (1989). Topography of Terror. Berlin: Berliner Festspiele GmbH. (ISBN 3-922912-25-7)
  • Höhne, H. (1969). The Order of the Death's Head, The Story of Hitler's SS. London: Pan Books Ltd.
  • International Military Tribunal (referred to as IMT), (1947-1949). Record of the Nuremberg Trials November 14th, 1945 - October 1st, 1946. 42 Vols. London: HMSO.

External links

da:SS de:Schutzstaffel es:SS fr:Schutzstaffel he:אס אס it:Schutzstaffel nl:Schutz Staffel pl:SS pt:SS sl:SS sv:Schutzstaffeln


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