The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was a large paramilitary organization that belonged to the Nazi party. The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, based on the [[[Praetorian Guard]], and 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.
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. The early devleopment of the SS was based on several other orgnaizations, among them the Knights Templar, Jesuit Order, and the Italian Black Brigades.
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).
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
The most powerful men 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.
The SS consisted of twelve main offices. The following is a list of those offices in 1944 and who headed each one.
After 1934, the running of Germany's Concentration Camps was placed under the total authority of the SS and an SS branch known as the Totenkopfverbande (SS-TV) was founded under Theodor Eicke. Known as the "Death's Head Units", the SS-TV was first founded as several regiments, based at each of Germany's major Concentration Camps, the largest of which was at Dachau. In 1938, the Totenkopfverbande expanded also into a military division, with the founding of the Totenkopf Division which would, by 1941, become a full division of the Waffen-SS.
In 1939, with the start of the Second World War, the Totnekopfverbande began a large expansion which would eventually develop into three branches covering each of the Concentration Camp types that the SS operated. By 1944, there existed three divisions of the SS-VT, those being the staffs of the Concentration Camps Proper in Germany and Austria, the Labor Camp system in occupied territories, and the guards and staffs of the Extermination Camps in Poland that were involved in the Holocaust.
In 1942, for administrative reasons, the guard and administrative staff of all the concentration camps became full members of the Waffen-SS. In addition, to oversee the large administrative burden of a extensive labor camp system, the Concentration Camps were placed under the command of the SS Wirtschaft und Vervaltungshauptamt (WVHA), also known as the Main SS Office for Economics and Administrative. Oswald Pohl commanded the WVHA while Richard Glücks served as the Inspector of Concentration Camps.
By 1944, with the Concentration Camps fully integrated with the Waffen-SS and under the control of the WVHA, a standard practice developed to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, based on manpower needs and also to give assignments to wounded Waffen-SS officers and soliders who could no longer serve in front line combat duties. This rotation of personnel is the main argument that nearly the entire SS knew of the Concentration Camps, and what actions were committed within, making the entire organization liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Einsatzgruppen were special units of the SS that were formed on an “as-needed” basis under the authority of the Sicherheitspolizei and later the RSHA. The first Einsayzgruppen were created in 1938 for use during the Anschluss of Austria and again in 1939 for the annexation of Czechoslovakia. The original purpose of the Einsatzgruppen was to “enter occupied areas, seize vital records, and neutralize potential threats”. In Austria and Czechoslovakia the activities of the Einsatzgruppen were mainly limited to Nazification of local governments and the establishment of new Concentration Camps. In 1939, however, the Einsatzgruppen were reactivated and sent into Poland to exterminate the Polish “Upper Class”, so that there would be no leadership to form a resistance to German occupation. In 1941, the Einsatzgruppen reached their height when they were sent into Russia to begin whole sale extermination and genocide of “undesirables” such as Jews, Gypsies and Communist leaders.
The Einsatzgruppen were formed under special orders of the SS and were headed by SD and Gestapo officers. To man the Einsatzgruppen the SS drew on SD and Gestapo personnel, Waffen-SS units, Ordnungspolizei Police Battalions, and certain units of the regular German military. The Einsatzgruppen also utilized local populations to provide additional security and manpower when needed. Thus, the activities of the Einsatzgruppen were spread throughout a large pool of personnel from different branches of the SS and German State.
The ultimate authority for the Einsatzgruppen, which answered directly to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler, were the SS and Police Leaders who oversaw all Einsatzgruppen activities and reports in their given area. At the close of the Second World War most of the SS and Police Leaders, who had overseen activites in Eastern Europe and Russia, were either executed for war crimes or committed suicide before capture.
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.