Full Answer
What did SS stand for in Germany?
► The SS, or the Schutzstaffel, was created in 1925 originally to serve as Hitler’s personal bodyguards. Meaning Protective Echelon in German, the SS was made up of fervently anti-Semite Germans who possessed deep racial hatred. Gradually, with time, the SS became one of the most-feared organizations in Germany.
What does SS mean in German?
German. an elite military unit of the Nazi Party that served as Hitler's bodyguard and as a special police force.Abbr.: SS
What does SS stand for?
What Does SS Stand For? When you see the letters SS in reference to Nazis or World War II, it stands for Schutzstaffel ("protective squad" or "protective eschelon").The SS was a paramilitary group originally tasked with protecting Hitler and the higher-ranking Nazi officers.
What is SS German soldier?
SS (abbreviation of Schutzstaffel [German: ‘Protective Echelon’]), the black-uniformed elite corps and self-described ‘political soldiers’ of the Nazi Party. Founded by Adolf Hitler in 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and became virtually a state within a state.
See more
What was the Waffen-SS?
The Waffen-SS was made up of three subgroups : the Leibstandarte, Hitler’s personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death’s-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps and a vast empire of slave labour drawn from the Jews and the populations of the occupied territories; and the Verfügungstruppen (Disposition Troops), which swelled to 39 divisions in World War II and which, serving as elite combat troops alongside the regular army, gained a reputation as fanatical fighters.
Who was the leader of the SS?
Uncover the role of SS headed by Heinrich Himmler in spreading Hitler's terror and conducting systematic mass-extermination of Jews. Overview of the SS, headed by Heinrich Himmler. From 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler, who built up the SS from fewer than 300 members to more than 50,000 ...
How did the SS become independent?
When Hitler, with SS help, purged the SA in 1934 and reduced it to political impotence, the SS became an independent group responsible, via Himmler, to Hitler alone. Between 1934 and 1936 Himmler and his chief adjutant, Reinhard Heydrich, consolidated SS strength by gaining control of all of Germany’s police forces and expanding their organization’s responsibilities and activities. At the same time, special military SS units were trained and equipped along the lines of the regular army. By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy, divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS).
What was the most important division of the Reich?
Its most important division was the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Central Office), which oversaw the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; Security Police), which, in turn, was divided into the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police) and the dreaded Gestapo under Heinrich Müller.
How many SS were there in 1939?
At the same time, special military SS units were trained and equipped along the lines of the regular army. By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy, divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS). Heinrich Himmler.
Where was the SS in 1941?
of 1941 Himmler’s SS expanded and refurbished with gas chambers and crematoriums an old Austrian army barracks near the Polish rail junction at Auschwitz. Here was to continue, with greater efficiency, the Holocaust—the mass murder of Jews that had begun with the June invasion, when SS Einsatzgruppen (“deployment….
When was the SS founded?
Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a state.
What was the SS?
From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance, and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS).
Who was the SS chief in Nuremberg?
After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.
Why did Hitler transfer anti-partisan operations to the police?
In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to the police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview. As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements. In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits".
What was the Schutzstaffel?
The Schutzstaffel ( SS; also stylized as ᛋᛋ with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ( listen); 'Protection Squadron') was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance, and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.
What was the name of the Nazi bodyguard unit?
By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall Security) to provide security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a small bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service.
How many offices did the SS have in 1942?
By 1942 all activities of the SS were managed through twelve main offices.
What was the third component of the SS?
A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände ( SS-TV; " Death's Head Units" ), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organizations.
What countries were part of the Germanic SS?
Himmler's vision for a Germanic SS started with grouping the Netherlands, Belgian, and French Flanders together into a western-Germanic state called Burgundia, which would be policed by the SS as a security buffer for Germany. In 1940, the first manifestation of the Germanic SS appeared in Flanders as the Allgemeene SS Vlaanderen to be joined two-months later by the Dutch Nederlandsche SS, and in May 1941 the Norwegian Norges SS was formed. The final nation to contribute to the Germanic SS was Denmark, whose Germansk Korpset (later called the Schalburg Corps) came into being in April 1943. For the SS, they did not think of their compatriots in terms of national borders but in terms of Germanic racial makeup, known conceptually to them as Deutschtum, a greater idea which transcended traditional political boundaries. While the SS leadership foresaw an imperialistic and semi-autonomous relationship for the Nordic or Germanic countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway as co-bearers of a greater Germanic empire, Hitler refused to grant them the same degree of independence despite ongoing pressure from ranking members of the SS.
What was the purpose of the Germanic SS?
Duties. The purpose of the Germanic SS was to enforce Nazi racial doctrine , especially anti-Semitic ideas. They typically served as local security police augmenting German units of the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst (SD), and other main departments of the Reich Security Main Office ( Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA).
What was the national socialist movement in the Netherlands?
In the Netherlands, the National Socialist Movement ( Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, NSB) had greater success before the war. The party had four per cent of the vote in the 1937 national elections.
What countries had fascist parties?
Before the war, both Denmark and Norway had fascist parties. The Danish National Socialist Workers' Party ( Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Arbejderparti, or DNSAP) was founded in 1930, however, only held three seats in parliament by 1939. By 1933, Vidkun Quisling was the leader of a Norwegian political party, National Unity ( Nasjonal Samling, NS). However, it was not effective as a political party until the pro-German government took over after Norway was occupied. At that point, its state police, abolished in 1937, was reestablished to assist the Gestapo in Norway. In the Netherlands, the National Socialist Movement ( Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, NSB) had greater success before the war. The party had four per cent of the vote in the 1937 national elections. After the occupation in 1940, all these groups worked in their respective countries in support of Nazi Germany and became recruiting grounds for the Waffen-SS.
What was Heinrich Himmler's parent agency?
Heinrich Himmler, 1939–1945. Parent agency. Schutzstaffel. The Germanic SS ( German: Germanische SS) was the collective name given to paramilitary and political organisations established in parts of German-occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945 under the auspices of the Schutzstaffel (SS).
Where was the Germanic SS headquarters?
The Germanic SS were foreign branches of the Allgemeine SS. Headquarters of the Schalburg Corps in Copenhagen, Denmark , c. 1943. Agency overview.
When was the SS renamed?
renamed the Germaansche SS in Nederland in 1942. The Dutch SS ( Nederlandsche SS) was formed by the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands ( Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB) in September 1940 under pressure from the German authorities.
What is the SS in Germany?
More information about this image. From modest beginnings the SS ( Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.
How many members of the SS were there in 1933?
When the Nazis seized power in January 1933, members of the SS numbered more than 52,000. As a reward for its role in murdering Ernst Röhm and the top leadership of the SA on June 30-July 2, 1934, Hitler announced that the SS was an independent organization.
What were the facts about the Nazi regime?
1. From the beginning of the Nazi regime, Hitler entrusted the SS first and foremost with the removal and eventual murder of political and so-called racial enemies of the regime. 2. The SS became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of the Nazi future. 3.
What was Hitler's role in Germany?
As Führer, Hitler was no longer a politician or chief executive bound by the legal constraints of the German State, but rather a symbol of Germany's future survival and greatness, with authority to act outside the laws of the state to guarantee Germany's survival and greatness.
What did the SS control?
The SS controlled the German police forces and the concentration camp system. The SS conceived and implemented plans designed to restructure the ethnic composition of eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet Union.
Why did Hitler give Himmler authority?
As SS chief, Himmler received authority directly from Hitler to carry out ideological policies that the laws of the state might not permit. This ideologically-rooted “Führer authority” enabled authorization of indefinite incarceration in the concentration camp system and mass murder.
How old were the SS?
SS officers and troops were hand-picked. They were between 25 and 35 years of age, of excellent health and sober habits. They also swore an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler himself, rather than Germany or the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
Who was the first leader of the SS?
Schreck became the SS’s first leader while Maurice was acknowledged as ‘member number two’, after Hitler himself. In 1926, Hitler ordered the SS to be reorganised on a national basis. Party officials in major cities were to supply the SS with one leader and ten of their best men. SS officers and troops were hand-picked.
What was the name of the Nazi group that Hitler led?
The Schutzstaffel (SS) The Schutzstaffel (SS) was a Nazi paramilitary group, formed on the orders of Adolf Hitler in April 1925. Initially small in size, the SS grew under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler to become the NSDAP’s elite paramilitary organisation and the vanguard of Nazi beliefs about racial purity.
What did Heinrich Himmler wear?
New look and discipline. Heinrich Himmler in the black dress uniform of the SS. Himmler authorised striking new uniforms and insignia to set the SS apart from other Nazi paramilitary groups. The brown shirt was retained but complemented with a black tunic.
Why was the SS purged?
The SS was constructed, micro-managed and purged by Himmler and his subordinates to ensure it was more loyal to Fuhrer than party. This loyalty was to use in mid-1934 when Hitler decided to move against the SA.
How many members did the Schutzstaffel have in 1933?
The military discipline and racial purity of the SS appealed to ex-soldiers, and by 1933 it boasted more than 50,000 members. Citation information. Title: “The Schutzstaffel (SS)”.
Why did Hitler dismiss Heiden?
By early 1929, the SS looked doomed after Hitler was forced to dismiss Heiden for ‘inappropriate dealings’ with a Jewish businessman. The command of the SS passed to Heinrich Himmler, a small, bespectacled office worker, softly-spoken and with no military service.
Origins (1929–39)
The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men on 17 March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a commemorative ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
Divisions
All divisions in the Waffen-SS were ordered in a single series of numbers as formed, regardless of type. A total of 38 were formed, beginning with the initial three in 1933 and ramping up to nine alone in 1945. Those tagged with nationalities were at least nominally recruited from those nationalities.
Commanders
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, a former army sergeant with a peasant background, commanded the forerunner of the Waffen-SS, the Sonderkommando Berlin. He would command the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler from its inception to regiment, brigade, and division.
Casualties
Military historian Rüdiger Overmans estimates that the Waffen-SS suffered 314,000 dead. Casualty rates were not significantly higher than in the Wehrmacht overall and were comparable to those among the armoured divisions of the army and the Luftwaffe paratroop formations.
Criminality
The Allgemeine SS was responsible for the administration of both the concentration and extermination camps. Many members of it and the SS-Totenkopfverbände subsequently became members of the Waffen-SS, forming the initial core of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division.
Post-war
Waffen-SS veterans in post-war Germany played a large role, through publications and political pressure, in the efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the Waffen-SS, which had committed many war crimes during World War II.
What was the significance of the German expansion in 1938?
With German expansion in 1938, the availability of prisoners for forced labor in the concentration camp system took on added significance. The SS was determined that the Thousand-Year Reich would be ruled by its self-selected, “racially pure” elite.
What was the name of the unit that guarded the camps?
Units known as SS Death's-Head Units ( SS- Totenkopfverbände) guarded and administered the camps. Although the Security Police ( Gestapo and Kripo) had exclusive authority to incarcerate, release, and “officially” order the execution of prisoners, the daily life of prisoners lay in the brutal and merciless hands of the camp commandants ...
When did the Dutch girl greet the Wehrmacht soldiers?
Copy link to paste in your message. Welcome: A Dutch girl greets the Wehrmacht soldiers as they enter Amsterdam on 15 May 1940. German marriages were explicitly encouraged in occupied Denmark and Holland, as part of Hitler's attempt to create a 'master race' of Aryans.
When did the Dutch welcome the Wehrmacht?
Welcome: A Dutch girl greets the Wehrmacht soldiers as they enter Amsterdam on 15 May 1940. German marriages were explicitly encouraged in occupied Denmark and Holland, as part of Hitler's attempt to create a 'master race' of Aryans
Where did the Germans meet French girls?
A coffee shop for soldiers in Paris, a great place for German troops to meet French girls. Many of the women were just teenagers who had associated with Nazi soldiers - and women who had abortions and were therefore accused of frolicking with Germans.
Führer (Adolf Hitler)
Prior to 1934 the SS were nominally under the command of the Sturmabteilung and so it could be said that both Adolf Hitler as Oberster SA-Führer and Ernst Röhm as Stabschef SA outranked the most senior SS position of Reichsführer-SS.
SS Generals
Following is the list of persons holding the title positions as well as actual highest ranks of the Schutzstaffel (SS) since the earliest inception of the armed SS units in Nazi Germany. The ranks include distinctive insignia designs worn on the collar points by all officers.
Overview
The Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.
It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich …
Origins
By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall Security) to provide security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a small bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung ("Storm …
Pre-war Germany
After Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power on 30 January 1933, the SS was considered a state organization and a branch of the government. Law enforcement gradually became the purview of the SS, and many SS organizations became de facto government agencies.
The SS established a police state within Nazi Germany, using the secret state police and security forces under Himmler's control to suppress resistance to Hitler. In his role as Minister President …
SS in World War II
By the outbreak of World War II, the SS had consolidated into its final form, which comprised three main organizations: the Allgemeine SS, SS-Totenkopfverbände, and the Waffen-SS, which was founded in 1934 as the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and renamed in 1940. The Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army alongside the Wehrmacht and operated in tandem with th…
War in the east
On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The expanding war and the need to control occupied territories provided the conditions for Himmler to further consolidate the police and military organs of the SS. Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organizations as they struggled to adjust t…
Business empire
In 1934, Himmler founded the first SS business venture, Nordland-Verlag, a publishing house that released propaganda material and SS training manuals. Thereafter, he purchased Allach Porcelain, which then began to produce SS memorabilia. Because of the labor shortage and a desire for financial gain, the SS started exploiting concentration camp inmates as slave labor. Most of the …
Military reversals
On 5 July 1943, the Germans launched the Battle of Kursk, an offensive designed to eliminate the Kursk salient. The Waffen-SS by this time had been expanded to 12 divisions, and most took part in the battle. Due to stiff Soviet resistance, Hitler halted the attack by the evening of 12 July. On 17 July he called off the operation and ordered a withdrawal. Thereafter, the Germans were forced ont…
SS units and branches
Heydrich held the title of Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Chief of the Security Police and SD) until 27 September 1939, when he became chief of the newly established Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). From that point forward, the RSHA was in charge of SS security services. It had under its command the SD, Kripo, and Gestapo, as well as several offices to handle finance, administr…
Overview
The Germanic SS (German: Germanische SS) was the collective name given to paramilitary and political organisations established in parts of German-occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945 under the auspices of the Schutzstaffel (SS). The units were modeled on the Allgemeine SS in Nazi Germany and established in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway whose populations were consi…
Establishment
The Nazi idea behind co-opting additional Germanic people into the SS stems to a certain extent from the Völkisch belief that the original Aryan-Germanic homeland rested in Scandinavia and that, in a racial-ideological sense, people from there or the neighbouring northern European regions were a human reservoir of Nordic/Germanic blood. Conquest of Western Europe gave the Germans, and especially the SS, access to these "potential recruits" who were considered part o…
Duties
The purpose of the Germanic SS was to enforce Nazi racial doctrine, especially anti-Semitic ideas. They typically served as local security police augmenting German units of the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst (SD), and other main departments of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA). Their principal responsibilities during wartime were to root-out partisa…
Germanic battalions
Separately from the Germanic SS, a number of so-called Germanic Battalions (Germanische Sturmbanne) were established in September 1942 as part of the Allgemeine SS from among Flemish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swiss expatriates and volunteer workers in Germany. A Danish unit in Berlin was disbanded in January 1943 amid a lack of personnel. In total, the total number of members …
Postwar
After the war, many Germanic SS members were tried by their respective countries for treason. Independent war crimes trials outside the jurisdiction of the Nuremberg Trials were conducted in several European countries, such as in the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, leading to several death sentences; an example being the commander of the Schalburg Corps, K.B. Martinsen. In Norway, Lie committed suicide.
See also
• Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts
• Pan-Germanism — a concept popularised before the First World War
• Nazi Party/Foreign Organization — the Nazi Party's foreign administration