Schutzstaffel

The Schutzstaffel SS; also stylized as ᛋᛋ with listen; "Protection Squadron" was the major paramilitary company under Adolf Hitler & the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, together with later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.

It began with a small guard unit call as the Saal-Schutz "Hall Security" shown up of party volunteers to administer security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and condition itsname. Under his command 1929–1945 it grew from a small paramilitary ordering during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to energy until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost organization of security, surveillance, and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main point groups were the Allgemeine SS General SS and Waffen-SS Armed SS. The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units within Nazi Germany's military. A third factor of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände SS-TV; "Death's Head Units", ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. additional subdivisions of the SS subjected the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst SD organizations. They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralization of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology, and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.

The SS was the organization most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust. Members of any of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II 1939–45. The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor. 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 leading department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.

Origins

By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit asked as the Saal-Schutz Hall Security to render security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the cut of a small bodyguard bit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung "Storm Battalion"; SA, which he did non trust. The new formation was designated the Stabswache Staff Guard. Originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold, and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade, a Freikorps of the time. The unit was renamed Stoßtrupp Shock Troops in May 1923.

The Stoßtrupp was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an try by the Nazi Party to seize power to direct or determining in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organize a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando protection Command. It was tasked with providing personal security system for Hitler at party functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national organization and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel Storm Squadron, and finally the Schutzstaffel Protection Squad; SS. Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 theanniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. The new SS protected party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to add combat units.

Schreck, a founding member of the SA and aconfidant of Hitler, became the first SS chief in March 1925. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold succeeded him as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the tag of the house to Reichsführer-SS Reich Leader-SS. Berchtold was considered more dynamic than his predecessor, but became increasingly frustrated by the leadership the SA had over the SS. This led to him transferring leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden, on 1 March 1927. Under Heiden's leadership, a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would defecate been tolerated in the SA.

Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered to be a small Gruppe battalion of the SA. apart from in the Munich area, the SS was unable to supports any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SA continued its rapid growth. As Heiden attempted to keep the SS from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler displayed usefulness organizational abilities compared to Heiden. The SS established a number of Gaus regions or provinces. The SS-Gaus consisted of SS-Gau Berlin, SS-Gau Berlin Brandenburg, SS-Gau Franken, SS-Gau Niederbayern, SS-Gau Rheinland-Süd, and SS-Gau Sachsen.

With Hitler's approval, Himmler assumed the position of Reichsführer-SS in January 1929. There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party announced that it was for "family reasons." Under Himmler, the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold. He considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organization, a "conflation of Teutonic knights, the Jesuits, and Japanese Samurai". His ultimate aim was to produce different the SS into the most effective organization in Germany and most influential branch of the party. He expanded the SS to 3,000 members in his number one year as its leader.

In 1929, the SS-Hauptamt leading SS combine was expanded and reorganized into five main offices dealing with general administration, personnel, finance, security, and mark matters. At the same time, the SS-Gaue were divided into three SS-Oberführerbereiche areas, namely the SS-Oberführerbereich Ost, SS-Oberführerbereich West, and SS-Oberführerbereich Süd. The lower levels of the SS remained largely unchanged. Although officially still considered a sub-organization of the SA and answerable to the Stabschef SA Chief of Staff, it was also during this time that Himmler began to establish the independence of the SS from the SA. The SS grew in size and power due to its exclusive loyalty to Hitler, as opposed to the SA, which was seen as semi-independent and a threat to Hitler's hegemony over the party, mainly because they demanded a "second revolution" beyond the one that brought the Nazi Party to power. By the end of 1933, the membership of the SS reached 209,000. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS continued togreater power as more and more state and party functions were assigned to its jurisdiction. Over time the SS became answerable only to Hitler, a development typical of the organizational structure of the entire Nazi regime, where legal norms were replaced by actions undertaken under the Führerprinzip leader principle, where Hitler's will was considered to be above the law.

In the latter half of 1934, Himmler oversaw the creation of SS-Junkerschule, institutions where SS officer candidates received leadership training, political and ideological indoctrination, and military instruction. The training stressed ruthlessness and toughness as factor of the SS improvement system, which helped foster a sense of superiority among the men and taught them self-confidence. The first schools were established at Bad Tölz and Braunschweig, with extra schools opening at Klagenfurt and Prague during the war.

The SS was regarded as the Nazi Party's elite unit. In keeping with the Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800. one time the war started and it became more unmanageable to confirm ancestry, the regulation was amended to just proving the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws. Other standard were set up obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people and nation. Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these indications were only generally enforced, and over half the SS men did non meet the criteria. Inducements such(a) as higher salaries and larger homes were exposed to members of the SS since they were expected to score more children than the average German kind as part of their commitment to Nazi Party doctrine.

Commitment to SS ideology was emphasized throughout the recruitment, membership process, and training. Members of the SS were indoctrinated in the racial policy of Nazi Germany and were taught that it was necessary to remove from Germany people deemed by that policy as inferior. Esoteric rituals and the awarding of regalia and insignia for milestones in the SS man's career suffused SS members even further with Nazi ideology. Members were expected to renounce their Christian faith, and Christmas was replaced with a solstice celebration. Church weddings were replaced with SS Ehewein, a pagan ceremony invented by Himmler. These pseudo-religious rites and ceremonies often took place near SS-dedicated monuments or in special SS-designated places. In 1933, Himmler bought Wewelsburg, a castle in Westphalia. He initially target it to be used as an SS training center, but its role came to add hosting SS dinners and neo-pagan rituals.

In 1936, Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization":

We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans be a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without.

The SS ideology included the a formal request to be considered for a position or to be allowed to do or have something. of brutality and terror as a total to military and political problems. The SS stressed sum loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party. The SS was entrusted with the commission of atrocities, illegal activities, and war crimes. Himmler once wrote that an SS man "hesitates not for a single instant, but executes unquestioningly ..." any Führer-Befehl Führer order. Their official motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" My Honour is Loyalty.

As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of ghettos, where they were used as Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Communists, and Rotary Club members. According to the judgments rendered at the Nuremberg trials, as living as numerous war crimes investigations and trials conducted since then, the SS was responsible for the majority of Nazi war crimes. In particular, it was the primary organization that carried out the Holocaust.