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The Schutzstaffel (abbreviated as SS) German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafəl] ⓘ, "protection squadron" or "defence corps"; also Runic "ᛋᛋ" with stylized "Armanen" sig runes) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). It began with a small, permanent guard unit known as the "Saal-Schutz" (Hall-Protection)[1] made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for Nazi Party meetings in Munich. Later, in 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and renamed the "Schutz-Staffel". Under Himmler's leadership (1929–45), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the Third Reich.[2] Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Himmler's command was responsible for many crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS, along with the Nazi Party, was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal, and banned in Germany after 1945.

Origins

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The SA and forerunners of the SS

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By 1923, a small permanent guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall-Protection") made up of NSDAP volunteers provided security for Nazi Party meetings in Munich.[1] That same year, party leader Adolf Hitler ordered the formation of a small separate bodyguard dedicated to his service rather than "a suspect mass" of the party, such as the paramilitary force the Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA).[3] It was designated the Stabswache ("Staff Guard").[4] Originally the unit was composed of only 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 then renamed Stoßtrupp ("Shock Troops") in May 1923.[5][6]

After the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch attempt in which the Nazi Party aimed to seize power of Munich, the SA and the Stoßtrupp were abolished. Shortly after Hitler's release from prison, violence remained a large part of Bavarian politics.[7] In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organise the formation of a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando ("Protection Command").[8][7] It was given the task of providing personal protection for Hitler at Nazi Party functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national level, and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel ("Storm Squadron"), and finally the Schutzstaffel ("Protection Squad"; SS).[8][9] Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 (the second anniversary of the Beer-Hall Putsch).[10] The new SS was delegated to be a protection company of various Nazi Party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to include combat units and after 13 April 1934, was known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH).[11]

Early commanders

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Julius Schreck was a founding member of the SA and became the first official SS chief in March 1925. Schreck was a close confidant of Hitler and had previously served in a Freikorps unit. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold became the successor to Schreck as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the title of the office position which became known as the Reichsführer-SS ("Reich Leader-SS").[12] Berchtold was considered more dynamic than his predecessor, but became increasingly frustrated by the authority the SA had over the SS. On 1 March 1927, Berchtold transferred leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden. Berchtold had become disillusioned by the SA's control over the SS.[13][14] Under Heiden's leadership a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would have been tolerated in the SA ranks.[14] Except for the Munich area, the unit was unable to maintain any momentum. Membership of the SS declined from 1000 to 280 as the SS continued to struggle under the rapid-growing SA.[15] Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered merely a small Gruppe (battalion) of the SA. As Heiden attempted to keep the small group from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler had a great enthusiasm and vision for the SS and displayed good organisational abilities.[16]

Himmler takes charge

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With Hitler's approval, Heinrich Himmler assumed the position of Reichsführer-SS in January 1929.[17][18] There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party merely stated that it was for "family reasons".[19] Under Himmler, the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold. His ultimate aim was to turn the SS into the most powerful organization in Germany and influential branch of the party.[20] He became the official face of Hitler's bodyguard squad and over the year expanded the SS to 3,000 members. Himmler considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organization that was a "conflation of Teutonic knights, the Jesuits, and Japanese Samurai".[21]

Ideology and culture

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Main article: Ideology of the SS

In contrast to the Imperial military tradition, the nature of the SS was based on an ideology where commitment, effectiveness and political reliability—not class or education—would determine how far they succeeded in the organization.[22] The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. It became a powerful tool used by Hitler and the Nazi state for political ends. The SS ideology and values of the organization were one of the main reasons why the SS was entrusted with the execution of many Nazi atrocities and war crimes of the Nazi state. Along these lines, Himmler once wrote that an SS man "hesitates not for a single instant, but executes unquestioningly any order coming from the Führer".[23] Additional evidence for the unconditional loyalty of the SS can be found in Himmler's comments concerning the notion of the Führer-Befehl ("Führer order") for members of the SS using religious connotations. Himmler stated:

Once the "Führer himself has made a decision and given the order, it must be carried out, not only according to the word and the letter, but also in spirit. Whoever executes the order must do so as a faithful steward, as a faithful representative of the authority that gives the command… Orders must be sacred. When generals obey, armies obey automatically. This sacredness of orders applies the more, the larger our territory grows."[24]

A main ideology of the SS was to fight against the so-called Untermenschen ("sub-humans"). As illustrated in the pamphlet The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization of 1936, Heinrich Himmler wrote:

We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without.[25][26][27]

German historian Heinz Höhne compared the "SS Order", its ideals, and structure with the Jesuits, something Hitler himself did on occasion by referring to Himmler affectionately as his "Ignatius Loyola".[28] Once SS candidates successfully passed the racial criteria demanded of them, next came tests much like the Jesuits who underwent two years of intense probing before taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; SS men were likewise educated before they were allowed to swear the oath of "kith and kin" (known in German as the Sippeneid), and be counted as members of the SS.[29] Thereafter, the SS member had to complete a term with the Wehrmacht and the Labour Service, swearing yet another oath to honour the marriage law (made effective 31 December 1931) outlined by the Reichsführer-SS, an oath which prescribed that SS men only marry women of suitable racial makeup and only after approved by both the RuSHA and Himmler.[30] Commitment to SS ideology is evidenced throughout the entire recruitment and membership continuum and the related esprit de corps which developed in SS men was designed to make them feel elite, committing them in the process to honour the racial tenets of the National Socialist movement and binding them to protect their Führer at all costs.[31] Suffusing SS members even further with the Nazi covenant were esoteric rituals as well as the awarding of regalia and insignia for key milestones in the SS man's career.[32] Acting as the vanguards of National Socialism, members of the SS were fed a constant ideological diet which touted the supremacy of Germanic people, the necessity to cleanse the German race of impure genetic material and foreign ideals, obedience to the Führer, and a commitment to the German people and nation.[33]

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 Nazis to power.[34] Under Himmler, the SS selected its members according to the Nazi ideology.[35]

The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, the party's "Praetorian Guard", originally with all SS personnel being selected on the principles of racial purity and loyalty to the Nazi Party and Germany.[36][37] The SS was restricted to people who were of "Aryan ancestry", requiring proof of racial purity,[38] in the early days of the SS, it was required for all officer candidates to prove their genealogy had no evidence of any "non-Aryan" ancestors back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800.[39][40] Later, when the requirements of the war made it impossible to confirm the ancestry of officer candidates, the proof of ancestry regulation was dropped to just proving their grandparents were "Aryan", which was the requirement of the Nuremberg Laws.

During World War II, as a part of its race-centric functions, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of Jews from the populations of the conquered territories, seizing their assets and transporting them to concentration camps and ghettos where they would be used as slave labour (pending extermination) or immediately killed.[41]

Chosen to implement the Nazi "Final Solution" for the Jews and other groups deemed inferior (and/or enemies of the state), the SS led the killing, torture and enslavement of approximately 12 million people. Most victims were Jews or of Polish or other Slavic extraction. However, other racial/ethnic groups such as the Roma made up a significant number of victims, as well. Furthermore, the SS purge was extended to those viewed as threats to "race hygiene" or Nazi ideology—including the mentally or physically handicapped, homosexuals and political dissidents. Members of trade unions and those perceived to be affiliated with groups (religious, political, social and otherwise) that opposed the regime, or were seen to have views contradictory to the goals of the Nazi government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Communists and Rotary Club members.[42]

According to the Nuremberg trials, as well as many 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 organisation which carried out the Holocaust.[36]

In contrast to the Allgemeine SS (General SS), the Waffen-SS (Armed-SS) evolved into a second German army alongside of the Wehrmacht and operating in tandem with them; especially with the Heer (German Army). Their official motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" ("My Honour is Loyalty").[43] The SS rank system was unique in that it did not copy the terms and ranks used by the Wehrmacht's branches, but instead used the ranks established by the post-World War I Freikorps and taken over by the SA. This was mainly done to establish the SS as being independent from the Wehrmacht, although SS ranks generally did have equivalents in the other services.

Special ranks and uniforms

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Main article: Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel

The SS had its own rank structure, unit insignia, and uniforms, which distinguished it from other branches of the German military and from German state officials, as well as from the rest of the Nazi Party. Before 1929, the SS wore the same brown uniform as the SA, with the exception of a black tie and a black cap with a Totenkopf ("death's head") skull and bones symbol on it. In that year Himmler extended the black colour to include breeches, boots, belts, and armband edges; in 1932 they adopted the all-black uniform. The all-black SS uniform was designed by SS-Oberführer Professor Karl Diebitsch and graphic designer SS-Sturmhauptführer Walter Heck.[44] These uniforms were rarely worn after the war began, however, as Himmler ordered that the all-black uniforms be turned in for use by others. They were sent east where they were used by auxiliary police units and west to be used by Germanic-SS units such as the ones in the Netherlands and Denmark.[45]

In 1935, the military SS formations (the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the SS-Verfügungstruppe) adopted a service uniform in what was termed erdgrau (earth-grey) for every day wear.[a] In 1938, the Allgemeine SS follow suit in adopting a pale-grey uniform.[45] Later, the Waffen-SS wore a feldgrau (field-grey) uniform similar to the German Army. During the war, Waffen-SS units wore a wide range of items printed with camouflage patterns (such as Platanenmuster, Erbsenmuster, captured Italian Telo Mimetico, etc.), while their feldgrau uniforms became largely indistinguishable from those of the Heer, save for the insignia. The SS also developed its own field uniforms. Initially these were similar to standard Wehrmacht wool uniforms but they also included reversible smocks and helmet covers printed with camouflage patterns with a brown–green "spring" side and a brown–brown "autumn" side. In 1944 the Waffen-SS began using a universal camouflage uniform intended to replace the wool field uniform. In 1945, the SS adopted the Leibermuster disruptive camouflage pattern that inspired many forms of modern battle dress, although it was not widely issued before the end of the war. The various uniforms for the SS were made by hundreds of clothing factories licensed by the RZM, including Hugo Boss, with some workers being prisoners of war forced into labour work.[46] Many were made in concentration camps.

Expansion

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Start here*** Kierzek (talk) 16:28, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

References

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  1. ^ a b Lumsden 2000, p. 7.
  2. ^ Lumsden 2002, p. 16.
  3. ^ McNab 2009, pp. 14, 16.
  4. ^ McNab 2009, p. 14.
  5. ^ Weale 2010, p. 16.
  6. ^ McNab 2009, p. 16.
  7. ^ a b Weale 2010, p. 26.
  8. ^ a b Lumsden 2002, p. 14.
  9. ^ Weale 2010, pp. 26–29.
  10. ^ Koehl (2004). The SS: A History 1919-45, p. 34.
  11. ^ Cook, Stan & Bender, R. James. Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, R. James Bender Publishing, 1994, pp. 17, 19.
  12. ^ Weale 2010, p. 30.
  13. ^ Cook & Russell 2000, pp. 21–22.
  14. ^ a b Weale 2010, p. 32.
  15. ^ Weale 2010, pp. 32, 33.
  16. ^ Weale 2010, pp. 45, 46.
  17. ^ McNab 2009, p. 18.
  18. ^ Weale 2010, p. 47.
  19. ^ Longrerich 2012, p. 113.
  20. ^ Weale 2010, pp. 45–47, 300–305.
  21. ^ Burleigh & Wippermann (1991). The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945, pp. 272-273.
  22. ^ Lumsden 2002, p. 39.
  23. ^ Himmler (1936). Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation, p. 24. Cited from Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, p. 134.
  24. ^ Heinrich Himmler, "Speech at Posen." Delivered 4 October 1943. Published in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg, 1947–49), doc. no. 1919-PS, 29: 110– 73. As found in Rabinbach & Gilman (2013). The Third Reich Sourcebook.
  25. ^ Himmler, Heinrich (1937). Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation [The SS as an Anti-bolshevist Fighting Organization] (in German). Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger. Wir werden dafür sorgen, daß niemals mehr in Deutschland, dem Herzen Europas, von innen oder durch Emissäre von außen her die jüdisch-bolschewistische Revolution des Untermenschen entfacht werden kann.
  26. ^ Office of United States Chief of Counsel For Prosecution of Axis Criminality (1946). "Chapter XV: Criminality of Groups and Organizations – 5. Die Schutzstaffeln". Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (PDF, 46.2 MB). Vol. Volume II. Washington, D.C.: USGPO. p. 220. OCLC 315871222. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  27. ^ Stein, Stuart D (8 January 1999). "The Schutzstaffeln (SS) – The Nuremberg Charges, Part I". Web Genocide Documentation Centre. University of the West of England. Retrieved 2010-07-10. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  28. ^ Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, p. 144.
  29. ^ Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, pp. 146-147.
  30. ^ Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, p. 148.
  31. ^ Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, pp. 148-149.
  32. ^ Höhne (2001). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS, pp. 150-151.
  33. ^ Weale (2012). Army of Evil: A History of the SS, pp. 62-67.
  34. ^ Baranowski (2010). Nazi Empire: German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler, pp. 196-197.
  35. ^ Baranowski (2010). Nazi Empire: German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler, p. 199.
  36. ^ a b International Military Tribunal (1946). Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (Washington, D.C.: USGPO) II: 173–237.
  37. ^ d'Alquen, IMT Volume IV, Document 2284-PS, p. 975.
  38. ^ Bob Guess (21 June 2011). Kumpel. iUniverse. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-4620-2274-8.
  39. ^ Roderick Stackelberg (2002). Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies. Taylor & Francis. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-203-00541-5.
  40. ^ Andrew Rawson (2011). The Third Reich 1919–1939: The Nazis' Rise to Power. History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5570-9.
  41. ^ Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, "The Structure of Nazi Foreign Policy," in Leitz, ed. (1999). The Third Reich: The Essential Readings, pp. 82-93.
  42. ^ To that end, the SS was a key player to Nazi genocide which included the "murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labour, euthanasia, starvation, exposure, medical experiments, and terror bombings, and in the concentration and death camps, the Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people …and none of these monstrous figures even include civilian and military combat or war deaths". See: Rummel, Rudolph (1992). Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder, p. 12.
  43. ^ Mollo, Andrew (1991). Uniforms of the SS: Volume 3: SS-Verfügungstruppe. Historical Research Unit. p. 1
  44. ^ Lumsden, Robin. A Collector's Guide To: The Allgemeine – SS, p. 53.
  45. ^ a b Lumsden, Robin. A Collector's Guide To: The Allgemeine – SS, p. 56.
  46. ^ Givhan, Robin (1997-08-15), "Clothier Made Nazi Uniforms", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2008-11-08


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