Schutzstaffel
 SS insignia (Armanen runes) | |
 SS flag | |
 Adolf Hitler inspects the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler upon arrival at Klagenfurt, 1938. Heinrich Himmler is standing slightly behind Hitler's right | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 4 April 1925 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Dissolved | 8 May 1945 |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Type | Paramilitary |
| Jurisdiction |  Nazi GermanyGerman-occupied Europe |
| Headquarters | Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin |
| Employees | 1,000,000 (c. 1945) |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | Nazi Party |
| Child agencies |
|
The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylized as 
with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafəl] ; literally "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party). It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall-Protection") made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for Nazi Party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under Himmler's direction (1929–45), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in the Third Reich. From 1929 until Nazi Germany's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of surveillance and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.
The main two constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS ("General SS"), and Waffen-SS ("Armed SS"). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for police and racial matters within the German Reich, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units of troops within Nazi Germany's military. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organizations, tasked with 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 implementation of the Final Solution, and members of all of its branches committed numerous crimes against humanity during the Holocaust and World War II (1939–45). After Nazi Germany's defeat, the whole SS corps, along with the Nazi Party, were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to have been a criminal organization. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS officer, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946.
Origins
Forerunner of the SS
By 1923, a small permanent guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall-Protection") made up of volunteers had been formed to provide security for Nazi Party (NSDAP) meetings in Munich.[1] That same year, party leader Adolf Hitler ordered the formation of a small separate bodyguard dedicated to his service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA).[2] The new formation was designated the Stabswache ("Staff Guard").[3] 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.[4][5]
After the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by the NSDAP to seize power of Munich, the Stoßtrupp was abolished.[6] In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organise the formation of a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando ("Protection Command").[7] It was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at NSDAP functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national organisation, and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel ("Storm Squadron"), and finally the Schutzstaffel ("Protection Squad"; SS).[8] Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 (the second anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch).[9] The new SS was to provide protection for NSDAP leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to include combat units.[10]
Early commanders
Schreck, a founding member of the SA, became the first SS chief in March 1925.[11] He had previously served in a Freikorps unit and was a close confidant of Hitler. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold succeeded Schreck as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the title of the office to 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.[13] This led to Berchtold transferring leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden, on 1 March 1927.[14] Under Heiden's leadership, a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would have been tolerated in the SA.[13]
Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered merely a small Gruppe (battalion) of the SA.[15] Except for in the Munich area, the unit was unable to maintain any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SS continued to struggle alongside the rapidly-growing SA.[16] As Heiden attempted to keep the SS from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler displayed good organizational abilities compared to Heiden.[15] Although still small in size, the SS established a number of Gaus (region or province). 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.[17]
Himmler appointed
With Hitler's approval, Himmler assumed the position of Reichsführer-SS in January 1929.[18][19] There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party stated that it was for "family reasons".[20] 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 most influential branch of the party.[21] He expanded the SS to 3,000 members in his first year as its leader. He considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organization, a "conflation of Teutonic knights, the Jesuits, and Japanese Samurai".[22]
In 1929, the SS-Hauptamt (main SS office) was expanded and reorganized into five main offices dealing with general administration, personnel, finance, security, and race matters. At the same time, the SS-Gaus were expanded into three SS-Oberführerbereiche areas, namely the SS-Oberführerbereich Ost, SS-Oberführerbereich West, and SS-Oberführerbereich Süd.[23] 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.[24] 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 NSDAP to power.[25] By the end of 1933, the membership of the SS reached 209,000.[26] Under Himmler's leadership the SS continued to gather greater power as more and more state and party functions passed under the jurisdiction of the SS. Over time the SS became an agency of 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.[27]
In the latter half of 1934, Himmler oversaw the creation of SS-Junkerschule (Junker schools), institutions where the next generation of SS officers received leadership training, political and ideological indoctrination, and military instruction for their future roles as commanders within the various organs of the SS and police units. The training stressed ruthlessness and toughness as part of the SS value system, which helped foster a sense of superiority among the men and taught them self-confidence.[28] The first schools were established at Bad Tölz and Braunschweig, with additional schools opening at Klagenfurt and Prague during the war.[29]
Ideology and culture
The SS was regarded the as the NSDAP's elite unit.[30] In keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, in the early days of the SS all officer candidates had to provide proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800.[31] Once the war started and it became more difficult to confirm the ancestry of recruits, the regulation was amended to just proving the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws.[32] Other requirements were complete obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people (Herrenvolk) and nation.[33] Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these requirements were only loosely enforced, and over half the SS men did not meet the criteria.[34]
Commitment to SS ideology was emphasized throughout the recruitment and membership process, and the recruits developed an esprit de corps through their training.[35] Esoteric rituals and the awarding of regalia and insignia for key milestones in the SS man's career suffused SS members even further with Nazi ideology.[36] These pseudo-religious rites and ceremonies often took place near SS-dedicated monuments or in special SS-designated places.[37] Preferential inducements like higher salaries and larger homes were provided to members of the SS, since they were expected to produce more children than the average German family as part of their commitment to NSDAP doctrine.[38]
In contrast to the Allgemeine SS, the Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army alongside the Wehrmacht and operated in tandem with them, especially with the Heer (German Army).[39] The SS rank system 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 the SA. This was primarily done to emphasize the SS as being independent from the Wehrmacht, although SS ranks generally had equivalents in the other services.[40]
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.[41] SS ideology emphasized annihilating the so-called Untermenschen ("sub-humans") and Judeo-Bolsheviks. As Himmler wrote in the 1936 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-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without."[42]
The ideology included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political problems.[43] The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the NSDAP. 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 order coming from the Führer".[44] Himmler used religious connotations while speaking to members of the SS regarding the notion of the Führer-Befehl ("Führer order").[44] Their official motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" ("My Honour is Loyalty").[39]
As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, 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 were used as slave labour (pending extermination) or immediately killed.[32] Chosen to implement the "Final Solution" for Jews and other groups deemed inferior 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.[45] A significant number of victims were members of other racial or ethnic groups such as the Romani people. The SS was also involved in killing people viewed as threats to race hygiene or NSDAP ideology, including the mentally or physically handicapped, homosexuals, and political dissidents. Members of trade unions and those perceived to be affiliated with groups that opposed the regime (religious, political, social, and otherwise), or those whose views were contradictory to the goals of the NSDAP government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Communists, and Rotary Club members.[45] According to the judgments rendered at 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.[46]
Pre-war Germany
After Hitler and the NSDAP came to power on 30 January 1933, the SS were considered a state organization and a branch of the government.[47] Law enforcement gradually became the purview of the SS, and many SS organisations became de facto government agencies.[48]
In his role as Minister President of Prussia, Hermann Göring had in 1933 created a Prussian secret police force, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo, and appointed Rudolf Diels as its head. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, Göring handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934.[49] Also on that date, in a radical departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's deputy and protégé, was named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934. He also continued as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; security service).[50] The Gestapo's transfer to Himmler was a prelude to the Night of the Long Knives, in which most of the SA leadership were arrested and subsequently executed.[51] The SS and Gestapo carried out most of the killings. On 20 July 1934, Hitler detached the SS from the SA, which was no longer an influential force after the purge. The SS became an independent elite corps of the NSDAP, answerable only to Hitler. Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS now became his actual rank, equivalent to the rank of field marshal in the army (his previous rank was Obergruppenführer).[52] As Himmler's position and authority grew, so did his de facto rank.[53]
On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united under the purview of Himmler and the SS.[48] Himmler and Heydrich thus became two of the most powerful men in the country's internal administration.[54] Police and intelligence forces brought under their administrative control included the SD, Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal investigative police), and Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; regular uniformed police).[55] In September 1939, the security and police agencies, including the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) and SD (but not the Orpo) were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich.[56] This further increased the collective authority of the SS.[57]
In September 1939, the authority of the SS expanded further when the senior SS officer in each military district also became its Chief of Police.[58] Most of these SS and Police Leaders held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer or above, and answered directly to Himmler in all SS matters within their district. Their role was to police the population and oversee the activities of the SS men within their district.[59] By declaring an emergency, they could bypass the district administrative offices for the SS, SD, SiPo, SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; concentration camp guards), and Orpo, thereby gaining direct operational control of these groups.[60]
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.[61] During Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), SS security services clandestinely coordinated the violence against the Jews as the SS, Gestapo, SD, Kripo, SiPo and regular police did what they could to ensure that while Jewish synagogues and community centers were destroyed, Jewish-owned businesses and housing remained intact so that they could later be seized.[62] In the end, thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and graveyards were vandalised and looted, particularly by members of the SA. Some 500 to 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, mostly by arson.[63] On 11 November, Heydrich reported a death toll of 36 people, but later assessments put the number of deaths at up to two thousand.[64][65] On Hitler's orders, around 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps by 16 November.[66] It is likely that as many as 2,500 of these people died in the following months.[64] It was at this point that the SS state began in earnest its campaign of terror against political and religious opponents, who they imprisoned without trial or judicial oversight for the sake of "security, re-education, or prevention".[67][68]
Hitler's personal bodyguards
Hitler used bodyguards for protection since the 1920s. As the SS grew in size and importance, so too did Hitler's personal protection units.[69] Three main SS groups were assigned to protect Hitler. In 1933, his larger personal bodyguard unit (previously the 1st SS Standarte) was called to Berlin to replace the Army Chancellery Guard, which had until that time been assigned to protect the Chancellor of Germany.[70] Sepp Dietrich commanded the new unit, previously known as "SS-Stabswache Berlin"; the name was changed to SS-Sonderkommando Berlin. In November 1933, the name was changed to Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. In April 1934, Himmler modified the name to Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The LSSAH guarded Hitler's private residences and offices, providing an outer ring of protection for the Führer and his visitors.[71] LSSAH men manned sentry posts at the entrances to the old Reich Chancellery and the new Reich Chancellery.[72] At the Berghof in the Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, a large contingent of the LSSAH patrolled an extensive cordoned security zone.[73] The number of LSSAH guards was increased during special events.[74]
From 1941, forward, the Leibstandarte became four distinct entities, the Waffen-SS division (unconnected to Hitler's personal protection but a key formation of the Waffen-SS), the Berlin Chancellory Guard, the SS security regiment assigned to the Obersalzberg, and a Munich-based bodyguard unit which protected Hitler when he visited his personal apartment and the Brown House NSDAP headquarters in Munich.[75][76] Although nominally under Himmler, Dietrich was the real commander and handled day-to-day administration.[77]
Two other SS units comprised the inner ring of Hitler's personal protection. The SS-Begleitkommando des Führers ("Escort Command of the Führer"), formed in February 1932, served as Hitler's protection escort while travelling. This unit consisted of eight men who served around the clock protecting Hitler in three eight-hour shifts.[78] Later the SS-Begleitkommando was expanded and became known as the Führerbegleitkommando ("Escort Command of the Führer"; FBK). It continued under separate command and remained responsible for Hitler's personal protection.[78] The Führer Schutzkommando ("Führer Protection Command"; FSK) was a protection unit founded by Himmler in March 1933.[79] Originally the FSK was charged with protecting Hitler only while he was inside the borders of Bavaria. In the spring of 1934, they replaced the SS-Begleitkommando for Hitler's protection throughout Germany.[80] The FSK was renamed the Reichssicherheitsdienst ("Reich Security Service"; RSD) in August 1935.[81] Johann Rattenhuber, chief of the RSD, took his orders for the most part directly from Hitler.[81] The current FBK chief acted as his deputy. Wherever Hitler was in residence, members of the RSD and FBK would be present. RSD men patrolled the grounds and FBK men provided close security protection inside. The RSD and FBK worked together for security and personal protection during Hitler's trips and public events, but they operated as two groups and used separate vehicles.[82] By March 1938, both units wore the standard field grey uniform of the SS.[83] The RSD uniform had the SD diamond on the lower left sleeve.[84]
Concentration camps founded
The SS was closely associated with Nazi Germany's concentration camp system. On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed SS-Oberführer Theodor Eicke as commandant of Dachau concentration camp, one of the first Nazi concentration camps.[85] It was created to consolidate the many small camps that had been set up by various police agencies and the NSDAP to house political prisoners.[86] The organizational structure Eicke instituted at Dachau stood as the model for all later concentration camps.[87] After 1934, Eicke was named commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), the SS formation responsible for running the concentration camps under the authority of the SS and Himmler.[88] Known as the "Death's Head Units", the SS-TV was first organized as several battalions, each based at one of Germany's major concentration camps. Leadership at the camps was divided into five departments: commander and adjutant, political affairs division, protective custody, administration, and camp doctor.[89] By 1935, Himmler secured Hitler's approval and the finances necessary to run and establish additional camps.[90] Six concentration camps[a] housing 21,400 inmates (mostly political prisoners) existed at the start of the war in September 1939.[92] Hundreds of camps of varying size and function were created by the end of the war. Inmates by that time numbered nearly 715,000 people, most of whom were targeted by the regime because of their race.[93][94] During 1939, the Totenkopfverbände expanded into a military division with the establishment of the Totenkopf division, which by 1940 became a full division within the Waffen-SS.[95]
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.[96][97]
Invasion of Poland
In the September 1939 invasion of Poland, the LSSAH and SS-VT fought as separate mobile infantry regiments.[98] The LSSAH became notorious for torching villages without military justification.[99] Members of the LSSAH committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine gunned in Złoczew. Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec, Torzeniec, Goworowo, Mława, and Włocławek.[100] Some senior members of the Wehrmacht were not convinced the units were fully prepared for combat. Its units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army.[101] Generaloberst Fedor von Bock was quite critical; following an April 1940 visit of the SS-Totenkopf division, he found their battle training was "insufficient".[102] In its defence, the SS insisted that its armed formations had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal, and were improperly equipped by the army to carry out its objectives.[101] Hitler thought the criticism was typical of the army's "outmoded conception of chivalry."[103]
After the invasion, Hitler entrusted the SS with extermination actions codenamed Operation Tannenberg and AB-Aktion. The killings were committed by Einsatzgruppen (task forces; deployment groups), assisted by local paramilitary groups. Some 65,000 Polish civilians were killed by the end of 1939.[104] Killed were activists, intelligentsia, scholars, teachers, actors, former officers, and others, so that there would be no leadership to form a resistance to German occupation.[105] Men for the Einsatzgruppen units were drawn from the SS, the SD, and the police.[106] When the army leadership registered complaints about the brutality being meted out by the Einsatzgruppen, Heydrich informed them that he was acting "in accordance with the special order of the Führer."[107] The first systematic mass shooting of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen took place on 6 September 1939 during the attack on Kraków.[108]
Satisfied with their performance in Poland, Hitler allowed further expansion of the armed SS formations, but insisted new units remain under the operational control of the army.[109] While the SS-Leibstandarte remained an independent regiment functioning as Hitler's personal bodyguards, the other regiments—SS-Deutschland, SS-Germania, and SS-Der Führer—were combined to form the SS-Verfügungs-Division.[96][101] A second SS division, the SS-Totenkopf, was formed from SS-TV concentration camp guards, and a third, the SS-Polizei, was created from police volunteers.[110][111] The SS gained control over its own recruitment, logistics, and supply systems for its armed formations.[111] In addition, the SS, Gestapo, and SD were in charge of the provisional military administration until the appointment of Hans Frank as Governor-General on 26 October 1939.[112][113]
Battle of France
On 10 May 1940, Hitler launched the Battle of France, a major offensive against France and the Low Countries.[114] The campaign was only marginally influenced by the participation of the SS, since they supplied only two of the 89 divisions employed.[115] Problems existed between the Wehrmacht and the SS. Himmler was poorly disposed towards the Wehrmacht and General Erich von Manstein in particular, whom he accused of deliberately depriving his men of armor and equipment.[116] The LSSAH and elements of the SS-VT participated in the ground invasion of the Battle of the Netherlands.[117] Simultaneously, airborne troops were dropped to capture key Dutch airfields, bridges, and railways. In the five-day campaign, the LSSAH linked up with army units and airborne troops after a number of clashes with Dutch defenders.[117]
SS troops did not take part in the thrust through the Ardennes and the river Meuse.[117] The SS-Totenkopf was summoned from the army reserve to fight in support of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division as they began to advance close to the English Channel.[118] On 21 May, the British launched an armored counterattack against the flanks of 7th Panzer Division and SS-Totenkopf. The Germans then trapped the British and French troops in a huge pocket at Dunkirk.[119] On 27 May, 4 Company, SS-Totenkopf perpetrated the Le Paradis massacre, where 97 men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets. Two men survived.[120] By 28 May the SS-Leibstandarte had taken Wormhout, 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. There, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were responsible for the Wormhoudt massacre, where 80 British and French soldiers were murdered after they surrendered.[121] According to historian Charles Sydnor, the "fanatical recklessness in the assault, suicidal defense against enemy attacks, and savage atrocities committed in the face of frustrated objectives" exhibited by the SS-Totenkopf division during the invasion were typical of the SS troops as a whole.[122]
At the close of the campaign, Hitler expressed his pleasure with the performance of the SS-Leibstandarte, telling them: "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack."[123] The SS-VT was renamed the Waffen-SS in a speech made by Hitler in July 1940.[97] Hitler then authorized the enlistment of "people perceived to be of related stock", as Himmler put it, to expand the ranks.[124] A number of Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns volunteered to fight in the Waffen-SS under the command of German officers.[125] They were brought together to form the new division SS-Wiking.[124] In January 1941, the SS-Verfügungs Division was renamed SS-Reich Division (Motorized), and was renamed as the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich when it was reorganised as a Panzergrenadier division in 1942.[126]
Campaign in the Balkans
In April 1941, the Germany Army invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. The LSSAH and Das Reich were attached to separate army Panzer Corps. Fritz Klingenberg, a company commander in the Das Reich, led his men across Yugoslavia to the capital, Belgrade, where a small group in the vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later Yugoslavia surrendered.[127][128] SS police units immediately began taking hostages and carrying out reprisals, a practice that became common. In some cases, they were joined by the Wehrmacht.[129] Similar to Poland, the war policies of the Nazis in the Balkans resulted in brutal occupation and racist mass murder. Serbia became the second country (after Estonia) declared Judenfrei (free of Jews).[130]
In Greece, the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS encountered resistance from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and Greek Army.[131] The fighting was intensified by the mountainous terrain, with its heavily defended narrow passes. The LSSAH was at the forefront of the German push.[132] The BEF evacuated by sea to Crete, but had to flee again in late May when the Germans arrived.[133] Like Yugoslavia, the conquest of Greece brought its Jews into danger, as the Nazis immediately took a variety of measures against them.[134] Initially confined in ghettos, most were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in March 1943, where they were killed in the gas chambers on arrival. Of Greece's 80,000 Jews, only 20 per cent survived the war.[135]
War in the east
On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.[136] The purpose of Barbarossa was to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its vast natural resources to prepare for a greater war against the West.[137] Meanwhile, 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.[138] Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organizations as they struggled to adjust to the changing security challenges.[139]
The 1st and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of the SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first they fought Soviet partisans, but by the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the Einsatzgruppen, they formed firing parties that participated in the liquidation of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union.[140][141]
On 31 July 1941, Göring gave Heydrich written authorisation to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of a Endlösung der Judenfrage (Final Solution to the Jewish question) in territories under German control.[142] Heydrich was instrumental in carrying out these exterminations, as the Gestapo was ready to organise deportations in the West and his Einsatzgruppen were already conducting extensive killing operations in the East.[143] On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired a meeting, called the Wannsee Conference, to discuss the implementation of the plan.[144]
During battles in Soviet Union in 1941 and 1942, the Waffen-SS suffered enormous casualties. The LSAHH and Das Reich lost over half their troops to illness and combat casualties.[145] In need of recruits, Himmler began to accept soldiers that did not fit the original SS racial profile. Some of the new recruits were ill or disabled.[146] In early 1942, SS-Leibstandarte, SS-Totenkopf, and SS-Das Reich were withdrawn to the West to refit and were converted to Panzergrenadier divisions.[147] The SS-Panzer Corps returned to the Soviet Union in 1943 and participated in the Third Battle of Kharkov of Kharkov in February and March.[148]
The Holocaust
The SS was built on a culture of violence, which was exhibited in its most extreme form by the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war on the Eastern Front.[149] Augmented by personnel from the Kripo, Orpo (Order Police), and Waffen-SS,[150] the Einsatzgruppen reached a total strength of 3,000 men. Einsatzgruppen A, B, and C were attached to Army Groups North, Centre, and South; Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th Army. The Einsatzgruppe for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941.[151] The historian Richard Rhodes describes them as being "outside the bounds of morality"; "judge, jury and executioner all in one" with the authority to kill anyone at their discretion.[152] Following Operation Barbarossa, these Einsatzgruppen units, together with the Waffen-SS and Order Police, engaged in mass killing of the Jewish population in occupied eastern Poland and the Soviet Union.[152][153] The greatest extent of Einsatzgruppen action occurred in 1941 and 1942 in Ukraine and Russia.[154] Before the invasion there were five million registered Jews throughout the Soviet Union, with three million of those residing in the territories occupied by the Germans; by the time the war ended, over two million of these had been murdered.[155]
The extermination activities of the Einsatzgruppen generally followed a standard procedure, with the Einsatzgruppen chief contacting the nearest Wehrmacht unit commander to inform him of the impending Aktion; this was done so they could coordinate and control access to the execution grounds.[156] Initially the victims were shot, but this method proved impracticable for an operation of this scale.[157] After Himmler observed the shooting of 100 Jews at Minsk in August 1941, he grew concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men. He decided that alternate methods of killing should be found, which led to introduction of gas vans.[158][159] However, these were not popular with the men, because removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them was a horrible ordeal. Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma.[160]
Counter-insurgency operations
In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, General Max von Schenkendorff presented a report on 1 March 1942 entitled "Proposal for the Liquidation of the Partisans", hoping for an increase in resources to strengthen military authority in the occupied territories.[161] Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to the police, which placed the matter under Himmler's purview.[162] 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 extermination of the Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements.[163][164] In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits".[165]
Himmler set the SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a propaganda campaign.[166] Führer Directive No. 46, "Instructions for the Intensified Action against Banditry in the East", was issued in August 1942.[167] Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the Bandenbekämpfung (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the Bandenkampfverbände (bandit fighting formations), with SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski as its chief. Employing troops primarily from the SS-Police and Waffen-SS, the Bandenkampfverbände had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralized control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations.[168] Once the Wehrmacht had secured territorial objectives, the Bandenkampfverbände first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings. An additional priority was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations.[169] Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents.[170]
Death camps
After the start of the war, Himmler intensified the activity of the SS within Germany and in Nazi occupied Europe. An increasing numbers of Jews and German citizens deemed politically suspect or social outsiders were arrested.[171] As the Nazi regime became more oppressive, the concentration camp system grew in size and lethal operation, and grew in scope as the economic ambitions of the SS intensified.[172]
Intensification of the killing operations took place in late 1941 when the SS began construction of stationary gassing facilities to replace the use of Einsatzgruppen for mass killings.[173][174] Victims at these new extermination camps were killed with the use of carbon monoxide gas from automobile engines.[175] During Operation Reinhard, run by officers from the Totenkopfverbände, who were sworn to secrecy, three death camps were built in occupied Poland: Bełżec (operational by March 1942), Sobibór (operational by May 1942), and Treblinka (operational by July 1942),[176] with squads of Ukrainian guards overseeing hundreds of Sonderkommando prisoners,[b] who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria before being murdered themselves.[177] On Himmler's orders, by early 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz was greatly expanded to include the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide Zyklon B.[178][179]
For administrative reasons, all concentration camp guards and administrative staff became full members of the Waffen-SS in 1942. The concentration camps were placed under the command of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA) under Oswald Pohl. Richard Glücks served as the Inspector of Concentration Camps.[180] Exploitation and extermination became a balancing act as the military situation deteriorated. The labour needs of the war economy, especially for skilled workers, meant that some Jews escaped the genocide.[181] On 30 October 1942, due to severe labour shortages, Himmler ordered that large numbers of able-bodied people in the Soviet occupied territories should be taken prisoner and sent to Germany as forced labour.[182] The SS used the concentration camp labor force to supplement arms production and to finance their own operations.[183] They owned and operated a large number of economic enterprises, many of them staffed with concentration camp inmates.[184] Under the direction of the WVHA, camp labor was also sold to various factories at a rate of three to six Reichsmarks per prisoner per day.[185]
By 1944, the SS-TV had been organized into three divisions: staff of the concentration camps in Germany and Austria, in the occupied territories, and of the extermination camps in Poland. By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS members who could no longer serve in at the front.[186] This rotation of personnel was later used to argue that nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organization liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.[187]
SS units and branches
Within the main branches of the Allgemeine SS, SS-Totenkopfverbände and Waffen-SS, there further existed sub-branches; some with overlapping duties while other SS commands had little to no contact with each other. In addition, by 1936 the SS had complete control over the German Police, and by 1939 many police members were serving as dual SS members. Most of these branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, and many individuals were tried for these offences after the war.[188]
Sicherheitspolizei
Heydrich held the title of Chef des Sicherheitspolizei und SD (Chief of the Security Police and SD) until 27 September 1939 when he became the chief of the newly-established Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).[56][189] From that point forward, the RSHA was in charge of SS security services and had under its command the SD, Kripo, and Gestapo, as well as several additional offices to handle finance, administration, and supply.[56] Heinrich Müller, who had been chief of operations for the Gestapo, was appointed Gestapo chief.[190] Arthur Nebe was chief of the Kripo, and the two branches of SD were commanded by several SS officers, including Otto Ohlendorf and Walter Schellenberg. The SD in particular was considered an elite branch of the SS and its members were better educated and typically more ambitious than those within the ranks of the Allgemeine SS.[43] Members of the SD were specially trained in criminology, intelligence, and counter-intelligence, and were taught the workings of both the Gestapo and the Criminal Police. Over time, the men of the SD gained a reputation for their ruthlessness and for their unwavering commitment to Nazi ideology beyond that of their SS peers.[191]
Heydrich was attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him in Operation Anthropoid. He died from his injuries a week later.[192][c] Himmler personally ran the RSHA until 30 January 1943, when Heydrich's positions were taken over by Ernst Kaltenbrunner.[194]
SS-Sonderkommandos
The best-known Sonderkommandos were formed from the SS Economic-Administrative Head Office, the SS Head Office, and also Department VII of the Reich Main Security Office (Science and Research) whose duties were to confiscate valuable items from Jewish libraries. The Eichmann Sonderkommando was attached to the Security Police and the SD in terms of provisioning and manpower, but maintained a special position in the SS due to its direct role in the deportation of Jews to the death camps as part of the Final Solution. When Eichmann's staff was sent from Berlin to Budapest, they specifically came as an established SS-Sonderkommando. Intent on carrying out the Final Solution in Hungary during mid-March 1944 as quickly as possible, the SS-Sonderkommandos enlisted the aide of anti-Semitic elements from the Hungarian gendarmerie and the pro-German administrators from within the Hungarian Interior Ministry. Immediately, the SS-Sonderkommandos ghettoized the provincial Jews and deported them to Auschwitz.[195]
Einsatzgruppen
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, under Heydrich.[d] The first Einsatzgruppen were created in 1938 for use during the Anschluss of Austria and again in 1939 for the annexation of Czechoslovakia.[196] 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 to the establishment of new concentration camps. Another role assigned to the Einsatzgruppen was to follow in the wake of the forward deployed Wehrmacht troops and eradicate any potential partisans.[197]
Hitler felt that the total destruction of the "Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia" was too difficult and important to be entrusted to the military.[198] Another mass shooting early in 1942 claimed the lives of over 10,000 Jews at the industrial city of Kharkov in the Ukraine.[199] In 1941 the Einsatzgruppen reached their height when they were sent into the Soviet Union to begin large-scale extermination and genocide of "undesirables" such as Jews, gypsies, and communists. Historian Helmut Langerbein estimates that the Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the murder of more than 1.5 million people and relates that, "although the Holocaust is usually associated with factory-style gassing in the extermination camps, the Einsatzgruppen and other mobile execution squads accounted for almost one-fourth of all Holocaust victims."[200] The most notorious massacre of Jews in the Soviet Union was at a ravine called Babi Yar outside Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on September 29–30, 1941.[201]
Beginning in 1938 and throughout World War II, the SS enacted a procedure where offices and units of the SS could form smaller sub-units, known as SS-Sonderkommandos, to carry out special tasks and actions which might involve sending agents or troops into the field to facilitate large-scale murder operations. The use of SS-Sonderkommandos was widespread, and according to former SS Sturmbannführer (major) Wilhelm Höttl, not even the SS leadership knew how many SS-Sonderkommandos were constantly being formed, disbanded, and reformed for various tasks especially on the Eastern Front.[202] Closer to home in Germany, an SS-Sonderkommando unit led by SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Lange gassed 1201 psychiatric patients to death on 7 December 1939 at the Tiegenhof psychiatric hospital, marking the first use of gas wagons.[203] In 1941–42, SS-Sonderkommandos under Lange killed approximately 152,000 Jewish victims using mobile gas wagons at Chelmno.[204]
The last Einsatzgruppen were disbanded in mid-1944 (although on paper some continued to exist until 1945) due to the retreating German forces on both fronts and the inability to carry on with further "in-the-field" extermination activities. Former Einsatzgruppen members were either folded into the Waffen-SS or took up roles in the more established Concentration Camps such as Auschwitz. A total of twenty-four Einsatzgruppen commanders were placed on trial following the war, becoming notorious for commanding units of men whose brutality was unprecedented.[205]
SS-Mannschaften
The SS-Mannschaften´("Auxiliary-SS") were the SS personnel who were not considered regular SS members, but were conscripted from other branches of the German military, the Nazi Party, SA, Werkschutz, and the Volkssturm for service with the camps, including the extermination camps of Aktion Reinhardt such as Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and KZ Lublin Majdanek.[206][e]
Hauptamt SS-Gericht
The Hauptamt SS-Gericht ("SS Court Main Office") was created so the SS would be beyond the reach of civilian legal authority. It provided an internal legal system for conducting investigations, trials and punishment for the SS and police. Himmler would and did intervene as he saw fit when it came to convictions and punishment.[207] There were over 600 lawyers who staffed the main office and courts in Munich.[208] There were 38 regional SS courts throughout Nazi Germany. The SS and police courts were special tribunals which were the only authority authorized to try SS personnel for crimes.[209] The one exception to the SS and Police Courts jurisdiction involved members of the SS who were serving on active duty in the regular Wehrmacht. In such cases, the SS member in question was subject to regular Wehrmacht military law and could face charges before a standard military tribunal.[210] As a result of the officially sanctioned arbitrary power given to the SS within the legal system and the totalitarian police-state that accompanied it, all manner of truly objective legal procedure disappeared in Germany, rendering citizens defenseless against the "summary justice of the SS terror."[211][f]
SS special purpose corps
Another section of the SS consisted of special purpose units which assisted the main SS with a variety of tasks. The first such units were SS cavalry formations formed in the 1930s as part of the Allgemeine SS (these units were entirely separate from the later Waffen-SS mounted commands). One of the more infamous SS special purpose corps were the SS medical units, composed mostly of doctors who became involved in both euthanasia and human experimentation. The SS also formed a unit to conduct historical research into Nordic-Germanic origins.[213]
Reiter-SS
Like many of the other sporting associations, the primary body over horse breeding and riders pledged its support of some 250,000 persons to Adolf Hitler when he seized national power in 1933. Shortly thereafter, most all of the horse riding associations were immediately converted to SA and SS riding associations.[214] Later implications for the SA and SS-Reiterei included formal training of the units, as the members had to become hardened and possess the corresponding nerve for their future employment in the field. The SS Cavalry Corps (Reiter-SS) comprised several Reiterstandarten and Reiterabschnitte, which were really equestrian clubs to attract the German upper class and nobility into the SS.[215]
The first SS-Totenkopf horsed cavalry designated SS-Totenkopf Reitstandarte 1 was formed in September 1939. Commanded by then SS-Standartenführer Hermann Fegelein,[g] who took the SS-Kavallerie unit into Poland for security duties.[216] Additional squadrons were added in May 1940 when there were 14 squadrons in total with specialist support elements and horse gun batteries.[217] By March 1941 the SS-Kavalerie had 2 regiments with a strength of 3500 men. A few months later, the SS-Kavallerie units were operating in the Soviet Union where they conducted mop-up operations, including the infamous Pripyat swamps operation designed to round up and exterminate Jews, partisans, and civilians.[218][219] Fegelein's final report on the operation, dated 18 September 1941, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, 699 Red Army soldiers, with 830 prisoners taken and losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing.[220][221] Later in 1943, Fegelein led his SS Cavalry Brigade into the Soviet Union for anti-partisan raids.[222] Fighting in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union, the SS-Kavallerie saw significant action in the eastern theater.[223]
Sanitätsstaffel
The SS Medical Corps first appeared in the 1930s as small companies of SS personnel known as the Sanitätsstaffel. After 1931, the SS formed a headquarters office known as Amt V, which was the central office for SS medical units. An SS Medical Academy was established in Berlin during 1938 to train physicians bound for duty in the Waffen-SS.[225] Medical personnel in the SS did not often participate in traditional medicine. For SS doctors, their primary responsibility was the institutionalization of medicalized genocide.[226] Many of the SS doctors also conducted inhumane medical experiments on camp prisoners.[227] Acting as the leader of a "medical corps" given the task of being Desinfektoren (disinfectors), the SS doctor supervised the actual killing procedures. They evaluated inmates as they arrived, scrutinizing their general health so as to determine their fitness for work, sending those deemed questionable directly to their deaths at certain locations. Existing inmates whose health became questionable were examined by SS doctors, who decided whether or not they would be able to recover from any medical treatment in less than two-weeks; for those too ill or injured to recover in time, the practice of medical triage-murder was implemented, a practice which became a standard policy for the SS.[228]
In 1945, after the surrender of Germany, the SS was declared an illegal criminal organization by the Allies. SS doctors, in particular, were marked as war criminals due to the wide range of human medical experimentation they conducted during World War II and for their role in the gas chamber selections of persons exterminated during the Holocaust.[229] The most infamous member, Doctor Josef Mengele, served as a medical officer at Auschwitz under the command of Eduard Wirth of the Auschwitz medical corps.[230] Eduard Wirth was "organizer-in-chief" of selections, which he often attended himself. Josef Mengele also made the daily gas chamber selections of people as well as conducting many experiments at the camp. After the trial of members as to crimes against humanity, it was determined that in the territory of the Krasnodar Territory of the USSR about 7,000 civilians were killed by gas poisoning.[231]
Ahnenerbe
The Scientific branch of the SS which was used to provide scientific and archeological proof of Aryan supremacy was called the Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Organization).[232] Formed in 1935 by Himmler, the organization did not become part of the SS until 1939. Its tasks were not only the evaluation of racial identity among the German people, but also concerned itself with ancient Germanic traditions and language, atop pseudo-scientific esoteric endeavors like the connection between house design and race, and even the occult properties of church bells and Runic script.[232] Through the establishment of this academically-oriented organization, Himmler sought prominence for highly educated members of the SS and pursued "scientific" endeavors under those auspices.[233] Racial mythology and ultra-nationalism were suffused by the activity of the Ahnenerbe and some scholars like Bettina Arnold associate aspects of Nazi genocide to this organization.[234] A considerable part of the Germanization (Germanisierung) of Poland in 1940 was the result of collaborative efforts between the RSHA and Nordicist intellectuals from among the SS Ahnenerbe.[235] Splitting the populations groups according to "scientifically" proven racial value," enabled SS racial experts to more effectively implement the exploitation and annihilation of people throughout the re-Germanization process of the occupied territories.[236]
During the German invasion eastward into Poland, the Balkans, and the Soviet Union, where upwards of 250,000 persons of Sinti and/or Roma heritage were killed by the Einsatzgruppen, Himmler asked his SS Ahnenerbe to keep some of them alive on a reservation as an "ethnic curiosity."[237] Practicing scholarly "science" within Nazi Germany and abroad as the SS did on numerous fronts was highly subjective. Nonetheless, the SS Ahnenerbe attempted to link natural sciences with the arts and accordingly promote a more holistic understanding of the world through an admixture of genetics, geopolitics, philology, anthropology, history, and archaeology – which they blended with astrology, mythology and the occult; all brought together for the sake of legitimizing the Nazi Weltanschauung.[238]
SS-Frauenkops
Realizing that German women constituted a significant number of persons available for war effort along with the overall labor force of carrying out his genocidal plans across Europe, Himmler established a female reporting and clerical unit known as the SS-Frauenkops. Appealing to the cause and to women as more than mere biological contributors to the success of the Reich, Himmler gave a speech in Poznań in October 1943 where he praised his erstwhile SS leaders for sending their sisters, girlfriends, brides, and daughters to the "elite" training program.[239] Part of the SS-Frauenkorps also included the SS-Helferinnenkorps ("Women Helper Corps"), an assembly which consisted of women volunteers who joined the SS as auxiliary personnel. The Helferin Corps maintained a simple system of ranks, mainly SS-Helfer, SS-Oberhelfer, and SS-Haupthelfer. Members of the Helferin Corps were assigned to a wide variety of activities such as administrative staff, supply support personnel, and female guards at concentration camps.[240]
Himmler set up the Reichsschule für SS Helferinnen at Oberenheim in 1942 to train a corps of women who, among other things, were taught Nazi ideology, specialist communications, "mother schooling", and fitness. The intention was that in addition to facilitating the transfer of men from communications into combat roles, the SS-Helferinnen women would eventually replace all female civilian employees in the service of the Reichsführer. It was postulated that the SS-Helferinnen would be more suitable and reliable because they were to be trained and selected according to NSDAP racist ideology.[241][242] The designation SS-Helferin was used only for those who had been trained at the Reichsschule-SS at Oberehnheim in Elsass, although whether this made them officially accepted SS members has been debated.[241] In her review of Jutta Mühlenberg's book, Das SS-Helferinnenkorps: Ausbildung, Einsatz und Entnazifizierung der weiblichen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS 1942–1949, Rachel Century writes:
- Mühlenberg is very careful not to generalise and tar all the SS-Helferinnen with the same brush. Although all these women were a part of the bureaucratic staff, and were Mittäterinnen, Zuschauerinnen und – zum Teil – auch Zeuginnen von Gewalttätigkeiten [accomplices, spectators and sometimes even witnesses of violence] (p. 416), she notes that each woman still had individual responsibility over what she did, saw and knew, and it would be very difficult to identify the individual responsibilities of each SS-Helferin....In later years, the SS-Helferinnen had to go through the de-Nazification process. Within each tribunal it was disputed whether these women were members of the criminal SS organization. As a consequence, there were many different and conflicting decisions in individual proceedings. Despite her acknowledgement of the varying degrees of individual responsibility, Mühlenberg concludes that the guilt of the former SS-Helferinnen lies in their voluntary participation in the bureaucratic apparatus of the SS.[241]
The Reichsschule für SS Helferinnen was closed on 22 November 1944 as the personnel made a hasty exodus from the Alsace region due to the advance of the Allies.[243] From the outset, Himmler intended for women's concentration camps to be run by German women and admonished male members of the SS against entering them.[239] Female administrators and those who obtained leadership within the SS were placed in commanding positions, particularly within the concentration camp system where they gained unprecedented power as a revered and uniformed member of the Nazi government.[244] Like their male equivalents in the SS, female members, whether in integrated environments where they worked as clerical assistants or in places like Ravensbrück concentration camp where they predominated as guards, participated in atrocities against Poles, Jews, and others in the process of making mass murder a standard operating procedure in the Nazi regime.[244]
Reversal of fortune
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On 5 July 1943, the Germans launched an offensive designed to eliminate the Kursk salient.[245] The Waffen-SS by this time had been expanded to 12 divisions and most took part in the battle.[246] By the evening of 12 July, Hitler halted the attack due to the stiff Soviet resistance, and on July 17, the operation was called off and Hitler ordered a withdrawal.[247] Thereafter, the Germans were forced onto the defensive as the Red Army began the liberation of Western Russia.[248] Meanwhile, the losses incurred by the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht during the Battle of Kursk occurred nearly in-tandem with the Allied assault into Italy, opening a two-front war for Germany.[249]
Normandy landings
By the spring of 1944, the German forces in France and the Low Countries stood waiting for the Anglo-American assault.[250] Behind the coastal guns and beach obstacles of Hitler's so-called "Atlantic Wall", and the infantry divisions that supported it, were deployed 11 panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions.[251] Four of these formations were Waffen-SS divisions.[252] The SS-Das Reich was located in Southern France, the LSSAH was in Belgium, refitting after fighting in the Soviet Union, and west of Paris was the newly formed panzer division SS-Hitlerjugend, consisting of 17- and 18-year-old members of the Hitler Youth, supported by combat veterans and experienced NCO's.[253] The creation of the SS-Hitlerjugend within the Waffen-SS was also a sign of Hitler's desperation for more troops, especially ones with unquestioning obedience.[254]
When the Allies did land in Normandy on D-Day 6 June, only one panzer division was close to the beaches, but its units were too scattered for it to assist in repelling the landings. Hitler had refused to allow the bulk of the panzer divisions to moved without his permission. It was not until the afternoon that the SS-Hitlerjugend began to deploy, with its units going into action on 7 June. But rather than being able to mount a decisive counteroffensive to contain the Allies' beachhead, the SS-Hitlerjugend found themselves fighting a defensive battle. They were, however, notable during the Battle of Caen where, in spite of their declining strength, they repeatedly frustrated British and Canadian efforts to break through.[255] However, by 17 June, twenty Canadian prisoners had been murdered by soldiers of the SS-Hitlerjugend in what became known as the Ardenne Abbey massacre.[256]
A last ditch effort was ordered by Hitler and on 7 August, the 1st SS, 2nd SS, 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions with support from infantry and elements of the 17th SS-Panzergrenadier division under SS-Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser was launched. His forces were to mount an all-out offensive near Mortain and drive west through Avranches to the coast. The Americans were prepared for this offensive and an air-assault on the combined German units proved devastating.[257] By late August, the LSSAH, which had only been committed to battle since 6 July, found itself caught in the encirclement by the western Allied armies in the Falaise Pocket, which ended the Battle of Normandy with a German defeat. The remnants of the LSSAH which escaped the encirclement were withdrawn to Germany for refitting.[258]
Battle for Germany
By late 1944, the Waffen-SS soldiers who had survived the summer campaigns were withdrawn from the front line to refit. Two of them, the 9th and 10th Waffen-SS panzer divisions, did so in the Arnhem region of Holland in early September, 1944. This was to prove disastrous for the Allies. On 17 September, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, a combined airborne and land operation designed to seize control over the lower Rhine.[259] Coordinating with the deployment of the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions elsewhere along the river, British and Polish paratroops were dropped at Arnhem. The Waffen-SS units, which, unknown to the Allies, were refitting in the area, repulsed the attack on Arnhem.[260]
In late 1944, Hitler launched what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, a significant counterattack attack against the western Allies through the Ardennes sector, with the aim of reaching Antwerp and causing a "second Dunkirk". The plan was to split the British in the north from the Americans in the south.[261] Spearheading the attack were two panzer armies, one of them commanded by then SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Dietrich, which consisted largely of Waffen-SS divisions. Shortly before dawn on 16 December 1944 the Germans offensive opened up with an artillery barrage.[262] Dietrich's battle group found advancing through the forests and wooded hills of the Ardennes to be difficult in the winter weather. Initially the Germans made good progress in the northern end of its advance. However, they ran into unexpectedly strong resistance by the U.S. 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. By 23 December, weather conditions started improving, allowing the Allied air forces, which had been grounded, to attack. In increasingly difficult conditions, the German advance slowed.[263]
During the battle, SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper left a path of destruction, which included Waffen-SS soldiers murdering American POWs and unarmed Belgian civilians at Malmedy,[264] a massacre for which Peiper and his troops stood trial in Nuremberg after the war.
Despite the efforts of the Waffen-SS and the German Army, the fuel shortages, stiff American resistance, including in and around the town of Bastogne and Allied air-assaults on German supply columns proved too much, costing the Germans 700 tanks and most of their remaining mobile forces in the west.[265] Hitler's failed counteroffensive had used most of Germany's remaining reserves of manpower and materiel, which could not be replaced.[266]
In the East, by the end of 1944 the Red Army had amassed "fifty-five full armies, six tank armies, and thirteen air armies commanding 500 rifle divisions, ninety-four artillery divisions and 149 independent artillery brigades," with upwards of 15,000 tanks and 15,000 military aircraft ready for the onslaught.[267] As 1945 began, the well-equipped Red Army prepared for the assault which would take them into Germany. The Waffen-SS fought hard and the 4th SS Panzer Corps managed to conduct a successful spoiling operation from 17–24 February, "which eliminated the Russian bridgeheads over the Hron River and thereby lessened the immediate threat to Bratislava and Vienna."[268] Ultimately, the German efforts at Budapest failed. In the interim, the 1st and 2nd SS Panzer Corps made their way towards Austria, but were slowed down due to damaged railways.[269]
In Hitler’s estimation, the Nagykanizsa oilfields southwest of Lake Balaton were the most strategically valuable reserves on the Eastern Front.[268] For this reason, Hitler ordered Dietrich’s 6th SS Panzer Army to move to Hungary in order to protect the oilfields and refineries there.[270] The final German offensive in the east took place in early March. Named Frühlingserwachsen (Spring Awakening) the German forces attacked near Lake Balaton with the Sixth SS Panzer Army advancing northwards towards Budapest and the 2nd Panzer Army moving eastwards and south.[271] Dietrich's army made "good progress" at first, but as they drew near the Danube, the combination of the muddy terrain and strong resistance of the Soviet forces ground them to a halt.[272] By 16 March the battle was lost. The overwhelming numerical superiority of the Red Army made any defense impossible, yet Hitler somehow believed victory was attainable.[273] So enraged was Hitler when he learned of the operation's failure, that he ordered the Waffen-SS units involved, including the LSSAH to remove their cuff titles so as to overtly mark their disgrace. However, Dietrich refused to carry out the order.[274]
By this time, on both the Eastern and Western Front, the sinister activities of the SS were becoming clear to the Allies, as the concentration and extermination camps were being overrun.[275] Allied troops working westward encountered the remains of Nazi brutality at the camps in their areas of occupation which elicited expressions of disbelief and repugnance.[276]
On 9 April 1945, the capital of East Prussia, Königsberg fell to the Soviets and on 13 April Dietrich’s SS unit was forced out of Vienna.[277] The Soviet assault on Berlin began on 16 April at 03:30 AM with a massive artillery barrage accompanied by searchlights to light the path of the attackers.[278] Within just a week, fighting was taking place inside the city itself. Among the many elements defending Berlin, were French, Latvian, and Scandinavian Waffen-SS troops.[279][280] Hitler still hoped that his remaining SS soldiers would produce a miracle and rescue the capital, but he was now living in isolation in the Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery, and his hopes were nothing but fantasy. Meanwhile, members of the SS patrolled the city and despite the futility of maintaining discipline, they shot or hung soldiers and civilians for what they considered to be acts of cowardice or defeatism.[281]
The Berlin garrison finally surrendered on 2 May, two days after Hitler committed suicide, and Berlin fell silent.[278] As members of SS expected little mercy from the Red Army, there was now a rush among the surviving SS and army formations to surrender to the western Allies. A number of Waffen-SS divisions conducted formal surrender campaigns to demonstrate their defiance.[282]
Foreign legions and volunteers
In March 1941, the SS Main Office established the Germanische Leitstelle ("Germanic Guidance Office") whose task was to find new recruits for the Waffen-SS. Constantly struggling with the Wehrmacht for recruits, Himmler solved this problem through the creation of Waffen-SS units composed of Germanic folk groups taken from the Balkans and eastern Europe. Equally vital were inclusions from among the Germanic peoples in Holland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and Finland.[283] The Waffen-SS maintained several "Foreign Legions" of personnel from conquered territories and countries allied to Germany. The majority wore a distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix Waffen instead of SS. Volunteers from Scandinavian countries filled the ranks of two divisions, the SS-Wiking and SS-Nordland.[284] By the conclusion of 1943, roughly one-fourth of the SS (310,000 men), consisted of "racial Germans" from across Europe.[285] Belgian Flemings joined Dutchmen to form the SS-Nederland legion,[286] their Walloon compatriots joined the SS-Wallonien.[287] There was also a French volunteer division, SS-Charlemagne which was formed mainly from the remnants of the "Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism" (LVF) and French Sturmbrigade in 1944.[288]
Additional units of the Waffen-SS were added elsewhere from among the Ukrainians, Albanians from Kosovo, Serbians, Croatians, Turkic, Caucasians, Cossack, and even Tatar Legions,[h] The Ukrainians and the Tatars had both suffered persecution under Stalin and they were likely motivated primarily by opposition to the Soviet government rather than genuine ideological agreement with the SS.[289] The exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni was made an SS-Gruppenführer by Himmler in May 1943,[290] subsequently he used anti-Semitism and anti-Serb racism to recruit an entire Waffen-SS division of Bosnian Muslims, the SS-Handschar.[291] Himmler had convinced himself that Bosniaks and Croats were Germanic rather than Slavic, and he admired Islam.[292] The year-long Soviet occupation of the Baltic states at the beginning of World War II produced volunteers for Latvian and Estonian Waffen-SS units. The Estonian Legion, for example, had 1,280 volunteers under training by the end of 1942.[293] However, by February 1944 the German military situation on the Eastern front had worsened. As the result, another 10,000 Estonia men were conscripted into the Waffen-SS. Approximately 25,000 men served in the Estonian SS division (with thousands more conscripted into the "Police Front" battalions and border guard units).[294] During the spring of 1944 as Himmler became more and more desperate for recruits, he contacted Oswald Pohl, lead of the Economic and Administrative Head Office, about releasing Muslim prisoners from the concentration camps to supplement his SS troops.[295]
There was, from August 1944 until the end of the war, an Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS ("Waffen-SS Indian Volunteer Legion") which had been formed as a Heer (army) unit in August 1942, chiefly from disaffected Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, captured by the Axis in North Africa. Many, if not most, of the Indian volunteers who switched sides to fight with the German Army and against the British were strongly nationalistic supporters of the exiled, anti-British and former president of the Indian National Congress, Subhas Chandra Bose.[296]
Ranks and uniforms
The SS had its own rank structure, unit insignia, and uniforms, distinctive from other branches of the military, state officials, and the rest of the NSDAP. Before 1929, the SS wore the same brown uniform as the SA, with the addition of a black tie and a black cap with a Totenkopf (death's head) skull and bones symbol. In 1932 the SS adopted an all-black uniform designed by SS-Oberführer Professor Karl Diebitsch and graphic designer SS-Sturmhauptführer Walter Heck.[11]
In 1935, the SS military formations (the Leibstandarte and the SS-Verfügungstruppe) adopted a service uniform in a colour termed Erdgrau (earth-grey) for everyday wear. During the war, Waffen-SS units wore a wide range of items printed with camouflage patterns, while their Feldgrau (field-grey) uniforms became indistinguishable from those of the Heer, save for the insignia.[297] The SS also developed its own field uniforms, which included reversible smocks and helmet covers printed with camouflage patterns.[298] Uniforms were manufactured in hundreds of clothing factories licensed by the Reichszeugmeisterei, including Hugo Boss, with some workers being prisoners of war performing forced labour. Many were produced in concentration camps.[299]
SS membership estimates 1925–45
After 1933 a career in the SS became increasingly attractive to Germany's social elite who began joining the movement in great numbers usually for political opportunism. By 1938 about one-third of the SS leadership consisted of the upper middle class members. The trend was reversed dramatically only after the first Soviet counter-offensive of 1942.[300]
Year Membership Reichsführer-SS 1925 200[5] Julius Schreck[301] 1926 200[302] Joseph Berchtold[303] 1927 200[302] Erhard Heiden[302] 1928 280[304] Erhard Heiden[302] 1929 1,000[305] Heinrich Himmler[306] 1930–33 52,000[5]
(the bandwagon effect)[307]Heinrich Himmler[306] (establishment of the Third Reich)[308] 1934–39 240,000[309] Heinrich Himmler[306] 1940–44 800,000[310][311] Heinrich Himmler[306] 1944–45 1,000,000[312] Heinrich Himmler[306] and Karl Hanke[313]
SS offices
By 1942 all activities of the SS were managed through twelve main offices of the Allgemeine SS.[314][315]
- Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS Hauptamt (Personal Staff of the Reich Leader SS)
- SS-Hauptamt (Main Administrative Office; SS-HA)
- SS-Führungshauptamt (SS Main Operational Office; SS-FHA)
- Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office; RSHA)
- Ordnungspolizei Hauptamt (Main Office of the Order Police)
- Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administration Main Office; SS-WVHA)
- Hauptamt SS-Gericht (Main Office of SS Legal Matters)
- SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (SS Office of Race and Settlement; RuSHA)
- SS-Personalhauptamt (SS Personnel Main Office)
- Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Racial German Assistance Main Office; VOMI)
- Hauptamt Dienststelle Heissmeyer (SS Education Office)
- Hauptamt Reichskommissar für die Festigung Deutschen Volkstums (Main Office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood; RKFDV)
Austrian-SS
The term "Austrian-SS" was never a recognized branch of the SS, but is often used to describe that portion of the SS membership from Austria. Both Germany and Austria contributed to a single SS and Austrian SS members were seen as regular SS personnel, in contrast to SS members from other countries which were grouped into either the Germanic-SS or the Foreign Legions of the Waffen-SS. The Austrian branch of the SS first developed in 1930 and, by 1934, was acting as a covert force to influence the Anschluss with Germany which would eventually occur in 1938. The early Austrian SS was led by Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Arthur Seyss-Inquart and was technically under the command of the SS in Germany, but often acted independently concerning Austrian affairs.[316]
After 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany, the Austrian SS was folded into SS-Oberabschnitt Donau with the 3rd regiment of the SS-Verfügungstruppe, Der Führer, and the fourth Totenkopf regiment, Ostmark, recruited in Austria shortly thereafter. Austrian SS leader Kaltenbrunner replaced the Austrian State Secretary for Security, firmly establishing an SS foothold inside the newly acquired Ostmark, which was immediately followed by the arrest of potential enemies of the Reich, the foremost of whom were the Communists.[317] Mauthausen was the first concentration camp opened in Austria following the Anschluss.[318] Before the invasion of the Soviet Union, Mauthausen was the harshest of the camps in the Greater German Reich.[319]
The Hotel Metropole in Vienna was transformed into the Gestapo headquarters. Franz Josef Huber was in charge and had a staff of 900, of which 80% were from the Austrian police. It was the largest Gestapo office outside of Berlin. It is estimated that 50,000 people were interrogated and tortured there. Huber was also the formal chief of the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, and although the de facto leaders were Adolf Eichmann and later Alois Brunner, was nevertheless responsible for the mass deportations of Jews.[320]
Austrian SS members served in every branch of the SS, including Concentration Camps, Einsatzgruppen, and the Security Services. Besides Eichmann, Amon Göth was another notable Austrian-SS member. He became the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów.[321][322] According to political scientist David Art:
Austrians also played a central role in Nazi crimes. Although Austrians comprised only 8 percent of the Third Reich's population, over 13 percent of the SS were Austrian. Many of the key figures in the extermination project of the Third Reich (Hitler, Eichmann, Kaltenbrunner, Globocnik, to name a few) were Austrian, as were over 75 percent of commanders and 40 percent of the staff at Nazi death camps. Simon Wiesenthal estimates that Austrians were directly responsible for the deaths of 3 million Jews.[323]
Post-war activity and aftermath
Following Nazi Germany's collapse, the SS organization disappeared.[324] Near the end of May 1945, the British captured Himmler, who was in disguise and under a false passport. At an internment camp near Lüneburg, he took his own life by biting down on a cyanide capsule.[325] Several other leading members of the SS fled but many were unable to get far before being captured. Chief of the RSHA and the ranking member of the SS upon Himmler's suicide, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, was captured and arrested in the Bavarian Alps.[326] What awaited him and many of the leading Nazis was an international tribunal to hold the remaining members of Nazi regime accountable for the unprecedented crimes committed against countless soldiers and civilians.[327]
Some SS members who escaped the judicial punishment later administered never made it to a trial, as they were often subject to summary execution, torture and beatings at the hands of freed prisoners, displaced persons or Allied soldiers.[328][329] Upon encountering the human deprivation and cruelty committed by the SS at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich in April 1945, American soldiers of the 157th Regiment shot some of the remaining SS camp guards.[330] On 15 April 1945 the British troops entered the Bergen-Belsen camp in Lower Saxony. Instead of shooting the SS guards, the British soldiers placed them on starvation rations, made them work without breaks, forced them to deal with the remaining corpses, stabbed them with bayonets and struck them with their rifle butts if they slowed their work pace.[331] In addition, at least some members of the U.S Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) delivered captured SS camp guards to displaced persons camps for extrajudicial execution.[332]
International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg
Numerous members of the SS, many of them still committed Nazis, remained at large in Germany and across Europe at the end of the war.[333] The Allies commenced legal proceedings against leading Nazis who were captured, establishing the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg.[334][i] Prominent figures such as Hermann Göring, Albert Speer, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, were made to stand trial. All told, 22 Nazi officials were convicted during the first in a series of trials at Nuremberg.[335][j] Nazi leaders were accused of offenses that included waging an aggressive war of conquest, committing mass murder against innocent civilians, and carrying out a wide variety of atrocities and crimes against humanity in violation of international laws governing war.[334] Along with many of his accomplices, Kaltenbrunner (the ranking member of the SS remaining) was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed on 16 October 1946.[336]
Additional trials of SS intellectuals and SS physicians followed. Those convicted were punished accordingly.[337] Of note were the SS Ahnenerbe doctors whose Nazi convictions and Darwinist ideology led them to kill enfeebled and disabled persons deemed "unworthy to live," or who performed horrifying medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.[338] Although, it is estimated that out of roughly 70,000 members of the SS involved in crimes in German concentration camps, only about 1,650 to 1,700 were tried after the war.[k] When members of the SS were on trial for their crimes, many of them attempted to exculpate themselves using the excuse that they were merely following orders during emergency conditions which they had to obey unconditionally as part of their sworn oath and duty.[339] Their tactic of citing superior orders which was encapsulated by the German statement, Befehl ist Befehl ("an order is an order") was an attempt to intimate responsibility onto their superiors which they believed offered a legitimate defense, one that failed in the end.[340] Due to the brutal treatment meted out to so many people prior to and throughout the course of the war, the SS was ultimately declared a "criminal organization".[184] Upwards of 37,000 members of the SS were also tried and convicted in Soviet courts which resulted in public hangings or long sentences of hard labor in gulags.[341]
ODESSA and surviving members
According to Simon Wiesenthal, toward the end of World War II, a group of former SS officers went to Argentina and set up a Nazi fugitive network code-named ODESSA (an acronym for Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, "Organization of former SS members"), with ties in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, operating out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. ODESSA allegedly helped Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke, and many other war criminals find postwar refuge in Latin America.[342]
In the 1950s, former Jewish Dachau worker Lothar Hermann discovered that Argentinian citizen and water company worker Ricardo Klement was in fact Adolf Eichmann. Hermann's daughter, Sylvia, had become romantically involved with Eichmann's son Klaus, who was living under the assumed name Klaus Klement. Adolf Eichmann was captured by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in a suburb of Buenos Aires on 11 May 1960. He was tried in Jerusalem on 11 April 1961, where he explicitly declared that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Führerprinzip (the "leader principle", or superior orders). Eichmann was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Nevertheless, Eichmann was quoted as having once stated, "I will jump into my grave laughing, because the fact that I have the death of five-million Jews [Reich enemies] on my conscience gives me extraordinary satisfaction."[343]
Josef Mengele, disguised as a member of the regular German infantry, was captured and released by the Allies, oblivious to his real identity. He was able to go and work in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1949 and to Altos, Paraguay, in 1959 where he was discovered by Nazi hunters. From the late 1960s on, he operated a medical practice in Embu, a small city near São Paulo, Brazil, under the identity of Wolfgang Gerhard, where in 1979, he suffered a stroke while swimming and drowned.[344]
The British writer Gitta Sereny, who conducted interviews with SS men, considers the story about ODESSA untrue and attributes the escape of notorious SS members to postwar chaos, an individual bishop in the Vatican, and the Vatican's inability to investigate the stories of those people who came requesting help. Correspondingly, Sereny asserted that even after thorough investigations were conducted, nobody could ever prove the existence of ODESSA, but she interestingly added the qualifying statement, "there certainly were various kinds of Nazi aid organizations after the war — it would have been astonishing if there hadn't been."[345]
The Argentine author and journalist Uki Goñi's book, The Real Odessa, claims that such a network in fact existed, and in Argentina it was largely run by Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón, a Nazi sympathiser who had been impressed by Benito Mussolini's reign in Italy during a military tour of duty in Italy and Nazi Germany.[346] More recently researched (2002) than Sereny's interviews, counterclaimants point out that it is at a far greater chronological distance, not simply a year or two—from the actual point(s) in time he asserts such events occurred, removed long enough to call into question the veracity of a number of his claims.
Links to contemporary movements
While there were some radical nationalist political movements in Germany during the late 1940s and into the 1960s, none of them ever gained the political traction or majority necessary to become a legitimate party.[347] By the 1970s, radical nationalism had largely disappeared from the German political scene. Declining employment and economic slow-down accompanied by an influx of immigrant workers combined to cause a neo-Nazi revival of sorts in the 1980s, a movement (while small) which still produced a significant number of neo-fascist attacks on racial minorities. Reports from 1992 indicated approximately 2500 race-related attacks occurred and 17 people were killed in the violence.[348] Recent immigration problems and terror threats in Germany and Europe proper are causing a resurgence of right-wing radical nationalism.[l] Despite the declarations of radicalized fringe neo-Nazi movements who claim to be successors of the SS, there is no single group recognized as a continuation of the organization.[citation needed]
On 21 February 2012, The Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance published its report on Latvia (fourth monitoring cycle), in which it condemned Latvian Legion Day which commemorates persons who had fought in a Latvian unit of the Waffen-SS and takes place every year on 16 March. It is held in the centre of Riga. Within that report is the following statement which applies universally concerning the Waffen-SS, "All attempts to commemorate persons who fought in the Waffen-SS and collaborated with the Nazis, should be condemned. Any gathering or march legitimising Nazism in any way should be banned."[349]
See also
Notes
- ^ Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen.[91]
- ^ Not to be confused with SS-Sonderkommandos, ad hoc SS units that used the same name.
- ^ Upwards of 10,000 Czechs were arrested in an act of reprisal, 1,300 were shot, including all male inhabitants from the nearby town of Lidice (where Heydrich's assassins were supposedly harboured) and the entire town was razed to the ground. [193]
- ^ During the trials at Nuremberg, former Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf claimed that the organization was "invented by Heydrich". See: Langerbein 2003, p. 24.
- ^ See: The permanent exhibition which documents the Wannsee conference, the events prior to it, and its consequences. From the journal article: Am Großen Wannsee, "Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz: Raum 13" (2015): pp 1–21. Berlin-Zehlendorf, [in German] at the following URL: Wannsee Exhibit
- ^ Due to this unconstrained authority, the SS operated outside the conventional framework of the German legal system and became a "direct executive organ of the Führer's will."[212]
- ^ Fegelein later acquired the ranks of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS
- ^ Robert L. Canfield, Turko–Persia in Historical Perspective p. 212 – "The majority of Central Asian soldiers taken prisoner opted for the enemy – a fact still hidden from the Soviet public today – although systematic starvation and cruel treatment in German hands, which resulted in appalling losses, must have been one of the major inducements to change sides. As Turkistanis they joined the so-called "Eastern Legions", which were part of the Wehrmacht and later the Waffen-SS, to fight the Red Army (Hauner 1981:339-57). The estimates of their numbers vary between 250,000 and 400,000, which include the Kalmyks, the Tatars and members of the Caucasian ethnic groups (Alexiev 1982:33)"
- ^ The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg is often referred to simply as the "Nuremberg Trials."
- ^ Full list of the named Indictees at the Nuremberg Trial Proceedings. URL:http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/count.asp
- ^ As stated by Piotr Cywiński, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, in: Marcin Bosacki, Dominik Uhlig, and Bogdan Wróblewski (May 2008) "Nikt nie chce osądzić zbrodniarza", Gazeta Wyborcza. [in Polish] Stable URL: http://wyborcza.pl/1,75478,5232713,Nikt_nie_chce_osadzic_zbrodniarza.html
- ^ The Council of Europe is currently very concerned about the rising racism within Germany. See: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/council-europe-concerned-about-rising-racism-germany-1522025
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- ^ Ingrao 2013, pp. 20, 52–63.
- ^ Krüger & Wedemeyer-Kolwe 2009, p. 34.
- ^ Krüger & Wedemeyer-Kolwe 2009, p. 35.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 224–225.
- ^ McNab 2013, p. 225.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 225–226.
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 81–90.
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Miller 2006, p. 310.
- ^ McNab 2013, p. 182.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 225–230.
- ^ Patrick Montague. Chelmno and the Holocaust: The History of Hitler's First Death Camp. p. 199.
- ^ Proctor 1988, p. 86.
- ^ Lifton 1986, p. 147.
- ^ Yahil 1990, p. 368.
- ^ Lifton 1986, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Pringle 2006, pp. 294–296.
- ^ Yahil 1990, p. 369.
- ^ Mahoney 1996, p. 238.
- ^ a b Spielvogel 1992, p. 108.
- ^ Schafft 2004, p. 93.
- ^ Schafft 2004, p. 97.
- ^ Ingrao 2013, p. 63.
- ^ Heinemann 2013, p. 50.
- ^ Burleigh & Wippermann 1991, p. 125.
- ^ Cornwell 2004, p. 192.
- ^ a b Lower 2013, p. 108.
- ^ Schwarz 1997, pp. 223–244.
- ^ a b c Century 2011.
- ^ Rempel 1989, pp. 223–224.
- ^ Mühlenberg 2011, p. 27.
- ^ a b Lower 2013, p. 109.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 486.
- ^ Bessel 2006, p. 143.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 488–489.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 68, 70.
- ^ Fritz 2011, p. 350.
- ^ Whitmarsh 2009, pp. 4, 7.
- ^ Whitmarsh 2009, pp. 12, 13.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 219.
- ^ McNab 2013, p. 295.
- ^ Rempel 1989, p. 233.
- ^ McNab 2013, p. 297.
- ^ McNab 2009, p. 73.
- ^ Stein 1984, pp. 222–223.
- ^ McNab 2013, p. 197.
- ^ Weinberg 1994, p. 701.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 439–442.
- ^ Weinberg 1994, pp. 765–766.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, p. 465.
- ^ Weinberg 1994, p. 767.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, p. 468.
- ^ Weinberg 1994, pp. 767–769.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 232.
- ^ Seaton 1971, pp. 527–534.
- ^ a b Duffy 2002, p. 293.
- ^ Ziemke 1968, p. 439.
- ^ Seaton 1971, p. 537.
- ^ Duffy 2002, p. 294.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 238.
- ^ Ziemke 1968, p. 450.
- ^ Messenger 2001, pp. 167–168.
- ^ Wachsmann 2015, pp. 542–548.
- ^ Fritz 2004, pp. 50–55.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 237.
- ^ a b Kershaw 2011, p. 302.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 246.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 328, 330, 338.
- ^ Moorhouse 2012, pp. 364–365.
- ^ Stein 1984, pp. 248–249.
- ^ Koehl 2004, pp. 212–213.
- ^ Koehl 2004, pp. 214–219.
- ^ Höhne 2001, p. 458.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 272–273.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 321–323.
- ^ McNab 2013, pp. 326–330.
- ^ Reitlinger 1989, pp. 200–204.
- ^ Reitlinger 1989, p. 199.
- ^ Hale 2011, pp. 264–266.
- ^ Bishop & Williams 2003, p. 70.
- ^ Bishop 2005, p. 93.
- ^ Bishop 2005, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Motadel 2014, p. 242.
- ^ Stein 1984, p. 189.
- ^ Flaherty 2004, pp. 88–92.
- ^ Flaherty 2004, p. 92.
- ^ Givhan, Robin (August 15, 1997). "Clothier Made Nazi Uniforms". Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
- ^ Ziegler 2014 pp. 132-134 & Note 13.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d Weale 2012, p. 32.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 30.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 46.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 49.
- ^ a b c d e Weale 2012, p. 33.
- ^ Ziegler 2014, p. 133.
- ^ Ziegler 2014, p. 131.
- ^ Snyder 1994, p. 330.
- ^ Laqueur & Baumel 2001, p. 609.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 56, 57, 66.
- ^ "The Past in an SS-uniform Plagued Günter Grass" (in Danish). Politiken. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 724.
- ^ Yerger 1997, pp. 13–21.
- ^ Stackelberg 2007, p. 302.
- ^ Browder 1996, pp. 205–206.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, pp. 120–121.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 107.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, p. 121.
- ^ Mang 2003, pp. 1–5.
- ^ Weale 2012, pp. 144, 156, 157.
- ^ Crowe 2004, p. 227.
- ^ Art 2006, p. 43.
- ^ Höhne 2001, p. 580.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 729.
- ^ Weale 2012, p. 410.
- ^ Burleigh 2000, pp. 803–804.
- ^ MacDonogh 2009, p. 3.
- ^ Murray & Millett 2001, pp. 565–568.
- ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 84–87.
- ^ "Giving Hitler Hell" (24 July 2005). Washington Post Sunday. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 739–741.
- ^ a b Evans 2008, p. 741.
- ^ Laqueur & Baumel 2001, p. 455.
- ^ Wistrich 2001, p. 136.
- ^ Burleigh 2000, p. 804.
- ^ Pringle 2006, pp. 295–296.
- ^ Ingrao 2013, p. 240.
- ^ Ingrao 2013, p. 241.
- ^ Burleigh 2010, p. 549.
- ^ Segev 2010, pp. 106–108.
- ^ Arendt 2006, p. 46.
- ^ Wistrich 2001, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Sereny 1974, p. 274.
- ^ Goñi 2003, pp. 100–115.
- ^ Overy 1997, pp. 114–115.
- ^ Overy 1997, p. 115.
- ^ Council of Europe (ECRI) 2012, p. 9.
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{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Art, David (2006). The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85683-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Baranowski, Shelley (2010). Nazi Empire: German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52167-408-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Benz, Wolfgang; Distel, Barbara; Königseder, Angelika (2005). Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager (vol. 7) (in German). Munich: Beck. ISBN 978-3-40652-960-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Bessel, Richard (2006). Nazism and War. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-81297-557-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Bishop, Chris; Williams, Michael (2003). SS: Hell on the Western Front. St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press. ISBN 978-0-76031-402-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Bishop, Chris (2005). Hitler's Foreign Divisions: 1940–45. London: Amber. ISBN 978-1-904687-37-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Blood, Philip W. (2006). Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe. Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-021-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Bracher, Karl-Dietrich (1970). The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and Effects of National Socialism. New York: Praeger Publishers. ASIN B001JZ4T16.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Browder, George C (1996). Hitler’s Enforcers: The Gestapo and the SS Security Service in the Nazi Revolution. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19510-479-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Browning, Christopher R. (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution : The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942. Comprehensive History of the Holocaust. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1327-1.
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{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Burleigh, Michael (2000). The Third Reich: A New History. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-80909-325-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Burleigh, Michael (2010). Moral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06058-097-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Butler, Rupert (2001). SS-Leibstandarte: The History of the First SS Division, 1934–45. Staplehurst: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-117-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Butler, Rupert (2003). The Black Angels. Staplehurst: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-117-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Century, Rachel (January 2011). "Review of Das SS-Helferinnenkorps: Ausbildung, Einsatz und Entnazifizierung der weiblichen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS 1942–1949". Reviews in History. Institute of Historical Research. Review no. 1183. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
{{cite journal}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Cook, Stan; Bender, R. James (1994). Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler: Uniforms, Organization, & History. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 978-0-912138-55-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Cornwell, John (2004). Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-670-03075-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Crowe, David M. (2004). Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-465-00253-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Council of Europe (ECRI) European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (2012). ECRI Report on Latvia (fourth monitoring cycle) (PDF).
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{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Diner, Dan (2006). Beyond the Conceivable: Studies on Germany, Nazism, and the Holocaust. Los Angeles; Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52021-345-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Duffy, Christopher (2002). Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany, 1945. Edison, NJ: Castle Books. ISBN 0-7858-1624-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Evans, Richard J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-303469-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-303790-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-311671-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Felton, Mark (2014). Guarding Hitler: The Secret World of the Führer. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-78159-305-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Flaherty, Thomas H., ed. (2004) [1988]. The Third Reich: The SS. Time-Life. ISBN 1-84447-073-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Frei, Norbert (1993). National Socialist Rule in Germany: The Führer State, 1933–1945. Cambridge, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-63118-507-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Fritz, Stephen (2004). Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-81312-325-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Fritz, Stephen (2011). Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-81313-416-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Frusetta, James (2012). "The Final Solution in Southwestern Europe". In Friedman, Jonathan C. (ed.). The Routledge History of the Holocaust. New York: Taylor & Francis. pp. 264–276. ISBN 978-0-415-52087-4.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Gerwarth, Robert (2011). Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11575-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Glantz, David (October 11, 2001). "The Soviet‐German War 1941–45: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay" (PDF). Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Clemson University.
{{cite web}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Goñi, Uki (2003). The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought The Nazi War Criminals To Argentina. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-552-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hale, Christopher (2011). Hitler's Foreign Executioners: Europe's Dirty Secret. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-75245-974-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Headland, Ronald (1992). Messages of Murder: A Study of the Reports of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the Security Service, 1941–1943. Rutherford, N.J: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3418-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Heer, Hannes; Naumann, Klaus (2000). War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II 1941–1944. New York: Berghahn. ISBN 1-57181-232-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hein, Bastian (2015). Die SS: Geschichte und Verbrechen (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-67513-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Heinemann, Isabel (2013). "Defining "(Un)Wanted Population Addition": Anthropology, Racist Ideology, and Mass Murder in the Occupied East". In Weiss-Wendt, Anton; Yeomans, Rory (eds.). Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938–1945. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80324-605-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hellwinkel, Lars (2014). Hitler's Gateway to the Atlantic: German Naval Bases in France 1940–1945. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-199-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hilberg, Raul (1985). The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier. ISBN 0-8419-0910-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hildebrand, Klaus (1984). The Third Reich. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-0494-3033-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Himmler, Heinrich (1936). Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation (in German). Munich: Franz Eher.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hoffmann, Peter (2000). Hitler's Personal Security: Protecting the Führer 1921–1945. New York: Da Capo. ISBN 978-0-30680-947-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Höhne, Heinz (2001). The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14139-012-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Ingrao, Christian (2013). Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine. Malden, MA: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-6026-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (1999). "The Structure of Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933–1945". In Christian Leitz, ed. (ed.). The Third Reich: The Essential Readings. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-63120-700-9.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help); Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999). The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-39332-252-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kershaw, Ian (2011). The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944–1945. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14312-213-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Koehl, Robert (2004). The SS: A History 1919–45. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-75242-559-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Krausnik, Helmut (1968). "The Persecution of the Jews". In Krausnik, Helmut; Buchheim, Hans; Broszat, Martin; Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (eds.). Anatomy of the SS State. New York: Walker and Company. ISBN 978-0-00211-026-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Krüger, Arnd; Wedemeyer-Kolwe, Bernd (2009). Vergessen, verdrängt, abgelehnt – Zur Geschichte der Ausgrenzung im Sport (in German). Münster: Lit Verlag. ISBN 978-3-64310-338-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Langerbein, Helmut (2003). Hitler’s Death Squads: The Logic of Mass Murder. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-58544-285-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Laqueur, Walter; Baumel, Judith Tydor (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. New Haven; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30008-432-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Lifton, Robert Jay (1986). The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-46504-905-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280436-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Longerich, Peter (2012). Heinrich Himmler: A Life. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959232-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Lowe, Keith (2012). Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. New York: Picador. ISBN 978-1-25003-356-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Lower, Wendy (2013). Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-54786-338-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - MacDonogh, Giles (2009). After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-46500-337-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Mang, Thomas (2003). "Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien – "Mein Name ist Huber"" (PDF). Döw Mitteilungen (in German). 164. Documentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstands: 1–5.
{{cite journal}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help); Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) - Mahoney, Kevin (1996). In Pursuit of Justice: Examining the Evidence of the Holocaust. Washington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. ISBN 978-0-89604-702-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Manning, Jeanne (1999). A Time to Speak. Paducah, KY: Turner. ISBN 978-1-56311-560-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Mattson, Gregory L. (2002). SS-Das Reich: The History of the Second SS Division, 1944–45. Amber Books. ISBN 0-7603-1255-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. London: Amber Books. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - McNab, Chris (2013). Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939–45. Osprey. ISBN 978-1-78200-088-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Messenger, Charles (2001). Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Military Career of Sepp Dietrich. London: Brassey's. ISBN 978-1-57488-315-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Miller, Michael (2006). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 978-93-297-0037-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Miller, Michael; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders Of The Nazi Party And Their Deputies, 1925–1945. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 1-932970-21-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Mollo, Andrew (1991). Uniforms of the SS: Volume 3: SS-Verfügungstruppe. London: Windrow & Greene. ISBN 1-872004-51-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Moorhouse, Roger (2012). Berlin at War. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-46502-855-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Motadel, David (2014). Islam and Nazi Germany's War. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67472-460-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Mühlenberg, Jutta (2011). Das SS-Helferinnenkorps: Ausbildung, Einsatz und Entnazifizierung der weiblichen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS, 1942–1949 (PDF) (in German). Hamburg: VerlagsgesmbH. ISBN 978-3-86854-500-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Murray, Williamson; Millett, Allan R. (2001). A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67400-680-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Overy, Richard (1997). The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14051-330-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Padfield, Peter (2001) [1990]. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS. London: Cassel & Co. ISBN 0-304-35839-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Pieper, Henning (2015). Fegelein's Horsemen and Genocidal Warfare: The SS Cavalry Brigade in the Soviet Union. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-45631-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Pringle, Heather (2006). The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-714812-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Proctor, Robert (1988). Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-74578-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Read, Anthony (2005). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. New York; London: Norton. ISBN 978-0-39332-697-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Reitlinger, Gerald (1989). The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922–1945. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80351-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Reynolds, Michael Frank (1997). Steel Inferno: I SS Panzer Corps in Normandy: The Story of the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions in the 1944 Normandy Campaign. Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount. ISBN 1-873376-90-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Rempel, Gerhard (1989). Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-4299-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Reynolds, Michael Frank (1997). Steel Inferno: I SS Panzer Corps in Normandy: The Story of the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions in the 1944 Normandy Campaign. Steelhurst: Spellmount. ISBN 1-873376-90-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Rhodes, Richard (2003). Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust. New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-37570-822-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Rossino, Alexander B. (2003). Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkreig, Ideology, and Atrocity. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1234-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Rummel, Rudolph (1992). Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. ISBN 1-56000-004-X.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Schafft, Gretchen E (2004). From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich. Urbana; Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-25207-453-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Schwarz, Gudrun (1997). "Frauen in der SS: Sippenverband und Frauenkorps". In Kristen Heinsohn; Barbara Vogel; Ulrike Weckel, eds (eds.). Zwischen Karriere und Verfolgung: Handlungsräume von Frauen im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland (in German). Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag. ISBN 3-593-35756-9.
{{cite book}}:|editor3=has generic name (help); Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Seaton, Albert (1971). The Russo-German War, 1941–45. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-21376-478-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Segev, Tom (2010). Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-38551-946-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Sereny, Gitta (1974). Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killings to Mass Murder. New York: Vintage. ISBN 0-394-71035-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Snyder, Louis (1994) [1976]. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-1-56924-917-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Spielvogel, Jackson (1992). Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13393-182-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Stackelberg, Roderick (2002). Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies. London; New York: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-00541-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Stackelberg, Roderick (2007). The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41530-861-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Stein, George H. (1984). The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 1939–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9275-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Stone, David (2011). Shattered Genius: The Decline and Fall of the German General Staff in World War II. Philadelphia: Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-098-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Sydnor, Charles (1977). Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933–1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ASIN B001Y18PZ6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2010). "The Dynamics of Destruction". In Caplan, Jane; Wachsmann, Nikolaus (eds.). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41542-651-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2015). KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-37411-825-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Weale, Adrian (2010). The SS: A New History. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-4087-0304-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Weale, Adrian (2012). Army of Evil: A History of the SS. New York: Caliber Printing. ISBN 978-0-451-23791-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Weinberg, Gerhard (1994). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44317-2.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Welch, David (2002). The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41511-910-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Whitmarsh, Andrew (2009). D-Day in Photographs. Stroud: History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5095-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Williams, Max (2001). Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography (Vol. 1). Church Stretton: Ulric. ISBN 0-9537577-5-7.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Windrow, Martin; Burn, Jeffrey (1992). The Waffen-SS. Men At Arms. London: Osprey. ISBN 0-85045-425-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Wistrich, Robert (2001). Who's Who In Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-11888-0.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Yahil, Leni (1990). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504522-X.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Yerger, Mark C. (1997). Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units, and Leaders of the General SS. Atglen, PA: Schiffer. ISBN 0-7643-0145-4.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Zentner, Christian; Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York: MacMillan. ISBN 0-02-897500-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Ziemke, Earl F. (1968). Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History – U.S. Army. ASIN B002E5VBSE.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
Further reading
- Baxter, Ian (2003). SS: The Secret Archives, Eastern Front. London: Amber Books. ISBN 978-0-95443-564-6.
- Blandford, Edmund L. (2001). SS Intelligence: The Nazi Secret Service. Castle. ISBN 978-0-78581-398-9.
- Breitman, Richard (1991). "Himmler and the 'Terrible Secret' among the Executioners". Journal of Contemporary History. 26. doi:10.1177/002200949102600305.
- Browder, George C. (1990). Foundations of the Nazi Police State: The Formation of Sipo and SD. Lexington: University of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1697-X.
- Cawthorne, Nigel (2012). The Story of the SS: Hitler's Infamous Legions of Death. London: Arcturus. ISBN 978-0-7858-2714-6.
- Ehrenreich, Eric (2007). The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-25334-945-3.
- Fleming, Gerald (1984). Hitler and the Final Solution. Mazal Holocaust Collection. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05103-4.
- Friedlander, Henry (1995). The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-80784-675-9.
- Gellately, Robert (1990). The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19822-869-1.
- Gruner, Wolf (2012). "Forced Labor in Nazi Anti-Jewish Policy, 1938–45". In Friedman, Jonathan C. (ed.). The Routledge History of the Holocaust. New York: Taylor & Francis. pp. 168–180. ISBN 978-0-415-52087-4.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hatheway, Jay (1999). In Perfect Formation: SS Ideology and the SS-Junkerschule-Tölz. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History. ISBN 978-0-76430-753-9.
- Johnson, Eric (1999). Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-46504-906-6.
- Koonz, Claudia (2003). The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67401-172-4.
- Miller, Michael (2015). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 2. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 978-19-329-7025-8.
- Müller-Hill, Benno (1988). Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies and Others, Germany 1933–1945. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19261-555-8.
- Schleunes, Karl (1970). The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy toward German Jews, 1933–1939. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06147-9.
- Segev, Tom (1988). Soldiers of Evil: The Commandants of the Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-07056-058-1.
- Smith, Woodruff D (1989). The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19504-741-7.
- Welch, David (1983). Nazi Propaganda: The Power and the Limitations. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 978-0-38920-400-8.
- Williamson, Gordon (1994). The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror: The Full Story from Street Fighters to the Waffen-SS. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International. ISBN 978-0-87938-905-5.
- Ziegler, Herbert (2014). Nazi Germany's New Aristocracy: The SS Leadership, 1925–1939. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-69160-636-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
External links
