Schutzstaffel (SS)
The Schutzstaffel (SS) was a paramilitary organization formed under the Nazi Party in Germany, primarily established for the personal protection of Adolf Hitler. Over time, it expanded its role and became a powerful entity responsible for various functions, including political, police, and military operations, particularly under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler from 1929 to 1945. Initially starting with fewer than 300 members, its ranks swelled to over 250,000 by 1939, structured into the combat-ready Waffen-SS and the Allgemeine-SS, which handled police and administrative duties.
The SS was notorious for its involvement in war crimes and atrocities during World War II, including the management of concentration and extermination camps, and the persecution of Jews, Romani people, and other targeted groups. Following the war, the organization was declared a criminal entity at the Nuremberg Trials, with many of its leaders prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Despite its dissolution, the legacy of the SS continues to persist, with far-right groups in various countries drawing inspiration from its ideologies. Overall, the SS remains a symbol of the brutality and moral failures of the Nazi regime, serving as a reminder of the consequences of totalitarianism and extremist ideologies.
Schutzstaffel (SS)
The Schutzstaffeln (SS), was the paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Created for Adolf Hitler’s personal security, the organization later incorporated various functions, obtaining political, police, and military power. From 1929, four years after its creation, to 1945 when it was dissolved, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler. Initially composed of fewer than three hundred members, the SS grew to more than fifty thousand by 1933, when Hitler came to power. The applicants who wanted to join the SS had to demonstrate their racial purity (Aryan race) and physical perfection. After 1932, the SS wore black uniforms with death’s head badges (Totenkopf) and runic SS’s as symbols. The SS were the executors of some of the most radical orders of the Nazi Party and became known for their brutality in the occupied territories during World War II.
Brief History
The first paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party was the StosstruppHitler, which was dissolved after the Putsch in 1923. In 1925, the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or National Socialist German Workers' Party) reconstituted a new paramilitary group, the SS. After the appointment of Himmler as head of the German police, the SS began to accumulate power, surpassing the initially more influential Sturmabteilung (SA). On the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, the SS murdered the SA leadership, establishing a short and unimpeded chain of command from Hitler to the SS via Himmler.
The SS accumulated political and military power. By 1939, the SS counted more than 250,000 men, in two divisions: the Waffen-SS (Fighting SS) and the Allgemeine-SS (General SS). The Waffen-SS were highly trained and equipped and served exactly like the private army of the Nazi Party. Members of the Waffen-SS were the Totenkopfverbände (Death’s-Head Battalions), the Verfügungstruppen (Disposition Troops), and the Leibstandarte (Hitler’s personal bodyguard.) The Totenkopfverbände had the task of controlling the occupied territories and managing the concentration camps. The Verfügungstruppen were the thirty-nine military divisions that fought in World War II along with the Wehrmacht, the German regular army, and were known for their fanaticism.
Overview
The Allgemeine-SS had police and "racial hygiene" duties. The Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Central Office) oversaw the Kriminalpolizei (or Kripo, the criminal police of the Nazi Germany) and the Geheime Staatspolizei (or Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazi party, founded by Hermann Goering in 1933 and controlled by the SS after 1936). The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) was the department with foreign and domestic intelligence and espionage duties, created in 1931 by Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s chief adjutant.
During World War II, the SS were a highly trained and lethal force, equipped with the best products of the German military industry, and fought on every European theatre of operations. Hitler gave the SS jurisdiction over all concentration and extermination camps and allowed the SS to control the occupied territories conquered by Germany during the war. In this role they committed a great number of war crimes, including massacres of civilian populations, spreading terror and eradicating of all forms of dissent or resistance, in addition to the persecution and killing of Jews, Romani, and other targeted groups.
During the war a number of foreign volunteers and foreign-born ethnic Germans joined the Waffen-SS. These volunteers were mainly Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Dutch, Flemish, Italians, Cossacks, Latvians, Ukrainians, Estonians, and Serbs. At the end of World War II, with Germany’s defeat, a group of SS officers took refuge in Argentina and created a network to help fugitive Nazis escape from Europe. The code name of this organization was ODESSA (Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, Organization of former members of the SS). With bases in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, ODESSA helped Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke, and many other SS to settle in Argentina, often in Buenos Aires.
On October 18, 1945, the International Military Tribunal was opened in Berlin, in the offices of the German Supreme Court. Charges were presented against the NSDAP, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, the SD, the SA, and the SS, along with the main German war criminals. The allegations concerned crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the direction of a war of aggression. Among the defendants was Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the former commander in chief of RSHA.
In September 30, 1946, the judges of the court of the Nuremberg trials condemned the SS, declaring it a criminal organization. The judges stated that the SS was used for criminal purposes, including the persecution and extermination of Jews, brutalities and executions in concentration camps, excesses in the administration of the occupied territories, the administration of the program of slave labor, and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war. The sentence stated that the suspicion of war crimes involved all the people who had been officially accepted as members of the SS and who became or remained members of the organization knowing that it was used to commit acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the statute of London on war crimes. Kaltenbrunner, among others, was hanged in October 16, 1946.
After the Nuremberg trials (November 20, 1945–October 1, 1946) the SS organization was declared illegal in most countries of the world. In many countries, however, far-right organizations are still inspired by the SS and the Nazi Party, celebrating the leading figures of the Nazi regime. The phenomenon of neo-Nazi organizations, albeit marginal, has never disappeared completely.
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