Figure 1.-- |
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The organizational history of the SS is quite complex. What we are primarily interested in is the organization during World War II which of course the truly deadly phase of the SS and the creation of the Waffen SS which played an important role in the War. The SS like the NAZI Party itself was organized on a hierarchial basis--the Führer principle (Fuehrerprinzip). Thus at the top of the SS structure was Reichführer Himmler. And because of Himmler's unquestioning loyalty, his position was unassailable. At the onset of World War II the SS, numbering about 250,000 men, had evolved into a huge and labyrinthian bureaucracy. Organizationally it was divided mainly into into two principal administrative units: the Allgemeine-SS and the Waffen-SS, meaning Armed-SS. The Waffen-Ss principaly because of limits established by Hitler was still very small, but woukld grow massively during the War. The Allgemeine-SS also controlled two additional units: the Germanic-SS and at the end of the War, a fourth branch, Auxiliary-SS. These latter two units were also military units. The Allgemeine-SS is the organization that had all of the SS administrative units as well as the police command and concentration camps. It was within the Allgemeine-SS that the Holocaust was planned as well as Generalplan Ost to essentially remake the ethnic map of Europe by murdering tens if millions of people. Only the survival of the Red Army after Hitler launched Barbarossa prevented the SS from fully executing the Plan. Allgemeine-SS units included a range of study groups concerned with race and resettlement as well other issue of interest to Himmler. There was also an economic unit built around the Holocaust and slave labor from the concentration camps.
The Allgemeine-SS (General SS) is what is normally thought of as the SS. Allgemeine means 'general'. It was the the non-military or combat branch of the SS. The Allgemeine-SS units were, however, organized in a military fashion. They were divided into Standarten, Abschnitte, and Oberabschnitte. Many Allgemeine-SS men were employed in civil service programs, the NAZI Party, and the police which were absorbed into the SS structure. All members of the Allgemeine-SS were essentially reservists, in part because satus, both personal and careerwise came through military service. Many served in the German military or the Waffen-SS during the War. This often meant separate military and SS ranks. The Allgemeine-SS is the organization that had all of the SS administrative units as well as the police command and concentration camps. The organization was huge and the dtructure is probably best described as labyrinthian. It was stuill not fully understood at the tinme of the Nurenberg IMT trials fillowuing the War. We have a much better understanding today. It was within the Allgemeine-SS that the Holocaust was planned as well as Generalplan Ost and even more ambitious murder plan to to essentially remake the ethnic map of Europe by murdering tens of millions of people. Only the survival of the Red Army after Hitler launched Barbarossa prevented the SS from fully executing the Plan. From the beginning, race was at the heart of Himmler's SS. He saw the SS as the modern reconstitution of the Teutonic Knights with himself as the new grand master. It was his goal to oversee the breeding of a new Herrenvolk aristocracy based on traditional Germanic values of honor, obedience, courage and loyalty. The SS was to be instrument of a vast racial engineering project which Himmler saw as based on science. Thus the Allgemeine-SS units included a range of study groups concerned with race and resettlement as well other issue of interest to Himmler like archeology and anthropolgy--the Ahnenerbe. As well as his pet project--Lebensborn. A very important economic unit built around the Holocaust and slave labor from the concentration camps.
The Waffen-SS was the military formations of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Waffen in German means armed. The SS began as a small force and the units which served as the foundation of the Wafen SS were only a small part of the SS. It grew into a powerful force of 38 divisions, comprising the most powerful formations in the German military. Ironically it was SS units which Hitler used to suppress the SA which the army saw as a potential rival--the Night of the Long Knives. The Army in returned pledged their loyalty to Hitler. Ironically, the SS through theWaffen SS wuld itself grow into a potential threat to the Army. The Waffen-SS participated in World War II from the beginning in the invasion of Poland. At that time, the Waffen-SS consisted of only 3 not particularly proficient regiments. While small, it demostrated the savagery for which it became known throughout the War. The attrocities in Poland shicked theWhermacht, including Abwehr Chief Admiral Canaris. The Whermacht arrested some SS officers, but they were pardined by Hitler. After this, SS barbarity was no longer questioned. The growing Wffen-SS served alongside the Wehrmacht Heer units, but was never formally integrated into it. Hitler who dismanteled the SA at the request of the military commanders refused to allow the Waffen-SS to be integrated into theHeer. Hitler himsel had reason to distrust the SA. Under Himmler's leadership, however, the SS and Wafffen-SS became a force that Hitler could completely trust. The Waffen-SS was designed as the armed wing of the party and was to serve as an elite para-military police force after the War began. Before the War, the Waffen-SS was administered by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler through the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office). Upon mobilization for War, the SS turned over tactical (but not organizational) control to the Wehrmacht High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht--OKW). The Waffen-SS rapidly increased its military proficency. And along with apauling attricities, its fighting spirit was legendary. Membership in the first Waffen-SS units were subject to the same strict Aryans racial policies of the SS itself. This changed after the outbreak of World War II. Hitler authorized the formation of units composed largely or solely of non-German volunteers and conscripts. At first this was volunteers from Nordic countries (Denmark, Flanders, the Netherlands, and Norway). German reverses forced the SS to significantly widen its recruitment efforts and not only to conscript members, but to to drop the Aryan racial requirement. The SS even formed with the assistance of the Grand Mufti, a Muslim Waffen-SS division in Kosovo-Bosnia. Eventually the Waffen-SS was much less ethnically German than the Wehrmacht. About 60 percent of the Waffen-SS strength was non-German. As Hitler's confidence in the Wehrmacht wained, he focused more on the SS, in part to maintain control over the Wehrmacht. Waffen-SS units were given priority in equipment, eapecially armor, over Wehrmacht units at a time when Germany was having trouble replaving battlefield losses. The Waffen-SS's attrocitiies were mostly committed in the East, but after the D-Day landings, the SS also was involved in shooting Allied POWs in France and Belgium. After the War, the Allies at the International Military Tribunals (Nuremberg Trials) classified the Waffen-SS along with the SS itself as a criminal organization.
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