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SS Main Office
The SS Main Office (german: SS-Hauptamt; SS-HA) was the central command office of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in Nazi Germany until 1940. Formation The office traces its origins to 1931 when the SS created the SS-Amt to serve as an SS Headquarters staff overseeing the various units of the ''Allgemeine-SS'' (General SS). In 1933, after the Nazi Party came to power, the SS-Amt was renamed the ''SS-Oberführerbereichen'' and placed in command of all SS units within Nazi Germany. This agency then became the SS-HA on January 30, 1935. The organization oversaw the ''Allgemeine-SS'', concentration camps, the ''SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (Special-purpose troops), and the ''Grenzschutz'' (Border Control regiments). During the late 1930s, the power of the SS-HA continued to grow becoming the largest and most powerful office of the SS, managing nearly all aspects of the paramilitary organization. This included the SS officer schools ( SS-Junker Schools), physical training, communication, SS garri ...
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Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ...
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Reich Security Main Office
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. Formation and development Himmler established the RSHA on 27 September 1939. His assumption of control over all security and police forces in Germany was a significant factor in the growth in power of the Nazi state. With the formation of the RSHA, Himmler combined under one roof the Nazi Party's ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD; SS intelligence service) with the '' Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo; "Security Police"), which was nominally under the Interior Ministry. The SiPo was composed of two sub-departments, the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' (Gestapo; "Secret State Police") and the ''Kriminalpolize ...
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Schiffer Publishing
Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (also known for its imprints Schiffer, Schiffer Craft, Schiffer Military History, Schiffer Kids, REDFeather MBS, Cornell Maritime Press, Tidewater Publishers, Thrums Books, Geared Up Publications ) is a family-owned publisher of nonfiction books founded in 1974. Based in Atglen, Pennsylvania, its coverage includes antiques, architecture and design, arts and crafts, collectibles, lifestyle, children's books, regional, military history, militaria, tarot and oracle, and mind, body, and spirit. Schiffer's military imprint has been criticized by two American historians as providing a distorted portrayal of the German armed forces during World War II. In 2009, Schiffer Publishing acquired Cornell Maritime Press/Tidewater Publishers.La Prade, J. (2009, August 5). Schiffer Publishing buys Cornell Maritime Press/ Tidewater Publishers. MyEasternShoreMD. https://www.myeasternshoremd.com/archives/schiffer-publishing-buys-cornell-maritime-press-tidewater-publishers/ ...
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Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and where he dictated his memoirs ''Mein Kampf'' to Rudolf Hess. The prison was used by the Allied powers during the Occupation of Germany for holding Nazi War Criminals. In 1946, General Joseph T. McNarney, commander in chief of U.S. Forces of Occupation in Germany, renamed Landsberg War Criminal Prison Nr. 1. The Americans closed the war crimes facility in 1958. Full control of the prison was then handed over to the Federal Republic of Germany. Landsberg is now maintained by the Prison Service of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. Early years Landsberg Prison, which is in the town's western outskirts, was completed in 1910. The facility was designed with an ''Art Nouveau'' frontage by Hugo HÃ ...
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Crimes Against Humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the context of war, and apply to widespread practices rather than acts committed by individuals. Although crimes against humanity apply to acts committed by or on behalf of authorities, they need not be official policy, and require only tolerance rather than explicit approval. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Initially being considered for legal use, widely in international law, following the Holocaust a global standard of human rights was articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Political groups or states that violate or incite violation of human rights norms, as found in the Declaration, are an expression of the political pathologies associated with crimes against hu ...
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Gottlob Berger
Gottlob Christian Berger (16 July 1896 â€“ 5 January 1975) was a senior German Nazi official who held the rank of '' SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS'' (lieutenant general) and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsible for ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) recruiting during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SSwithin which Berger was a senior officerwas declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Berger was convicted as a war criminal and spent six and a half years in prison. While serving in the German Army during World War I, he was wounded four times and awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Immediately after the war, he was a leader of the ''Einwohnerwehr'' militia in his native North Württemberg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 but lost interest in right-wing politics during the 1920s, training and working as a physical education teacher. In the late 1920s, he rejoi ...
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August Heissmeyer
August Heißmeyer or Heissmeyer, (11 January 1897 – 16 January 1979), was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He commanded the SS Main Office in 1935–1939. After World War II, Heissmeyer was tried and convicted as a "major Nazi offender". Early life After finishing school, Heissmeyer joined the Prussian military. In World War I, in August 1914 he volunteered for the Prussian army. Participant of the First World War, from October 1914 he served in the 164th Infantry Regiment, lieutenant (August 6, 1916), company commander. From August 1917 until the end of the war he was a pilot. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class for his distinguished service. After the end of the war, Heissmeier was a member of the Freikorps and in 1920 participated in the Kapp Putsch. After giving up his studies, he was employed as a driving teacher. In 1923 he first came into contact with the Nazi Party, which he joined in 1925. In early 1926, Heissmeyer joined the ''Sturmabteilung'' ...
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Curt Wittje
Curt Wittje, sometimes noted as Kurt Wittje (October 2, 1894, in Wandsbek- March 16, 1947) was a Nazi politician and SS-Gruppenführer. He was a member of the Reichstag and from 1934 to 1935 head of the SS- Hauptamts police office. World War I Wittjes father Robert was a secret government councilor and from 1903 to 1919 mayor of Detmold. He joined an artillery regiment in Magdeburg as a Fahnenjunker rank and received his officer license as a Leutnant in June 1914. He took part in the World War I as a battery officer, was trained as a general staff officer and was promoted to first lieutenant in September 1917. As the war was nearing an end he was seriously wounded, and he was taken prisoner in Belgium in November 1918. He escaped and fled to Germany in March 1919. In October 1920 he served as a regimental adjutant in Allenstein; in June 1925 he was promoted to captain. In 1922 he married the 22-year-old daughter of a judicial councilor Irene Skowronski, they had two daughters. ...
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Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS
The Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS (german: Hauptamt Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS) was a main office of the SS which was established in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler to serve as a personal office coordinating various activities and projects subordinate to the ''Reichsführer-SS''. Operations In 1933, Karl Wolff came to the attention of Himmler who in June 1933, appointed Wolff his adjutant and made him chief of the office of his Personal Staff. Himmler also appointed Wolff the SS Liaison Officer to Hitler. As Himmler's principle adjutant and close associate, Wolff's daily activities involved overseeing Himmler's schedule and serving as a liaison with other SS offices and agencies. The office conveyed the wishes/interests of the ''Reichsführer'' to all branches, offices, and subordinated units within the SS. It also handled Himmler's personal correspondence and awarded decorations. Wolff managed Himmler's affairs with the Nazi Party, state agencies and personnel. Following the ...
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Germanische Leitstelle
During World War II, Germanische Leitstelle was a department of the SS-Hauptamt under the command of Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger. It oversaw the recruitment and propaganda offices for the Waffen SS in Oslo, Copenhagen, Brussels and The Hague. The ''Germanische Leitstelle'' in Norway The Oslo office was established in 1941 and led by Karl Leib, the son-in-law of Gottlob Berger. It was headquartered in Drammensveien 99 until 1943, when it moved to Colbjørnsens gate 1. The ''Germanische Leitstelle'' published the ''Germanic Messenger'' ('' Germansk Budstikke'') and '' SS-Heftet'', which was the Norwegian edition of '' SS-Leitheft''. It was also tasked with coordinating the scientific work of the SS, and hosted the Ahnenerbe The Ahnenerbe (, ''ancestral heritage'') operated as a think tank in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. Heinrich Himmler, the ''Reichsführer-SS'' from 1929 onwards, established it in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promot ... ...
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Extermination Camps
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The victims of death camps were primarily murdered by gassing, either in permanent installations constructed for this specific purpose, or by means of gas vans. The six extermination camps were Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz and Majdanek death camps also used extermination through labour in order to kill their prisoners. The idea of mass extermination with the use of stationary facilities, to which the victims were taken by train, was the result of earlier Nazi experimentation with chemically manufactured poison gas during the secretive Aktion T4 euthanasia programme against hospital patients with mental and physical disabilities. The technology was adapted, expanded, and applied in wartime ...
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