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Waffen-SS
The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the (Command Staff ''Reichsführer-SS'') directly under Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945. The grew from three regiments to over 38 division (military), divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (1935–1945), German Army (''Heer''), ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the (SS operational command office) beneath Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Initially, in keeping with the raci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Insignia
The uniforms and insignia of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) served to distinguish its Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi paramilitary ranks between 1925 and 1945 from the ranks of the ''Wehrmacht'' (the German armed forces from 1935), the Nazi Germany, German state, and the Nazi Party. Uniform design and function While different uniforms existed for the SS over time, the all-black SS uniform adopted in 1932 is the most well known. The black–white–red colour scheme was characteristic of the German Empire, and it was later adopted by the Nazi Party. Further, black was popular with Fascism, fascist movements: a black uniform was introduced by the blackshirts in Kingdom of Italy, Italy before the creation of the SS. There was a traditional reason, too: just as the Prussian kings' and emperors' life-guard cavalry (''Leibhusaren'') had worn Totenkopf#Prussia, black uniforms with skull-and-crossbones badges, so would the ''Führer''s bodyguard unit. These SS uniforms were tailored to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler or SS Division Leibstandarte, abbreviated as LSSAH (), began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard unit, responsible for guarding the Führer's person, offices, and residences. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into an elite division-sized unit during World War II. The LSSAH participated in combat during the invasion of Poland and was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the '' SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (SS-VT) and the combat units of the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV) prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By mid-1942 it had been increased in size from a regiment to a division and was designated SS Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler". It received its final form as a Panzer division in October 1943. Members of the LSSAH perpetrated numerous atrocities and war crimes, including the Malmedy massacre. They killed an estimated 5,000 prisoners of war in the period 1940–1945, mostly o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allgemeine SS
The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the '' Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autumn of 1934 to distinguish its members from the '' SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (SS Dispositional Troops or SS-VT), which later became the Waffen-SS, and the '' SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS Death's Head Units or SS-TV), which were in charge of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. Starting in 1939, foreign units of the ''Allgemeine SS'' were raised in occupied countries. From 1940 they were consolidated into the Directorate of the Germanic-SS (''Leitstelle der germanischen SS''). When the war first began, the vast majority of SS members belonged to the ''Allgemeine SS'', but this proportion changed during the later years of the war after the Waffen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS-Totenkopfverbände
(SS-TV; or 'SS Death's Head Battalions') was a major branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary (SS) organisation. It was responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps and extermination camps of Nazi Germany, among similar duties. It was both the successor and expanded organisation to the (guard units) formed in 1933. While the was the universal cap badge of the SS, the SS-TV also wore this insignia on the right Gorget patches, collar tab to distinguish itself from other SS formations. On 29 March 1936, concentration camp guards and administration units were officially designated as the (SS-TV). The SS-TV was an independent unit within the SS, with its own command structure. It ran the camps throughout Nazi Germany, Germany and later in German-occupied Europe, occupied Europe. Camps in Germany included Dachau concentration camp, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen, and Buchenwald concentration camp, Buchenwald; camps el ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being one of the main architects of the Holocaust. After serving in a reserve battalion during World War I without seeing combat, Himmler went on to join the Nazi Party in 1923. In 1925, he joined the SS, a small paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party that served as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, Himmler rose steadily through the SS's ranks to become by 1929. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS grew from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful institutions within Nazi Germany. Over the course of his career, Himmler acquired a reputation for good organisational skills as well as for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich. From 1943 onwards, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reichsführer-SS
(, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel, rank of the SS. The longest-serving and most noteworthy office holder was Heinrich Himmler. Definition was both a title and a rank. The title of was first created in 1926 by the second commander of the SS, Joseph Berchtold. Julius Schreck, founder of the SS and Berchtold's predecessor, never referred to himself as . Yet, the title was retroactively applied to him in later years. In 1929, Heinrich Himmler became and referred to himself by his title instead of his regular SS rank of . This set the precedent for the commander of the SS to be called . Prior to the Night of the Long Knives, the SS was an elite corps of the (SA or storm troopers), and the was subordinate to the SA's operating head, the . On 20 July 1934, as part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicherheitsdienst
' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization and the Gestapo (formed in 1933) was considered its sister organization through the integration of SS members and operational procedures. The SD was administered as an independent SS office between 1933 and 1939. That year, the SD was transferred over to the Reich Security Main Office (''Reichssicherheitshauptamt''; RSHA), as one of its seven departments. Its first director, Reinhard Heydrich, intended for the SD to bring every single individual within the Third Reich's reach under "continuous supervision". Following Germany's defeat in World War II, the tribunal at the Nuremberg trials officially declared that the SD was a criminal organisation, along with the rest of Heydrich's RSHA (including the Gestapo) both individually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Runes
SS runes () is a generic name given to a collection of pseudo-runes used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (''SS''), from the 1920s to 1945, for Nazi occultism-purposes; featured on flags, uniforms and other items as symbols of various aspects of Nazi ideology and Germanic mysticism. They also represented virtues seen as desirable in SS members, and were based on ''völkisch'' mystic Guido von List's pseudo-runic Armanen runes, which he loosely based on the historical runic alphabets, but the SS-runes also included other esoteric symbols not borrowed from the Armanen runes. Post World War II, these insignias continue to be used by neo-Nazi individuals and groups. SS runes Further reading * https://www.arild-hauge.com/PDF/Nazi-Tyskland-SS_Regalia.pdf See also * Nazi symbolism The 20th-century German Nazi Party made extensive use of graphic symbols, especially the swastika, notably in the form of the swastika flag, which became the co-national flag of Nazi Germany in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordnungspolizei
The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of the central Nazi government ("Reich-ification", ''Verreichlichung'', of the police). In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, the commander (''Reichsführer-SS'') of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), was appointed Chief of the German Police in the Interior Ministry. The top and upper leadership positions of the Orpo were filled by police officers who belonged to or had joined the SS. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo members were also referred to as ''Grüne Polizei'' (Green Police). The force was established as a centralised organisation based in Berlin uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been previously organised on a state-by-state basis. The ''Ordnungspolizei'' encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps. After the Grossaktion Warsaw of summer 1942, in which more than a quarter of a million Jews were deported from the ghetto to Treblinka and murdered, the remaining Jews began to build bunkers and smuggle weapons and explosives into the ghetto. The left-wing Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and right-wing Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) formed and began to train. A small resistance effort to another roundup in January 1943 was partially successful and spurred Polish resistance groups to support the Jews in earnest. The uprising started on 19 April when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the destruction of the ghetto, block by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
