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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 hierarchical 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 labyrinthine 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 would 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 status, both personal and career wise 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 structure is probably best described as labyrinthine. It was still not fully understood at the time of the Nuremberg IMT trials following 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 anthropology--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 the Waffen SS would 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 demonstrated the savagery for which it became known throughout the War. The atrocities in Poland shocked the Wehrmacht, including Abwehr Chief Admiral Canaris. The Wehrmacht arrested some SS officers, but they were pardoned by Hitler. After this, SS barbarity was no longer questioned. The growing Wsffen-SS served alongside the Wehrmacht Heer units, but was never formally integrated into it. Hitler who dismantled the SA at the request of the military commanders refused to allow the Waffen-SS to be integrated into the Heer. Hitler himself 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 proficiency. And along with paling atrocities, 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 waned, he focused more on the SS, in part to maintain control over the Wehrmacht. Waffen-SS units were given priority in equipment, especially armor, over Wehrmacht units at a time when Germany was having trouble replacing battlefield losses. The Waffen-SS's atrocities 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.
The NAZIs inherited a complicated law enforcement system from the Weimar Republic which was basically the same system that existed in Imperial Germany (1871-1918). The German Empire as created around the Prussian Kingdom to which a large number of virtually independent states were added along with many small principalities and jurisdictions dating back to the medieval era. Law enforcement during the Empire and Weimar Republic continued to be a state (meaning provincial) and local matter. When Himmler was given the lead over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies in 1936, he divided the police into two main areas. The Ordnungspolizei (Orpo or Order Police) was he ordinary police. Kurt Daluege was chosen o head iy. The Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo or security police) was the higher order police formations. Reinhard Heydrich was put in charge . 【Westermann, p. 9.】 Upon becoming Chancellor, Hitler appointed Herman Göring Ministerpräsident of Prussia (1933). This was of enormous importance because it gave the NAZIs control of the police in Prussia. And Prussia was the dominant state in Germany. Göring then turned control of the police over to Himmler. Himmler was already deputy chief of the Prussian secret police. Himmler from an early point began centralizing the German police with the objective of creating a State Protection Korps. The name explained the goal--to protect the NAZI Party a and state, not the German people. So Himmler began the job of gaining control of all the various local polices forces throughout Germany and to direct their operations against the enemies, perceived and actual of the NAZI Party. 【USHMM】 Himmler's power was officially expanded (1936). Already commander of the SS, Reichsführer-SS by decree was appointed Chief of the Police force. He was officially and publicly referred to as "Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior". In Europe the Interior Ministry meaning police.) 【Manvell and Fraenkel, pp. 21–22.】 Nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Himmler controlled police/security functions in Germany. Himmler was finally appointed Minister of the Interior. He made a major organizational decision. The Orpo was given responsibility for the regular or uniformed law enforcement duties, what we normally think about when we think of the police. The SiPo took on th duties of the secret police and the investigation of higher level crime. This combined the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo: secret state police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo: criminal investigation police).
Hitler appointed Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler Chief of the German Police within the Interior Ministry (1936). The Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) meaning Order Police became the NAZI uniformed police (1936-45). The OrPo became part of Himmler's growing law enforcement system as part of building a centralized monopoly of power -- Reich-ification / Verreichlichung of the police. Regional police jurisdiction gave way to tightly centralized NAZI national control. The OrPo leadership was chosen from police officers who belonged to or joined the SS. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo members were also referred to as Grüne Polizei (Green Police). The force was established with a headquarters in Berlin and given control over all the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that until the NAZIs were organized within states with no national connection. 【Robertson】 The Orpo came to include virtually all of the NAZI law-enforcement and emergency response units, including fire brigades, coast guard, and civil defense. Himmler appointed Kurt Daluege to lead OrPo (1936). Daluege fought tn World War I and then joined the Freikorps after the War. He was an early convert to the NAZIs. He was the SA leader in Berlin. He transferred to the SS (1930). He was eleted as a NAZI Reichstag deputy. Göring appointed him to the Prussian Interior Ministry giving him command of the Prussian police forces (1933). The next year in that position he played a key role in the Night of the Long Knives (1934). One historian writes, "In conjunction with the effort to build a martial character within the police, Himmler and Daluege pursued a parallel effort designed to achieve the unification of the police with the SS. Himmler’s vision for the Uniformed Police involved the creation of an SS ethic within the police that fused the aspirations of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) with the identity of the police soldier." 【Showalter】 As the uniformed ordinary police force, one might think that OrPo did not have a mjor role in the Holocaust. But that is not the case , the OrPo played a major role in enforcing all the NAZI regulations targeting aimed at Jews and the even more sinister actions beginning with Kristalnacht (1938). But then with the invasion of Poland and launch of World War II, the SiPo got involved with mass murder and genocide. Preparing for World War II, they began organize militarized formations needed to carry out the NAZI plans for conquest and racial murder. Units based extensively on the police were organized into battalion-sized Einsatzgruppen formations preparing for the invasion of Poland . And as the German Army poured unto Poland, the Enisatzgrippen were deployed for security and repression purposes, They were involved in executions and mass deportations. 【Showalter, p. xiii.】 Jews and Poles in the areas annexed to the Reich were deported to the General Government. This was just a first taste of what was to come. The NAZIs decided to use the German police organized into Einsatzgruppen to begin the mass murder phase of the Holoacaust with Operation Barbarossa (June 1941). The Order Police and the Waffen-SS were the two primary sources from which the Einsatzgruppen drew personnel. 【Hilberg, pp. 105–06.】 Throughout the War, the OrPo was involved with policing the civilian population of the occupied and colonized countries. Here rounding up and other actions against Jews were an important part of their responsibilities, but they were also involved in the killing. The initial mass-murder action of 3,000 Jews by Police Battalion 309 took place in occupied Białystok, Poland. (July 12, 1941). 【Browning, pp. 11-14.】 Bialysstok was in the the area of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviets in 1939. This was the beginning of the Holocaust by bullet. The primary military arm of the OrPo was the SS Polizei Division, 4th Panzergrenadier Division of the Waffen-SS. Mainly used as a a security force behind the lines reserve formation. They were seen as poorly trained for combat operations. The men were often middle-age police officers not prime age for combat. The division was composed of four police regiments drawn from Orpo personnel. The men were rotated into military duty so as not to lose police personnel to the Wehrmacht conscription or to Waffen-SS divisions. he lowest level of the OrPo was the Blue Police in the Geneal Government (German occupied Poland). It was composed of Poles who the NAZIs despised, mainly low ranking pre-War policemen.
The NAZI Security Police organization was the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo). It combined several high level law enforcement units. This began with the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo: secret state police). It was a political police agency with virtually unlimited powers of arrest. It existed in Prussia before the NAZIs seized power. It was combined with the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo: criminal investigation police). Shortly after launching World War II, Himmler got authority from Hitler to to combine the SiPO and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD: SS security service) and create Reich Security Main Office (RHSA: Reichssicherheitshauptamt (1939). 【Browning, p. 97.】 The RSHA was an important part of the NAZI security apparatus. It showed the close connection between the SS (a NAZI Party organization) and the police (a state organization). 【Weale, pp. 140–144.】
Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: Penguin Books, 1998).
Buchheim, Hans. "The SS – Instrument of Domination" in Helmut Krausnick, Hans Buchheim, Martin Broszat, and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, (eds.) Anatomy of the SS State (New York: Walker and Company, 1968). pp. 127–301.
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1985).
Manvell, Roger anf Heinrih Fraenkel. Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader (London: Skyhorse, 2011).
Showalter, Dennis. Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East (Kansas City: University Press of Kansas, 2005).
United States Holocaust Museum (USHM) "German Police, 1933–1939".
Weale, Adrian. Army of Evil: A History of the SS (New York; Toronto: NAL Caliber (Penguin Group, 2012).
Westermann, Edward B. Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East (Kansas City: University Press of Kansas, 2005).
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