Claim: Heinrich Himmler oversaw the Gestapo.

The Schutzstaffel -LRB- SS ; also stylized as with Armanen runes ; -LSB- ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafəl -RSB- ; literally `` Protection Squadron '' -RRB- was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers ' Party -LRB- NSDAP ; Nazi Party -RRB- in Nazi Germany . It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz -LRB- Hall-Protection -RRB- made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich . In 1925 , Heinrich Himmler joined the unit , which had by then been reformed and given its final name . Under his direction -LRB- 1929 -- 45 -RRB- , it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany . From 1929 until the regime 's collapse in 1945 , the SS was the foremost agency of security , surveillance , and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe .   The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS -LRB- General SS -RRB- and Waffen-SS -LRB- Armed SS -RRB- . The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing , whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units of troops within Nazi Germany 's military . A third component of the SS , the SS-Totenkopfverbände -LRB- SS-TV -RRB- , ran the concentration camps and extermination camps . Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst -LRB- SD -RRB- organizations . They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state , the neutralization of any opposition , policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology , and providing domestic and foreign intelligence .   The SS was the organization most responsible for the genocidal killing of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims in the Holocaust . Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II -LRB- 1939 -- 45 -RRB- . The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor . After Nazi Germany 's defeat , the SS and the NSDAP were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations . Ernst Kaltenbrunner , the highest-ranking surviving SS officer at the time , was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946 .