Schutzstaffel

("Protection Squadron")

SS Flag

The **Schutzstaffel** (lit. Protection Squad, SS) is a major paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party, and the foremost instrument of security, surveillance and terror in the Greater Germanic Reich. Its main headquarters is the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse building in Berlin. Although it originated as a simple volunteer unit providing event security for party rallies, it evolved into one of the largest and most important organizations within the Nazi empire. The SS became a political force, an army, a megacorporation, and the primary executor of Nazism' genocidal ideology.

It began with a small guard unit known as the *Saal-Schutz* ("Hall Security") made up of party 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 (1929–present) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance, and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main constituent groups are the *Allgemeine SS* (General SS) and *Waffen-SS* (Armed SS). The *Allgemeine SS* was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the *Waffen-SS* consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the *SS-Totenkopfverbände* (*SS-TV*; "Death's Head Units"), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the *Sicherheitsdienst* (SD) 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 is the organization most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust. Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–48). The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor.

The situation dramatically changed in all MachineGames' titles, where the SS is the military arm of the Third Reich, with every soldier, police man, and other uniformed service operating under the auspices of the SS.

### Germanic-SS

The **Germanic SS** (German: *Germanische SS*) is the collective name given to paramilitary and political organisations established in parts of German-occupied Europe between 1939 under the auspices of the *Schutzstaffel* (SS). The units were modeled on the *Allgemeine SS* in Nazi Germany and established in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway whose populations were considered in Nazi ideology to be especially "racially suitable". They typically served as local security police augmenting German units of the Gestapo, *Sicherheitsdienst* (SD), and other departments of the German Reich Security Main Office.

## History

### Forerunner of the SS

By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the *Saal-Schutz* (Hall Security) to provide security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a small bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary *Sturmabteilung* ("Storm Battalion"; SA), which he did not trust. The new formation was designated the *Stabswache* (Staff Guard). Originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold, and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade, a *Freikorps* of the time. The unit was renamed *Stoßtrupp* (Shock Troops) in May 1923.

The *Stoßtrupp* was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by the Nazi Party to seize power in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organize a new bodyguard unit, the *Schutzkommando* (Protection Command). It was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at party functions and events. That same year, the *Schutzkommando* was expanded to a national organization and renamed successively the *Sturmstaffel* (Storm Squadron), and finally the *Schutzstaffel* (Protection Squad; SS). Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 (the second anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch). The new SS protected party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to include combat units.

### Early commanders

Schreck, a founding member of the SA and a close confidant of Hitler, became the first SS chief in March 1925. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold succeeded him as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the title of the office to *Reichsführer-SS* (Reich Leader-SS). Berchtold was considered more dynamic than his predecessor but became increasingly frustrated by the authority the SA had over the SS. This led to him transferring leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden, on 1 March 1927. Under Heiden's leadership, a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would have been tolerated in the SA.

Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered to be a small *Gruppe* (battalion) of the SA. Except in the Munich area, the SS was unable to maintain any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SA continued its rapid growth. As Heiden attempted to keep the SS from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler displayed good organizational abilities compared to Heiden. The SS established a number of *Gau*s (regions or provinces). The SS-Gaue consisted of *SS-Gau Berlin*, *SS-Gau Berlin Brandenburg*, *SS-Gau Franken*, *SS-Gau Niederbayern*, *SS-Gau Rheinland-Süd*, and *SS-Gau Sachsen*.

### Himmler appointed

With Hitler's approval, Himmler assumed the position of *Reichsführer-SS* in January 1929. There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party announced that it was for "family reasons." Under Himmler, the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold. He considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organization, a "conflation of Teutonic knights, the Jesuits, and Japanese Samurai". His ultimate aim was to turn the SS into the most powerful organization in Germany and the most influential branch of the party. He expanded the SS to 3,000 members in his first year as its leader.

In 1929, the *SS-Hauptamt* (main SS office) was expanded and reorganized into five main offices dealing with general administration, personnel, finance, security, and race matters. At the same time, the SS-Gaue were divided into three *SS-Oberführerbereiche* areas, namely the *SS-Oberführerbereich Ost*, *SS-Oberführerbereich West*, and *SS-Oberführerbereich Süd*. The lower levels of the SS remained largely unchanged. Although officially still considered a sub-organization of the SA and answerable to the *Stabschef* (SA Chief of Staff), it was also during this time that Himmler began to establish the independence of the SS from the SA. The SS grew in size and power due to its exclusive loyalty to Hitler, as opposed to the SA, which was seen as semi-independent and a threat to Hitler's hegemony over the party, mainly because they demanded a "second revolution" beyond the one that brought the Nazi Party to power. By the end of 1933, the membership of the SS reached 209,000. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS continued to gather greater power as more and more state and party functions were assigned to its jurisdiction. Over time the SS became answerable only to Hitler, a development typical of the organizational structure of the entire Nazi regime, where legal norms were replaced by actions undertaken under the *Führerprinzip* (leader principle), where Hitler's will was considered to be above the law.

In the latter half of 1934, Himmler oversaw the creation of *SS-Junkerschule*, institutions where SS officer candidates received leadership training, political and ideological indoctrination, and military instruction. The training stressed ruthlessness and toughness as part of the SS value system, which helped foster a sense of superiority among the men and taught them self-confidence. The first schools were established at Bad Tölz and Braunschweig, with additional schools opening at Klagenfurt and Prague during the war.

### Ideology

Main article: Ideology of the SS

The SS was regarded as the Nazi Party's elite unit. In keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, in the early days all SS officer candidates had to provide proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800. Once the war started and it became more difficult to confirm ancestry, the regulation was amended to just proving the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws. Other requirements were complete obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people and nation. Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these requirements were only loosely enforced, and over half the SS men did not meet the criteria. Inducements such as higher salaries and larger homes were provided to members of the SS since they were expected to produce more children than the average German family as part of their commitment to Nazi Party doctrine.

Commitment to SS ideology was emphasized throughout the recruitment, membership process, and training. Members of the SS were indoctrinated in the racial policy of Nazi Germany and were taught that it was necessary to remove from Germany people deemed by that policy as inferior. Esoteric rituals and the awarding of regalia and insignia for milestones in the SS man's career suffused SS members even further with Nazi ideology. Members were expected to renounce their Christian faith, and Christmas was replaced with a solstice celebration. Church weddings were replaced with SS *Ehewein*, a pagan ceremony invented by Himmler. These pseudo-religious rites and ceremonies often took place near SS-dedicated monuments or in special SS-designated places. In 1933, Himmler bought Wewelsburg, a castle in Westphalia. He initially intended it to be used as an SS training center, but its role came to include hosting SS dinners and neo-pagan rituals.

In 1936, Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization":

> We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without.
>
>

The SS ideology included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political problems. The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party. The SS was entrusted with the commission of atrocities, illegal activities, and war crimes. Himmler once wrote that an SS man "hesitates not for a single instant, but executes unquestioningly ..." any *Führer-Befehl* (Führer order). Their official motto was *"Meine Ehre heißt Treue"* (My Honour is Loyalty).

As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of Jews from the populations of the conquered territories, seizing their assets and deporting them to concentration camps and ghettos, where they were used as slave labor or immediately killed. Chosen to implement the Final Solution ordered by Hitler, the SS were the main group responsible for the institutional murder and democide of more than 20 million people during the Holocaust, including approximately 5.2 million to 6 million Jews and 10.5 million Slavs. A significant number of victims were members of other racial or ethnic groups such as the 258,000 Romani. The SS was involved in murdering people viewed as threats to race hygiene or Nazi ideology, including the mentally or physically handicapped, homosexuals, and political dissidents. Members of trade unions and those perceived to be affiliated with groups that opposed the regime (religious, political, social, and otherwise), or those whose views were contradictory to the goals of the Nazi Party government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Communists, and Rotary Club members. According to the judgments rendered at the Nuremberg trials, as well as many war crimes investigations and trials conducted since then, the SS was responsible for the majority of Nazi war crimes. In particular, it was the primary organization that carried out the Holocaust.

### SS in World War II

By the outbreak of World War II, the SS had consolidated into its final form, which comprised three main organizations: the *Allgemeine SS*, *SS-Totenkopfverbände*, and the Waffen-SS, which was founded in 1934 as the *SS-Verfügungstruppe* (SS-VT) and renamed in 1940. The Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army alongside the Wehrmacht and operated in tandem with them, especially with the *Heer* (German Army). However, it never obtained total "independence of command", nor was it ever a "serious rival" to the German Army. Members were never able to join the ranks of the German High Command and it was dependent on the army for heavy weaponry and equipment. Although SS ranks generally had equivalents in the other services, the SS rank system did not copy the terms and ranks used by the Wehrmacht's branches. Instead, it used the ranks established by the post-World War I *Freikorps* and the SA. This was primarily done to emphasize the SS as being independent of the Wehrmacht.

With the invasion of Poland, a new chapter opened in the history of the SS, permeated by a foul smell of blood and decay. Although the fledgling military branch of the organization was a distant cousin to the Wehrmacht, it was a powerful political and economic force that took a new role in its expansion to the east: Its culture of violence and death made it the principal tool of genocide against Slavic peoples, through a combination of terror , mass executions, and industrial-scale killing. Atrocity followed atrocity, with the killing frenzy only intensifying as Nazi Germany claimed new victims: Poland, Norway, Balkans, France, and eventually the Soviet Union. The campaign of genocide would have claimed hundreds of thousands even before systematic extermination began in the East.

The military branch, the Waffen-SS, grew with the war, with it eventually becoming a second army known for its fanatical aggression, suicidal determination, and a tendnecy to commit atrocities at the slightest provocation (inventing reasons if none manifested). Forever disdained by the Wehrmacht, it eventually blindsided the regular military after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944. After falling on the conspirators like a starving wolf, the SS became the dominant force in all aspects of the Nazi empire, while the Waffen-SS was fattened and lavished with weapons and materiel to craft an elite army.

In the background, the other branches of the SS profited from the war, ravaging the conquered Europe through confiscations, robbery, looting, enslavement, and extermination. Concentration camps provided slaves for factories of the SS and a rentable workforce for other German businesses, while factories taken from Jews, Poles, and other peoples in the European East were put into private hands of SS capitalists, establishing de facto monopolies across entire sectors of the economies. Even death did not save anyone from the SS economic machine, as even hair and fillings from gold metals would be taken to feed the Nazi monster.

### The New Order

While the Nazi empire and the SS was defeated in some timelines, in one of them, the rise of Wilhelm Strasse to prominence has turned the tables of the war. With power concentrated in the offices and companies of the SS, Strasse had enormous resources to draw upon to harness the Da'at Yichud technology and replicate it for use on the front against the Allies and the Soviets (himself being one of the few SS members who weren't a completely dead-brained anti-Semite). Issued primarily to SS troops, these new robotic monstrosities, combat vehicles, and other weapons of war led to a string of reversals, starting in 1944, when the Nazis repulsed the D-Day landings with minimal casualties.

In the following years, the SS became so integrated and intertwined with the Nazi empire that the two became indistinguishable. The defeat of the Soviet Union on the ground, the RAF in the air, and a seemingly ceaseless stream of wondrous technologies coming from the SS Special Projects Division cemented its prominence. By 1946, the burgeoning *SS-Hauptamt* (Main Office) reformed as a major agency protecting key assets of the Reich, such as Strasse himself and the experimental operations at Castle Wolfenstein and Padeborn, and formed the last line of defense during the last airborne Allied assault on Deathshead's castle.

As the core of the Nazi empire, the SS remained a mighty, savage influence on the empire through its heyday in the 1960 and the steady decline of the subsequent decades, maintaing its caustic grip on its culture, economy, and of course, the military.

## Organization

The SS has its own rank structure, unit insignia, and uniforms; the most recognizable being the all-black uniform. Within the main division, it exist several sub-divisions some with overlapping duties while other SS commands had little to no contact with each other.

* Black Guard
* Elite Guard
* SS-Special Weapons and Paranormal Projects Division
* *Allgemeine SS*
* *SS-Totenkopfverbände*
* Waffen-SS

### Hierarchy

The SS uses special ranks based on military titles and derived from conventions established by the *Sturmabteilung* and various *Freikorps* after World War I. Almost each rank has an army equivalent.

Although not formal ranks, the many

* Überkommandant (High Commander) is a highly influential and important figure in German military. Notable Übercommander incldue the whole occupation force in the US, including Roderick Metze and Hans Stiglitz.
* Kampfkommandant (Combat Commander) refers to any commander who operates on the front lines as opposed to a command post.
* Kommandant (Commander) is an important officer and is trusted with enigma codes to Übercommanders locations. Two famous Commanders include Orlando Mannheimer, The Owl and Gruber.
* Field Coordinator oversees the operation and execution of services at a work site or client location, eg. Friedrich Keller.

## SS units and branches

Main article: Units and commands of the Schutzstaffel

### Reich Security Main Office

Heydrich held the title of *Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD* (Chief of the Security Police and SD) until 27 September 1939, when he became chief of the newly established Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). From that point forward, the RSHA was in charge of SS security services. It had under its command the SD, Kripo, and Gestapo, as well as several offices to handle finance, administration, and supply. Heinrich Müller, who had been chief of operations for the Gestapo, was appointed Gestapo chief at this time. Arthur Nebe was chief of the Kripo, and the two branches of SD were commanded by a series of SS officers, including Otto Ohlendorf and Walter Schellenberg. The SD was considered an elite branch of the SS, and its members were better educated and typically more ambitious than those within the ranks of the *Allgemeine* SS. Members of the SD were specially trained in criminology, intelligence, and counter-intelligence. They also gained a reputation for ruthlessness and unwavering commitment to Nazi ideology.

Heydrich was attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to assassinate him in Operation Anthropoid. He died from his injuries a week later. Himmler ran the RSHA personally until 30 January 1943, when Heydrich's positions were taken over by Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

### 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.

### SS Main Economic and Administrative Office

The **SS Main Economic and Administrative Office** (German: *SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt*; **SS-WVHA**) was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects of the *Allgemeine-SS* (a main branch of the *Schutzstaffel*; SS). It also ran the concentration camps and was instrumental in the implementation of the Final Solution through such subsidiary offices as the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and SS camp guards.

### *SS-Sonderkommandos*

Beginning in 1938 and throughout World War II, the SS enacted a procedure where offices and units of the SS could form smaller sub-units, known as *SS-Sonderkommandos*, to carry out special tasks, including large-scale murder operations. The use of *SS-Sonderkommandos* was widespread. According to former *SS Sturmbannführer* Wilhelm Höttl, not even the SS leadership knew how many *SS-Sonderkommandos* were constantly being formed, disbanded, and reformed for various tasks, especially on the Eastern Front.

An *SS-Sonderkommando* unit led by *SS-Sturmbannführer* Herbert Lange murdered 1,201 psychiatric patients at the Tiegenhof psychiatric hospital in the Free City of Danzig, 1,100 patients in Owińska, 2,750 patients at Kościan, and 1,558 patients at Działdowo, as well as hundreds of Poles at Fort VII, where the mobile gas van and gassing bunker were developed. In 1941–42, *SS-Sonderkommando Lange* set up and managed the first extermination camp, at Chełmno, where 152,000 Jews were killed using gas vans.

After the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943, Himmler realized that Germany would likely lose the war, and ordered the formation of *Sonderkommando* 1005, a special task force under SS-*Standartenführer* Paul Blobel. The unit's assignment was to visit mass graves on the Eastern Front to exhume bodies and burn them in an attempt to cover up the genocide. The task remained unfinished at the end of the war, and many mass graves remain unmarked and unexcavated.

The *Eichmann Sonderkommando* was a task force headed by Adolf Eichmann that arrived in Budapest on 19 March 1944, the same day that Axis forces invaded Hungary. Their task was to take a direct role in the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The *SS-Sonderkommandos* enlisted the aid of antisemitic elements from the Hungarian gendarmerie and pro-German administrators from within the Hungarian Interior Ministry. Round-ups began on 16 April, and from 14 May, four trains of 3,000 Jews per day left Hungary and traveled to the camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, arriving along a newly built spur line that terminated a few hundred meters from the gas chambers. Between 10 and 25 percent of the people on each train were chosen as forced laborers; the rest were killed within hours of arrival. Under international pressure, the Hungarian government halted deportations on 6 July 1944, by which time over 437,000 of Hungary's 725,000 Jews had been murdered.

### *Einsatzgruppen*

The *Einsatzgruppen* had its origins in the ad hoc *Einsatzkommando* formed by Heydrich following the *Anschluss* in Austria in March 1938. Two units of *Einsatzgruppen* were stationed in the Sudetenland in October 1938. When military action turned out not to be necessary because of the Munich Agreement, the *Einsatzgruppen* were assigned to confiscate government papers and police documents. They secured government buildings, questioned senior civil servants, and arrested as many as 10,000 Czech communists and German citizens. The *Einsatzgruppen* also followed Wehrmacht troops and killed potential partisans. Similar groups were used in 1939 for the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Hitler felt that the planned extermination of the Jews was too difficult and important to be entrusted to the military. In 1941 the *Einsatzgruppen* were sent into the Soviet Union to begin large-scale genocide of Jews, Romani people, and communists. Historian Raul Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945 the *Einsatzgruppen* and related agencies killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. The largest mass shooting perpetrated by the *Einsatzgruppen* was at Babi Yar outside Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on 29–30 September 1941. In the Rumbula massacre (November–December 1941), 25,000 victims from the Riga ghetto were killed. Another mass shooting early in 1942 claimed the lives of over 10,000 Jews in Kharkov..

### SS Court Main Office

The SS Court Main Office (*Hauptamt SS-Gericht*) was an internal legal system for conducting investigations, trials, and punishment of the SS and police. It had more than 600 lawyers on staff in the main offices in Berlin and Munich. Proceedings were conducted at 38 regional SS courts throughout Germany. It was the only authority authorized to try SS personnel, except for SS members who were on active duty in the Wehrmacht (in such cases, the SS member in question was tried by a standard military tribunal). Its creation placed the SS beyond the reach of civilian legal authority. Himmler personally intervened as he saw fit regarding convictions and punishment. The historian Karl Dietrich Bracher describes this court system as one factor in the creation of the Nazi totalitarian police state, as it removed objective legal procedures, rendering citizens defenseless against the "summary justice of the SS terror."

### SS Cavalry

Shortly after Hitler seized power in 1933, most horse riding associations were taken over by the SA and SS. Members received combat training to serve in the *Reiter-SS* (SS Cavalry Corps). The first SS cavalry regiment, designated *SS-Totenkopf Reitstandarte 1*, was formed in September 1939. Commanded by then SS-*Standartenführer* Hermann Fegelein, the unit was assigned to Poland, where they took part in the extermination of Polish intelligentsia. Additional squadrons were added in May 1940, for a total of fourteen.

The unit was split into two regiments in December 1939, with Fegelein in charge of both. By March 1941 their strength was 3,500 men. In July 1941, they were assigned to the Pripyat swamps punitive operation, tasked with rounding up and exterminating Jews and partisans. The two regiments were amalgamated into the SS Cavalry Brigade on 31 July, twelve days after the operation started. Fegelein's final report, dated 18 September 1941, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, and 699 Red Army soldiers, with 830 prisoners taken. The historian Henning Pieper estimates the actual number of Jews killed was closer to 23,700. The SS Cavalry Brigade took serious losses in November 1941 in the Battle of Moscow, with casualties of up to 60 percent in some squadrons. Fegelein was appointed as commander of the 8th SS Cavalry Division *Florian Geyer* on 20 April 1943. This unit saw service in the Soviet Union in attacks on partisans and civilians. In addition, SS Cavalry regiments served in Croatia and Hungary.

### SS Medical Corps

Main article: SS Medical Corps

The SS Medical Corps were initially known as the *Sanitätsstaffel* (sanitary units). After 1931, the SS formed the headquarters office *Amt*  V as the central office for SS medical units. An SS medical academy was established in Berlin in 1938 to train Waffen-SS physicians. SS medical personnel did not often provide actual medical care; their primary responsibility was medicalized genocide. At Auschwitz, about three-quarters of new arrivals, including almost all children, women with small children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be completely fit were killed within hours of arrival. In their role as *Desinfektoren* (disinfectors), SS doctors also made selections among existing prisoners as to their fitness to work and supervised the murder of those deemed unfit. Inmates in deteriorating health were examined by SS doctors, who decided whether or not they would be able to recover in less than two weeks. Those too ill or injured to recover in that time frame were killed.

At Auschwitz, the actual delivery of gas to the victims was always handled by the SS, on the order of the supervising SS doctor. Many of the SS doctors also conducted inhumane medical experiments on camp prisoners. The most infamous SS doctor, Josef Mengele, served as a medical officer at Auschwitz under the command of Eduard Wirths of the camp's medical corps. Mengele undertook selections even when he was not assigned to do so in the hope of finding subjects for his experiments. He was particularly interested in locating sets of twins. In contrast to most of the doctors, who viewed undertaking selections as one of their most stressful and horrible duties, Mengele undertook the task with a flamboyant air, often smiling or whistling a tune. After the war, many SS doctors were charged with war crimes for their inhumane medical experiments and for their role in gas chamber selections.

### Other SS units

#### *Ahnenerbe*

The *Ahnenerbe* (Ancestral Heritage Organization) was founded in 1935 by Himmler and became part of the SS in 1939. It was an umbrella agency for more than fifty organizations tasked with studying German racial identity and ancient Germanic traditions and language. The agency sponsored archaeological expeditions in Germany, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Tibet, and elsewhere to search for evidence of Aryan roots, influence, and superiority. Further planned expeditions were postponed indefinitely at the start of the war.

#### *SS-Frauenkorps*

The *SS-Frauenkorps* was an auxiliary reporting and clerical unit, which included the *SS-Helferinnenkorps* (Women Helper Corps), made up of female volunteers. Members were assigned as administrative staff and supply personnel and served in command positions and as guards at women's concentration camps. While female concentration and extermination camp guards were civilian employees of the SS, the *SS-Helferinnen* who completed training at the *Reichsschule für SS-Helferinnen* in Oberehnheim (Alsace) were members of the Waffen-SS. Like their male equivalents in the SS, females participated in atrocities against Jews, Poles, and others.

In 1942, Himmler set up the *Reichsschule für SS Helferinnen* (Reich school for SS helpers) in Oberehnheim to train women in communications so that they could free up men for combat roles. Himmler also intended to replace all female civilian employees in his service with *SS-Helferinnen* members, as they were selected and trained according to Nazi ideology. The school was closed on 22 November 1944 due to the Allied advance.

#### *SS-Mannschaften*

The *SS-Mannschaften* (Auxiliary-SS) were not considered regular SS members, but were conscripted from other branches of the German military, the Nazi Party, the SA, and the *Volkssturm* for service in concentration camps and extermination camps.

## Foreign legions and volunteers

See also: Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts

Beginning in 1940, Himmler opened up Waffen-SS recruiting to ethnic Germans that were not German citizens. In March 1941, the SS Main Office established the *Germanische Leitstelle* (Germanic Guidance Office) to establish Waffen-SS recruiting offices in Nazi-occupied Europe. The majority of the resulting foreign Waffen-SS units wore a distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix *Waffen* instead of SS. Volunteers from Scandinavian countries filled the ranks of two divisions, the *SS-Wiking* and *SS-Nordland*. Swiss German speakers joined in substantial numbers. Belgian Flemings joined Dutchmen to form the *SS-Nederland* legion, and their Walloon compatriots joined the *SS-Wallonien*. By the end of 1943 about a quarter of the SS were ethnic Germans from across Europe, and by June 1944, half the Waffen-SS were foreign nationals.

Additional Waffen-SS units were added from the Ukrainians, Albanians from Kosovo, Serbians, Croatians, Turkic, Caucasians, Cossack, and Tatars. The Ukrainians and Tatars, who had suffered persecution under Stalin, were likely motivated primarily by opposition to the Soviet government rather than ideological agreement with the SS. The exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini was made an SS-*Gruppenführer* by Himmler in May 1943. He subsequently used antisemitism and anti-Serb racism to recruit a Waffen-SS division of Bosnian Muslims, the *SS-Handschar*. The year-long Soviet occupation of the Baltic states at the beginning of World War II resulted in volunteers for Latvian and Estonian Waffen-SS units. The Estonian Legion had 1,280 volunteers under training by the end of 1942. Approximately 25,000 men served in the Estonian SS division, with thousands more conscripted into Police Front battalions and border guard units. Most of the Estonians were fighting primarily to regain their independence and as many as 15,000 of them died fighting alongside the Germans. In early 1944, Himmler even contacted Pohl to suggest releasing Muslim prisoners from concentration camps to supplement his SS troops.

The Indian Legion was a Wehrmacht unit formed in August 1942 chiefly from disaffected Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army captured in the North African Campaign. In August 1944 it was transferred to the auspices of the Waffen-SS as the *Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS*. There was also a French volunteer division, *SS-Charlemagne*, which was formed in 1944 mainly from the remnants of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism and French *Sturmbrigade*.

## Ranks and uniforms

Main article: Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel

See also: Runic insignia of the Schutzstaffel

The SS established its own symbolism, rituals, customs, ranks, and uniforms to set itself apart from other organizations. Before 1929, the SS wore the same brown uniform as the SA, with the addition of a black tie and a black cap with a *Totenkopf* (death's head) skull and bones symbol, moving to an all-black uniform in 1932. In 1935, the SS combat formations adopted a service uniform in field grey for everyday wear. The SS also developed its own field uniforms, which included reversible smocks and helmet covers printed with camouflage patterns. Uniforms were manufactured in hundreds of licensed factories, with some workers being prisoners of war performing forced labor. Many were produced in concentration camps.

Hitler and the Nazi Party understood the power of emblems and insignia to influence public opinion. The stylized lightning bolt logo of the SS was chosen in 1932. The logo is a pair of runes from a set of 18 Armanen runes created by Guido von List in 1906. It is similar to the ancient Sowilō rune, which symbolizes the sun, but was renamed as "Sig" (victory) in List's iconography. The *Totenkopf* symbolized the wearer's willingness to fight unto the death, and also served to frighten the enemy.