Schutzstaffel - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The Schutzstaffel (level of protection) or S is one of the main organizations of the Nazi regime.

Founded in 1925, initially in charge of the protection brought closer to the Führer, Adolf Hitler, the S becomes, with the passing of years, a true State in the State, accumulating competences and the missions and passer by of a bunch to an enormous organization.

She plays a political role through of '' [[Allgemeine S]] '' (general S) the, repressive one with of '' [[Reichssicherheitshauptamt RSHA]] '', of '' [[Ordnungspolizei]] '' and the concentration camps, ideological and racial via of '' [[Lebensborn]] '' and of '' [[Ahnenerbe]] '' and soldier after the creation of '' [[Waffen-SS]] ''.

She is as the organizing one and carrying out it of the destruction of the Jews of Europe, as that is at the time of the mobile operations of slaughter perpetrated in Poland and Soviet Union by of '' [[Einsatzgruppen]] '', then by the installation of the Death camps.

Entirely devoted to Führer, it is directed, during almost the whole of its existence by Heinrich Himmler.

Crossed by deep internal competitions, in permanent conflict with other organizations of or personalities of the Third Reich, equipped with a complex, moving organization accumulating double-employment and contradictions, it in is not less one of the most effective instruments and most fatal of terror Nazi.

At the time of the Lawsuit of Nuremberg, she is declared criminal organization.

Birth of the S

The beginnings of the S are particularly modest and nothing distinguishes it with its birth myriad from nationalist bunches, pangermanists and Völkisch which agitates the Weimar Republic to the beginning of the year 1920.

In March 1923, Adolf Hitler, president of NSDAP since 1921, is surrounded by a first close guard, of '' Stabswache '' (body of guard) the, made up one of eight militants of the first hour, of which Rudolf Hess. After hardly two months of existence and following internal conflicts and at the beginning of part of its members, from '' Stabswache '' disappears to reappear immediately under the name of '' Stosstrupp Hitler '' (group of Hitler shock), which comprises always only one handle of members.

In 1925, after the failure of the Putsch of the brewery and the prohibition of the Nazi party, SA and all their components which follows this fallen through attempt at coup d'etat, Hitler entrusts at its driver, Julius Schreck, former member of the Stosstrupp , the creation of a new personal guard, under the denomination of of '' Schutzstaffel '' : the S was born.

Comprising only some members at this time, the S extends starting from September 21st, 1925, date on which order is given to each section of the Nazi party to set up a section of protection of ten men, except with Berlin where the maximum number is carried to twenty members. In April 1926, Josef Berchtold, old paper and old ordering Stosstrupp returns from Austria, where it had taken refuge after the attempt at putsch and takes the command of the S. The role of this one is recognized by Führer on July 4th, 1926, when it gives to him solemnly of '' Blutfahne '' (flag of blood), the emblem of the putschists of 1923.

During all its years, the S is in open conflict with SA, created by Ernst Röhm, which comprises several thousands of members and wants to be the only shock troop of the party: in 1928, the S is limited to 280 men and is strictly subordinated to SA which tries to confine it in subordinates roles.

In March 1927, Berchtold resigns; it is replaced by Ehrard Heiden, whose role is also transitory.

January 6th, 1929, Hitler names new '' Reichsführer S '': Heinrich Himmler .

Rise to power

The beginnings of the S are rather discrete: contrary to SA its members do not mix with the political discussions and show a discipline appreciated by the police force of Munich. In 1929, this one mentions in a report/ratio that with the first failure with the current orders into force with the S, even tiny, they incur fines or the withdrawal of their arm-band for one limited duration or a suspension of their functions. An particular importance is attached to the individual behavior and the appropriate dress .

August 28th, 1930, the S is used for the first time to protect a member from the party against violences and the political requirements of SA. Threatened by SA at the time of a meeting to the sport hall of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels calls upon the protection of the local S, ordered by Kurt Daluege. Two days later, SA reacts while attacking the S of guard in front of of '' Gauleitung '', which requires the personal intervention of Adolf Hitler to bring back the calm one.

In 1931, the chief of SA of Berlin, Walter Stennes, again requires the attribution of political mandates to the persons in charge of SA and tries to seize the power within the Nazi party. Dislocated its functions by Hitler, its attempt at putsch enlise fault of financial means. The S, remained faithful to Führer, gains the confidence of this one durably.

Himmler deploys all its energy to increase manpower of the S: of the 280 registered voters at the time of his nomination like Reichsführer S in 1929, the number of the members is multiplied by ten at the end of 1930 and reaches nearly 15.000 men in 1931. To dissociate SA, Himmler sets up drastic selection criteria, in particular by requiring evidence of the membership of the applicants to the race Aryen. He is worried also projects of marriage of his men. After December 21st, 1931 1, it subjects been engaged of the members of the S to a checking of their genealogy and the examination of their aryanity on the basis of photograph and of a medical control

In August 1931, it charges Reinhard Heydrich, which has been just affiliated to the S, with creating an internal intelligence service, the future SD, charged to flush out the agents of the Weimar Republic infiltrated within the Nazi party, to draw up lists of opponents internal or external with the party, but also to collect all possible information on the dignitaries of SA and NSDAP.

With the autumn 1932, Himmler marks also its difference by ordering a new black uniform for the S, whose members become immediately identifiable as such and cannot be any more confused with the brown shirts of SA.

The January 30th 1933, Hitler reaches the capacity and is named chancellor. The S counts at this time: 52000 members against three million for SA. Whereas the terror of street of SA does not have any more a raison d'être after the seizure of power, that the new chancellor must reconcile the support of the preserving mediums, the army and the industrialists, violence of SA breaks out through all Germany, in particular with wild creation , in March 1933, of the Concentration camp of Oranienburg, or the exactions made in the Berliner district of Köpenick.

As regards repression of the opponents, the S is not remains about it and the cards of the SD appear strong effective: it are in particular used to populate the camp of Dachau, founded by the Bavarian police force in March 1933, but for which the responsibility is transferred, on April 2nd, 1933, with the S by Himmler, become ordering of the Bavarian political police. At the end of June 1933, Theodor Eicke, future general inspector of the camps is named commander de Dachau, which marks the beginning of the organization of the system concentrationnaire Nazi.

In 1933 and 1934, SA accumulates the shows of force, the processions of mass which gather to 80.000 participants in Breslau; it multiplies as its requirements in order to have positions of responsibility within the Nazi regime, continuous to proclaim as the revolution did not yet start and enters in open conflict with the Reichswehr which it intends to replace by a popular army.

During this time, the S ties invaluable contacts with industrialists, officers, scientists and intellectuals, land great landowners, within the Circle of the friends of Reichsführer S. It remains faithful to Adolf Hitler and gives pledges of respectability.

End of the supervision of SA

A State in the State

Heinrich Himmler

Allgemeine S

To take again the terms of George H. Stein, the members of Allgemeine S, that is to say: 250000 in 1939, “did not have any obligation specific to fill except that to remain in permanent state of alert as during the fight for the capacity”.

Many members of Allgemeine S are assigned to the guard of the concentration camps; equipped nominally with a rank in the Waffen S , they are useful in the Totenkopf-Wachtsturmbanne , placed under the direct authority of the commanders of the camps, then attached to the Amt B of WHA starting from March 3rd, 1942 1

The RSHA

To the head of Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich directs the Sicherheitsdienst, organization of the party which comprises in particular the two operational cells of the SD (SD-Inland and SD-Ausland) but also Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo), organization of State which gathers the Gestapo and the Kriminalpolizei or Kripo.

In Gestapo Heinrich Müller, 36 years old in 1936, and, in Kripo Artur Nebe, 42 years, are both of the police officers of trade which begun their career with the beginning of the year 1920. Müller accurately serves the Weimar Republic for which he pursued Nazis and Communists indifferently; it is registered besides with the NSDAP only on May 31st, 1939. On the other hand, Nebe is militant party since 1931. If Müller is a torturer, Nebe seems to have acted in a correct way to the head of Kripo.

With the SD, Otto Ohlendorf, 29 years, and Walter Schellenberg, 26 years, has more intellectual profiles. Ohlendorf is graduate in right and in economy of the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen, Schellenberg studied medicine then the right to the university of Bonn. Only the date, and undoubtedly the depth of their political commitment separate them: Ohlendorf is member of the NSDAP since 1925 and the S since 1926; Schellenberg is registered with the party only in 1933, little before its recruitment as lawyer in Sicherheitsdienst.

Gestapo, political police, are given the responsability to track, intern or eliminate the opponents whereas Kripo has a role of criminal police force traditional.

SD-Inland has in particular as a task to draw up reports/ratios on the integration of the design of the world main road-Socialist, Weltanschaaung in the individual sphere, to determine if it causes opposition, and in this case, to identify the opponents. SD-Ausland, apart from its traditional missions of espionage, draws up lists of personalities to be eliminated, in particular in Austria, and works out “solutions with the problems Czech and Russian”.

As of Anschluss, that is to say the annexation of Austria in Germany on March 13rd, 1938, Heydrich, which took an active part in its preparation, uses its repressive tool against the Austrian opponents with same strength that it had deployed in Germany. After having filled the concentration camp with Dachau, it is with the turn of Mauthausen. Since 1935, the SD has moreover a new tool for repression, the preventive detention (Schutzhaft) which enables him to intern which good seems to him without any procedure in front of the courts and of which it makes a broad use in Germany and in all the occupied territories.

Starting from December 7th, 1941, Schutzhaft is more terrible still, with the coming into effect of the decree “Harms and fog” which imposes that the prisoners disappear without leaving of trace and prohibited give the least information to their close relations on their fate or their place of detention.

Ordnungspolizei

Waffen-SS

The system concentrationnaire

See also: Camps of concentration#Camps of concentration Nazis, Concentration camps

Destruction of the Jews of Europe

Theoretical and racial aspects

The Shaves und Siedlungshauptamt (RuSHA)

The Lebensborn

The Ahnenerbe

Of ''''' Ahnenerbe ''''', Studiengesselschaft für Geitgesichete (Heritage of the ancestors, company for the study of the ideas first) is created by Heinrich Himmler on July 1st, 1935 1. Its presidency is initially entrusted to a famous prehistorian, Hermann Wirth, then after the public disavowal inflicted with this one by Adolf Hitler, with the senior of the university of Munich, Walther Wüst, specialist in literature and religions of the India, on February 1st, 1937 1.

The first research of the institute is undertaken under the crook of Wirth in 1936, in the Bohusland , area of South-west of the Sweden paticulièrement rich in parietal Art and rupestral Art. Among the symbols engraved on more: 5000 at the time of the Bronze Age, the Petroglyphs, Wirth is persuaded to have discovered the vestiges of the first writing in the world, created according to him by a Scandinavian antique civilization. It makes go up this civilization with nearly two million years and locates it in Atlantis, continent disappeared extending from the Iceland to the the Azores. More than twenty tons of plasters are used to carry out mouldings of engravings.

Always in 1936, of '' Ahnenerbe '' assembles a small forwarding in Karelia, area of the Finland in order to studied and to record the songs and incantations of the local wizards. For Himmler, these incantations have a historical base and he hopes that their analysis will make it possible to recreate the hammer of Thor, persudaé which it is about most powerful of the weapons designed by the old Scandinavian tribes.

After war

See too

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