SS

Schutzstaffel

SS flag

Himmler inspects a prisoner of war camp in the Soviet Union, 1941
Men of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler receive awards
SS headquarters in Berlin
Majdanek concentration camp, 1944
Women and children of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising escorted by SD men, 1943
Adolf Hitler inspects the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1938

Agency overview

Formed

4 April 1925

Preceding agencies

Sturmabteilung (SA)
Stabswache

Dissolved

8 May 1945

Superseding agency

None

Type

Paramilitary

Jurisdiction

Nazi Germany
German-occupied Europe

Headquarters

Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin
52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E

Employees

800,000 (c. 1944)

Ministers responsible

Agency executives

Julius Schreck, Reichsführer-SS
(1925–26)
Joseph Berchtold, Reichsführer-SS
(1926–27)
Erhard Heiden, Reichsführer-SS
(1927–29)
Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS
(1929–45)
Karl Hanke, Reichsführer-SS
(April–May 1945)

Parent agency

Nazi Party

Child agencies

Allgemeine SS
Waffen-SS
SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV)
Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) until 1939; when folded into the RSHA
Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
Ordnungspolizei (Orpo)

The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylized as with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafəl]; literally "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) in Nazi Germany. It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall-Protection) 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 (1929–45), 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 surveillance and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The two main constituent groups were 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 combat units of troops within Nazi Germany's military. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), 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.

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Wikipedia