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SS

Schutzstaffel
Flag of the Schutzstaffel.svg
SS flag
Himmler besichtigt die Gefangenenlager in Russland. Heinrich Himmler inspects a prisoner of war camp in Russia, circa... - NARA - 540164.jpg Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Lerche Stereo-046-03, Metz, Sepp Dietrich bei Ordensverleihung.jpg
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R97512, Berlin, Geheimes Staatspolizeihauptamt.jpg Majdanek (June 24, 1944).jpg
Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 06b.jpg Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H04436, Klagenfurt, Adolf Hitler, Ehrenkompanie.jpg

Agency overview
Formed 4 April 1925
Preceding agencies
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 / 52.50722; 13.38250
Employees 800,000 (c. 1944)
Ministers responsible
Agency executives
Parent agency Nazi Party
Child agencies

The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylized as Runic "ᛋᛋ" 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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