SS Main Economic and Administrative Office
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SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt SS-WVHA |
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The WVHA was an office of the SS
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 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler inspects building works that had been undertaken by forced-labor prisoners in 1940. |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1942 |
| Preceding agencies |
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| Dissolved | May 8, 1945 |
| Jurisdiction |
 GermanyOccupied Europe |
| Headquarters | Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, Unter den Eichen 125-135, Lichterfelde, Berlin 52°27′5.12″N 13°18′35.24″E / 52.4514222°N 13.3097889°E |
| Minister responsible |
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| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency |
Allgemeine-SS
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The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt), abbreviated SS-WVHA, was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects for the Allgemeine-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-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl worked with Walther Funk, Reich Minister of Economics (German: Reichswirtschaftsminister), to oversee financial aspects of the Final Solution, the most deadly phase of The Holocaust. Valuables such as gold watches, rings, even tooth fillings, glasses, and currency were taken from the inmates on arrival at the death camps. These items were then sent back to Berlin in WVHA-marked crates for processing at the Reichsbank, under its director Emil Puhl. Between August 1942 and January 1945, a total of 76 WVHA transports arrived in Berlin.
In 1947, a detailed description showing the scale of the operation was given at the WVHA trials at Nuremberg. Evidence outlined how property and cash worth hundreds of millions of Reichsmarks was taken from the victims of Aktion Reinhard. It was collected from the detailed notes that had passed between SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler during the operation to kill most of the Jews in the General Government.
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