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Waffen-SS
The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the (Command Staff ''Reichsführer-SS'') directly under Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945. The grew from three regiments to over 38 division (military), divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (1935–1945), German Army (''Heer''), ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the (SS operational command office) beneath Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Initially, in keeping with the raci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waffen-SS Foreign Volunteers And Conscripts
During World War II, the ''Waffen-SS'' recruited or conscripted significant numbers of non-Germans. Of a peak strength of 950,000 in 1944, the ''Waffen-SS'' consisted of some 400,000 “Reich Germans” and 310,000 ethnic Germans from outside Germany’s pre-1939 borders (mostly from German-occupied Europe), the remaining 240,000 being non-Germans. Thus, at their numerical peak, non-Germans comprised 25% of all ''Waffen-SS'' troops. The units were under the control of the '' SS Führungshauptamt'' (SS Command Main Office) led by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler. Upon mobilisation, the units' tactical control was given to the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (High Command of the Armed Forces). History of the ''Waffen-SS'' The ''Waffen-SS'' (Armed SS) was created as the militarised wing of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; "Protective Squadron") of the Nazi Party. Its origins can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the ''Sonder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Hausser
Paul Hausser, also known by his birth name Paul Falk post war (7 October 1880 – 21 December 1972), was a German general and, together with Sepp Dietrich, one of the two highest ranking commanders in the Waffen-SS. He played a key role in the post-war revisionist efforts by former members of the Waffen-SS to achieve historical and legal rehabilitation. Hausser served as an officer in the Prussian Army during World War I and attained the rank of general in the inter-war '' Reichsheer''. After retirement, he joined the SS and was instrumental in forming the Waffen-SS. During World War II, he rose to the level of army group commander. He led Waffen-SS troops in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Battle of Kursk and the Normandy Campaign. After the war he became a founding member and the first spokesperson of HIAG, a lobby group and a negationist veterans' organisation, founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel in West Germany in 1951. It campaigned for the restora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. 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 (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance, and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The two main constituent groups were the '' Allgemeine SS'' (General SS) and ''Waffen-SS'' (Armed SS). The ''Allgemeine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Steiner
Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Together with Paul Hausser, he contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands. Steiner was chosen by Heinrich Himmler to oversee the creation of and then command the SS Division Wiking. In 1943, he was promoted to the command of the III SS Panzer Corps. On 28 January 1945, Steiner was placed in command of the 11th SS Panzer Army, which formed part of a new Army Group Vistula, an ad-hoc formation to defend Berlin from the Soviet armies advancing from the Vistula River. On 21 April 1945, during the Battle for Berlin, Steiner was placed in comman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Waffen SS Units
This is an incomplete list of ''Waffen-SS'' units. ''Waffen-SS'' armies ''Waffen-SS'' corps * I SS Panzer Corps * II SS Panzer Corps * III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps * IV SS Panzer Corps (formerly VII SS Panzer Corps) * V SS Mountain Corps * VI SS Army Corps (Latvian) * VII SS Panzer Corps (see above ↑ IV SS Panzer Corps) * VIII SS Cavalry Corps (planned in 1945 but not formed) * IX Waffen Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian) * X SS Corps (made up of disbanded XIV SS Corps headquarters) * XI SS Panzer Corps * XII SS Corps * XIII SS Army Corps * XIV SS Corps – (see above ↑ X SS Corps) * XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps * XVI SS Corps * XVII Waffen Corps of the SS (Hungarian) * XVIII SS Corps * SS Medical Corps * Serbian Volunteer Corps (classified SS by 1944) * British Free Corps * Free Corps Denmark ''Waffen-SS'' divisions * 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" * 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" (previously SS Division " Verfügungs", lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sepp Dietrich
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a German politician, general and war criminal in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) during the Nazi era. Despite having no formal staff officer training, Dietrich was, along with Paul Hausser, the highest-ranking officer in the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS. He joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and was elected to the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic in 1930. Prior to 1929, Dietrich was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard. Reaching the rank of ''SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer'', he commanded units up to army level during World War II. As commanding officer of the 6th Panzer Army during the Battle of the Bulge, Dietrich bore responsibility for the Malmedy massacre, the murder of U.S. prisoners of war in December 1944. After the war, an American military tribunal convicted Dietrich of war crimes at the Malmedy massacre trial. Upon his release from Landsberg Prison in 1955, Dietrich became active in HIAG, a lobby group esta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Führungshauptamt
The ''SS Führungshauptamt'' () () was the operational headquarters of the SS during the later years of the Nazi era in Germany. The office's tasks included the administration of the SS-Junker Schools, of medical services, of logistics, and of rates of pay. It was also the administrative and operational headquarters for the , responsible for its organisation and equipment and for the order of battle of SS combat units. Formation The ''SS Führungshauptamt'', which was under the command of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, was formed in August 1940 from certain departments of the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt'' or SS-HA) and the ''Allgemeine SS'' (General SS). Its main duty was the operational and administrative control of the Waffen-SS, including developing general policy on recruiting and handling special personnel requirements. It also oversaw the ''Kommandoamt der Allgemeine SS'' (General SS HQ). Hans Jüttner was promoted to the position of chief-of-staff of the SS ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being one of the main architects of the Holocaust. After serving in a reserve battalion during World War I without seeing combat, Himmler went on to join the Nazi Party in 1923. In 1925, he joined the SS, a small paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party that served as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, Himmler rose steadily through the SS's ranks to become by 1929. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS grew from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful institutions within Nazi Germany. Over the course of his career, Himmler acquired a reputation for good organisational skills as well as for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich. From 1943 onwards, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS
The ''Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS'' () was a paramilitary organisation within the SS of Nazi Germany under the personal control of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Established in 1941, prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, it consisted of the Waffen-SS security forces deployed in German-occupied territories. The units perpetrated mass murder against Jews and other civilians. Function The organisation was formed on 7 April 1941 out of Waffen-SS troops as “special staff” (''Einsatzstab''), reporting directly to ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler. It was officially designated as ''Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS'' on 6 May. To head the organisation, Himmler appointed a career army officer Kurt Knoblauch who acted as chief of staff for the units. The purpose of the formation was to conduct so-called “pacification operations” in the Army Group Rear Areas and civilian-administered territories (''Reichskommissariats''). Prior to the launch of the invasio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordnungspolizei
The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of the central Nazi government ("Reich-ification", ''Verreichlichung'', of the police). In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, the commander (''Reichsführer-SS'') of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), was appointed Chief of the German Police in the Interior Ministry. The top and upper leadership positions of the Orpo were filled by police officers who belonged to or had joined the SS. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo members were also referred to as ''Grüne Polizei'' (Green Police). The force was established as a centralised organisation based in Berlin uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been previously organised on a state-by-state basis. The ''Ordnungspolizei'' encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Cavalry Brigade
The SS Cavalry Brigade (''SS-Kavallerie-Brigade'') was a cavalry brigade unit of the German Waffen-SS during World War II that specialized in artillery observer, cavalry reconnaissance, close combat, crowd control and riot control, counterinsurgency, fire support, gathering field military intelligence, maneuver warfare, raiding with cavalry tactics, providing security in areas at risk of attack, rearguard, screening for provide early warning of enemy approach, supporting military logistics, and tracking the targets. Operating under the control of the '' Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS'', it initially performed counterinsurgency, crowd control and riot control, rear security, and vanguard duties in German-occupied Poland. During the Invasion of the Soviet Union, the brigade operated in the rear of the German forces, in the Army Group Rear Area Command. It engaged bypassed Red Army units with rapid cavalry tactics and carried out murders of Jews, Communists and suspected Soviet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies of World War II, Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, End of World War II in Europe, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole ''Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
