-
Period: to
SS Growth
In these years, the SS—which had started out as a small, elite force of shock troops, perhaps 200 men, who served initially as Hitler’s bodyguard and were, above all, absolutely loyal to Hitler—gained in stature within the party. The organization faded a bit in importance immediately after the rehabilitation of the SA. -
SA Outlawed
The SA was the original party army from back when the Nazis were one of many little political groupings, brawling in the streets. It was a mass, paramilitary organization. After Hitler’s failed “beer hall” putsch in 1923, the SA was outlawed -
SA No Longer Illegal
SA remained an illegal organization until 1926. The painting depicted at right, “SA Man With Flag,” shows the organization in its favorite image of itself, namely as a troop of dashing martyrs to the cause of a stronger new Germany. -
Heinrich Himmler - Reichsführer-SS
Then on 16 January 1929, Hitler named Heinrich Himmler, then a 28-year-old professor’s son with a sketchy work history and a penchant for extreme right-wing politics, to be the Reichsführer-SS. -
Period: to
Waffen (Armed) SS early
The Waffen (Armed) SS was a wartime creation with prewar roots. In the early 1930s, Himmler maintained a very small number of so-called SS Verfügungstruppen (Stand-by or Ready Troops) for security and ceremonial purposes, including the Leibstandarte SS “Adolf Hitler,” the Führer’s bodyguard. -
SS "security service"
Right down to its field-grey uniform, the Waffen SS also served to replicate the Army in form and function, one of the Nazis’ favored techniques for usurping or absorbing the various societal or administrative organizations in the Third Reich. A similar pattern occurred within the German intelligence and police organizations. In 1931, Himmler established an unofficial SS “security service,” the Sicherheitsdienst or SD. -
Hitler Chancellor of Germany
By the time that Hitler became chancellor of Germany—he was appointed on 30 January 1933, which, by my count is exactly 75 years ago today—Himmler had expanded his organization of Hitler loyalists to number about 52,000 men. -
SA Growth
The SA, in contrast, comprised some 300,000 men. By the end of 1933, somewhere between two million and three million Germans had joined the SA, under the leadership of Ernst Röhm. By and large, these men were dedicated to the continuation of the Nazi “revolution,” which to them meant the eradication of the “old” power structures in Germany (capitalists, the traditional military, the landed gentry, the old-fashioned conservatives). In contrast, Hitler, who was sworn into office in the somber d -
SD Offical Intelligence Agency
In 1934, the SD became the official intelligence and counterespionage agency of the Nazi Party, under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich. -
Night of the Long Knives
The so-called Night of the Long Knives—30 June 1934—put an end to the SA’s unruliness and to Ernst Röhm’s life. (In the event, the murderous campaign silenced the entire “socialist” component of the National Socialist German Workers Party, with the signal exception of Joseph Goebbels, whose unflinching loyalty was now secured in blood; as well as any number of people who irritated Hitler and his cronies along the way to absolute power and people who knew the Führer and his early days too well t -
Waffen (Armed) SS
By 1936, two regiments of SS combat units had formed from this beginning, but beyond their designation as ideological troops and the “spearhead of National Socialism,” their function was unclear until the war began. They remained independent of both the army and the police hierarchy, subject only to the direct authority of Adolf Hitler. (In the field, they were under the tactical command of the Army.) As with all the SS, members of the Waffen SS were selected based on rigid racial and physical c -
Himmler Appointed Chief of German Police
In 1936, Hitler appointed Himmler Chief of the German Police (a title that he held in addition to Reichsführer SS), which meant that the Nazis had simply taken over the German police forces. Himmler reorganized the domestic security forces into two principal organization; the so-called Order Police (Ordnungspolizei), a uniformed agency that combined the various levels of regular police; and the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei), typically plainclothes officials of the state Criminal Police -
Allgemeine (General) SS
In the first years, there were no specialized units within the SS, at least formally. Presently, the state-within-a-state model began to take shape, with a number of specialized, full-time components developing out of the original force. As a result, this main body of the SS, which was composed of all SS men who did not belong to one of the specialty branches, came to be designated the Allgemeine (General) SS. In 1939, it numbered about 250,000 men, though it was soon eclipsed by the other br -
Waffen (Armed) SS
By the end of 1944, more than half of the men fighting in Waffen SS units were not native Germans, though even the Eastern European volunteers had to demonstrate reasonably auspicious racial characteristics.
