ss

ss
(in prescriptions) a half.
Also, ss.
[ < L semis]

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German in full Schutzstaffel ("Protective Echelon")

Paramilitary corps of the Nazi Party.

Founded in 1925 by Adolf Hitler as a personal bodyguard, it was directed from 1929 by Heinrich Himmler, who enlarged its membership from fewer than 300 to more than 250,000. Wearing black uniforms and special insignia (lightning-like runic S's, death's-head badges, and silver daggers), the SS considered itself superior to the SA, whom they purged on Hitler's orders in 1934. The corps was divided into the General SS (Allgemeine-SS), which dealt with police matters and included the Gestapo, and the Armed SS (Waffen-SS), which included the concentration-camp guards and the 39 regiments in World War II that served as elite combat troops. SS men were schooled in racial hatred and absolute obedience to Hitler. They carried out massive executions of political opponents, Roma (Gypsies), Jews, communists, partisans, and Russian prisoners. In 1946 the SS was declared a criminal organization at the Nürnberg trials.

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▪ corps of Nazi Party
abbreviation  of Schutzstaffel 

      (German: “Protective Echelon”), the black-uniformed elite corps of the Nazi Party. Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a state.

      From 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler (Himmler, Heinrich) (q.v.), who built up the SS from fewer than 300 members to more than 50,000 by the time the Nazis came to power in 1933. Himmler, a racist fanatic, screened applicants for their supposed physical perfection and racial purity but recruited members from all ranks of German society. With their sleek black uniforms and special insignia (lightning-like runic S's, death'shead badges, and silver daggers), the men of the SS felt superior to the brawling brown-shirted Storm Troopers of the SA (q.v.), to which initially they were nominally subordinate.

      When Hitler, with SS help, purged the SA in 1934 and reduced it to political impotence, the SS became an independent group responsible, via Himmler, to Hitler alone. Between 1934 and 1936 Himmler and his chief adjutant, Reinhard Heydrich (Heydrich, Reinhard), consolidated SS strength by gaining control of all of Germany's police forces and expanding their organization's responsibilities and activities. At the same time, special military SS units were trained and equipped along the lines of the regular army. By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy, divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS).

      The Allgemeine-SS dealt mainly with police and “racial” matters. Its most important division was the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Central Office), which was made up of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; Order Police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; Security Police), which, in turn, was divided into the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police) and the dreaded Gestapo (q.v.) under Heinrich Müller. The RSHA also included the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service), a security department in charge of foreign and domestic intelligence and espionage.

      The Waffen-SS was made up of three subgroups: the Leibstandarte, Hitler's personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death's-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps; and the Verfügungstruppen (Disposition Troops), which swelled to 39 divisions in World War II and which, serving as elite combat troops alongside the regular army, gained a reputation as fanatical fighters.

      SS men were schooled in racial hatred and admonished to harden their hearts to human suffering. Their chief “virtue” was their absolute obedience and loyalty to the Führer, who gave them their motto: “Thy Honour is Thy Loyalty.” During World War II the SS carried out massive executions of political opponents, Gypsies, Jews, Polish leaders, Communist authorities, partisan resisters, and Russian prisoners of war. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies, the SS was declared a criminal organization by the Allied Tribunal in Nürnberg in 1946.

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Universalium. 2010.

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