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The Schutzstaffel (German: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ⓘ; lit. ' Protection Squadron '; SS; also stylised with Armanen 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.
The Allgemeine SS also formed several cavalry commands, which were mainly intended to attract German nobility into the ranks of the SS. These formations were little more than equestrian riding clubs and, by the start of World War II, the General-SS Cavalry had mostly ceased to exist except for a handful of members. The command names of the ...
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 Sonderkommando Berlin, which became the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). [4]
All Waffen-SS divisions were ordered in a single series of numbers as formed, regardless of type. [1] Those with ethnic groups listed were at least nominally recruited from those groups. Many of the higher-numbered units were divisions in name only, being in reality only small battlegroups (Kampfgruppen).
Following the 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany , but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals ...
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
On 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 643 civilians, including non-combatant men, women, and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company as collective punishment for Resistance activity in the area including the capture and subsequent execution of a close friend of Waffen-SS ...
The death squad units of the Einsatzgruppen were formed under the direction of Heydrich and operated by the SS before and during World War II. [30] In September 1939, they operated in territories occupied by the German armed forces following the invasion of Poland. Men for the units were drawn from the SS, the SD, and the police. [31]