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Managing Mass Murder: The SS and the Economics of Genocide Significant Events in the History of the SS 1920 February Formation of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) from the original German Workers Party (founded 1919). 1921 July Adolf Hitler assumes the leadership of the NSDAP. November Creation of the Sturmabteilungen (SA or Storm Troops), the original political combat organization of the NSDAP. 1923 Spring Hitler creates a Stabswache (headquarters guard) of twelve bodyguards to provide protection for himself at party functions. Setting them apart from the brown shirted SA, the Stabswache adopts black ski caps adorned by the death’s head insignia. In May, Hitler uses the Stabswache as the foundation for the creation of a larger, mobile guard unit, the Stosstrupp (Shock Troop). Nazi party lore will point to the Stabswache and the Stosstrupp as the precursors of the SS. November Failure of the Nazi-led Beer Hall Putsch in Munich; Hitler is arrested and the NSDAP disbanded. Henrich Himmler, a twenty-four year old poultry farmer and paramilitary nationalist, participates in the putsch and survives unscathed. During the next two years Himmler becomes one of the most active members of the now fragmented NSDAP, working as a propagandist to strengthen the party in Bavaria. 1925 February Hitler reestablishes the NSDAP. With the SA still in disarray and many of its members of uncertain allegiance, Hitler establishes a new section of guard formations of unquestioning loyalty to his leadership of the party. Hitler designates this new group of party troops as the Schutzstaffel (Guard Squadron) or SS. November Hitler officiates at the ceremonial founding of the SS on November 9, the second anniversary of the Nazis’ failed putsch. In addition to its protection duties, the SS is to aid propaganda efforts by selling issues of the party newspaper and enforce party loyalty by informing on “suspect” members. 2 1926 Summer The SS launches its own fundraising organization, the Fördernde Mitglieder (FM or Supporting Members). In return for a contribution, an FM, a non-SS member, received a numbered, tiny silver SS pin. The FM gave the SS a source of funds separate from the party, which provided little or no money for the SS during its early years. 1927 September Himmler, whose propaganda work utilized the fledgling SS, joined the SS by 1926. His hard work and enthusiasm for the organization made him deputy commander of the SS in September 1927. Himmler already envisions the SS as the elite of the NSDAP. He enforces strict regulations regarding discipline, uniforms, and urges his men to gather intelligence on the Nazis’ ideological enemies, especially Jews and Freemasons. 1929 January Hitler promotes Himmler commander of the SS. Although he now has the imposing title of Reichsführer-SS (RFSS or Reich Leader SS), Himmler only commands an organization of 280 men. The now reinvigorated SA exercises its traditional role as the primary militant arm of the NSDAP. The SS is organizationally subordinate to the much larger SA (approximately 10,000 men). 1930 September The NSDAP wins big in the national elections of 1930, claiming 107 seats in the Reichstag. A deepening economic depression brings large numbers of unemployed and resentful Germans into the NSDAP. Both the SA and the SS experience a large growth in recruitment. November Hitler appoints Ernst Röhm to command the SA. Röhm was one of Hitler’s earliest supporters and had been instrumental in the initial creation of the SA. He was also well known to Himmler, who had served under Röhm’s command during the Beer Hall Putsch. Although Himmler praises Röhm’s leadership of the SA, he is determined to make the SS independent of the SA. 1931 July Reinhard Heydrich, a dishonorably discharged former German naval officer, joins the NSDAP and the SS. Ambitious, intelligent, and ruthless, 3 Heydrich advances quickly in the SS. Himmler entrusts Heydrich with the task of creating an SS intelligence service. Heydrich creates the Sicherheitsdienst (SD or Security Service) to gather information on party members and external political and ideological opponents. After the Nazis come to power in 1933, Heydrich will work closely with Himmler to establish SS control over the German police. December Himmler establishes the Rassenamt (Racial Office) within the SS and places Richard Walter Darré at its head. Darré is a racist philosopher who preaches the superiority of the Nordic race (Germans and associated peoples) and the virtues of Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil). His ideas complement those of Himmler, who together with Darré envisions the SS as the new racial elite of Germany and the future conquerors of a Germanic empire in Eastern Europe and Russia. Darré’s office is responsible for ensuring that all SS marriages conform to strict “Aryan” racial standards. 1932 Spring The SS reaches a strength of over 41,000 while the SA totals some 400,000. 1933 January Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. February The Nazis begin a campaign to take control of Germany’s police. Hermann Göring, the new Prussian minister of the interior, enrolls 40,000 SA and SS men as auxiliary police. The SA and SS infiltrate the commands of police forces throughout Germany. Burning of the Reichstag on the night of February 27. The next day, Hitler begins to rule by presidential emergency decree. The emergency powers allow the Nazis to arrest thousands of Communists and other political opponents. The SA and SS establish the first informal or “wild” concentration camps for the detention and punishment of political and ideological (e.g., Jews) enemies. March Formation of the Liebstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler (SS Bodyguard Regiment Adolf Hitler or LSSAH) under the command of Josef Sepp Dietrich, one of Hitler’s early bodyguards. The LSSAH is the original unit of the Waffen-SS (Military SS), the military SS formations that will later fight alongside the German army during the Second World War. The WaffenSS will establish a history as fanatically ruthless soldiers with a reputation for committing atrocities against prisoners of war, civilians, communists, and Jews. 4 The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, allowing Hitler to continue to rule by emergency decree. The SS participates in the process of Gleichschaltung (Coordination), which rapidly brings all aspects of German political, social, and economic life under Nazi control. In March, Himmler, as police president of Munich, establishes Dachau as the site of the first concentration camp in Bavaria. Himmler puts the SS in charge of the camp, which under Commandant Theodor Eicke becomes the model for the SS’s future management of the camp system throughout Germany. April The Gestapo (Secret State Police) is recognized as a separate political police force within Prussia, the largest of the German states. May The SS has 100,000 members; the SA, 500,000. 1934 February SS membership reaches over 200,000. The large numbers overwhelms the SS’s small and amateur administrative staff. Himmler appoints Oswald Pohl chief administrative officer of the SS. Pohl, a former naval paymaster and veteran Nazi, joined the SS in 1933 after Himmler urged him to take up the challenge of creating a professional financial and administrative system for the Nazi organization. April Göring turns over control of the Gestapo to Himmler, who places Heydrich in command of the secret police force. The SS also assumes control of all concentration camps. June Hitler purges the SA, ordering the arrest and execution of Röhm and several top SA leaders. Himmler deploys the SS against the SA. SS men kill Röhm, SA leaders, and dozens of other “enemies” of the regime. The SS replaces the SA as the dominant militant arm of the NSDAP. July Himmler makes Theodor Eicke inspector of concentration camps and commander of all camp guards. Eicke organized the original camp guard units at Dachau. Known as the Totenkopfverbände-SS (Death’s Head Squads SS), the guard units served under Eicke in a separate chain of command. Several Death’s Head units eventually deployed as a WaffenSS regiment (later a division) during the war. August President Hindenburg dies. Hitler consolidates his power by combining the offices of president and chancellor with his position as leader of the NSDAP becoming the Führer of the German state and people. All members of the armed forces are required to take an oath of allegiance to Hitler. All SS members had long been required to take a similar oath. 5 December The SS acquires the Nordland-Verlag publishing firm. Nordland-Verlag will publish Nazi political tracts, SS manuals, and racist literature. The publishing house will be the first of many SS controlled enterprises. 1935 June Himmler places Oswald Pohl in charge of a separate Verwaltungsamt (Administrative Office) within the Reichsführer’s personal staff. Pohl’s office has responsibility over the budget, economic enterprises, construction tasks, housing, clothing and administrative matters within the SS. As the SS’s top financial officer, Pohl manages all party (NSDAP) funds that go to the SS. September The promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws officially ends civil rights for Jews in Germany. Himmler begins his association with the “Circle of Friends,” a group of big business benefactors of the Nazis. Eventually known as the “Himmler Circle” or “Circle of Friends of the Reichsführer-SS,” the group provided funds for SS projects that operated outside the official Reich and party budgets of the SS. These projects included pseudo-scientific research into Germany’s ancient past as well as horrendous medical experimentation on concentration camp prisoners. The Himmler Circle provided some 1 million Reichsmark annually to the SS from 1936-1944. 1936 June Himmler and the SS take official control of the German police forces, which includes the Gestapo, criminal, and ordinary police. Heydrich will run a central security office that includes the Gestapo, criminal police, and the SS intelligence service, the SD. August The SS establishes Sachsenhausen, a large concentration camp outside of Berlin. Sachsenhausen and the opening of Buchenwald near Weimar in 1937 are the result of Himmler and Eicke’s plan for an organized system of concentration camps throughout Germany. The SS chose the sites of these new camps especially for their proximity to population centers and clay deposits for brick making. Brick making will become one of the SS’s largest industrial enterprises. 1937 Pohl’s administrative office assumes responsibility for the management of the budgets and administration of the concentration camps. Eicke was a poor administrator and more interested in commanding his Death’s Head units. Pohl’s engineers and economic managers will run all concentration camp economic enterprises, supervising the deployment of prison labor 6 within the camp system. The camps become part of the overall Nazi effort to build up the German economy in preparation for war. 1938 The SS establishes two new concentration camps (Flössenburg and Mauthausen) sited for their proximity to large stone quarries. Himmler and Pohl plan for the SS to profit from Hitler’s desire for monumental building projects. In cooperation with Albert Speer, Hitler’s favored architect, Himmler and Pohl arrange for the SS to supply bricks and stone (formed and quarried by camp slave labor) for the massive new buildings. The SS creates the Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke (German Earth and Stone Works or DEST), a company, to manage the brick and stone supply operations. March Germany occupies Austria. Hitler gives the SS responsibility for Jewish affairs in Austria. The SS begins forced “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses and property in Austria. Heydrich gives Adolf Eichmann authority to force the emigration of Jews from Austria. November Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass): Nazis attack Jewish shops and synagogues throughout Germany. The SS begins the final stages of forced Aryanization in Germany proper. 1939 April Himmler raises Pohl’s administrative office to the status of a Hauptamt (Main Office) within the SS high command. At the same time, Himmler makes Pohl the head of a separate, new main office responsible for all SS budget and building administration. In addition to his management of party funds for the SS, Pohl has authority for all Reich (national government) funds provided for the SS. September Germany invades and conquers Poland. The Second World War begins. SS Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Squads) carryout mass killings of Polish civil and religious leaders as well as many Polish Jews. Himmler places Heydrich in charge of a new security main office October Hitler puts Himmler in charge of the resettlement of those regions of Poland that are to be annexed to the Reich. Himmler’s task is to remove Poles and Jews from the annexed areas and replace them with ethnic German settlers. Himmler views this mission as an opportunity to begin the SS-led Germanic colonization of Eastern Europe. By the end of 1939, the SS expels 90,000 Poles and Jews from western Poland to the General Government, the region of central Poland not annexed to the Reich. Thousands of Poles and Jews die during the resettlement operations. The Germans begin the confinement of Polish Jews within ghettos in major cities within the General Government. 7 Pohl’s office takes over many formerly Jewish owned business enterprises in Poland for the SS. 1940 April Himmler orders the establishment of a concentration camp at Auschwitz, a former Polish village in what is now German territory. May Waffen-SS units participate in the German conquest of France. Himmler offers a proposal to Hitler that all Jews in German controlled Europe be removed to Africa. Himmler’s proposal coincides with ideas within the German foreign office to ship Jews to the African island of Madagascar. The “Madagascar Plan” is shelved, however, when Germany fails to defeat Britain. In July 1940, Hitler orders his generals to prepare plans for an invasion of the Soviet Union. 1941 June Operation Barbarossa: Germany invades the Soviet Union. Himmler, following Hitler’s order for a campaign of annihilation against Communists and Jews, tasks Heydrich with the operation of expanded Einsatzgruppen in occupied Russia. The Einsatzgruppen begin mass killings of Jews in Russia, murdering some 1 million Jews by 1942. Summer The Nazis move towards a “Final Solution of the Jewish question” in Europe. With German forces seemingly victorious in Russia, Hitler and Himmler reached a decision in favor of the physical annihilation of Europe’s Jews. The SS expands the killing operations begun by the Einsatzgruppen to include the murder of Jews by gas. SS men formerly employed in the Euthanasia Program in Germany turn their “expertise” to organizing the mass gassings of Jews. November The SS begins construction of extermination camps in Poland having already carried out experimental gassings of Soviet POWS at Auschwitz. December The first transports of Jews are gassed in Poland. Hitler declares war on the United States. 1942 January The Wannsee Conference: Heydrich chairs a meeting of top Nazi officials to work out the implementation of the “Final Solution” in Europe. February Pohl’s economic and administrative main offices are combined to create the SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administrative 8 Main Office or WVHA). In March, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps under Richard Glücks is incorporated into the WVHA. The organization of the WVHA came in response to the SS’s increasing involvement in the German war economy, especially the use of SS supplied slave labor from the concentration camps in the production of German armaments. The WVHA negotiated the deployment of slave laborers to German industry. Hundreds of thousands concentration camp prisoners died as a result of overwork, poor nutrition, ghastly sanitation, and abuse by SS guards. May Assassination of Heydrich by British run Czech commandos in Prague. July Himmler orders the extermination of all Jews in the General Government. 1943 February Russians defeat the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. April Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The SS puts down the Jewish uprising after a month of fighting. WVHA engineers demolish the ghetto. July The SS begins to supply concentration camp prisoners for the construction of V-2 rocket factories. Hans Kammler, Pohl’s top engineer in the WVHA, will supervise the building of underground V-2 factories. Thousands of prisoners die in the process. August Hitler appoints Himmler Minister of the Interior. 1944 April Adolf Eichmann begins the deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. Over 400,000 Hungarian Jews are killed at Auschwitz during the next three months. The WVHA supervises the confiscation of Jewish personal property at Auschwitz and other extermination camps. June Allied forces invade Normandy. July German officers make an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hitler. Himmler orders the Gestapo to crush the anti-Nazi resistance. 1945 January The SS evacuates Auschwitz as the Russians approach the camp. Tens of thousands of Jews die in forced marches as the SS retreats from the concentration camps. 9 April Allied forces liberate concentration camps across Germany. Hitler commits suicide. Berlin falls to the Russians. May End of the war in Europe. The SS and their allies have murdered over six million Jews. Himmler falls into British hands and kills himself. Oswald Pohl is captured by British troops. November Beginning of the Nuremberg Trial of twenty-two major German defendants accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The SS is represented by the defendant, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who succeeded to the command of the Gestapo after Heydrich’s death. The International Military Tribunal sentences Kaltenbrunner to death. He is hanged along with nine other defendants on October 16, 1946. 1947 April The United States puts Pohl and seventeen other former WVHA men on trial in Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial ends in November 1947. Pohl and three other defendants receive the death sentence. Only Pohl’s sentence is carried out. He is executed on June 7, 1951.