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The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was a large
paramilitary organization that belonged to the Nazi party.The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, based on the Praetorian Guard, and selected on racial and ideological grounds. The SS was distinguished from other branches of the German military, Nazi Party, and German state by their own SS ranks, SS unit insignia, and SS uniforms. Their performance as a fighting unit, called the Waffen-SS, was to prove undistinguished compared to the German army, the Wehrmacht. The SS were, however, notorious for their participation in enforcing Nazi policies. These acts were mainly carried out by the departments that comprised the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, such as the Gestapo, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Einsatzgruppen.
The predecesor to the SS was first formed in 1923 as a company of the Sturmabteilung tasked with protecting senior leaders of the Nazi Party at rallies, speeches and other public events. Known as the Stabswache (Staff Guard) the original group consisted of 8 men and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade , a violent Freikorps of the time.
After the failed 1923 Putsch by the Nazi Party, the SA and the Stabswache were abolished, yet returned in 1925. At that time the Stabswache was reestablished as the Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler tasked with the personal protection of Hitler at Nazi Party functions and events. That same year, the Stosstrupp was expanded to a national level, and renamed as the Schutzstaffel. The new SS was delegated to be a protection company of various Nazi Party Leaders throughout Germany.
Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered merely a battalion of the Sturmabteilung and numbered no more than 280 personnel. On January 6, 1929 Hitler appointed Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler ( October 7, 1900 May 23, 1945) was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. As Reichsfuhrer-SS, he led the Schutzstaffel and Gestapo and was put in charge of organizing the mass extermination of Jews and others in extermination camp as the leader of the SS and, by the end of 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan the SS had 52,000 members; by the end of next year, it had over 209,000 members. Himmler's expansion of the SS was based on models from other groups, such as the the Knights TemplarThe first of the military orders, the Knights Templar or Poor Knights of Christ was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its defeated Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safet, Jesuit OrderThe Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu , commonly known as the Jesuits is a Roman Catholic religious order. It was founded in 1534 by a group of University of Paris graduate students led by Inigo Lopez de Loyola (Ignatius of Loyola). Foundation On Au, and the Italian Black BrigadesThe 40 Black Brigades or the brigata nera were the fascist paramilitary operating in northern Italy, also known as the Italian Social Republic, during the final years of World War Two after the signing of the Italian Armistice in 1943. They were officiall.
Before 1932, the SS wore the same uniform as the SA, except for a black tie and a black capAlternate meaning: in meteorology, a cap is a capping inversion . A cap is a form of headgear. Caps are generally soft, and often have no brim, or just a peak (like on a baseball cap). For many centuries women wore a wide variety of head-coverings which w with a skull symbol on it (Totenkopf, "death's head"). Later they adopted a black uniform and then, just before the war, a dove grey uniform. The Waffen or armed SS wore a field grey uniform similar to the Reichsheer. Their motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue ("My honor is loyalty.") The SS rank system was unique in that it did not copy the terms used in the Wehrmacht, but instead used the ranks of the SA.
Heinrich Himmler, together with his right-hand man Reinhard Heydrich, consolidated the power of the organisation. In 1931 Himmler gave Heydrich the assignment to build an intelligence service inside the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). By the time World War II began the number of members rose to 250,000 and the Waffen SS was formed in December 1940 to fight alongside the Wehrmacht, Germany's regular military. The SS also received control of the Gestapo in 1936 and, in 1934, Adolf Hitler had given the SS jurisdiction over all concentration camps.