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The head of the most feared and fanatical army in history. The SS started out in 1925 as a small personal guard unit. To protect and serve Hitler and other party leaders. It developed into the elite corps, known as the "black shirts" under the rule of Heinrich Himmler. Some of the men who helped shape the SS was Paul Hausser and Felix Steiner. Both of who helped pick the 100 men to start the SS with some of them being Fritz Witt, Sepp Dietrich and |
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Theodore Wische. Until 1929 the SA was still the dominant force in the Nazi Party. But the SS was growing in strength and importance. In 1929 Himmler was put in charge of the SS. In 1931 Himmler put himself in the position of intelligence for the SS. Then appointed Reinhard Heydrich as its chief.
There were about 52,000 members in 1933. A struggle for power broke out in 1934 called the "Night of Long Knives", between the SS and the SA. The SS won the battle.
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Felix Steiner |
Tank used by SS |
"The German people were in the hands of the police, the police were in the hands of the Nazi Party, and the Nazi Party was in the hands of a ring of evil men." Quoted -Prosecutor
Jackson's Address to the Military Tribunal. "Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS was one of the most brutal, fanatical and feared army organizations in history."
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Paul Hauser |
A grave where 5 members were buried |
Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich orchestrated a night of terror in Germany
Destroying synagogues, smashing windows of Jewish businesses and homes looting and beating
Jews. Arresting thousands of others to be sent to concentration camps. On November 9th and
10th,1938 Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass" was a turning point in the escalation of hate
against Jews. German soldiers of the Waffen-SS and Reich Labor Service look on as a member of
the Einsatzgruppe D prepares to shoot a Ukrainian Jew kneeling on the edge of a mass grave. Filled with bodies of previous victims. The Fuhrer was the last ordered "Final Solution", of Jewish question.
Himmler told Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Hoss in summer 1941. " We the SS have to carry out this order ........I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose." On October 1943 Himmler commented in a speech to the SS group leaders. "...It is one of those things which is easy to say. "The Jewish race is to be exterminated." We had the moral rights. We had the duty to our people, to destroy these people who wanted to destroy us.
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A poster used too recruit new members |
Travis Thederahn
7th Rossville Jr. High
Spring 2001