SS

SS (Schutzstaffel) (Germany) Founded in 1925 as the internal police of the SA and the Nazi Party, it became an independent organization following the Röhm Putsch in 1934, under its leader, Himmler. It developed an internal security service (the Sicherheitsdienst) under Heydrich, which from 1936 was responsible for uncovering opposition within the German population. During World War II, it formed an SS task force (Einsatzgruppen), which killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and Eastern Europeans in the occupied territories. In 1933, the Order of the Skull (Totenkopfverbände) was formed, which supervised the concentration camps. In 1939, it formed the nucleus of the Waffen-SS, which recruited an increasing number of voluntary members as well as conscripts as it grew from 100,000 to 900,000 men. Many of these (particularly the conscripts) fought as regular troops, but a large number also committed atrocities, while some went to reinforce the concentration-camp guards. Given the administrative confusion in Nazi Germany, which was heightened to near-chaos in the eastern occupied territories, it was its simple command structure which made the SS so effective. Responsible only to Himmler and then to Hitler, the organization effectively stood above the law.