The Himmler's SS (7 page)

The Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA, the Reich Central Security Office, was set up in September 1939 to bring together the security police forces of both the party and the state. Based at 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, Berlin, it combined in one command structure the offices of the party-run Sicherheitsdienst or SD (the SS Security Service), and the state-run Sicherheitspolizei or Sipo (Security Police), which itself comprised the Kripo (Criminal Police) and Gestapo (Political Police). Although the RSHA was officially subordinated to Himmler, it quickly became the personal empire of its first chief, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, who used its vast resources of information and incriminating dossiers as bargaining counters in his power struggles with the other Nazi leaders until his assassination in 1942. His successor, SS-Obergruppenführer Dr Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a sinister-looking individual and old guard Austrian Nazi, was far less ambitious but still became one of the most feared men in the Third Reich. The RSHA was responsible for both domestic and foreign intelligence operations, espionage and counter-espionage, combatting political and common law crime, and sounding out public opinion on the Nazi régime.

The SS Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt or SS-WVHA, the SS Economic and Administrative Department, was formed in 1942. Based at 126–35 Unter den Eichen, Berlin-Lichterfelde, it was headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl and dealt primarily with the concentration camp system and the financial administration of the SS. It controlled a large number of SS industrial and agricultural undertakings, organised the ‘in-house' manufacture of supplies and equipment for SS use, and carried out SS housing and construction programmes.

The SS Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt or RuSHA, the SS Race and Settlement Department, achieved Hauptamt status on 30 January 1935, having grown from the SS Race and Settlement Office set up at the end of 1931 under SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré. It was subsequently commanded by Günther Pancke, who later became Senior SS and Police Commander in Denmark, and finally by Richard Hildebrandt, and had its offices at 24 Hedemannstrasse, Berlin. RuSHA looked after the ideological and racial purity of all SS members. It was the authority for all matters of geneology, and issued lineage certificates and marriage permits within the SS. In addition, it was responsible for executing the policy of settling SS men, especially exservicemen, as colonists in the conquered eastern territories, and thus translated into practice the ‘Blood and Soil' theories of Darré and the other SS racial teachers.

The Hauptamt SS Gericht or HA SS Gericht, the SS Legal Department, situated at 10 Karlstrasse, Munich, administered the disciplinary side of the special code of laws to which members of the SS and police were subject. It controlled the SS und Polizei Gerichte (SS and Police Courts) in the larger towns of Germany and the occupied countries, and the Strafvollzugslager der SS und Polizei (SS and Police Penal Camps) also came under its jurisdiction. The department was headed by SS-Gruppenführer Paul Scharfe until his death in 1942, when he was succeeded by SS-Obergruppenführer Franz Breithaupt. The Hauptamt SS Gericht was an extension of the older SS Gericht, an office which carried out on behalf of the Reichsführer-SS investigations within the ranks of the SS into disciplinary offences and infringements of the SS code of honour. It prepared and prosecuted cases and was responsible for the remission or reprieve of sentences. In addition, as supreme authority within the SS on matters of law and discipline, it was the channel of liaison between the SS and all other legal bodies of the state and party.

The SS Personalhauptamt, or SS Personnel Department, was based at 98–9 Wilmersdorferstrasse, Berlin-Charlottenburg and co-ordinated the work of the personnel branches of the various Hauptämter. It was the ultimate authority responsible for all questions of SS personnel, but its primary concern was with officers, as the SS Hauptamt retained records concerning NCOs and other ranks. The SS Personalhauptamt had two main offices, one for officer personnel and the other for officer replacements, and it regularly produced and updated the SS Seniority List, or Dienstaltersliste, which recorded details of every serving SS officer. The SS Personalhauptamt was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Walter Schmitt until 1942, and thereafter by SS-Obergruppenführer Maximilian von Herff.

In addition to the regular SS Hauptämter, there were a number of other smaller offices and departments which had their places in the SS command structure. The Hauptstelle der Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei was a department representing the uniformed civil police at Himmler's headquarters. It advised the Reichsführer on all matters concerning the Ordnungspolizei. The Hauptamt Dienststelle Heissmeyer, an office attached to the staff of SS-Obergruppenführer August Heissmeyer in his capacity as the Senior SS and Police Commander for the Berlin District, was responsible for the supervision of the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (NPEA or Napolas), the National Political Educational Institutes set up to train the future Germanic élite. The Stabshauptamt der Reichskommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums, or Hauptamt RKF, Himmler's staff HQ in his capacity as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germanism, was based at 142–3 Kurfürstendamm, Berlin and commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Ulrich Greifelt. It had a general interest in all matters affecting the maintenance of the racial qualities of the German population and the protection and enlargement of the German race as a whole. Its principal activity was to promote settlement by Germans of the annexed eastern territories of the Reich. Finally, the Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle or VOMI, the Department for the Repatriation of Racial Germans, operated from offices at 29 Keithstrasse, Berlin and led by SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Lorenz. In contrast to the Hauptamt RKF, its main function was the organised return to the Reich of the descendants of older generations of German colonists and settlers in Russia and south-east Europe.

On a level immediately below the SS Hauptämter were the Oberabschnitte (Oa.) or Regions, the bases of Allgemeine-SS territorial organisation. Initially there were five Oberabschnitte, formed in 1932 from the existing SS Gruppen. By 1944, their number had risen to seventeen within Germany proper and each corresponded almost exactly to a Wehrkreis or Military District. The SS Regions were generally known by geographical names, but it was also customary to refer to them by the Roman numeral allocated to the corresponding Wehrkreis. Each Oberabschnitt was commanded by an SS-Obergruppenführer, Gruppenführer or Brigadeführer designated Führer des Oberabschnittes (F.Oa.). He was usually also Himmler's representative at the military headquarters of the local Wehrkreis and, in addition, held the post of Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer or HSSPf, the Senior SS and Police Commander in the Region. In the few cases where the HSSPf was not the Führer of the corresponding Oberabschnitt it was because the latter, though filling some other active appointment, was allowed to retain the titular leadership of the Oa. on personal grounds. For example, during the war, SS-Obergruppenführer August Heissmeyer found himself appointed HSSPf for Oberabschnitt Spree as the nominal Führer of that Region, ‘Sepp' Dietrich, was fully committed with the Waffen-SS on the battlefront.

Directly subordinated to the F.Oa. or HSSPf was the Stabsführer der Allgemeinen-SS (Allgemeine-SS Chief of Staff) who was responsible to him for the general conduct and control of the Allgemeine-SS within the Oa. The Regional Headquarters was staffed primarily by Hauptamtlicher Führer (full-time officers) together with a number of Nebenamtlich (part-time) or Ehrenamtlich (honorary) officials. The full-timers included the Leiter der Verwaltung or Verwal-tungsführer (Administrative Officer), the Oberabschnittsarzt (Medical Officer), the Oberabschnittsausbildungsf ührer (Training Officer), the Oberabschnit tspersonalchef (Personnel Officer) and the Nachrichtenführer (Signals Officer). Part-timers were generally below the rank of Sturmbannführer and were not paid for their services. The seventeen SS Oberabschnitte situated within Germany were named and numbered as follows:

There were no SS Oberabschnitte corresponding to Wehrkreise numbers XIV, XV, XVI and XIX.

Himmler, Wolff and SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Schmauser, Führer of Oberabschnitt Süd, inspecting men of the 34th SS Fuss-Standarte at Weilheim in December 1934.

In addition to these, there were six foreign Oberabschnitte which evolved during the war, as listed below:

Of these six, only Oa. Böhmen-Mähren, which included the Sudetenland, existed long enough to develop an organisation strictly comparable to the Oberabschnitte inside Germany. Oa. Nord and Nordwest coordinated police operations and those of the relatively small contingents of Germanic-SS in Flanders, Holland, Norway and Denmark, while Oa. Ost, Ostland and Ukraine directed the miscellaneous security and anti-guerrilla forces in their respective areas.

Each SS Oberabschnitt in turn comprised an average of three Abschnitte or Districts, again distinguished by Roman numerals. They were also referred to by the names of the areas which they covered or by the location of their headquarters. The Abschnitt commander or Führer des Abschnittes (F.Ab.) was generally an officer of the rank of SS-Oberführer or Standartenführer. The first seven Abschnitte covered the entire Reich, and the eighth was for Austria. The ninth and succeeding Abschnitte made their appearance in 1932, along with Standarten with numbers in the upper forties. The Districts then grew commensurate with the expansion of the SS, and by 1944 the following Abschnitte were listed: