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SS (for Schutzstaffel, German for "Protective Squadron") was part of the Nazi party, controlled by Heinrich Himmler. It was noted for its devotion to Adolf Hitler, for its fanaticism in battle, and for its control of the death camps during the Holocaust.


Third Reich: 1933-39

World War II


For more information, see: The Holocaust.

Soldiers in Waffen SS

While the regular German military opposed the SS forming more than security troops, by the Second World War, they had formed divisions, and, during the war, corps. Within the SS Main Office, the Waffen SS was under Oberstgruppenfuhrer Paul Hausser.

The Waffen-SS organized 38 divisions comprising (at one time or another) about 800,000 soldiers; 25% were killed in battle. While they served under Wehrmacht command, their discipline was separate and they had a reputation for brutality, mistreatment and killing of prisoners and civilians, and war crimes.[1] In December 1944 on the Western Front during the "Battle of the Bulge" elements of the Waffen SS Leibstandarte Division shot between 86 and 100 Americans prisoners near Malmedy. After the war the colonel Joachim Peiper and 65 other SS soldiers of the Leibstandarte were tried, convicted and imprisoned for war crimes; two were hung.[2]



International units




  1. Wegner (1990)
  2. James J. Weingartner, Crossroads of Death: The Story of the Malmédy Massacre and Trial. 1979
  3. Koethe (1994)
  4. Huffman (2005); Koethe (1994)
  5. Smith et al (1999)