The Roles of the SS and the Gestapo By Kirsten and Karly

SS Gestapo

The SS or the “Schutzstaffel” were founded in 1925, and initially served as Hitler’s personal body guards.

In 1929 Heinrich Himmler became the head of the SS, expanding the groups role and size.

To be a recruit in the SS, the young men had to prove that none of their ancestors were Jewish. The recruits received military training and were taught that they were the elite of all humankind, not just the Nazi Party. At the beginning of WWII, the SS had more than 250,000 members

There were 2 significant subdivisions of the SS The SS Verfügungstruppen or SS-VT Military unit whose members were quartered in barracks They were the invading force of the Rhineland, Sudetenland, and Poland They were trained in skilled combat fighting force Totenkopfverbande or “Death’s Head Unit,”  Members operated Hitler’s concentration camps Members wore caps decorated with an insignia featuring the image of a skull The skull symbolized the members commitment to Hitler until death

Himmler eventually established an expanded version of the SS-VT and called it the “Waffen-SS” The “Waffen-SS” consisted of combat troops specializing in murdering and brutalizing people in the territories that the Nazis occupied. Not only Germans joined the “Waffen-SS”. Other ethnic Germans also had the opportunity to join, such as those from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and even volunteers from countries the Nazis occupied like Great Britain, and France.

THE GESTAPO

The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) was the Nazi Government secret police force. It was formed in 1933 after Hitler became Chancellor.

Heinrech Himmler was in control of all the police forces in Germany including the Gestapo. The Gestapo was led by Heinrich Muller; they acted outside of the laws of Germany and had its own courts.

The purpose of the Gestapo was to take out any potential threats to Nazi Germany. During WWII they hunted Jews and stopped resistance movements. They were in charge of guarding the ghettos and supervising forced labor.

The prisoners were tortured, treated cruelly and were threatened by the Gestapo. The Gestapo were also in charge of the mass murders

After WWII the Gestapo was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials. They linked the Gestapo to many atrocities, but Muller was never brought to justice and nobody really knows what happened to him.