The Waffen-SS was the combat wing of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel, or SS, as well as the multiethnic and multinational military force of Nazi Germany. Throughout the length of the war it would go from a shabby fighting force to the most brutal, feared, and detested military organization in the world.
Originally the SS started as adjunct group to the SA, a political wing of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party. When the National Socialist Party came to power in the early 1930’s, the SA had been the group to back and associate heavily with Hitler. However, the SA became increasingly eager for power and wanted greatly to replace the regular army, which angered and threatened many leaders within the party. The SS was then placed under the control of Heinreich Himmler by Hitler in part to limit the growth of the SA. Many of the conflicts between the SS and SA arose from political rivalries, but another factor involved was the socio-economic differences between the SS and SA. Members of the SS generally came from the middle class, whereas SA members came from the unemployed and working class. In political aspects, the SA was more radical than the SS, with its leaders arguing the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power, and that Germany needed to implement Socialism to a wider degree.
Eventually high ranker party leaders began to conspire against the SA and its leadership, leading to an event known as the Night of the Long Knives. Most of the leadership of the SA was killed and replaced during this incident, and the size of the SA was significantly downsized. This led to the SS superseding the SA in size and power, giving rise the armed branch of the SS known as the SS-TV in 1934, and later the Waffen-SS in 1938....
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...ularly as the Battle of the Bulge, the last German offensive of the war. Waffen-SS units fought hard enough that they managed to successfully push back the Allies throughout the forest. Their advance was only rendered fruitless by lack of fuel for their tanks or proper air support. At Malmedy the SS showed its darker side when American POW’s were killed after what is thought to have been a singular escape attempt gone wrong. Leibstandarte SS officer Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by the Allies after wars end for his part in this massacre, but was later sentences to life in prison instead.
The legacy of the Waffen-SS is clouded with much controversy. On many occasions they proved themselves a powerful fighting force, on both the Eastern and Western fronts. However, many of the brutal aspects of the war they are linked to have tainted much of their achievement.
The Gestapo, Hitler’s secret Police, instilled a lot of fear into the German people's eyes. With their leader being one of Hitlers advisers, you can tell they were pretty important to Hitler. However, they weren't always lead by one of Hitler’s advisers. The Gestapo had many roles to Hitler's war plan. With this they had many duties to do and many different complicated ways they did their duties.
The time, 1941, the place, the then Soviet Union, the Red Army is in retreat from the German forces, following closely behind the German frontline is an unspeakable force coming over the conquered lands like a deadly plague. The Einsatzgruppen were considered as mobile death dealers by their victims. The major occupation of the Einsatzgruppen was the humiliation, extermination, and complete of annihilation of Jews, Romany or gypsies, members of the communist party, and intellectsia or major thinkers. They were organized to be the most efficient at occupying and murdering the undesirables. The leaders of these hounds of war were hand selected by Heydrich Himmler from the brightest, bravest, and most loyal of the Nazi members. The Einsatzgruppen were broken down to cover more area and to cause more chaos. Their techniques for killing were horrific, and in some cases could even tax the mind of the executioner. They were responsible for most of the murders of Jews during World War 2. Almost every huge massacre site they were at it killing undesirables.
Among 1.5 million Jews were shot to death in the most brutal way by different Nazi units. The so-called Einsatzgruppen, which operated behind the front against the Soviet Union, were
World War 2 began in 1939. It was the most deadliest and widespread wars in history. There were more than 30 countries involved in the war, and more than 5,000,000 deaths throughout. The war finally ended in 1945. One of the many secret police forces during the war was Gestapo. It is short for Gieheime Staatspolizei, which is German for Secret State police. They were a main use for destruction and oppression. They persecuted a bunch of other races or religions such as Jews, Germans and regimes.
In 1925, Adolf Hitler founded the Schutzstaffel or the "SS". The Schutzstaffel was created to serve as Hitler's personal bodyguards, and as time passed by they became one of the most feared organizations in Nazi Germany. They were considered to be the most elite guard in Nazi Germany.
In 1932 Adolf Eichmann enters the Austrian National Socialist (Nazi) Party and the SS at the suggestion of an acquaintance, Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Only a year before Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Nazi Party, is appointed Chancellor of
There were a number of groups in germany that were attempting to take down the Nazis.
The Schutzstaffel (SS) started off as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguards. They later became one of the most feared and powerful organizations in all of Germany. Founded in 1925, the SS started off as a small group of eight members who were lead initially by Julius Schreck, a dedicated Hitler loyalist. The SS crew grew to more than 250,000 by the start of World War II. The SS did more than just guard Hitler; they guarded the concentration camps, and the Waffen-SS specialized in brutalizing and murdering people in territories occupied by the Nazi’s. The SS guards had an important role for Germany in World War II because they did most of Hitler’s work. The SS-VT were the SS guards that actually fought in the war, they were later named the Waffen-SS, who also caused terrorism. The regular SS’s guarding of Hitler, and of concentration camps affected the war in a major way.
National Socialism is also known as Naziism. A system in which Hitler was referred to as Führer, there was a state control over the economy and production, and there was an agenda for national expansion. The Program of the Nazi party sought to change 3 major concerns in Germany to help their cause in making Germany a force to be reckoned with. The concerns were political, economic, and social.
The Schutzstaffel or SS was created in 1925 by the Nazi party to protect Adolf Hitler and other important Nazi leaders. Heinrich Himmler was appointed leader of the SS by Hitler in 1929. The SS were racial elites with profound loyalty to Hitler and the promotion of Germany. (SS, 2013) In order to become a member of the SS all candidates had to endure selections based on their racial ancestry and support of the Nazi party. In Nazi Germany the SS was responsible for security identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy and intelligent collection and analysis. (SS, 2013) They also were responsible for the concentration camp system and police forces. In 1939 the SS assumed the responsibility for “solving” the Jewish Question. (SS And The Holocaust, 2013) In the imminent invasion of the Soviet Union Hitler ordered the SS implementation of settlement plans and population policy in conquered Soviet territories. Special SS Einsatzgrupp...
The Gestapo were a brutal and reckless police force around Nazi Germany that was truly a disgrace to society in my eyes. The Gestapo were essentially the police force of Germany at the time. They’re methods were notoriously brutal and they showed no mercy while prosecuting helpless Jews. While not as important as the SS, the bodyguards of Adolf Hitler, the Gestapo still played a big role into the way Nazi Germany was ran. As brutal as they were, it is hard not to admit that their fear tactics were one of a kind. The way they struck fear into the hearts of those who opposed them.
The Nazis and their rise to power comprised many steps along the way. With the help of Adolf Hitler’s mind they came to power with their political and economic strategies. Outlining the beginning of how Hitler and his party slowly gained power and took over Germany as each of his idea and his supporters helped him to rise. Hitler consequently congregated supporters of the Nazi party to make it stronger. Before the idea of legally taking over the political and economic of Germany, he planned to take over the Reichstag building with force thinking The Putsch was his way to success. ‘… the Nazi movement legally wound back the provisions of the Weimar Constitution, exerted its control over the civil service and legal systems and outlawed opposition parties.’ (Bidgood et.al 2006: 127). Since Hitler could not gain power of Germany by overtaking the Reichstag he was to do it legally by standing as the Chancellor and create authoritative orders to create his new world. In the beginning, Adolf Hitler was an unknown figure to the public, but he slowly built his own political ideas as he started doing speeches at the beer hall which was his initial point for his ideas to emerge and advance. Once Hitler thought he had enough people supporting his party, he explicit decision was to take over the Reichstag, but was to find guilty of treason. When Hitler was imprisoned, the Nazi party started to have difficulties and that is when different political ideas were emerging. After Hitler was released out of prison, he begins to regather ideas as he was given the role of chancellor. Eliminating the Reichstag and giving him all the power. The Rise of Hitler begins.
The rise of National Socialism in post-WWI Germany is an understandable reaction to the problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty, considering the German attitudes and beliefs at the time. These attitudes and beliefs were the result of generations of Prussian militarism, extreme racist nationalism, and, most importantly, the failure of the Treaty of Versailles signed in June of 1919. The rise of the Nazi party, and their extremist National Socialist doctrine appealed directly to these attitudes and beliefs that permeated Germany society after the first World War.
The Nazis follow through with Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. Many of the soldiers who work at the death camps were not even members of the Nazi party originally. However, most follow orders obediently
The Gestapo, established in 1933, controlled originally by Georing and later in November 1934, was controlled under Himmler. The Gestapo’s job was to investigate and suppress all anti-state activities, and had a reputation of being very brutal and ruthless. It was not secret and was much feared. Terror atomised the nation, people thought the Gestapo was everywhere but in fact they were a very small number. The Gestapo controlled concentration camps.