SS ORGANISATION MAIN LEADERSHIP OFFICE

SS Organisation Chart as as the end of WWII.

Reichführer-SS (Himmler).Regional HSSPF`s.

Fuhrüngshauptamt-SSFHA-Himmler, Berger, Pohl, Heydrich, Kaltenbrünner, Korherr).

SS Main Office-SSHA. (Berger).

RSHA. (Heydrich then Kaltenbrünner). (Includes Einsatzgruppen).

W-SS. (Dietrich).

Main Office-Order Police-Orpo. (Daluege).

Chief of Himmler`s Personal Staff. (Wolff then Röhde).

WVHA. (Glücks).

SS Personnel Office. (Schmidt then von Herff).

SS Medical Services. (Gravits).

SS Courts. (Breithaupt-1942 to 1945).

SS Works Operations Office.(Kämmler).

Sevices to SS Dependents Office. ( ? ).

RuSHA Office. (Panke;Hoffmann;Hildebrandt).

VoMi-RKfDV Office. (Lorenz).

Einsatz Heer-Reserve or Home Army (Volksturm). (Himmler-from August 1944).

Vergelstüngs-Waffe- "V-Weapons" program. (Kämmler & Rudolf- from August 1944).

Allied POW Camps. (Berger-from August 1944).

As Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler was chief of the SS Organisation. He had a number of responsibilities: Reichs Security (RSHA), Public Order (Police), Economic & Business (WVHA). Consolidation of the Reich (RKfDV), and his representatives (RKfdFDv), which could be a Gauleiter E.g., ObS-Kattowitz-the representative for Oberschliesien (Upper Silesia), was Gauleiter Fritz Bracht, whose HQ was in Katowice! Resettlement (RuSHA), Ethnic German Affairs (VOMI), SS Courts, Services to SS dependents, SS Medical Services, the Waffen-SS (prior to September 1939 and after August 1944), the Reserve Army, V-Weapons Programs and POW Camps (from August 1944), plus other responsibilities. All are explained in greater detail later.

At the top of the SS Organisation`s structure, and directly responsible to Himmler, the Reichführer-SS, was the Reichfuhrer-SS und Fuhrüngshauptamt (SSFHA), beneath which was the SS Hauptamt (SSHA), or SS Organisation Main Office. The SSFHA was established shortly after the start of the war in September 1939. Its members included Himmler, Otto Pohl (Economics). Reinhard Heydrich (Security), Richard Korrherr (Statistics), Gottlob Berger (Administration), Kurt Daluege (Civil Police-ORPO). All these men were responsible to this office for their respective fields. Ernst Kaltenbrünner did not take over Heydrich`s role in the SSFHA after the latter's death in June 1942, but like the HSSPF`s, he reported directly to Himmler on security matters.

Oswald Pohl who had been appointed by Himmler in January 1933 as the head of "SS Business & Accounting", a job he had done on a voluntary basis until the Nazis came to power was also made chief of the SSFHA until February 1st 1942, when he became chief of the revamped WVHA. This office concerned itself with SS leadership appointments, transfers, policy matters, issuing travel documents, drivers licences etc., It also dealt with the HSSPF`s and police matters in the occupied countries.

The SSHA headed by Gottlob Berger, concerned itself with all administrative, recruitment and training for the whole SS organisation. All other Amter in the SS organisation structure excepting the HSSPF's, went to Himmler via the SSHA.(SS Headquarters).

REICHSICHERHEITSHAUPTAMT-RSHA (REICHS SECURITY MAIN OFFICE, Incorporating the GESTAPO, SIPO, KRIPO & EINSATZGRUPPEN-The RSHA SPECIAL ACTION GROUPS.

ORPO-ORDNUNGS POLIZEI-ORDER POLICE.

This ORPO force was not under the control of the RSHA, but under the command of OGf. Kurt Daluege, and remained so throughout the Nazi era, even after he was appointed to replace Heydrich as Reichs Protector in Prague after the latter`s assassination there in 1942. As the name implies - these poice were used to maintain order in Germany proper, as escorts in court appearances, and in the occupied lands to assist in the maintenance of order.

OFFICE OF RF-SS PERSONAL STAFF.

As the title implies, this office selected Himmler`s staff appointments. It was headed by OGf. Karl Wolff from the early 1930`s until mid-1943 when Wolff was posted to Italy. Bf. Ernst Rhöde took over from Wolff until the end of the war.

SS PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION OFFICE.

This office was responsible for personnel administration. Its first head was OGf. Hans Schmidt. The second was OGf. Eberhard von Herff.

SS COURTS.

Chief Justice OGf. Dr. Breithaupt was the last effective officer in charge of the SS Court system. He reported diectly to Himmler via the RSHA`s Amt II (Legal).

Some 38 SS Courts were eventually established throughout the Reich as SS 'Gericht' (Courts) after the Nazis attained power in 1933. The first head was Dr. Ernst Bach.

These SS courts were to be responsible for a number of SS matters such as:

To protect honor, loyalty and sanctity of an SS member`s private possessions; truthfulness, discipline and gentlemanly behavior etc., These courts were to (and did), issue sentences for non-compliance. They even issued death sentences for homosexual activity, desertion, cowardice in the face of the enemy, refusing to obey an order, sex with Jews stealing property which had been confiscated from Jews and other KZ inmates. Other verdicts could be awarded by SS Courts could include punishment for laziness whilst on duty - including whilst on duty at the KZ`s. In fact the SS maintained two punishment blocks in KZ`s for SS offenders-one at Dachau and the other at Mazkau. Both were greatly feared by SS wrong-doers! Offenders were sometimes given an option-the KZ for "re-education" or join a penal batallion, known to the informed as "Ascention " or "Suicide" Squad! Membership of the latter meant having to probe for enemy mines at the Front. Wrong-doers tended to choose this punishment rather than the KZ, even though their chances of survival were zilch!

It was headquartered in Munich and at its peak employed over 600 qualified lawyers and support staff. Dr. Paul Scharfe took over from Dr. Bach shortly after the office was set up and held the position until 1942, when he handed over to Dr. Franz Breithaupt, who died in a traffic accident in April 1945. Dr. Günther took over until for the last month of the war!

The SS Courts also dealt with SS staff who had been caught abusing their positions, such as beating inmates or prisoners, shooting POW`s, for stealing and other offences. This applied to female as well as male guards in the KZ`s Refer to Profiles of Morgen & Koch.

Towards the end of 1944, Himmler got impatient with the SS Courts having to consider or review cases before them. He introduced "Roving SS Courts Martials" with orders to shoot deserters from the German Wehrmacht on the spot.

These SS Courts were farcical in reality. All investigations were held and reported in absolute secrecy. Because all action had to be approved by Himmler he was very selective in confirming sentences!

A case in point was when Konrad Morgen, investgated corruption and criminal activity within the concentration camps system. He prosecuted so many SS officers that by early 1944, Himmler personally ordered him to 'slow down'! Morgen later told the Nuremberg IMT that he personally fought for 'justice' during his SS career, and quoted 'many hundreds' of investigations into criminal activity at concentration camps during his appointment.

SS WORKS OPERATIONS OFFICE.

This office, headed by OGf. Dr. Heinz Kammler and hid deputy Dr. Frösch. It was an engineering facility which was concerned mainly with building the KZ`s in the early part of the war, but turning to the more scientific aspects of Hitler`s so-called "Secret Weapons" - the VI & V2 Flying Bombs & Rockets, as well as other similar projects. These secret weapons were called "Vergelstungs-Waffe" or Revenge-Weapons. This group was set up after the Bomb-Plot attempt on Hitler`s life in July 1944. The VI Program had hitherto beenmanaged by the Luftwaffe (Air-Force), and the V2 project handled by the Army. Both projects were taken over under SS control. The V2 program was under the leadership of scientist Dr. Werhner von Braun, who was himself an SS Sturmbannführer . The SS used labor from the Buchenwald KZ to build these units, but because of heavy Allied bombing of the Buchenwald production areas, the manufacture, construction and assembly areas were moved to underground factories in the caves of the Harz Mountains. Dr. Kammler took charge of V1 production and Dr. Arthur Rudolf became chief of V2 production.

SERVICES TO SS DEPENDENTS OFFICE.

Services to SS dependents included the provision of pensions and welfare facilities for wounded, and dead SS personnel, schooling for their children, housing, hospitalisation for families etc., It also arranged funerals for those killed. This office managed a number of hospitals for SS members and their families.

REICHSKOMMISAR FÜR DIE FESTIGUNG DES DEUTSCHEN VOLKSTUMS (RKfVD-THE OFFICE FOR REICH POPULATION POLICIES).

This office headed by Dr. Robert Koehl. and set up in September 1939 to "Germanise" the City of Danzig, which had been under Polish rule since 1922 after being taken from Germany by the League of Nations. It was envisaged that the whole of the German occupied lands in the east also be "Germanised". The RKfDV was the Racial Policy Office of the Party, but Himmler had persuaded Hitler that racial affairs "were best left to the strong hands of the SS".For some time his SD men sat alongside Party men on all Selection Committees to determine the future fate of millions of people. The SS also gained exclusive right to provide ideological indoctrination to all the ethnic Germans who were to be resettled in the occupied eastern lands. The racial policy of the RKfDV was the most loosely defined of all of the offices of the SS organisation. The concepts were so vague that its staff and those of the other offices were confused as to what it was they were supposed to be doing!!

RKfDV policy encompassed everything from controlling the schools in Czechoslovakia through issuing marriage certificates in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws to the "Lebesborn" program*. It also determined the political control of the "Germanic" people`s of Europe, and eventually, it hoped, the world! In Germany it took over control of the Napola`s, which hitherto had been run by the Party to train Hitler Youth (HJ). It was envisaged that all HJ would become candidates for the SS "Empire". The RKfDV also controlled the Liason Office for "Germanic Volunteers" - the Germanische Frewilligen Leitstelle, in the occupied eastern lands. In western occupied Europe this function remained under Party control.

* The Lebensborn Program was an afterthought of Himmler`s which was put into operation in 1940. He dreamed of the possibility of breeding a "Master Race" of pure Nordic blonde, blue-eyed individuals,(quite different in appearance to Hitler, Goebels and himself),within one hundred years! His program would see the creation of a maternity organisation of some seven hundred staff in twenty-eight centres throughout Germany and the occupied lands. The main centre was at Steinhöring in Bavaria.(It`s still there today).

Blonde, blue-eyed women would be encouraged (through financial rewards) to mate with selected SS men in these centres. The resulting offspring would then be taken from their mothers and adopted by childless SS families, who also were to recieve generous financial rewards.

Part of the Program involved the kidnapping of suitable children in the occupied lands if they were of Nordic appearance and fitted the specifications laid down.

After WWII, lurid accounts were printed in newspapers of "Stud Farms for the Master Race". They were just that - lurid! Whilst the program did nothing to discourage illegitimacy-there is absolutely no evidence that it sponsored illicit sexual relations, nor is there any proof that kidnappings were carried out on a large scale.

Originally it was to be a large scale operation, but the over-riding needs of war severley restricted it, just like the other SS programs of resettlement and extermination.

NOTE: Two very good documentaries concerning two individuals born under the Lebensborn were made. One was of Renate Jeckeln, the daughter of the HSSPF for Riga, Friedrich Jeckeln, and the other, Walter..?? who was unable to discover who his parents were! Both documentaries were made in 1997.

VOLKSTUMFRAGEN-VoMi -(THE OFFICE OF ETHNIC GERMAN AFFAIRS).

This office was another of the myriad of useless bodies set up by the Nazis to deal with population questions and conversations held with the governments of other countries. Von Ribbontropp especially was involved as foreign ambassador.

Hitler wanted to know everything that was discussed, and in early 1941, he tasked Himmler with setting up the 'Hauptamt für Volkstumfragen' a year later. Himmler in turn appointed Gottlob Berger and Erich Cassel to run it and liase with all other SS bodies.

This office was part of the RuSHA and also dealt with repatriated ethnic Germans.

RASSE und SEIDLUNGSHAUPTAMT RuSHA-(THE OFFICE OF RACE & RESETTLEMENT).

An idea of Walther Darre, this office was set up in 1931. It grew out of the former "Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle" (VoMi) office set up under Rudolf Hess and managed by Darre until he was sacked by Himmler in late 1937, when Günther Pancke took over on the condition that he carry out his task strictly to Himmler`s orders. This didn't happen and he too was sacked in 1940. Otto Hoffmann then held the position until 1943 when he handed over to Richard Hildebrandt who was the last chief of RuSHA.

It catered for the locating all ethnic Germans (Volsdeutsche) residing in foreign lands.

RuSHA`s role, like that of RKfDV, was to find additional living space (Lebensraum), in the Eastern occupied lands with the intention of settling those of ethnic German background mentioned above. They were mainly intended to be from farming stock.

It was also responsible for Himmlers's 'Lebensborn' breeding program to 'look after racially pure expectant mothers'. In essence it was nothing more than an SS Stud Farm".

It prosecuted through the SS Courts SS men for contravening Nazi race laws and had them expelled from the SS and or sent to 'Penal Batallions'.

RuSHA had a small staff of 14 officers who handled SS Family Trees, SS Weddings and gifts. The RuSHA would only issue a permit to marry once detailed background investigations into the racial fitness of BOTH prospective parents had been completed.

The RuSHA was headquartered in Berlin with a total staff of 1500.

The RuSHA worked closely with the RSHA and the WVHA.

In July 1947, 14 officials from the organization were indicted in the RuSHA Trial and tried by the Allied powers at Nuremberg. All were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership of a criminal organization (the SS). All but one (who was acquitted on the two more serious charges) were found guilty and sentenced to between three and 25 years imprisonment.

At a US Military Tribunal held in Nuremberg from 1st July 1947 to 10th March 1948, the following RuSHA members were charged and sentenced:

Greifeld, Ulrich Sentenced to Life imprisonment.

Creutz, Rudolf " 15 years, later reduced to 10 years.

Hubner, Herbert " 15 " without parole.

Lorenz, Werner " 20 " later reduced to 15 years.

Bruckner, Heinz " 15 " without parole.

Hoffmann, Otto " 25 " later reduced to 15 years.

Schwalm, Fritz " 10 " without parole.

Hildebrandt, Richard " 25 " " "

OFFICE OF THE WAFFEN-SS.