SD among the Germans during the war. How was the Gestapo different from the SS? Local security police and SD

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SS and SD (abbreviations from German Schutzstaffeln, `security formations` and Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, `security service of the imperial leader of the SS`), the main repressive and punitive institutions of Hitler's Germany, which were in charge of the “final solution” of the Jewish question.

The SS arose in 1923 as part of the assault troops (Sturmabteilungen) as a small group of personal bodyguards of A. Hitler. Since 1929, when they were headed by G. Himmler (see National Socialism), they began to form as security units ensuring the security of the entire Nazi leadership. The SD was created by G. Himmler in 1931 as the internal security service of the Nazi Party, designed to monitor the purity of the party ranks and prevent the penetration of alien and hostile elements into them. The SS became an all-powerful organization of political terror, ready to flawlessly and effectively carry out any orders of the Nazi Party after the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany in January 1933 and its unification with the SD in March 1934. A decisive role in the establishment of the SS as the main support of the Nazi regime was played by A. . Hitler, who did not trust traditional state institutions (including the army, political and criminal police). Hitler believed that even after a total purge of these institutions, they would not be able to become an infallible instrument for carrying out the political course he planned.

The SS was conceived as a fundamentally new type of power structure; their purpose, structure, principles of personnel selection, ideological and psychological attitudes, symbols were supposed to embody the ideals and goals of the Nazi regime and, above all, its racist ideology. The Nazi leaders made the SS a party elite, membership in them became a badge of distinction and honor - many millions of Germans considered the SS men the embodiment of strength and courage, knights without fear or reproach, the best sons of the German race. Until 1940, membership in the SS was entirely voluntary (the massive influx of volunteers did not stop until the last days of the Third Reich), and not every member of the Nazi Party was accepted into their ranks. A member of the SS had to have an impeccable racial background (documented since at least the late 18th century), and an “Aryan” appearance was also desirable; SS members were required to demonstrate selfless devotion to the Fuhrer and the racial idea, a willingness to stop at nothing to carry out any orders from their superiors, good physical characteristics and a stable psyche. The prestige of the SS was so high that many heads of government departments (for example, J. von Ribbentrop, G. Goering and many others), major bankers, industrialists, engineers, scientists, etc. considered it an honor to wear the special SS general and officer ranks (Obergruppenführer - SS general, Standartenführer - colonel, Obersturmbannführer - lieutenant colonel, Sturmbannführer - major, Sturmführer - lieutenant, etc.).

The political course of the Nazi regime increasingly did not correspond to the norms of international law and the entire European Christian cultural tradition; Nazi leaders increasingly entrusted the SS with such practical actions that no one else was ready to carry out.

The scale of SS and SD activities continuously increased, their numbers grew rapidly - from 280 people in 1929 to 52 thousand in 1933, several hundred thousand in 1939 and about a million by 1945 (including the Waffen SS - the most reliable military units that took part in hostilities). At the same time, there was an increasingly complete subordination of the SS and SD to state structures responsible for internal and external security (only the army could not be completely subordinated). In 1933, the head of the SS G. Himmler also headed the Munich police, in April 1934 - the Prussian Gestapo, in June 1936 - the entire police system of the Third Reich, and in August 1943 - the Imperial Ministry of the Interior. In parallel with this, there was an expansion of the prerogatives of the SD, a kind of elite within the SS: in June 1936, the favorite of A. Hitler and G. Himmler, the chief of the SD since its creation, R. Heydrich (see National Socialism) became the head of the security police of the Third Reich. In September 1939, the absorption of state structures by the party (including the SS and SD) culminated in the creation of the Main Reich Security Directorate (RSHA - Reichszicherheitshauptamt) headed by Heydrich. The RSHA, which united the Gestapo and SD under one command, became part of the structure of the Ministry of the Interior, while remaining at the same time one of the most important divisions of the SS (in both capacities it was subordinate to G. Himmler). The RSHA was transferred entirely to the functions and powers to eliminate any, including potential opponents of the Nazi regime and racial ideology, which included persons suspected of treason (particular vigilance was shown towards journalists, some church figures and former members of banned non-Nazi parties and trade unions), as well as all representatives of “inferior and inferior” races, and above all Jews. The “Final Solution” of the Jewish question could not be conceived and implemented without the SS and SD and the human type formed in them - ideological and therefore ruthless and cold-blooded killers, and often simply sadists, for whom Nazi ideology served as a convenient justification for their criminal inclinations.

From the moment the Nazi regime was established in Germany, all anti-Jewish actions were entrusted only to Himmler’s department. The SS and SD directed and controlled the process of ousting Jews from civil, political, economic, cultural and other spheres of life, which began in 1933. These same punitive authorities monitored compliance with the Nuremberg Laws, which actually deprived Jews of basic human rights. The SD and Heydrich were directly tasked with provoking a wave of “spontaneous” Jewish pogroms throughout Germany on November 9, 1938 (see Kristallnacht). The SS and SD were also in charge of the campaign carried out before the start of World War II to cleanse the entire territory of Greater Germany from the Jewish presence, as the Nazis began to call the united country after the Anschluss of Austria. One of the main organizers of the forced Jewish emigration, accompanied by the confiscation of almost all the property of the expelled Jews, was A. Eichmann.

Formally, the decision to exterminate all European Jewry was made at the Wannsee Conference in 1942, but immediately after the attack on the Soviet Union, the SS began the total killing of Jews in the occupied territories. Together with the police, they formed special detachments - Einsatzgruppen - to “restore order” in the rear of the German troops. Each Einsatzgruppen was headed by senior SS officers.

The death camps were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the SS: Himmler’s department was entrusted with their design, construction, security, and then ensuring their uninterrupted operation. Scientific and design institutes that were part of the SS system (among them, along with the institute of “racial hygiene”, were engineering, technological, chemical, biomedical and others) developed the most effective and cheap equipment and chemicals for quickly killing people. The RSHA clearly and organizedly ensured the delivery of Jews from European countries controlled by Nazi Germany to the death camps. After the assassination of R. Heydrich in May 1942 by Czech partisans, the RSHA was headed by E. Kaltenbrunner (a lawyer from Austria, who had led the Austrian SS since 1935; he, in particular, carried out an operation in Lithuania in 1941, during which a group consisting of 18 SS men under his direct command destroyed more than 60 thousand Jews). The SS “Totenkopf” units, specially created in 1934, guarded the death camps. The main administrative and economic department of the SS - the VFHA, which was in charge of the camps, developed and established a regime for maximum rationalization of the death conveyor - first, children, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly were destroyed; the service by prisoners of those operations of the process of killing people was introduced, which was abhorred not only by the SS men themselves, but also by their henchmen from the populated occupied countries; Before their destruction, able-bodied prisoners were drained of all their strength by slave labor; personal belongings and even the remains of victims (gold crowns, hair, often skin, ashes from crematoria ovens) were disposed of. As a rule, only those doctors and scientists who had officer and sometimes general SS ranks were entrusted with medical and biological experiments on concentration camp prisoners, mainly Jews. At the last stage of the war, when the defeat of Nazi Germany became inevitable, it was the SS units that were entrusted with the elimination of death camps and all traces of Nazi atrocities.

Rivalry between the Gestapo and the SD

Unlike Gestapo officers, the typical SD officer typically came from an educated middle-class family, was distinguished by intelligence, was a loyal member of the NSDAP, and was a member of the SS. The SD's remit included counterintelligence and the eradication of enemies of the state, but the SD had limited arrest capabilities and was often disdainful of Gestapo rivals. The Gestapo had no restrictions on making arrests and often invaded those areas of life for which the SD was responsible. The relationship between these two organizations was thus extremely far from being considered cordial.

The state secret police - the Gestapo - formed mainly from former Kripo employees, already had a ready army of informants on the ground, which was steadily growing. For example, each large residential building had its own curator-informant from the Gestapo, who tirelessly monitored the residents, specially ready to inform on the slightest reason for disloyalty.

Civil servants, who were ordered to denounce their colleagues, were especially actively pressured to inform. The most insignificant problem was blown out of proportion and used as an excuse for not using the services of an employee who was considered insufficiently loyal to the existing regime.

Even children were encouraged to denounce, so that they could spy on their parents to find out their possible disloyalty to the regime.

When war broke out in 1939, the Gestapo numbered 20,000 men, while the SD numbered only three thousand. The Gestapo had about 50 thousand paid informants, but by 1943 the number of informants reached one hundred thousand. The hostility between the two rival organizations intensified due to the fact that the Gestapo was funded without any restrictions, while the SD had to literally fight to get money from its superiors. In addition, Gestapo employees enjoyed greater pension benefits than SD employees. Significant changes in this regard occurred after the reorganization of the police services of the Third Reich took place and Heydrich was entrusted with the leadership of the SD, Gestapo and Kripo under the umbrella of the RSHA. Heydrich quickly introduced his people there: former Kripo officer Heinrich Müller, who headed the Gestapo, and Walter Schellenberg, who became the head of the SD. Once a Kripo officer in Bavaria, Müller connived with the Nazis when they tried to cover up the circumstances of the death of Hitler's niece Geli Raubal.

When war broke out in 1939, the paranoia of the Nazi state reached its peak. Now the Gestapo and SD had to face elements potentially hostile to Nazism in Germany, such as clerical circles - church sermons were carefully studied for any criticism of the existing regime. But there were also a huge number of diplomats, businessmen, journalists and ordinary foreign citizens who had to be monitored most carefully.

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One of the most cruel and merciless organizations of the 20th century is the SS. Ranks, distinctive insignia, functions - all this was different from those in other types and branches of troops in Nazi Germany. Reich Minister Himmler completely brought together all the scattered security detachments (SS) into a single army - the Waffen SS. In the article we will take a closer look at the military ranks and insignia of the SS troops. And first, a little about the history of the creation of this organization.

Prerequisites for the formation of the SS

In March 1923, Hitler was concerned that the leaders of the assault troops (SA) were beginning to feel their power and importance in the NSDAP party. This was due to the fact that both the party and the SA had the same sponsors, for whom the goal of the National Socialists was important - to carry out a coup, and they did not have much sympathy for the leaders themselves. Sometimes it even came to an open confrontation between the leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm, and Adolf Hitler. It was at this time, apparently, that the future Fuhrer decided to strengthen his personal power by creating a detachment of bodyguards - the headquarters guard. He was the first prototype of the future SS. They had no ranks, but insignia had already appeared. The abbreviation for the Staff Guard was also SS, but it came from the German word Stawsbache. In every hundred of the SA, Hitler allocated 10-20 people, supposedly to protect high-ranking party leaders. They personally had to take an oath to Hitler, and their selection was carried out carefully.

A few months later, Hitler renamed the organization Stosstruppe - this was the name of the shock units of the Kaiser's army during the First World War. The abbreviation SS nevertheless remained the same, despite the fundamentally new name. It is worth noting that the entire Nazi ideology was associated with an aura of mystery, historical continuity, allegorical symbols, pictograms, runes, etc. Even the symbol of the NSDAP - the swastika - Hitler took from ancient Indian mythology.

Stosstrup Adolf Hitler - the Adolf Hitler strike force - acquired the final features of the future SS. They did not yet have their own ranks, but insignia appeared that Himmler would later retain - a skull on their headdress, a black distinctive color of the uniform, etc. The “Death's Head” on the uniform symbolized the readiness of the detachment to defend Hitler himself at the cost of their lives. The basis for future usurpation of power was prepared.

Appearance of Strumstaffel - SS

After the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler went to prison, where he remained until December 1924. The circumstances that allowed the future Fuhrer to be released after an attempted armed seizure of power are still unclear.

Upon his release, Hitler first of all banned the SA from carrying weapons and positioning itself as an alternative to the German army. The fact is that the Weimar Republic could only have a limited contingent of troops under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty after the First World War. It seemed to many that armed SA units were a legitimate way to avoid restrictions.

At the beginning of 1925, the NSDAP was restored again, and in November the “shock detachment” was restored. At first it was called Strumstaffen, and on November 9, 1925 it received its final name - Schutzstaffel - “cover squadron”. The organization had nothing to do with aviation. This name was invented by Hermann Goering, a famous fighter pilot of the First World War. He loved to apply aviation terms to everyday life. Over time, the “aviation term” was forgotten, and the abbreviation was always translated as “security detachments.” It was headed by Hitler's favorites - Schreck and Schaub.

Selection for the SS

The SS gradually became an elite unit with good salaries in foreign currency, which was considered a luxury for the Weimar Republic with its hyperinflation and unemployment. All Germans of working age were eager to join the SS detachments. Hitler himself carefully selected his personal guard. The following requirements were imposed on candidates:

Age from 25 to 35 years.
Having two recommendations from current members of the CC.
Permanent residence in one place for five years.
The presence of such positive qualities as sobriety, strength, health, discipline.

New development under Heinrich Himmler

The SS, despite the fact that it was personally subordinate to Hitler and the Reichsführer SS - from November 1926, this position was held by Josef Berthold, was still part of the SA structures. The attitude towards the “elite” in the assault detachments was contradictory: the commanders did not want to have SS members in their units, so they shouldered various responsibilities, for example, distributing leaflets, subscribing to Nazi propaganda, etc.

In 1929, Heinrich Himmler became leader of the SS. Under him, the size of the organization began to grow rapidly. The SS turns into an elite closed organization with its own charter, a mystical ritual of entry, imitating the traditions of medieval knightly Orders. A real SS man had to marry a “model woman.” Heinrich Himmler introduced a new mandatory requirement for joining the renewed organization: the candidate had to prove evidence of purity of descent in three generations. However, that was not all: the new Reichsführer of the SS ordered all members of the organization to look for brides only with a “pure” genealogy. Himmler managed to nullify the subordination of his organization to the SA, and then completely leave it after he helped Hitler get rid of the leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm, who sought to turn his organization into a mass people's army.

The bodyguard detachment was transformed first into the Fuhrer's personal guard regiment, and then into the personal SS army. Ranks, insignia, uniforms - everything indicated that the unit was independent. Next, we’ll talk in more detail about insignia. Let's start with the rank of the SS in the Third Reich.

Reichsführer SS

At its head was the Reichsführer SS - Heinrich Himmler. Many historians claim that he intended to usurp power in the future. In the hands of this man was control not only over the SS, but also over the Gestapo - the secret police, the political police and the security service (SD). Despite the fact that many of the above organizations were subordinate to one person, they were completely different structures, which sometimes even were at odds with each other. Himmler well understood the importance of a branched structure of different services concentrated in the same hands, so he was not afraid of Germany’s defeat in the war, believing that the Western allies would need such a person. However, his plans were not destined to come true, and he died in May 1945, biting into an ampoule of poison in his mouth.

Let's look at the highest ranks of the SS among the Germans and their correspondence with the German army.

Hierarchy of the SS High Command

The insignia of the SS high command consisted of Nordic ritual symbols and oak leaves on both sides of the lapels. The exceptions - SS Standartenführer and SS Oberführer - wore oak leaf, but belonged to senior officers. The more of them there were on the buttonholes, the higher the rank of their owner.

The highest ranks of the SS among the Germans and their correspondence with the ground army:

SS officers

Let's consider the features of the officer corps. The SS Hauptsturmführer and lower ranks no longer had oak leaves on their buttonholes. Also on their right buttonhole was the SS coat of arms - a Nordic symbol of two lightning bolts.

Hierarchy of SS officers:

SS rank	Lapels	Compliance in the military
SS Oberführer	Double oak leaf	No match
Standartenführer SS	Single sheet	Colonel
SS Obersturmbannführer	4 stars and two rows of aluminum thread	Lieutenant colonel
SS Sturmbannführer	4 stars
SS Hauptsturmführer	3 stars and 4 rows of thread	Hauptmann
SS Obersturmführer	3 stars and 2 rows	Chief Lieutenant
SS Untersturmführer	3 stars	Lieutenant

I would like to immediately note that the German stars did not resemble the five-pointed Soviet ones - they were four-pointed, rather reminiscent of squares or rhombuses. Next in the hierarchy are the SS non-commissioned officer ranks in the Third Reich. More details about them in the next paragraph.

Non-commissioned officers

Hierarchy of non-commissioned officers:

SS rank	Lapels	Compliance in the military
SS Sturmscharführer	2 stars, 4 rows of thread	Staff sergeant major
Standartenoberunker SS	2 stars, 2 rows of thread, silver edging	Chief Sergeant Major
SS Hauptscharführer	2 stars, 2 rows of thread	Oberfenrich
SS Oberscharführer	2 stars	Sergeant Major
Standartenjunker SS	1 star and 2 rows of thread (differing in shoulder straps)	Fanenjunker-sergeant-major
Scharführer SS	1 star and 2 rows of thread (differing in shoulder straps)	Non-commissioned sergeant major
SS Unterscharführer	2 threads at the bottom	Non-commissioned officer

Buttonholes are the main, but not the only insignia of ranks. Also, the hierarchy could be determined by shoulder straps and stripes. SS military ranks were sometimes subject to change. However, above we presented the hierarchy and the main differences at the end of World War II.

Having come to power, the Nazis immediately fought over it, just like the communists, who already in the summer of 1918 staged a “showdown” with attempts on each other.

The first victims were those who brought the NSDAL to power: the stormtroopers. Exactly like the Baltic sailors. Many stormtroopers believed that it was they who brought the party to power. And if so, then they will be the main part of the state in the Third Reich.

Röhm and his supporters were the most “leftist” of the Nazis: abolish large property! Give employees guarantees and benefits! They wanted to turn the SA into a Nazi army and incorporate the Reichswehr into the SA.

The left, socialist wing of the NSDAP was ideologically close to Rem. The "Left Nazis", led by the Strasser brothers, wanted an alliance with Moscow against the Anglo-American threat. And the National Bolshevik Ernst Nikisch was a convinced Russophile.

head of the SA Rehm and Hitler

And then the Nazis carried out a “coup after a coup.” On June 30, 1934, they moved army and SS units against the stormtroopers. The battle was short, because the forces were unequal, and the stormtroopers did not expect anything like this. During the “Night of the Long Knives,” Hitler’s longtime comrade-in-arms, the head of the SA Rem, the leader of the “left fascists” Gregor Strasser, von Kahr, the former Reich Chancellor General Schleicher and many other figures were shot.

Since that time, SA has lost its political significance.

“But” the value of SS is growing.

Of course, realpolitik forced the Nazis to abandon their favorite racial ideas. How this happened can be clearly seen in the example of an organization such as the SS.

SS (SS, short for Sutzschtaffeln) - security units. The term itself was proposed by Goering, a World War I fighter pilot. This was the name of “Cover Squadrons” - groups of fighters that supported the operation of attack aircraft. Hitler liked the name and stuck.

Yu. Shrekk

Initially, a “security detachment” of 9 people guarded Hitler personally and was called the “Adolf Hitler security detachment.” In April 1925, J. Schreck began to form Hitler’s personal guard, recruiting assault troops, which in September received the name “security squads.”

On January 6, 1929, Himmler was appointed the new Reichsführer of the SS. At that time the SS numbered only 280 people.

By the 1934 coup, the SS numbered more than 50 thousand people as part of assault troops. The SS men wore the usual stormtrooper uniform. But the SS men wore black caps, ties, breeches and an armband with a black border. At first, the SS men wore a skull on their caps - a “death’s head” with a round metal cockade with concentric rings in black, white and red.

But by that time the SS were already virtually independent and controlled the stormtroopers.

After the “night of the long knives,” SS units were subordinate only to the NSDAP. Since then, the SS men wore a black uniform, and insignia in the form of a “dead head” on the cap and two “zig” runes, that is, “victory,” on the sleeve. The uniform design was developed by Hugo Boss (the same Hugo Boss, whose company still supplies its glamorous products to many countries around the world).

Initially, the selection for the SS was very strict. The SS recruited volunteers - tall men of Aryan origin, 25-35 years old, who knew their origins: privates until 1800, officers until 1750. The candidate's party reliability was carefully checked.

In 1938, the SS “baptism of fire” took place during the capture of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Since then, ethnic Germans living outside Germany (Volksdeutsche) were also accepted into the SS. They played a prominent role in the formation of the so-called "native" SS divisions (divisions in which non-SS members could serve).

Gradually, the Nazis began to expand the SS base. Turn it into a kind of guard. At first, units recruited in violation of racial laws were called “SS reinforcement units.” Since 1940 they were officially called “SS troops”. By 1945, the number of “SS troops” exceeded 1 million people.

As a result, of the 37 SS divisions that participated in the war, only 12 were German. At first, the national formations of the SS included representatives of “related” Germanic peoples - Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Flemings.

The first foreign SS unit was the 5th SS Division "Wiking", consisting of three regiments - the Flemish "Wfestland", the Danish-Norwegian "Nordland" and the German "Deutschland". It seems that they are also a Nordic race.

Then they took... essentially anyone. The ethnic composition of the Waffen-SS formations was extremely diverse. This:
- 13th SS Mountain Division "Handjar" (Croats); 14th Grenadier Division "Galicia" (Ukrainians); 15th SS Grenadier Division (Latvians and Baltic Germans); 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps; 19th SS Grenadier Division (Latvians); 20th SS Grenadier Division (Estonians); 21st SS Mountain Rifle Division "Skanderbeg" (Albanians); 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division “Maria Theresa” (Hungarians); 23rd SS Mountain Division "Kama" (Croats); 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division "Nederland" (Dutch); 25th SS Grenadier Division "Hunyadi" (Hungarians); 26th SS Grenadier Division "Gembes" (also Hungarians); 27th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "Langemarck" (for the Flemings); 28th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division "Wallonia" (for the Belgians); 29th SS Grenadier Division "Rhone" (Russian); 29th Grenadier Division "Italy"; 30th SS Grenadier Division (Belarusians); 33rd SS Grenadier Division "Charlemann" (French); 34th Volunteer Brigade "Landstrom Nederland" (Dutch); Muslim division SS "New Turkistan" - Muselmanischen SS-Division Neu-Turkistan; Spanish Legion SS (Blue Division); Ali Hussan Indian Legion; Eastern Turkic SS unit - Ostturkischen Wbffen-ferband der SS (consisting of 2,500 soldiers; for Tatars, Bashkirs, Karaites and Azerbaijanis; Georgian units - SS-Wbffengruppe Geoigien; Azerbaijani units - SS^Wkffengruppe Aserbeidschan; Armenian units - SS-Wkffengruppe Armenien ; Volga-Tatar Legion - Wblgatatarische Legion.

There were only Polish, Czech and Greek separate formations, although representatives of these nations also fought in other SS units.

In general, in the name of building the Third Reich, we had to give up a fair amount of racial theory.

Security Service (SD)

In August 1931, by order of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, the 1C intelligence department was created within the SS, headed by 27-year-old Reinhard Heydrich. The department was engaged in surveillance of both political opponents, Jews and members of the NSDAP, as well as ordinary citizens who could be useful to the party or the SS. A separate card was created for each person under surveillance. The entire card index was divided into categories: Jews, communists, Catholics, aristocrats, freemasons and national socialists with a “dark past.” For those who fell into several categories at once, a special box was allocated.

In 1932, the 1C department was renamed Reichsführer SS Security Service(Sicherheitsdienst des RfSS or SD). On June 9, 1934, all other intelligence agencies of the NSDAP were included in the SD, and by decree of Rudolf Hess, the SD was declared the only intelligence service of the party.

Reichsführer-SS Main Security Office

Reichsführer-SS Main Security Office(Sicherheitshauptamt RfSS) was finally formed in 1935 and became the central department of the SD (SD), which was engaged in collecting and analyzing information about the domestic and foreign political situation. From 1932 to 1939, the head of the department was an SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. In September 1939, on its basis it was organized Reich Security Main Directorate (RSHA) .

Structure of the Reichsführer-SS Main Security Directorate:

Management I Administration

Division I 1 Chancery

Department I 2 Personnel and organizational issues

Department I 3 Press service and museum

Division I 4 Administration

Directorate II Internal Security Service

Section II 1 Study of Worldviews

... ...

Abstract II 112 The Jewish Question

Abstract II 113 Political activity of the church

Section II 2 Assessment of the state of society

Abstract II 21 Culture, science, education

Abstract II 22 Party and state

Abstract II 23 Economics

Directorate III External Security Service

Division III 1 Counterintelligence

Division III 2 Foreign Policy Intelligence