military branch of the Nazi SS From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Waffen-SS was part of the Schutzstaffel (SS). "Waffen-SS" means "Armed SS" or "Armed Elite Guards" in German. The Waffen-SS was a paramilitary organization within the SS.
The divisions of the Waffen-SS were made of highly trained soldiers. Their original job was to protect higher-ranking people in the SS and the Nazi Party but later the Waffen-SS became a fully fledged military unit. Together with the Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion," or SA), they were used as a paramilitary police force.
In 1937, some soldiers were reorganized and nazi leaders gave some SS members the job of guarding and running concentration camps (and, later, death camps). These soldiers were moved from the Waffen-SS to the SS-Totenkopfverbände. But a main time the totenkopfverbände are a part of the SS too.
In some of the concentration camps, like Auschwitz and Buchenwald, doctors of the Waffen-SS did experiments on humans.
Heinrich Himmler led the SS from 1929 until Nazi Germany lost World War II in 1945. After World War II, the SS were found guilty of crimes against humanity, and the SS was completely abolished.
The Waffen-SS was grouped into divisions, as follows:[1]
The differences to the normal army units were as follows:
One of the strangest SS units was the British Free Corps. It was a unit of the Waffen SS during World War II. The unit was made of about 27 prisoners of war from the British Empire. One British soldier who helped recruit other soldiers to join the unit was John Amery. After the war, he was sentenced to death for high treason, he was then executed.
After the end of the war, all soldiers were dismissed from the SS, since the SS was dissolved after the fall of the German Reich.
In 1951, the Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der ehemaligen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS was founded in Germany. This translates to Mutual support organisation of former members of the Waffen-SS'. In English, it is better known as "HIAG." The group wanted soldiers who were in the Waffen-SS to be treated the same as soldiers of the Wehrmacht (the regular German Army).
The group also publishes a magazine. The magazine tries to send the message that the Waffen-SS Soldiers were just and not inhumane or war criminals any more than any other soldiers on neither side of the conflict. Sometimes, there are also revisionist articles in it.
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