The SS, short for “Schutzstaffel”, served as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s bodyguard. Over time, they grew to be the most dominant and redoubtable organizations in Germany. When Heinrich Himmler came to be the leader of the SS in the year 1929, he decided to develop the SS into a larger, stronger group. In just 3 years, Himmler helped the group to grow to thousands of members. He also decided to have the SS start dressing in all black uniforms. By 1933, membership in the SS had grown to over 50,000. In March of that same year, Himmler proudly declared the opening of the first concentration camp; in Dachau, Germany. Around 1938, the SS directed their violence towards to Jews. The first roundup of Jews happened only because they were Jewish. The total number of Jews murdered throughout the Holocaust was an astounding 6 million. At the start of the second World War, 1939, the SS had grown to over 250,000 members. Since they had so many soldiers, Himmler started the Waffen-SS; an expanded version of the SS. The Waffen-SS was mainly a group of combat troops who specialized in killing and torturing people who lived in the land occupied by the Nazis. They also played a big part in running the death camps. From 1941-1943, the SS and the police were solely responsible for killing as many as one million Soviet Jews. …show more content…
The first group was ‘Leibstandarte”, which had the job of guarding Hitler at all times. The next group was “Verfugungstruppen”, a combat group known for extreme violence. And the final group was “Totenkopfverbande”, which was in charge of all the death and concentration camps. Since all of their jobs were so violent and cruel, the SS were schooled in racial hatred and went through tasks to harden their hearts to human suffering, so they would not feel any pity or emotion for those they had to