Jewish Uprisings in Ghettos and Camps, 1941–1944: Resistance in Ghettos". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Retrieved 28 May 2013. Westemeier, Jens (2007). Joachim Peiper: A Biography of Himmler's SS Commander. Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7643-2659-2.

Hermann Fegelein commanded the SS Totenkopf Reiterstandarte (Death's Head Horse Regiment). He was a member of Hitler's entourage and brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister Gretl. [176] Miller, Michael (2006). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 978-93-297-0037-2.

Weale, Adrian (2012). Army of Evil: A History of the SS. New York: Caliber Printing. ISBN 978-0-451-23791-0. Hastings, Max (2013). Das Reich: The March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division through France, June 1944. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-4491-0. CIA (24 August 1999). "Records Integration Title Book" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 23, 2017 . Retrieved 11 December 2018. At the higher end of the organization, in 1928 the SA Gau-Stürme were restructured into regional Gruppen, each commanded by a leader with a new general-officer rank, Gruppenführer; its insignia was the three oak leaf collar patch. At this time the former rank of Gauführer was renamed Oberführer ("senior leader").

McDonald, Gabrielle Kirk; Swaak-Goldman, Olivia (2000). Substantive and Procedural Aspects of International Criminal Law: The Experience of International and National Courts: Materials. Brill Publishers. ISBN 90-411-1134-4. a b c d e f "Richtlinien zur Aufstellung von 'Schutzstaffeln' der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiter-Partei", August 26, 1926, in: Longerich, Peter: Heinrich Himmler, Biografie, Siedler, München2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5, p.120 Beaver, Michael D. (2002). Uniforms of the Waffen-SS. Schiffer Publishing, Limited. ISBN 9780764315510.Farmer, Sarah (1994). Oradour: Arrêt sur mémoire (in French). Paris: Calmann-Lévy. ISBN 978-2-70212-316-4. SS-Mann: A generic term for any member of the SS. Also used as an actual rank of the Allgemeine-SS.

Uniforms designs and styles [ edit ] Early SS uniforms (1925–1928) [ edit ] The traditional "Prussia" Totenkopf worn by the SS 1923–34 Butler, Rupert (2001). SS-Leibstandarte: The History of the First SS Division, 1934–45. Spellmount. Normandy [ edit ] The starting lines of Operation Spring. Waffen-SS units identified are the 1st, 9th, 10th, and 12th SS Divisions and the 101st and 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalions. In September 1934, Hitler authorised the formation of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), a special service troop under Hitler's overall command. [18] The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and its local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to the different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German); the SS was given the lowest priority for recruits. [22] The end of the war saw a number of war crime trials, including the Malmedy massacre trial. The counts of indictment related to the massacre of more than 300 American prisoners in the vicinity of Malmedy, between 16 December 1944 and 13 January 1945, and the massacre of 100 Belgian civilians mainly in the vicinity of Stavelot. [192] [ full citation needed]SS uniforms of World War II (1939–1945) [ edit ] SS rank insignia for enlisted personnel and officers SS senior and general officer rank insignia, before (top row) and after (bottom row) April 1942 See also: Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires Commemoration of the Battle of Tannenberg Line in 2009 Laar, Mart (2005). "Battles in Estonia in 1944". Estonia in World War II. Tallinn: Grenamder. pp.32–59. ISBN 9949-411-93-9. The Inspectorate of Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), under then SS- Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, which commanded the Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer regiments. The latter was recruited in Austria after the Anschluss and was not yet combat-ready. [40] Sydnor, Charles W. Jr. (1973). "The History of the SS Totenkopfdivision and the Postwar Mythology of the Waffen SS". Central European History. Cambridge University Press. 6 (4): 339–362. doi: 10.1017/S0008938900000960. S2CID 144835004.

Another uniform insignia change occurred in April 1942 with the creation of the rank SS- Oberstgruppenführer. This necessitated an insignia change for SS generals and all SS generals at this time began wearing Wehrmacht-style gold shoulder boards; Oberführers wore the shoulderboards of an army Oberst ("colonel") just as Standartenführers did. The sole exception was Heinrich Himmler who continued to wear the silver braided shoulderboard with oak leaves of his rank as Reichsführer-SS. At the same time the collar patches for general officers were revised; the 1942 pattern used three oakleaves, rather straighter than the old style, with zero to three pips indicating rank from Brigadeführer through Oberstgruppenführer. Picaper, Jean-Paul (2014). Les Ombres d'Oradour: 10 Juin 1944[ The Shadows of Oradour: 10 June 1944] (in French). Paris: Éditions l'Archipel. ISBN 978-2-8098-1467-5.

Subcategories

By 1943, a special staff non-commissioned officer position, known as Stabsscharführer had been adopted by the Waffen-SS. This position, equivalent to an army Hauptfeldwebel, was denoted by a special sleeve insignia and was not an actual rank, but rather a title for the head SS non-commissioned officer of a particular combat unit. The rank of Sturmscharführer was also unique to the Waffen-SS as a type of Regimental Sergeant Major. edit ] 1944 expansion [ edit ] After D-Day, the Indian Legion was transferred from the Heer to the Waffen-SS. [105] Adolf Hitler, as the Führer of Germany, was considered SS member #1; Emil Maurice (one of the founders of the SS) was member #2. Based on the seniority system of SS membership numbers, this made Hitler senior in the SS to all other members. The SS membership number system was also a means to denote the 'old guard' of the SS, and to hold a number below 50,000 was considered a special place of honor since it denoted SS membership before the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Numbers below 500 were considered the original cadre of the SS, while any number below fifty denoted an original founder and, in most cases, a personal associate of Hitler. The Waffen-SS ( German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs]; Armed SS) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands. [3]