SS und Polizei: Myths and Lies of Hitler's SS and Police

by J. Lee Ready

  Moreover SS candidates had to pass a rigorous physical examination. Only very tall men were accepted, and they had to be excellent physical specimens with no blemishes: not even a bad tooth. They had to be of impeccable character, without a criminal record and have respectable references.

  Furthermore the SA was touted as a working class organization where ordinary men were eligible for social mobility, and by inference the SS was the same. Both bodies shunned the aristocracy.

  And here we have more myths and lies, for all of this was for public consumption, pure propaganda for the masses, and in reality the ethnic, physical fitness, personal history, class and even lifestyle rules were bent, battered and broken almost before the ink was dry on the regulation manuals.

  As for character the married Himmler was not above the odd extra marital affair here and there, and he had a long-standing relationship with his mistress Hedwig Potthast.

  As for party membership, Hitler was in fact an extremely tolerant leader, given his supposed strict rules. He himself was an Austrian and an Alpine Celtic like so many leading Nazis. His press secretary, Ernst Hanfstaengl, was half American, who had graduated from Harvard and had been a New York City businessman, the very antithesis of the working class ideals of the party. Of the other leading Nazis, Joachim von Ribbentrop had grown up partly in England and had been a New York City newspaperman. Baldur von Schirach, who became the Nazi youth leader, was half American. Hitler’s ideology guru, Alfred Rosenberg, had grown up in the Russian Empire and had a Jewish mistress. Josef Goebbels, a minor official in the party propaganda department, was in appearance completely opposite everything the Nazis stood for. He was ugly, short and limped from a childhood illness and he was a highly educated intellectual. He was also a philanderer. Yet Hitler eventually made him the Nazi spokesman. Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right hand man, was a morphine addict, who became more obese every day and had a Jewish relative.

  The SA offered the Whiteshirts the status of a branch of the SA, despite the fact that the Whiteshirts were ethnic Russian immigrants. In fact some Russians actually joined the SA.

  Himmler was as guilty as Hitler in making these exceptions to his policies. Himmler signed waivers and exemptions all the time. The official statement that the SS was purely working class was a lie: among his best recruiters were the aristocrats the Baron of Eberstein, Curt von Gottberg and the Baron of Thuengen. Another nobleman, Erich von dem Bach Zelewski, was given high SS rank; and Himmler recruited the Arch Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont to be his chief of staff.

  The official statement that all SS recruits had to be tall was a lie: Juergen Peiper was only 5 feet 8 inches tall. Josef Dietrich was only 5 Feet 7 inches tall.

  The official announcement that SS recruits had to be outstanding physical specimens was a lie: Kurt Meyer was able to enter the SS despite having to wear an orthopedic shoe! Max Amann had only one arm!

  SS literature and magazine photographs always gave the impression that SS recruits were in their late teens and twenties. Another lie. Himmler excused age if he really wanted somebody. When Max Amann joined he was 41. Kurt Knoblauch was 49. Walter Buch was 50. Franz Brethaupt was 52. Paul Hausser was 53. Christian Wirth was 54. Max von Behr was 56. Arthur Phleps was 59. Leo von Jena was 60. Several officers served well into their seventies. Albrecht Schmidt served until he was eighty! Females in the SS were considered auxiliaries.

  The propaganda that the SS was racially pure Nordic or Germanic was a lie: Dietrich and Peiper were Alpine Celtics; Zelewski was part Kashubian and kept changing his name to hide the fact; Odilo Globocnik was Magyar and Slovene; Gregor Schwartz was in fact Grigori Bostunich, a Russian.

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  In addition to being a liar, Himmler was also obsessively ambitious. Though his office was in Munich he had eyes on Berlin, the nation’s capital, so he recruited Kurt Daluege from the Berlin SA, because he wanted this veteran of the Great War and the Freikorps to build up a Berlin SS team to rival the Berlin SA.

  As more and more men joined the SS, Himmler became more of an administrative leader, and the day-to-day protection of Hitler, now regularly known as the ‘Fuehrer’, was given to Josef Dietrich. Nicknamed ‘Sepp’, Dietrich had served in the Bavarian Army [like Hitler] and had reached the grade of hauptfeldwebel during the Great War and had then fought against the Poles as a Freikorps soldier. Following this he was a policeman until he joined the SS full-time in 1928.

  Throughout the world palace guards have a tendency to be tall, in order to look impressive. Dietrich was thus an odd choice, for he was even shorter than Himmler, and when he led his SS LAH - Leibstandarte in a parade he looked conspicuously short.

  Himmler formalized the presence of SS members in each community by establishing the SS Bereitschaften (Readiness Formations) in all the major towns of Germany. They would perform bodyguard service for Hitler and other Nazi dignitaries when they visited and for local Nazi party officials and would guard local Nazi party property, but they would serve in a part-time or reservist capacity like the rest of the SA.

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  In 1930 the last Allied occupation troops left German soil. In the September 1930 elections the Nazis got eighteen per cent of the vote: not enough to rule the country, but enough to place many more deputies into the Reichstag, and from now on they would have to be taken seriously by other political parties.

  In December 1930 to help define the racial divisions more clearly and to promote good will among the Aryans, Himmler established yet another department of the SS, the SS RuS - Rasse und Siedlung [Race and Settlement]. Using crackpot criteria the pseudo-scientists of the SS RuS began to categorize the German people according to race. They even went around measuring skulls and body proportions. But again Himmler was only imitating. This racial study, known as eugenics, was employing scientists in all the white nations. Germany led the world in this discipline, followed closely by the United States. Indeed it would be more accurate to say the two nations were joint first, because American proponents had usually studied in Germany, and American money propelled the German studies.

  In January 1931 Hitler promoted his old stalwart, Ernst Roehm, to head the SA again. Roehm, who had been in and out of favor, and at one stage had left Germany for South America, was more a man of action than an intellectual, so he farmed out the ‘thinking’ jobs within the SA.

  Himmler was in his element by now, controlling 10,000 SS men. Despite using the Catholic Jesuits as a role model, he also wanted to unify his ‘boys’ with stories of ancient German culture. It is no coincidence that the SS emblem was written in runic letters, an ancient ‘alphabet’ common to Nordic and Germanic tribes. Sometimes in parades SS men rode on horseback dressed in medieval armor with the Nazi cross (swastika) on their shields. Himmler may not have liked the swastika, which in Germany was a Christian cross, but Hitler did, so Himmler was stuck with it. Himmler even bought a castle, Wewelsburg, in order to play King Arthur, with his SS generals playing the roles of the Knights of the Round Table, or at least the German equivalent. He periodically held pseudo-religious retreats here for his favorites. At this stage of its evolution the SS was all show and little substance. Only Dietrich and his SS LAH were really performing a necessary function, namely guarding Hitler.

  Meanwhile Himmler was still on the lookout for recruits. He took in Karl Wolff, an advertising executive, because he was a veteran of the Great War and the Freikorps. He put his brother Gebhard Himmler on his staff. And it was at this time that he recruited Erich von dem Bach Zelewski, considering him quite a catch. Zelewski had fought in the Great War as an army grenadier, had earned medals, had been wounded and was promoted to officer rank at age seventeen. Following the Great War, he fought with the Freikorps in the Polish War. Then he returned to the army, but was forced to resign because of his Nazism. Himmler took him under his wing, and even managed to get him a seat in the Reichstag.

  Himmler always claimed that his Black Corps [the SS] was a hundred per cent loyal to Hitler a
nd thus he was able to persuade Roehm and the Fuehrer of the logic of SS expansion. Moreover, it occurred to them that Hitler’s bodyguard needed to know about assassination plots against Hitler before they could come to fruition, ergo the SS should have an intelligence section. Roehm had no ability for such a thing; therefore he gave Himmler the ‘thinking’ job of establishing the force.

  Himmler eagerly accepted the mission and was determined to keep it within the SS and firmly under his control, though he too knew absolutely nothing about counter-espionage. Fortuitously Obergruppenfuehrer von Eberstein soon introduced him to a young man who did. Reinhard Heydrich was a tall, blonde, handsome and artistic intellectual, and Himmler was swept off his feet. Heydrich was everything Himmler dreamed the true SS man should be. Furthermore he was a protégé of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the naval intelligence specialist. And he was available, because he had just resigned from the Kriegsmarine [German Navy], following a scandal involving a young lady. When Himmler offered Heydrich the job of establishing his own personal intelligence service, which would be responsible for spying on all Germans including fellow SS personnel, Heydrich jumped at the chance. He went to work in August 1931 as deputy head of department Ic of the SS, but which was soon known as the SD - Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service). Himmler retained nominal command. The titles were more impressive than the reality, for the department consisted of a typewriter in Heydrich’s home.

  And again we have another lie, for though Heydrich and Himmler took their mission statement [to protect the Fuehrer] seriously enough, they also had a secret agenda that Roehm and Hitler knew nothing about. Specifically Himmler wanted to become the controlling authority of all police activity in Germany, a hugely ambitious goal, considering the fact that Himmler currently did not have enough authority to argue his way out of a traffic ticket. After all, as far as the German government was concerned Himmler and everybody in his SS were civilians with no connection to the government whatsoever! Himmler’s approach was the carrot and stick. Himmler simply applied for the job of police chief in a given district or state and gave good reasons in his resume why he should have the job. This was the carrot. Heydrich provided the stick. The young intelligence specialist soon employed several agents in his SD, whose job was to dig up ‘dirt’ on key individuals in that particular police force or local government, and armed with this information Heydrich blackmailed the victims into giving Himmler the job. ‘Dirt’ did not just mean illegal activity, but included potential scandals such as mistresses, prostitutes, homosexuality, alcoholism, mental problems, drug addiction or the worst scandal of all: Jewish ancestry.

  Of course Himmler would never actually do the job he had won. He always appointed a deputy to do the actual work.

  In addition Heydrich increased his SD budget by blackmailing those he investigated into forking over huge sums of money in return for his silence. Soon he had his own office and a large staff. Furthermore he used a system of informers known as V-men.

  That Heydrich would even investigate fellow Nazis was pleasing to Himmler, because here we have yet another lie. Whenever in the public eye, whether newsreels, radio interviews, magazine and newspaper articles, party literature or public appearances, the Nazi leadership presented a united solid front, but behind the scenes the Nazis were as back-stabbing as any shipload of pirates. Increasingly Hitler had to step in and separate his feuding lieutenants. When Walter Stennes, a senior SA officer, threatened to take power over the Nazis in Berlin, Kurt Daluege held that city for the SS and therefore for Hitler. Eventually Daluege, Himmler, Roehm and others convinced Hitler that Stennes was plotting a coup, so Hitler hounded him out of the country.

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  Meanwhile SS recruiting increased. Some SA men were convinced to come over, but most of the new SS men came in off the street. E.g. thirty-seven year old Josef Stroop, who had been an unteroffizier in the Great War, was given command of a small SS Bereitschaften detachment in Detmold.

  By now Himmler had divided the SS into three components: the SD, which spied on everyone; the SS LAH, which was quickly expanded into a thousand-strong standarten [regiment] that guarded Hitler; and the third and largest component, the Allgemeine [ordinary] SS. This latter component contained all the other SS members: full-time administrative staff; the teaching staff of training schools; the SS RuS; the SS Bereitschaften; SS reservists who simply attended meetings; and lastly the honorary members. The Bereitschaften was now organized into sturmbann and standarten [battalions and regiments]. Honorary members were leading businessmen and female socialites that were honored by Himmler for their contributions, which usually meant fund-raising. They wore a little ‘SS’ pin on their coat or dress. Hans Weinreich, head of the TeNo – the Government Technical Emergency Corps, was an honorary gruppenfuehrer in the SS. Ferdinand Porsche was an honorary oberfuehrer in the SS. He was a renowned car designer, who later collaborated with Hitler [a competent designer and architect in his own right] to create the People’s Car - Volkswagen. Hans Johst a leading dramatist was an honorary SS oberfuehrer. For SS ranks see front of book. To distinguish SS members from SA members, who used the same rank titles, the letters ‘SS’ were placed before the rank, thus: SS Oberfuehrer. For this book the author considers this redundant.

  Max Amann had been Hitler’s unteroffizier in the Great War, had participated in the Munich Putsch and later became Hitler’s publisher for the book ‘Mein Kampf’. In 1932 Amann became a reservist in the Allgemeine SS.

  Martin Bormann, one of the leading officials within the party, was also a reservist in the Allgemeine SS, as was Fritz Sauckel a leading Nazi labor boss.

  Heydrich’s ruthless diligence and the rapid success of his SD earned him a quick rise through the SS ranks, and by December 1931 he was promoted to sturmbannfuehrer.

  However, all of this activity took place under the shadow of the government and the various German police departments, which watched the Nazis closely. E.g. Werner Best a young judge was thrown off the bench when his Nazi sympathies were uncovered. Hitler had no authority to protect him.

  Because Hitler was Austrian, had begun his politicking in Bavaria and had chosen Nuremberg in that state as his rally center, it has long been assumed that the SS drew recruits primarily from Bavaria and Austria, both of which are heavily Roman Catholic, and thus by inference most SS were Catholics. However, studies have shown this to be incorrect. About two thirds of those serving in the SS of the 1930s grew up as Lutherans, with a small percentage coming from other Protestant denominations and only a quarter was Catholic. It has also been noticed that most came from Central and Eastern Germany and Austria, but relatively few hailed from Germany west of the Rhine, where most people are Catholic.

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  In 1932 Himmler expanded the SS RuS into an independent component of the SS as the SS RuSHA - Rasseundsiedlunghauptamt [Race and Settlement Head Office] and he chose Walter Darre to run it. Darre, who was already an honorary SS member, had been raised in Argentina and England as well as Germany. Himmler believed Darre could manage this task well for he was a Great War veteran and a well educated cattle-breeding expert!

  Another man whom Himmler thought would do well in this department was Sturmbannfuehrer George Ebrecht, because in addition to service in the Great War and Freikorps he had been a plantation manager in British East Africa.

  Indeed the expansion of this department was evidence of how important race was in Himmler’s mind. Furthermore to choose a cattle breeding expert and a plantation manager to judge human ethnicities is evidence of two things: one that Himmler, a professional chicken farmer, was still an agriculturalist at heart and was more comfortable among such people, and second that he thought of human beings in the same sense as domesticated animals, to whit that they were there for his personal use.

  Himmler also toyed with the idea of establishing his own air force, and with this in mind he recruited Willi Bittrich, a twice-wounded Great War fighter pilot and veteran of the Freikorps. He also recruite
d Ernst Hartmann, a Great War pilot, who had taught flying in several countries including China.

  The SS was now practically doubling in size every month, so that by summer of 1932 it was nearing the 50,000 mark.

  On July 17 1932 Heydrich organized a march in Hamburg by the local SA and the 28th Standarte of the Allgemeine SS and directed them through a worker’s residential district. This was an open provocation to the Communists, and, as Heydrich had hoped, the Communists took the bait, namely responding with an ambush. Though firearms possession was illegal for both Communists and Nazis, Heydrich had provided the marchers with some guns, and the Communists also had them. The resulting gun battle was ferocious with nineteen dead and hundreds wounded. For a moment the German people thought a new civil war was starting. Himmler was well pleased and he promoted Heydrich yet again and gave him titular control of the SD to recognize his de facto control of that branch.

  Judging the mood of the country, Hitler decided to stick his neck out yet again. Taking German citizenship, he ran for president in the 1932 election. He gained 36.8% of the vote, and the Communist Ernst Thaelmann got 13.2%, but Generalfeldmarschal Paul von Hindenburg was reelected with 53%.

  Hitler retreated to his Munich apartment with depression, grudgingly aware that he had only gained this much support because of two factors. One was that many members of the German National People’s Party had voted for him once they deemed their own candidate Theodore Duesterberg had little chance. The second was that his election campaign had been brilliantly masterminded by Josef Goebbels. This man, called the Poison Dwarf behind his back, was a propagandist of the first order and in 1930 Hitler had put him in charge of his speeches and media relations, to the chagrin of Hanfstaengl. Goebbels invented the modern media election campaign, one that all politicians have relied on since, especially in the United States. Moreover Goebbels aimed at the women’s vote, something that no major political party had done anywhere. Sometimes Hitler got caught up in the moment when delivering a speech, such as when he said that if elected: “... every German girl will find a husband!” This was vitally important for there were more female voters than male! This was a bi-product of the death toll in the Great War. Recognizing that not every woman wanted to go out and join the drudgery of factory work, Goebbels promised that the Nazis would take women out of the factories and put them back in the home. This idea was also popular among unemployed male factory workers.