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

by J. Lee Ready

  And Himmler’s worst fears were realized almost immediately. Brigadefuehrer Emil Mazuw, the head of the Allgemeine SS in Western Pomerania, was recalled by the armed forces. Despite having been a sailor in the Great War, he was now placed in the army for a year’s training. Furthermore his SS rank, which was equivalent to the army’s Generalmajor, was ignored and he served as a grenadier and later as an officer cadet.

  Guenther Pancke had fought in the Great War and then with the Border Police in the Polish War, and then when his home was lost to the Poles he went to live in South America. Later moving to Germany he entered the SS Bereitschaften, becoming commander of the 4th Standarte of the Allgemeine SS in Altona with the rank of standartenfuehrer. Now suddenly the army called him to active duty, ignoring his ‘essential’ SS job and his rank, and he had to spend a year training as a leutnant.

  Haupsturmfuehrer Theobald Thier the commander of the 13th Standarte of the Allgemeine SS was called up for training as a leutnant. Himmler had expected good things from Thier, because this Great War veteran had once been a farmer in Chile.

  Oberfuehrer Jacob Sporrenberg commanding the Allgemeine SS XX District was called up as a leutnant.

  Wilhelm Harster was called up as a grenadier, despite his doctorate of law and senior position in the SD.

  Countless other SS men were conscripted. To Himmler this interference was a gross insult to these men and to the SS.

  And here we have another myth busted, that the army was afraid of the SS. In fact the army generals could care less what rank one held in civy street, or to what organization one belonged. Every conscript and recalled reservist was treated equally.

  There was one way in which Himmler could keep his people, he decided. He could request that Hitler recognize his SS Verfuegungstruppe as a fourth branch of the armed forces. But would the Fuehrer support him in this? Hitler needed the generals and admirals, and he had already angered them by giving Goering command of the new air force [Luftwaffe] and drawing some of the army’s best and brightest to staff it, such as General Albert Kesselring.

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  At the same time as the SS began to take a new direction as a military force, Himmler placed Standartenfuehrer Oswald Pohl in charge of the SS Wv - Wirtschaftundverwaltungs section [Economics and Administration], and also gave him command of the separate SS HuB section - Haushalt und Bauten [Budget and Construction]. Pohl was an ex-naval paymaster, with time off to fight in the Freikorps, and following his retirement from the navy he had joined the SA. Himmler grabbed him when he saw his worth. From now on both of Pohl’s departments would urge that inmates of concentration camps should earn their keep, which would alleviate a considerable drain on the SS budget. Hitler gave the go ahead.

  So as time passed Pohl set up labor camps to incarcerate prisoners who had committed lesser offences against the Nazis, leaving the concentration camps to house the more serious offenders. As the name ‘labor camp’ implies these inmates were slave workers. Thus initially two main differences emerged between the concentration camps and the labor camps. The former were controlled by the SS KZL, the latter by the SS Wv, though the guards of both were drawn from the SS KZL. The second difference was that in concentration camps the inmates were worked in order to punish them, whereas in the labor camps they were worked in order to make money for the SS.

  There was a considerable variation between labor camps. Working conditions in the best of them were bad, and conditions in the worst of them were downright horrific. It all depended on the attitudes of the guards and the managerial style of the camp kommandant.

  Labor camps proved to be an accountant’s dream, and once the SS KZL realized how much money the SS Wv was making from them, they decided to open their own labor camps. Over the next two years Dachau concentration camp would spawn thirty labor camps nearby, requiring a total of about 4,000 guards.

  The SS HuB was responsible for obtaining construction materials to build these camps, and the most economic method was for slaves to be used to chop down trees and quarry stone, so the SS HuB entered the slave labor business too.

  In all the labor camps, whether controlled by the SS KZL, SS Wv or SS HuB, the guards were members of the SS KZL. However, some of the labor camps were created in conjunction with private business ventures and in many of these the slave workers were guarded not by members of the SS KZL, but by armed private security guards known as Werkschutz. This organization was a part of the government, and its personnel all wore the same uniform and followed the same regimen, but they were paid directly by the client companies. The largest ‘private’ labor camps were owned by Krupp, Ford, I. G. Farben, Rheinmetall, Messerschmidt, Heinkel, Agfa, Telefunken, Volkswagen, Opel [General Motors], Shell Oil, Daimler Benz, BMW and Siemens. Eicke’s past employment with I. G. Farben was useful in these business deals. Many of these business executives were given honorary SS membership. So once again the SS octopus had grown more tentacles. But the business executives never knew where they stood with any of the Nazis, whether SS, Gestapo, Nazi Party, government or military, because they never quite knew if the individual they were dealing with believed in the ‘nationalist’ and ‘German’ part of the National Socialist German Workers Party, and thus was proud of German business and industrial accomplishments, or if they believed in the ‘socialist’ and ‘workers’ part, and thus loathed all capitalists and tried their utmost to thwart the businessmen.

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  Hitler’s increasing anti-Semitic legislation was making life intolerable for Jews, and many had chosen to emigrate, but it was not until September 1935 with the beginning of the so-called Nuremberg Laws that the non-Jewish population was affected, for these laws interfered in the personal lives of Jews and non-Jews alike. For one thing they banned marriage and sexual activity between Jews and Aryans. (Aryan being Hitler’s new term for a ‘real’ German). Aryans who wished to separate from their Jewish spouses were given automatic divorces.

  Increasingly though, one of the greatest problems in enforcing anti-Jewish laws was that no one really knew what a Jew was. Therefore, following research by the SS RuSHA, a new law was written to define a Jew. Specifically, anyone practicing the Jewish faith or belonging to Jewish associations was a Jew, and their children were Jews. That part was obvious. However, the law went further: anyone who had more than two grandparents, who had either practiced the Jewish faith or had acknowledged themselves as being Jewish, was now also deemed to be a Jew. This caused an uproar, for even born and bred Christians could be declared Jews if they met this criteria. Take this hypothetical case - if a German girl named Carla Luke had a Jewish mother and Christian father and was raised as a devout Evangelical Protestant, and she then married Herr Johann Fertig, who was raised a devout Catholic, [because his parents had been Jews who converted to Christianity before he was born], and as a result of this marriage Carla Luke Fertig bore a daughter, Rachael Fertig, and raised her as a devout Catholic to the point that she became a nun, then as far as the family was concerned Rachael was a German and a Christian and a Catholic and a nun, but according to Hitler’s new law Rachael was a Jew!

  Even a person who only had two Jewish grandparents was sitting on a knife-edge, because the Nazis then took that person’s lifestyle into consideration. Did this person belong to a Jewish organization, live among Jews or had he/she once practiced Judaism or was he/she married to a Jew? If so, then this person was a Jew.

  However, if this person with but two Jewish grandparents was living as a non-Jew and was single or married to an Aryan then this person was not a Jew, but rather a first-degree Mischling [mixed-blood].

  Persons with just one Jewish grandparent were labeled second-degree Mischlings if they were living as a non-Jew and were single or married to an Aryan.

  Both first- and second-degree Mischlings escaped the wrath of the anti-Semitic laws and were permitted to retain their jobs, even as policemen or soldiers, though the local SD would keep an eye on them.

  It now became obviou
s that the laws were racially motivated rather than religiously motivated. This meant in theory that a non-Jew who converted to Judaism and then back to Christianity was not a Jew as far as the Nazis were concerned, but that person certainly would have been regarded as a ‘traitor’ to the Aryan race, and would most likely have been under the watchful eye of the SD.

  Many people were affronted by these laws, as they were now labeled Jew or Mischling, though they had always thought of themselves as German and Christian, pure and simple. Indeed some were members of the Nazi party.

  The new race laws did not solve all the confusion: e.g. Orientals, Romany Gypsies and Negroes were not Aryans, but neither were they Jews. How should they be treated? One hint came in November 1935 when sexual activity was banned between an Aryan and an Oriental or a Negro. There were Negro Germans, as Germany had once owned African colonies. Colonists had sometimes married Negresses, and their half-Negro children were now in Germany.

  As harsh as all these racial laws were, the Germans could still point out that they were mild compared to the race laws of the United States, where in some localities a Negro man could be lynched by a mob for just ‘glaring’ at a white woman. In the British Empire an Asian officer of the [British-controlled] Indian Army had to leave a public room or rail carriage if a British Army private wanted to enter. The private’s white skin outranked the officer’s Asian skin!

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  The Rhineland, that part of Germany west of the Rhine River, but east of those parts that the French and Belgians had stolen in 1919, was part of Hitler’s Reich and subject to his laws, but the Treaty of Versailles had prohibited German military forces from entering that zone, even from coming within fifty kilometers of the river. Actually some Freikorps units had fought there during the civil war 1919-23, and the British and French had complained of this violation, but the German government responded by claiming to have no authority over the Freikorps. In any case the Freikorps units were all disbanded by 1924.

  At the beginning of 1936 Hitler announced that this nonsense would end, and on 7 March he sent troops into the Rhineland. However, this was all a lie and a bluff. Not only did he order these troops to simply march to the Rhine, cross to the other side of a bridge and await orders, but also he did not actually send many army troops at first. Only nineteen battalions reached the Rhine and only three crossed it. He sent some members of the SS LAH. Had the French Army responded with a counterattack, Hitler could have clearly stated that he had not actually remilitarized the Rhineland, because these SS men who appeared to be ‘soldiers’ were in fact ‘civilians’ under German law.

  As it was, the French did nothing but quake in their boots, though they had 900 infantry battalions, so Hitler went ahead and sent army troops into the Rhineland and told the world he had remilitarized this zone.

  Himmler was pleased that the Fuehrer had chosen one of his detachments to make such an important move. Dietrich was proud as punch, and his men now began to think of themselves as true soldiers.

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  Meanwhile the SS KZL was busier than ever, opening up another major concentration camp in spring 1936 at Sachsenhausen under the leadership of Sturmbannfuehrer Karl Koch. Many of the first inmates were tramps and drunks. Hitler wanted to clean up the streets of German cities in time for the Olympic games, which were hosted by Germany this year. He wanted foreign tourists and sports reporters to go away with a good impression, hence all unsightly people were incarcerated! The Nazis also played down their anti-Semitism. They asked Helene Mayer [a Jew under Nazi law] to return to Germany. She did and won the Silver Medal for women’s fencing. The great composer Richard Strauss composed the Olympic anthem. Goebbels masterminded the media. Part of it was even televised experimentally. The plan worked, and the foreign press praised what Hitler had done for Germany. Hitler was also proud that of the forty-nine nations competing, Germany won the most medals.

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  Chapter Five

  THE POLICE STATE

  June 17, 1936 was the most important day in Himmler’s life to date, because Hitler named him sole police chief of all German police. With one fell swoop Goering was ousted from his police duties in Prussia and Himmler could now arrange the nation’s security as he saw fit.

  Currently the only ordinary policemen that had joined the SS were those in the political police departments of the various states, with a few exceptions, and of the senior police officers throughout Germany only a mere handful had become SS members, usually becoming reservists or honorary members. To confuse the issue all SS members still had the status of auxiliary policemen. In addition Heinrich Himmler personally held down about twenty different police jobs. Obviously he could not sit at twenty desks at once and had to rely on deputies. This was a complicated and ineffective system. It begged for rationalization.

  Already Hitler was doing away with the state and district governments and was dividing Germany into Gaus, each of which would be administered by a Gauleiter [Gau Leader].

  Himmler and his staff soon came up with the following schematic. All the German state political police departments were now fused into one and would be known as the Gestapo [taking the Prussian title] and would be commanded by Oberfuehrer Heinrich Mueller. All non-political major crime investigation sections of the various state and city police departments around the country would be fused into one and known as the Kripo - Kriminalpolizei [Criminal Police].

  All members of the Gestapo and Kripo were encouraged to join the SS, but even following such ‘encouragement’ they did not rush to the recruiter’s office. E. g. it took several months before Polizei Oberst Arthur Nebe decided to sign up. He was a professional Berlin policeman and a multi-wounded decorated soldier from the Great War. His reward for joining the SS was his promotion to chief of the Kripo.

  Moreover, the two chiefs of the Gestapo and Kripo [Mueller and Nebe] would report to the head of the new Sipo - Sicherheitspolizei [Security Police], who was none other than Gruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich. Thus the SS was now officially in the police business. Heydrich would still command the SD too, and in fact he planned to spend a set number of hours in each office. They would both be in Berlin.

  As for the cops on the beat - all regional police departments in Germany would be consolidated - the various city and state police departments into the Schutzpolizei, all small town cops into the Gemeindepolizei, and all rural cops into the Gendarmerie. These three organizations would be controlled by the Orpo - Ordnungspolizei [Order Police], which would not be part of the SS, though the first commander of Orpo was to be Kurt Daluege, an SS gruppenfuehrer. Green, a common police color in Germany, would be the color of the new unified police force uniform. However, full-time SS personnel assigned to the police would still wear black.

  Himmler retained the title of national police chief for himself, so that he could give orders to Orpo and Sipo, but the day-to-day administration would be handled by his chief of staff, Standartenfuehrer Karl Wolff.

  This national administrative structure was mimicked at regional and district level, so that every community had a Sipo office controlling a Gestapo office and a Kripo office. The local Sipo commander would work alongside the local SD commander and Orpo commander. All SD and Sipo commanders were members of the SS. In the larger regions the Orpo chiefs were usually SS, but in the smaller districts they were often not. E.g. Himmler approved the promotion of Polizei Oberstleutnant Rudolf Querner to head the Hamburg city Orpo despite his refusal to join the SS. Polizei Major Alfred Wuennenberg a Lorraine German kept his job as chief of the police [now Orpo] in Saarbruecken, though he refused to join the SS. Adolf Bomhard rose to Polizei Generalleutnant and Inspector-General of all police schools without joining the SS.

  Actually there were a few police organizations that escaped Himmler’s control. These were specialist bodies such as the Postal Police, Waterways Police [canal and port customs], Border Police and the investigative branch of the Fire Department.

  Now we come
to another lie, specifically that all SS officers were super proud of their status in the ‘Black Corps’, as it was nicknamed. The SS was supposedly the ideal body of men, racially pure, pure of heart, loyal etc. Naturally new recruits could not wait to be able to go home in their new black uniform and show off. It was handsome, after all.

  It was routine for police stations to have wall-mounted photographs of their chain of command officers. One would assume that those officers who happened to be members of the SS would wear SS black for the photo sitting. But no: they had their pictures taken wearing green police uniforms. Moreover, some of the SS officers who were assigned positions in the Orpo actually wore police uniform on a regular basis! On the face of it their reason was that they wanted the ordinary cops to think that their SS bosses were also cops, just like them. But everyone knew they were not, unless the man by coincidence happened to be an ex-cop.

  Was there not a deeper subconscious aspect? Was it not that these SS officers felt that there was more legitimacy as a member of the long established police than as a member of the fledgling SS? If so, then all this talk of being proud to be in the SS was just so much hogwash.

  After all, if an air force officer is temporarily sent to a naval unit, he does not put on naval uniform.

  Some SS officers went even further, allowing the policemen in their command to address them by the police equivalent of their SS rank, e.g. Herr Major rather than Herr Sturmbannfuehrer, and a few even put it in writing when signing letters, i.e. their name followed by SS rank and then police rank: e.g. SS Standartenfuehrer und Oberst der Polizei [SS Standartenfuehrer and Colonel of Police].