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The SS is a protection squad and had many roles in the Holocaust. They were created April 4th, 1925. They had the leading responsibility for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement, and population policy of the Jews. The SS also had the responsibility for solving the "Jew problem", which is known as the final solution.

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“From 1939, the SS assumed responsibility for “solving” the so-called Jewish Question; after 1941, its leadership planned, coordinated and directed the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question. This “solution” was the annihilation of the European Jews, which we now refer to as the Holocaust” - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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“...the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.” - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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SS Leaders

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The SS Symbol

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The SS controlled the German police forces and concentrations camps. They had to serve as a personal body guard to Adolf Hitler. To be in the SS you had to prove you and none of your family were Jewish and they from the consent of his/her  could only marryauthority.

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“Founded in 1925, the “Schutzstaffel,” German for “Protective Echelon,” initially served as Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945) personal bodyguards, and later became one of the most powerful and feared organizations in all of Nazi Germany.” - HISTORY

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“Recruits, who had to prove none of their ancestors were Jewish, received military training and were also taught they were the elite not only of the Nazi Party but of all humankind.” - HISTORY

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- SS serving as a body guard to Adolf Hitler

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- The SS at the concentration camps

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The SS watched and guarded the ghettos. They were responsible for making the Jews carry out their daily routines and if they didn't they were to punish the Jews. The SS had to maintain things such as food portions and get rid of the ill and injured.

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“The SS were responsible for the setting up and effective administration of each ghetto. But in a refinement of cruelty they made the Jews themselves carry out the day-to-day running of the ghetto.” - The Holocaust Explained

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“The council was responsible for implementing the Nazis policies regarding the Jews. These tasks included transferring Jews from their homes to ghettos, maintaining order within the ghetto and issuing food rations.” - The Holocaust Explained

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- The SS guarding the ghett

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The SS wanted authority to figure out a solution for the "Jew problem". When the solution was found the SS murdered many people; not only in Germany. They went all out into different countries. They murdered Jews, gypsies, and even people who helped hide the Jews. They were responsible for many deaths.

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“...the SS competed with powerful rivals in both the Nazi Party and the state apparatus for authority to direct efforts towards a “solution” of the so-called Jewish question in Germany.” - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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“German SS and police units, supported by the German military authorities, murdered an unknown number of Roma in the Soviet Union and Serbia during the German occupation.” - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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“SS and police units in occupied Poland were responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of members of the Polish cultural and political elites as well as for the deportations and population movements within Poland that led to tens of thousands more deaths.” - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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- The SS murdering a Jew

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- Piles of Jews who were killed

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Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Adolf Eichmann, Hans Frank, Heinrich Müller, Oswald Pohl, and  Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger were all part of the SS in some way or form. Himmler was the head leader of the SS all together. These are the cruel people who came up with the final solution. Some of their bodies were not recovered and many were executed for their actions. Some even committed suicide.

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"AKA Heinrich Luitpold Himmler  Born: 7-Oct-1900; Birthplace: Munich, Germany; Died: May 23-1945; Location of death: Lüneburg, Germany; Cause of death: Suicide; Remains: Buried in unmarked grave outside of Lüneburg.;

Gender: Male; Ethnicity: White; Occupation: Military; Nationality: Germany; Executive summary: Reichsführer-SS" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich Born: 7-Mar-1904; Birthplace: Halle an der Saale, Germany; Died: 4-Jun-1942; Location of death: Prague, Czechia; Cause of death: Assassination; Remains: Buried, Invaliden, Berlin; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: White; Occupation: Military; Nationality: Germany; Executive summary: Protector of Bohemia and Moravia; Military service: German Navy (1922-31)" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner   Born: 4-Oct-1903; Birthplace: Ried im Innkreis, Austria; Died: Oct- 16 -1946 ; Location of death: Nürnberg; Cause of death: Summary Execution; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: White; Occupation: Lawyer; Nationality: German-Austrian; Executive summary: SS-Obergruppenführer  ; Military service:  SS" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA Ricardo Klement; Born: 19-March-1906; Birthplace: Solingen, Germany; Died: May 31-1962

Location of death: Israel; Cause of death: Summary Execution; Remains: Cremated & Ashes spread in the Mediterranean.; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: White; Occupation: SSNationality: Germany; Executive summary: SS Obersturmbannführer; Military service:  Joined the SS in 1933" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA Hans Michael Frank  Born: 23-May-1900; Birthplace: Karlsruhe, Germany; Died: Oct- 16-194 6; Location of death:  Poland; Cause of death: Summary Execution; Remains: unknown; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: White; Occupation: Lawyer; Nationality: Germany; Executive summary: Governor-General of occupied Poland; Military service:  SA Obergruppenführer (honorary)  SS Obergruppenführer (honorary)" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA  Gestapo  Müller;  Born: 28-April-1900 ; Birthplace: Munich, Germany; Died: Unknown; Location of death:  Unknown; Cause of death: Unknown; Remains: Unknown; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: German; Occupation: Security Police Higher SS; Nationality: German; Executive summary: Head of the Gestapo; Military service: WW-1 Pilot" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA    Pohl;  Born: 30-June-1892 ; Birthplace: Duisburg-Ruhrort ; Died: 7-June-1951; Location of death:  Landsberg am Lech ; Cause of death: Summary Execution; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: German; Occupation: Naval Officer; Nationality: ; Executive summary: SS-Obergruppenführer & General Waffen-SS" - Holocaust Research Project Organization
"AKA Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger; Born: 1894; Birthplace: Strasbourg, Alsace (Germany -at the time); Died: 9th-May-1945; Location of death:  Libau, Latvia; Cause of death: Suicide; Gender: Male; Ethnicity: German; Occupation: Director of a Refuse Company Prior to SS Enrollment; Executive summary: Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer; Military service: SS-Oberabschnittsführer" - Holocaust Research Project Organization

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- Head leader of the SS; Heinrich Himmler

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- Another leader part of the SS;  Reinhard Heydrich

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Ernst Kaltenbrunner

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Adolf Eichmann

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Hans Frank

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Heinrich Müller

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Oswald Pohl

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Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger

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Himmler had a wife and daughter. His daughter was born in 1929. There is also letters that prove he was cheating on his wife and had kids with another women. American soldiers found these letters in his home. Himmler was catholic and took piano lessons. He joined the Nazis when he was 22. When the Russians were in Berlin he went on the run with German soldiers caught after the Nazis surrendered. He took his life in 1945

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"He was the evil architect of the Holocaust. The Jew-hating bespectacled former chicken farmer who rose from obscurity to become Adolf Hitler’s trusted henchman." - Mirror
"While orchestrating genocide, Himmler was writing home to his wife Margarete and daughter Gudrun, astonishingly describing his day like a dad away on humdrum business." - Mirror
"But other notes also reveal he was cheating on her with his secretary, Hedwig Potthast, who was 12 years his junior and had two children by him." - Mirror
"The hoard of personal papers and diaries were found by American soldiers in 1945 at Himmler’s home in Gmund, Bavaria.
They stretch back into his childhood as a sickly middle-class Catholic boy whose days were filled with piano lessons, stamp collecting and playing war games with his older brother Gebhard." - Mirror

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- Himmler and his daughter

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Heydrich was the second most important leader. He was raised in a musical environment and his father found the Halle Conservatory of Music. Heydrich was also a violinist. He was Catholic and got bullied for it. When his Naval career was destroyed he was recommended to the Nazi SS group and then later joined it as Hitler's personal body guard along with 10,00 others. When the Nazis were attacked by the Czechs he was wounded by a bullet and later on died.

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"Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was second in importance to Heinrich Himmler in the Nazi SSorganization. Nicknamed "The Blond Beast" by the Nazis..." - The History Place
"Born in the German city of Halle, near Leipzig on March 7, 1904, Reinhard Eugen Tristan Heydrich was raised in a cultured, musical environment. His father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music and was a Wagnerian opera singer, while his mother was an accomplished pianist. Young Heydrich trained seriously as a violinist, developing expert skill and a lifelong passion for the violin." - The History Place
"But young Heydrich also suffered as the target of schoolyard bullies, teased about his very high pitched voice and his devout Catholicism in the mostly Protestant town." - The History Place
"With his Naval career wrecked, his fiancé, Lina von Osten, an enthusiastic Nazi Party member, suggested he join the Nazi Party and look into the SS organization which at that time served mainly as Hitler's personal bodyguard and had about 10,000 members." - The History Place
"They shot at Heydrich then threw a bomb which exploded, wounding him. He managed to get out of the car, draw his pistol and shoot back at the assassins before collapsing in the street.

Himmler rushed his own private doctors to Prague to help Heydrich, who held on for several days, but died on June 4 from blood poisoning brought on by fragments of auto upholstery, steel, and his own uniform that had lodged in his spleen.

In Berlin, the Nazis staged a highly elaborate funeral with Hitler calling Heydrich "the man with the iron heart." - The History Place

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- Heydrich in uniform

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In the year 1945 is when the downfall of the SS started. The SS refused to surrender. Himmler offered the U.S. a surrender, but when Hitler found out Himmler was not to be in any office positions. Hitler stilled continued with the torture of the Jews and many other  people. Later after the war Hitler said he would take all responsibility for their action (anyone in the SS), but many had to run. Himmler took off with a new name and tried to hide, but he was later caught and ended up committing suicide. Many were sent to the Nuremberg trials because of their crimes. They were convicted as a criminal organization.

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"The SS began to disintegrate in 1945. Individual SS officers hoped to exploit tensions between the western Allies and the Soviet Union to open negotiations for a separate peace with the western Allies that would permit the Nazi state to survive and fight on against the USSR." - Holocaust Encyclopedia
"Most succumbed to the consequences of SS criminal neglect: starvation, exposure, and disease. Moreover, the SS camp staff and guards shot, hanged, or otherwise killed thousands of prisoners in the last months of the war." - Holocaust Encyclopedia
" Despite his promise to all SS men that he would assume full responsibility for their actions, the former SS chief intended to disappear, donning the uniform of a Secret Field Police and carrying papers in name of Heinrich Hitzinger. On May 20, Soviet troops captured “Hitzinger” and turned him over to the British, to whom Himmler confessed his identity." - Holocaust Encyclopedia
"Others disappeared into Soviet captivity, or into assumed identities in occupied Germany, or by emigrating to the Americas." - Holocaust Encyclopedia
"The tribunal prosecutors also indicted and convicted the SS and the Gestapo-SD collectively as criminal organizations. Leaders of three key SS organizations—the concentration camp administration, the Einsatzgruppen, and the Himmler's Reich Commissariat for Strengthening German Racial Stock—were tried in three subsequent Nuremberg trials under the auspices of the International Military Tribunal." - Holocaust Encyclopedia

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- SS at the Nuremberg Trials

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Article Title:
The SS
URL: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss
Authors:

Waitman W. Beorn; Tim Cole; Simone Gigliotti; Alberto Giordano; Chester Harvey; Anna Holian; Paul B. Jaskot; Anne Kelly Knowles;  Marc J. Masurovsky;  Erik Steiner
Website Name:
Holocaust Encyclopedia

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Article Title:
The SS
URL:
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/ss

Authors:
History.com Editors
Website Name:
HISTORY

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Article Title:
Ghettos: an overview
URL:
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/ghettos-an-overview/what-was-the-role-of-the-ss-within-the-ghettos/
Website Name:
The Holocaust Explained

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Article Title:
SS and the Holocaust
URL:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss-and-the-holocaust
Authors:
Waitman W. Beorn; Tim Cole; Simone Gigliotti; Alberto Giordano; Chester Harvey; Anna Holian; Paul B. Jaskot; Anne Kelly Knowles;  Marc J. Masurovsky;  Erik Steiner

Website Name:
Holocaust Encyclopedia

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Article Title:
SS & Other Nazi Leaders
URL:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/ssleaders.html

Website Name:
Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

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Article Title:
Heinrich Himmler's personal life revealed in letters: 'Despite the work I'm doing fine and sleep well'

URL:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/heinrich-himmlers-personal-life-revealed-5545302

Website Name:
Mirror

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Article Title:
SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich
URL:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/biographies/heydrich-biography.htm

Website Name:
The History Place

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Article Title:
SS: Decline, Disintegration, and Trials
URL:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss-decline-disintegration-and-trials
Authors:
Waitman W. Beorn; Tim Cole; Simone Gigliotti; Alberto Giordano; Chester Harvey; Anna Holian; Paul B. Jaskot; Anne Kelly Knowles;  Marc J. Masurovsky;  Erik Steiner
Website Name:
Holocaust Encyclopedia