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Chapter 3. The Waffen-SS, Totenkopf, the Einsatzgruppen, and the Concentration Camps

A common argument that has been levelled by the majority of post-war historians against the Waffen-SS concerns the somewhat vexed issue of links with the more sinister departments within the network of the SS organisation. I have in Chapter 1 discussed the place of the Waffen-SS within the Greater SS empire, and stressed the point that although the Waffen-SS was in the main a semi-independent military structure, it still maintained tacit links to other departments. The Einsatzgruppen, responsible for the behind the lines executions of Communist agitators and bandits, and the concentration camps are the two main areas that have regularly been focused on.

In the last Chapter, I outlined the history and development of two of the three sections of what eventually became the Waffen-SS, the Leibstandarte, and the SS-VT, which was to become "Das Reich". However, there was also a third element, what began as the SS-Totenkopfverbände, or SS-TV, the so-called Death's Head Formations, made up of concentration camp guards. Although it started off as an organisation distinct from the other two sections, it developed in a way that Himmler and its creators had neither intended nor envisaged. Out of this organisation was to develop the 3rd Waffen-SS Panzerdivision "Totenkopf" (SS-TK), which was considered by the end of the war to be a fully-fledged combat division in its own right, and a fully functional part of the Waffen-SS. It was the pre-war function and activities of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, however, which provided the tenuous link between the Waffen-SS and the concentration camps, in doing so provided the 'evidence' to bring about the following verdict at Nürnberg:

"...units of the Waffen SS... supplied personnel for the Einsatzgruppen, and had command over the concentration camps guards after its absorption of the Totenkopf SS, which originally controlled the system".^[1]

This verdict was a gross oversimplification, which for one did not take into account the structural changes within the greater SS organisation that were made during its lifetime. The "Totenkopf SS", for example, was an organisation that experienced dramatic change, not only in name, both before and during the war. While it is true that the Waffen-SS could be seen to have had a link with the concentration camps, it is also true that the relationship was not what it was made out to be, and was greatly exaggerated.

The Totenkopfverbände and the Concentration Camps

The pre-war SS-Totenkopfverbände, or SS-TV, before 1936 known as the SS-(Totenkopf)wachverbände, or (Death's Head) guard formation, was established by the Nazi bullyboy Standartenführer Theodor Eicke. It was to provide the personnel for the manning of the concentration camps, such as Dachau (where the first unit was established), Sachsenhausen, and Oranienburg, the town north of Berlin where the Eicke's office, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, had been established. Unlike the Leibstandarte or the SS-VT, the entry requirements for the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) were nowhere near so demanding. Following the Röhm purge of June 1934, Eicke, who had played a major role in the latter affair, was appointed Inspector of Concentration Camps and Commander of SS guard formations (Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager und Führer der SS Wachverbände); he was also promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer.^[2] On March 29, 1936, the Reichsführer-SS officially designated these units as the SS-Totenkopfverbände. The term Totenkopf, or "Death's Head", remained until the dissolution of the SS in 1945, although the nature of the organisation had changed dramatically before and during the war.

While Theodor Eicke was indeed one of the more brutal of the early SS commanders, it would be somewhat facetious to simply describe him as being nothing more than the personification of the archetypal Nazi thug; while the issue of his brutality both towards his prisoners and his own men may have been beyond doubt, he was also a man of considerable spark and ambition. After the Anschluß^[3] with Austria, Eicke had established four SS-TV Standarten, or regiments, "Oberbayern", "Elbe", "Sachsen" and "Ostfriesland", based at the concentration camps of Dachau, Oranienburg/Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Mauthausen respectively.^[4] Moreover, while the members of Eicke's regiments may have been trained to be fanatical and brutal, they were not the sadistic thugs of popular legend. While Eicke had no doubt concentrated much effort on making his he also made it a point to not have his organisation contaminated with sadists and bullies.^[5] When the opportunity arose following the outbreak of the war, Eicke's SS-Totenkopfverbände battalions, which had played a minor role in the Sudetenland and Austria as reservists, were redesignated the SS-Totenkopfdivision (SS-TK), and then after that were awarded full Waffen-SS divisional status, and with it the designation 3rd Waffen-SS Division "Totenkopf". Theodor Eicke thus

"...gave up his concentration-camp duties for the more glamorous role of a Waffen SS field commander".^[6]

The fact that the SS-Totenkopfverbände eventually became an integral part of the Waffen-SS has constituted the ammunition for those who still wish to maintain the Nürnberg indictment. However, it must be noted that, although Spartan and severely brutal, Eicke's Concentration Camps were a far cry from the forced labour camps which were to be later set up in Eastern Poland, such as Treblinka, Majdanek and the most well-known, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Once Eicke's men had been redesignated as combat troops, they were replaced in the camps by for the most part Allgemeine-SS reserves,^[7] although the staff intake for the camps was also supplemented by soldiers from the regular Wehrmacht, among them men who had been classified either too old or unfit for front line duties. All of Eicke's camps, as well the Inspectorate for Concentration Camps itself, were then transferred to another separate department of the SS establishment, with Eicke's post being taken up by SS-Brigadeführer Richard Glücks.^[8]

The argument presented by those who attempt to maintain the Nürnberg doctrine is based around the structural changes made by Himmler in 1940, when he established a new main office, the SS-Führungshauptamt (SS-FHA),^[9] headed by Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner. The Inspectorate for Concentration Camps, although still remaining an autonomous entity headed by Glücks, became Amt VI of this new office.^[10] As a result, the concentration camp personnel were given nominal Waffen-SS status, despite having nothing directly to do with the combat formations. They were, for example, given Waffen-SS uniforms, and they carried Waffen-SS paybooks. This provides a vast amount of ammunition for the "Anti-Waffen-SS" writers, who,

"When referring to the Waffen-SS they include all units, departments, organizations, and individuals bearing this designation. They consequently reject all arguments or explanations which attempt to distinguish between "combat formations" and "noncombat formations" or "regular Waffen SS" and "nominal Waffen SS".^[11]

The rejection of these distinctions is easily done; after all, on paper, the concentration camp network was nominally part of the Waffen-SS, and thus it could be argued that this was enough to indict the combat formations as well. But, according to George H. Stein,

"It is now known that this step [including the Concentration camps as within the Waffen-SS establishment] was taken for economic and administrative reasons; Himmler, despite the inconsistency of his actions, intended to keep the concentration-camp system carefully separated from his beloved Waffen SS".^[12]

The argument that Himmler wished to keep the labour camp system as separate as possible from the Waffen-SS was confirmed in 1942, when Himmler transferred the entire network of concentration camps again, this time from the SS-Führungshauptampt to a completely separate department, the Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt, or WVHA,^[13] headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl. The responsibility for the "Totenkopf" combat formations remained however under the jurisdiction of the SS-Führungshauptampt. In addition, the argument that the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was an autonomous organisation in its own right was confirmed by the smooth transfer of the section in its entirety to the WVHA with the basic structure intact, with Glücks still retaining his post. Further proof of its autonomy was the fact that Glücks was able to bypass his superiors in the WVHA, for until the end of the war he received his orders directly from the Reichsführer-SS himself. With its transfer from the SS-Führungshauptampt, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps officially ceased to a part of the Waffen-SS, although its members still held nominal Waffen-SS rank. This was probably to avoid the creation of more yet confusion in what was already a complex bureaucratic network; as the war went on, there was a dramatic reduction of the Allgemeine-SS (the "black jackets"), with nearly all departments taking to wearing the basic field-grey uniform as worn by the Waffen-SS combat units. The biggest example of this was Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)^[14] chief Reinhard Heydrich, who, despite never having at any stage anything to do with the Waffen-SS, sported the field-grey tunic of a Waffen-SS Obergruppenführer.

Transfers between the camps and the Waffen-SS

There has also been much debate over the issue of the transfer of personnel between the combat divisions of the Waffen-SS and the concentration camps. The methods employed with regard to the transfer of staff between these two sections has been described as something of a circulatory movement; this is true to an extent, for there were transfers to and from the Waffen-SS and the labour camps. However, this claim is also at the same time extremely misleading for a number of different reasons.

The development of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) Standarten - Eicke's concentration camp guard formations - has already been discussed, as has the fact that many of these men were on completion of their training transferred to the fledgling SS-TK which was later officially recognised as a division of the Waffen-SS proper; it is the transfer of these erstwhile labour camp guard formations to the combat divisions that has provided the best evidence for the case against the Waffen-SS, and the SS-TK in particular. But, as has also been mentioned, the nature of the pre-war camps were far different to that of the death-factories controlled by the WVHA. As a result, the fact that men of Eicke's battalions were drafted into the combat formations, although indisputable, does not provide any solid evidence for those who claim that there were mass transfers in both directions between the concentration camps system and the SS-TK, let alone the Waffen-SS as a whole. In saying this, there is little or no evidence to suggest that men of the other SS Divisions were involved in such organised transfers. But while this idea of a mass organised transfer of personnel between the Waffen-SS and the camp system was largely a myth, the basis of it lies in truth, for the fact still remains that Waffen-SS personnel, mainly in the form of the men of the SS-TK, were for various reasons sent to work at the camps, and vice-versa. This fact has been exaggerated, however, and is not so incriminating as it sounds:

"...most of the men sent from the Totenkopfdivision [the military formation] to the guard units in the camps were transferred for individual reasons- usually as punishment. Transfers from the concentration camps to the Totenkopfdivision during this same period were less frequent and generally involved small groups or individuals who possessed certain skills (mechanics, radio operators, doctors, etc.) required by units of the Totenkopfdivision".^[15]

And Oswald Pohl, the chief of the WVHA, added:

"...though the camp guards were recruited from the Waffen-SS, they were mostly volunteers who had been found unfit for war service and who were not likely, therefore, to be transferred to the field divisions".^[16]

A Bone of Contention

Due to the fact that it had its roots in the more sinister side of the SS apparatus, i.e. the concentration camps, "Totenkopf" has become something of a bone of contention for apologists for the remainder of the Waffen-SS. It has even become the aim of some to argue that all of the formations with the designation "Totenkopf", including the 3rd Panzer Division, were not actually part of the Waffen-SS. The argument which attempts to separate the Waffen-SS from "Totenkopf" has a strong basis in truth, in that the designated role of the pre-war SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) under Theodor Eicke, was initially intended to be separate from the main fighting arm, consisting of both the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and the Leibstandarte, which became officially known as the Waffen-SS. This argument is strongly supported by the secret decree made by Hitler on 17 August 1938, where he specified that

"Service in the SS Verfügungstruppe... was to count toward the compulsory military obligation, though membership in the SSTV was not".^[17]

As service in the SS-TV did not count as being a military obligation, it meant that its members were liable to being conscripted by the Wehrmacht; thus, in order to keep his concentration camp guards within the SS, and from possibly being conscripted into the Wehrmacht, Himmler therefore deemed them to be nominal members of the Waffen-SS (as reserves for the SS-VT). Evidence of this can be found in a recollection of a conversation between Himmler and his doctor, Felix Kersten, at Zhitomir on 9 August 1942:

"In that case, I [Kersten] replied, I was unable to grasp why he [Himmler] had concentration camps guarded by men of the Waffen SS. "That never happens," Himmler replied. "Concentration camp guards have nothing to do with the Waffen SS. They are a quite separate formation; they wear SS uniform but they have distinctive badges. These young men have only been taken into the Waffen SS because they have to belong to some [military] establishment".^[18]

Thus, it can be argued convincingly that the mainstream Waffen-SS was quite distinct from the pre-war SS-Totenkopfverbände. This is not the case after 1942, however. As has already been explained, by 1942 what had been the SS-Totenkopfverbände had rapidly developed into a combat division in its own right, the 3rd Waffen-SS Panzerdivision "Totenkopf". The very fact that Totenkopf was designated as a Waffen-SS armoured division was enough to dismiss the argument of some apologists that the Waffen-SS had nothing to do with "Totenkopf", and therefore, in the eyes of many historians, it was also enough to dismiss the argument that the Waffen-SS as a whole, due to its acceptance of "Totenkopf" as a combat formation, had nothing to do with the concentration camps.

While the first conclusion is undoubtedly correct, the second does not take into account the fact that has already been alluded to in the above narrative, namely that the SS-TK was a completely different animal compared to Eicke's SS-VT of the pre-war years. The record has proved beyond all doubt that the combat troops of the SS-TK were a far cry from the concentration camp bullies of the SS-Totenkopfverbände. There is also the fact that the pre-war concentration camps manned by Eicke's guard formations eventually fell under the jurisdiction of a completely separate department within the SS apparatus, the WVHA, which also ran the larger labour camps in the East such as Auschwitz, while the responsibility for the SS-TK remained with the SS-Führungshauptampt. In effect, the transformation of what was initially a cadre of concentration camp guards into an élite armoured combat division was not, contrary to popular belief, a direct transformation, but a complicated process that involved distinct departments of the vast SS network, with the terminology remaining for the most part ambiguous.

Whichever way one looks at it, the connection between the mainstream Waffen-SS and the concentration camps is not as close as many imagine it to be, in that (i) it was distinct from the SS-Totenkopfverbände during the time when the latter were used as concentration camp guards; and (ii) by the time the SS-Totenkopfverbände had developed and been designated as a full combat unit of the Waffen-SS they had long since severed their link with the camps, which had become the responsibility of a completely separate department, the WVHA.

The Waffen-SS and the Einsatzgruppen

There is also the somewhat more controversial argument that the Waffen-SS had supplied personnel for the organised anti-partisan squads, the Einsatzgruppen (Special Commandos or Special Action Squads) and that, like with the concentration camps, there had been a steady flow in either direction. This was simply not the case. The Einsatzgruppen, which numbered no more than three thousand men, had been formed not from any branch of the SS, but from the regular police detachments - the Ordnungspolizei, or Orpo.^[19] The Orpo had been the direct responsibility of the RSHA, headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, and then, after Heydrich's assassination by Czech resistance fighters in May 1942, SS-Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Although the Orpo membership contained few actual SS men, it came under the jurisdiction of the greater SS hierarchy, with the net result that many ordinary policemen - men who only a few years before may have been patrolling their local beat - found themselves engaged in a particularly violent anti-partisan campaign:

"In fact, many of the worst atrocities attributed to the SS were actually committed by German policemen, not a few of whom had been walking a beat or directing traffic until the outbreak of war".^[20]

While the fact remains that while the Waffen-SS itself as a whole had not been involved in such activities, which had been co-ordinated by the offices of the RSHA and for the most part directed by the non-military personnel of the Gestapo, SD and Kripo,^[21] the claim by some defenders of the Waffen-SS that they had known nothing about the other activities that had been taking place behind the lines is somewhat questionable. It is true for instance that some troops of the Totenkopfdivision were used to voluntarily assist Einsatzgruppe A with a number of anti-partisan actions in the Baltic States and White Russia. But by examining how these Waffen-SS men came to be involved in such activities one can begin to understand the real nature of the "voluntary relationship" between the Waffen-SS and the Einsatzgruppen; Georg Keppler, one of the old-school commanders of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", in conversation with Himmler's doctor Felix Kersten at the Reichsführer-SS' headquarters at Zhitomir in 1943, had said:

"They are late or fall asleep on duty. They are court-martialled but are told they can escape punishment by volunteering for Special Commandos. For fear of punishment and in the belief that their career is ruined anyway, these young men ask to be transferred to the Special Commandos. Well, these commandos, where they are first put through special training, are murder commandos. When the young men realise what they are being asked to do and refuse to take part in mass-murder, they are told the orders are given [to] them as a form of punishment. Either they can obey or they can disobey and be shot. In any case their career is over and done with. By such methods decent young men are frequently turned into criminals".^[22]

Notes

1. Stein, p.251
2. ibid., xxxiii
3. Anschluß- the annexation of Austria [Ostmark], March 1938
4. Stein, xxxiii
5. Sydnor,
6. Stein, xxxiv
7. Allgemeine-SS - General-SS, the basic pre-war SS organisation from which the various departments developed.
8. ibid., p.260
9. SS-Führungshauptamt (SS-FHA) - Main SS Leadership Office, the SS operation headquarters established in 1940.
10. Stein, p.260
11. ibid., p.257
12. ibid., p.260
13. Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA) - SS Main Economic and Administrative Office
14. Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) - (Main) Reich Security Office. An amalgamation of various security departments, including the pre-war Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo, the Security Police) and Kriminalpolizei (Kripo, Criminal Police); headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich until his assassination in May 1942, and then by SS-Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
15. Sydnor, p.325
16. Reitlinger, p.265
17. Sydnor, p.32
18. Kersten, p.250
19. Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) - Order Police, the regular uniformed police, incorporated as a semi-autonomous body within the SS organisation.
20. Stein, xxx
21. Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) - Pre-Nazi Criminal Police section, later absorbed into the RSHA.
22. Reitlinger, p.171

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