Totenkopf SS
Totenkopf SS, also the Totenkopfverbaende or Death's Head SS, were concentration camp guards organized from general SS personnel, starting with the guard force of Dachau Concentration Camp. They were created as part of an overall reorganization, in 1933, of the concentration camps, under Theodor Eicke. Camps had previously been managed by "wild improvisation", but they were put under the exclusive authorty of Heinrich Himmler.[1]
By the end of 1937, they numbered 5,000 men in three formations. While the Army had had to accept some SS Verfuegungsruppe (VT) units as reserves, they refused to accept Totenkopf personnel, considering them more ideological police than soldiers. After the war began, however, the Waffen SS was formed from the VT, supplemented with police and Totenkopf personnel.
During the war, a Totenkopf Division was established as part of the Waffen SS.
References
- ↑ Lucy Dawidowicz (1975), The War against the Jews, 1933-1945 (10th Anniversary ed.), Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-34532-X, pp. 75-75