What was the SS?
The double-Sig Rune SS insignia.The Schutzstaffel (German for “Protective Squadron”), abbreviated (Runic) or SS (Latin), was a large security and military organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany. The SS was established in the 1920s as a personal guard unit for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler between 1929 and 1945, the SS grew from a small paramilitary formation to become one of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, the party’s “Praetorian Guard,” with all SS personnel selected on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to the Nazi Party. In contrast to the black-uniformed Allgemeine-SS, the political wing of the SS, the military wing, the Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army within the Wehrmacht, operating in tandem with the regular German army, the Heer. The Waffen-SS compiled a record of fierce fighting, but also fo
