page_title: Waffen-SS
section_title: Criminality
hierarchical_section_title: Waffen-SS / Criminality
caption_attribution_description: English: Stefan Baretzki is the SS guard carrying a stick. He often used it to beat prisoners.
context_page_description: The Waffen-SS was the military branch of the Nazi Party's SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.
  The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer, Ordnungspolizei and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the High Command of the Armed Forces, with some units being subordinated to Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS directly under Himmler's control.
  Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was open only to people of Germanic origin. The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Nazi propaganda claimed that the war was a “European crusade against Bolshevism” and subsequently formed units consisting of largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts. These Waffen-SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe.
context_section_description: The Allgemeine SS was responsible for the administration of both the concentration and extermination camps. Many members of it and the SS-Totenkopfverbände subsequently became members of the Waffen-SS, forming the initial core of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division. A number of SS medical personnel who were members of the Waffen-SS were convicted of crimes during the "Doctors' trials" in Nuremberg, held between 1946 and 1947 for the Nazi human experimentation they performed at the camps.
   
  According to the Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection, the Waffen-SS had played a "paramount role" in the ideological war of extermination (Vernichtungskrieg), and not just as frontline or rear area security formations: a third of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) members which were responsible for mass murder, especially of Jews, Slavs and communists, had been recruited from Waffen-SS personnel prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Waffen-SS construction office built the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and, according to Rudolf Hoss, about 7,000 served as guards at that camp.
  Many Waffen-SS members and units were responsible for war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. After the war the SS organisation as a whole was held to be a criminal organisation by the post-war German government. Formations such as the Dirlewanger and Kaminski Brigades were singled out, and many others participated in large-scale massacres or smaller-scale killings such as murder of 34 captured allied servicemen ordered by Josef Kieffer during Operation Bulbasket in 1944, the Houtman affair, or murders perpetrated by Heinrich Boere. The listed Waffen-SS units were responsible for the following massacres:
  Wormhoudt massacre by SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 1940, France
  Le Paradis massacre by SS Division Totenkopf, 1940, France
  Pripyat swamps (punitive operation) by the SS Cavalry Brigade, 1941, USSR
  Ascq massacre by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 1944, France
  Tulle massacre by SS Division Das Reich, 1944, France
  Oradour-sur-Glane massacre by SS Division Das Reich, 1944, France
  Ochota massacre by SS Kaminski Brigade, 1944, Poland
  Wola massacre by SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, 1944, Poland
  Huta Pieniacka massacre by SS Division Galicia 1944, Poland
  Graignes Massacre by SS Division Götz von Berlichingen, 1944, France
  Maillé massacre, also by SS Division Götz von Berlichingen, 1944, France
  Marzabotto massacre by 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, 1944, Italy
  Malmedy massacre by Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of 1st SS Panzer Division, 1944, Belgium
  Ardeatine massacre by two SS officers, 1944, Italy
  Distomo massacre by 4th SS Polizei Division, 1944, Greece
  Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre by 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, 1944, Italy
  Ardenne Abbey massacre by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 1944, France
  The linking of the SS-VT with the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) in 1938 raised important questions about Waffen-SS criminality, since the SS-TV were already responsible for the imprisonment, torture, and murder of Jews and other political opponents through providing the personnel for manning the concentration camps. Their leader, Theodor Eicke, who was the commandant of Dachau, inspector of the camps, and murderer of Ernst Röhm, later became the commander of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division. With the invasion of Poland, the Totenkopfverbände troops were called on to carry out so-called "police and security measures" in rear areas. What these measures entailed is demonstrated by the record of SS Totenkopf Standarte Brandenburg. It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en masse of the leaders of the Jewish community. On 29 September the Standarte travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an "intelligentsia action". Approximately 800 Polish civilians and what the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) termed "potential resistance leaders" were killed. Later the formation became the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf
caption: Stefan Baretzki (right), a Waffen-SS soldier, participates in a selection at Auschwitz concentration camp
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