Uniforms of the Waffen-SS: 1942, 1943, 1944-1945, Ski Uniforms, Overcoats, White Service Uniforms, Tropical Clothing v. 2: Vol 2: 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - ... Clothing - Shirts - Sports and Drill Uniforms

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The rest of the Waffen-SS divisions and brigades fared better. The Totenkopf and Polizei divisions were attached to Army Group North, with the mission to advance through the Baltic states and on to Leningrad. [35] [75] The Das Reich Division was with Army Group Centre and headed towards Moscow. [35] [75] The Leibstandarte and Wiking Divisions were with Army Group South, heading for Ukraine and the city of Kiev. [35] [75] Hermann Fegelein commanded the SS Totenkopf Reiterstandarte (Death's Head Horse Regiment). He was a member of Hitler's entourage and brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister Gretl. [176] Main article: Waffen-SS veterans in post-war Germany Members of the traditional group " HIAG Ostsachsen" at an Ulrichsberg gathering in 2003 When Hitler, with SS help, purged the SA in 1934 and reduced it to political impotence, the SS became an independent group responsible, via Himmler, to Hitler alone. Between 1934 and 1936 Himmler and his chief adjutant, Reinhard Heydrich, consolidated SS strength by gaining control of all of Germany’s police forces and expanding their organization’s responsibilities and activities. At the same time, special military SS units were trained and equipped along the lines of the regular army. By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy, divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS). Tessin, Georg (1973). Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS 1939–1945, Volumes II and III (in German). Biblio Verlag.

Diehl, James M. (1993). Thanks of the Fatherland: German Veterans After the Second World War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2077-3. In 1934, with the rise of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), the SS runes unit insignia was expanded to these other formations of the then fledgling military arm of the SS (later to become known as the Waffen-SS). To separate these new military formations from the main Leibstandarte regiment under Dietrich, the SS runes worn by the Verfügungstruppe displayed a small number corresponding to the particular SS-VT regiment of the bearer. In all, there were three possible numbers:SS-Mann: A generic term for any member of the SS. Also used as an actual rank of the Allgemeine-SS. In August 1939, Hitler placed the Leibstandarte and the SS-VT under the operational control of the Army High Command ( OKH). [40] Himmler retained command of the Totenkopfstandarten for employment behind the advancing combat units in what were euphemistically called "special tasks of a police nature". [43] Ustinow, D. F (1981). Geschichte des zweiten Weltkrieges 1939–1945 (in German). Vol.X. Berlin: Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik.

Jewish Uprisings in Ghettos and Camps, 1941–1944: Resistance in Ghettos". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Retrieved 28 May 2013. Tauber, Kurt (1967). Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German Nationalism Since 1945, Volume I. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.On the Italian Front, the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, conducting anti-partisan operations, is remembered more for the atrocities it perpetrated than its fighting ability; the division committed the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre in August 1944 [127] and the Marzabotto massacre between September and October 1944. [128] Finland [ edit ] Farmer, Sarah (1994). Oradour: Arrêt sur mémoire (in French). Paris: Calmann-Lévy. ISBN 978-2-70212-316-4. Trevor-Roper, Hugh (2000). HITLER'S TABLE TALK 1941–1944 His Private Conversations. Enigma Books. p.143. On 19 July 1940, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag, where he gave a summary of the western campaign and praised the German forces involved. He used the term " Waffen-SS" when describing the units of the LSSAH and SS-VT that took part. From that day forward, the term Waffen-SS became the official designation for the SS combat formations. [63] Himmler gained approval for the Waffen-SS to form its own high command, the Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS within the SS Führungshauptamt, which was created in August 1940. [64] It received command of the SS-VT (the Leibstandarte and the Verfügungs-Division, renamed Reich) and the armed SS-TV regiments (the Totenkopf Division together with several independent Totenkopf-Standarten). [65] Madajczyk, Czesław (1972). Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Banach, Jens (2013). "Polizei im NS-System – Ausbildung und Rekrutierung in der Sicherheitspolizei". In Lange, Hans Jürgen (ed.). Die Polizei der Gesellschaft: Zur Soziologie der inneren Sicherheit (in German). Opladen: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-663-09757-0. SD-Leiter: This title was used by senior officers of the Sicherheitsdienst, typically those in command of a major SD office or regional headquarters. In 1924, while the Nazi Party was legally banned following the Beer Hall Putsch, Frontbann (underground SA) leader Gerhard Roßbach located a large store of war-surplus brown denim shirts in Austria, originally intended for tropical uniforms. [4] When the SA (which included the nascent SS) was re-founded in 1925 following Hitler's release from prison, these brown shirts were issued as uniforms. Himmler's military formations at the outbreak of the war comprised several subgroups that would become the basis of the Waffen-SS:Schutzstaffel der NSDAP, SS Officers List, Berlin (1942), Reprinted by Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA (2000) Another uniform insignia change occurred in April 1942 with the creation of the rank SS- Oberstgruppenführer. This necessitated an insignia change for SS generals and all SS generals at this time began wearing Wehrmacht-style gold shoulder boards; Oberführers wore the shoulderboards of an army Oberst ("colonel") just as Standartenführers did. The sole exception was Heinrich Himmler who continued to wear the silver braided shoulderboard with oak leaves of his rank as Reichsführer-SS. At the same time the collar patches for general officers were revised; the 1942 pattern used three oakleaves, rather straighter than the old style, with zero to three pips indicating rank from Brigadeführer through Oberstgruppenführer. Browning, Christopher (2007). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-5979-9. Givhan, Robin (15 August 1997). "Clothier Made Nazi Uniforms". Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post . Retrieved 5 December 2016.