An increase in French contributions to the occupation expenses could
be advocated, however, only if there were a corresponding chance of
raising her production ability [Sachleistungen].
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2153-PS
NATIONAL SOCIALIST PARTY CORRESPONDENCE
NSK No. 358
30 March 1933
Defeat the Enemy of the World!
By Julius Streicher, head of the Central Committee for defense against
Jewish horror and boycott agitation.
All Judah wanted the battle, it shall have it! It shall have it until
it realizes that the Germany of the Brown Battalions is not the Germany
of cowardice and of surrender: All Judah shall have the battle until
victory is ours.
National Socialists!
Defeat the enemy of the World! And if the World were full of devils, we
must still succeed!
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2154-PS
NATIONAL SOCIALIST PARTY CORRESPONDENCE
NSK No. 359 31 March 1933
Additional orders of the Central Committee for defense against Jewish
horror and boycott agitation.
NSK. The following additional orders are issued by the Central
Committee for defense against Jewish horror and boycott agitation:
Order No. 3
In enforcing the defensive boycott, the closing of Jewish business or
the use of violence against their customers is to be avoided under all
circumstances.
If such an establishment closes its doors voluntarily, no higher power
is involved, and the proprietors have no excuse for discharges without
notice or for the refusal to pay wages and salaries or for reductions.
Order No. 4
Numerous reports are received by the Central Committee saying that
Jewish proprietors are transferring their establishments to German
figureheads in order to avoid the effects of the defensive propaganda.
Therefore it is decreed that: Establishments transferred to German
figureheads by the Jewish proprietors after 28 March 1933 will be
considered as Jewish establishments for the duration of the defensive
boycott.
Signed: Streicher
Order No. 5
Concerning the defensive action against the Jewish horror and boycott
agitation beginning Saturday, 1 April at 10 AM, the local action
committees are again reminded to see to it most strictly:
1. That any use of force is to be avoided, establishments cannot be
closed by the committee or by its agents. On the other hand, closing by
the proprietor himself is not to be prevented.
Entering of Jewish establishments is strictly forbidden to SA or SS
members or other agents of the action committee.
The only duty of the defensive guards is to inform the public that the
proprietor of the establishment is a Jew.
2. That boycotting of establishments is refrained from if it has not
been definitely proved that the proprietor is a Jew.
3. That provocateurs cause no property damage which is counter to the
purpose of the defensive action.
4. That the action committee be kept informed of all details of the
course of the defensive action by the SA and SS controllers so as to be
constantly well posted.
5. Posters with provocative contents are forbidden.
Central Committee for defense against
the Jewish horror and boycott agitation.
Streicher.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2156-PS
NATIONAL SOCIALIST PARTY CORRESPONDENCE
NSK No. 357 29 March 1933
The central committee for defense against Jewish horror and boycott
agitation
NSK. The central committee for defense against Jewish horror and
boycott agitation announces:
Julius Streicher, member of the Reichstag, commissioned with the task
of creating and directing the central committee for defense against
Jewish horror and boycott agitation, began his work on Wednesday, 29
March. As presiding deputy of the central committee he appointed Karl
HOLZ (Nurnberg), the editor of the anti-Semitic weekly “Der Stuermer”.
The other members of the central committee are:
Robert Ley, Reichstag member, staff leader of the Fuehrer, in the
supreme leadership of the party organization.
Adolf Huehnlein, Major, Reichstag member, deputy chief of staff of
the S. A.
Heinrich Himmler, Reichstag member, Reich Fuehrer of the S. S.
Reinhold Muchow, deputy head of the National Socialist factory cell
leadership [Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenleitung].
Hans Oberlindober, Reichstag member, head of the National Socialist
list organization for the care of war victims.
Jakob Sprenger, Reichstag member, head of the National Socialist
league of public officials.
Walter Darre, Reichstag member, head of the agrarian-political Dept.
of the N. S. D. A. P.
Dr. von Renteln, Reichstag Fuehrer of the fighting league [Kampfbund]
of the trade middle class.
Dr. Hans Frank II, Reichstag member, head of the National Socialist
jurist’s league.
Dr. Gerhard Wagner, head of the National Socialist league of
physicians.
Willy Koerber, deputy of the Reich youth leader.
Dr. Achim Gercke, head of the National Socialist information
department of the Nazi party executive board [Reichsleitung].
The office of the central committee for defense against Jewish horror
and boycott agitation is located in Munich, Hotel “Reichsadler”, 32
Herzog Wilhelm Street, Room 56. (Telephone Munich 90-0-12.)
PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2163-PS
NATIONAL SOCIALIST YEARBOOK 1941
[Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1941]
Editor: Party Director for Organization of the NSDAP Dr. Robert Ley
The SS During the War-Year 1939/40.
In the foreground of the work and the battle of the SS during the war
year 1939/40 stands the fight of the Waffen-SS in the Poland-Campaign
and in the West, the matter-of-fact-employment of the leaders and men
of the General-SS in all sections of the Armed Forces and the enormous
performances of SS-Leaders and SS-men in the course of the work, which
the Fuehrer imposed on the Reichsfuehrer-SS in his capacity as “Reich
Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationality” by order of
7th October 1939.
As the Reichsfuehrer-SS said: “Everyone of us knows that he is
a representative of the Black Corps and has to do honor to this
community by the best possible performance of his station, whether he
is employed on the field of battle in the divisions of the Armed-SS,
or whether he fights as an officer or soldier of the Army, whether he
has been detailed as unit or part of the police, and serves the inner
order of the Reich, or whether he fights against the enemies of the
State as a member of the Security Service, or whether he labors in
the framework of the historic mission, which has been carried over
to the Reichsfuehrer as Reich-Commissioner for the Consolidation
of German Nationality, or whether he is professionally with the
home-front. The revolutionary spirit of fighting and sacrifice of this
National-Socialist formation, its daily employment and hereby the
best and most severe selection have determined its direction and its
constant unique way.
The firm believing tie to the great blood stream of the people, the
knowledge of the fulfillment of the deepest German longing by service
to the people, this welding for a firm inner unity of solidarity which
the SS could accomplish in the course of hard and fully filled years
were the suppositions for the now following, largely increased missions
of the Black Corps.” [Gunter d’Alquen].
The Armed-SS-divisions, a garrisoned organization, which have been
constructed in accordance with the experiences of the SS and with the
National-Socialist principles of selection, education, and formation of
the will and leadership have been fully materialized during the winter
1938/39. They are at the exclusive disposal of the Fuehrer.
Already in March 1939 the SS-Emergency Force was required in this new
form for the pacification of the Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia.
By decree of the Fuehrer they were committed in the framework of the
Army.
Parts of the SS-Emergency Force crossed the German-Czech border
together with units of the Army Groups 3 and 5, in the early hours
of 15th March 1939. During the preceding night Army-units and the
Leibstandarte “Adolf Hitler” had occupied Maehrisch-Ostrau and
Wirkowitz. The German population in these localities was seriously
threatened by Chauvinist Czechs. In the early morning of the same day 3
trucks with SS-leaders arrived at the Police Head Office in Prague and
contacted the local security-officials.
The commitment of the SS-Emergency-Force in restoring order within
collapsing Czechoslovakia, was their trial of efficiency in the new
motorized form. After their return from this action a new order
of the Fuehrer requested the immediate enlargement of the present
SS-Emergency-Force into a motorized division. At once, new units
were formed. As speedily as possible the SS-Artillery Regiments, the
SS-Anti-Tank Battalions, the SS-Anti-Aircraft Machinegun Battalion and
the SS-Reconnaissance Squadrons were formed.
The training of future leaders was undertaken by the Junker schools at
Tolz and Braunschweig in which the selected SS men were trained for
a soldierly and politically perfect Fuehrer Corps under the harshest
conditions.
The aim of the summer training 1939 was the training of the new groups
to make a troop which had grown to cope with any situation.
On 22nd March 1939 the Memel-land returned to the Reich, on the basis
of an agreement with Lithuania. Also the SS had taken part in the
liberation of the old German province, especially the Eastern-Prussian
SS.
In the liberation of Danzig in August 1939 the SS-Home-Guard especially
excelled.
When in August 1939 the Polish despotism grew and acts of violence
increased day by day, the quickly formed SS-Home-Guard entered the
scene.
The SS-Home-Guard formed for the first time in Danzig on 18th August
1939, at which time they received their colors from District Leader
[Gauleiter] Forester. The commitment of the SS-Home-Guard made
Danzig ready for defense and it became possible to proclaim the
District-Leader of Danzig to become Head of the State of the Free
City of Danzig in opposition to the Polish threats. This was done in
accordance with the “Law for the Lifting of Distress from the People
and State” to be effective as of 23rd August 1939. The political
department of the Danzig President of the Police was at the same time
placed under the Senate under the title “Secret State Police Danzig”,
as an independent department. A further ordinance created the authority
to appoint State-Commissioners for essential concerns.
When the Fuehrer gave the order that on 1st September the German sword
should be wielded against Polish despotism, in order to break force by
force, the SS-Home-Guard was employed in this battle.
They have proved their courage especially in the fighting for Dirschau
and Gdynia and in defeating the Polish Army of the Corridor.
During the Polish Campaign, formations of the SS-Emergency-Force
attached to the Army often fought shoulder to shoulder with units of
the Army at decisive places. The report which the High Command of the
Wehrmacht made public on the 23rd September 1939 regarding the Polish
Campaign pays special tribute to this fact.
How much courage and daring commitment the leaders and men have shown
during the Polish Campaign, is proven by the great number of Iron
Crosses awarded to officers and men of the Waffen-SS in the Polish
Campaign for gallantry in action.
Iron Crosses First Class were awarded to 26 officers and 1
non-commissioned officer, the Iron Cross Second Class to 241 officers,
227 non-coms, and 203 men.
Numerous reports contain the heroic actions of the Waffen-SS in the war
against the Allied Western Powers, especially the most daring advance
of the SS-Regiment “Der Fuehrer”. Reports about the actions of the
Waffen-SS in this war shall be rendered when final victory has been won.
By decree of 1st August 1939 (RGBl I. p. 1335) the Fuehrer amplified
the provisions of the Law concerning the Care and Welfare of
former Members of the Armed Forces, dated 26th August 1938, making
them applicable to former members of the SS-Junker schools, the
SS-Death-Head-Units and the strengthening of the SS-Death-Head-Units
and their bereaved.
The provisions of the Law concerning the Care and Welfare of Members of
the Armed Forces are therefore applicable to all armed units of the SS.
The Reich-Minister for the Interior issued, in agreement with the
Reich-Finance-Minister and the Chief of the High Command Armed Forces,
an executionary decree to the decree of the Fuehrer, dated 3rd August
1939 (RGBl I. p. 1342). By this decree the Care and Welfare Office of
the SS, created originally for the SS-Emergency-Force, was commissioned
to carry out the care and welfare of all remaining armed units of
the SS. A further Care-and-Welfare-Office-SS was created, which is
subordinate to the Main-Welfare-Office-SS.
On the basis of an agreement between the Reichs-Fuehrer-SS and
Chief of the German Police and the Chief of the High Command of the
Wehrmacht--the Reich-Finance-Minister consenting--the whole care and
welfare of former members of the Sudeten-German Free Corps and their
bereaved has been designated to the Care and Welfare authorities of the
SS to become effective immediately.
On 7th October 1939 the Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police
was, by decree of the Fuehrer, appointed “Reich-Commissioner for the
Consolidation of German Nationality” with the duty to evacuate the
persons of German race from the Baltic countries and from the former
Polish territories of the Western Ukraine and White Russia. This is
to be done in accordance with the National-Socialist ideology stating
that common blood and race should have a common home as living space.
It was to be his further duty to begin the racial consolidation and
resettlement of the reclaimed German Eastern territories.
The SS takes a decisive part in this historic task and its solution.
The persons of German race from Galizia, Wolhynia, and the Narew area
have been settled without loss or friction in full agreement with the
Russian authorities.
For some time now the Reichsfuehrer-SS has had at his disposal an
office under the management of SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz, the
“National German Central Office” [Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle-VM]. This
office has the task of dealing with National German questions and the
raising of required support.
In addition to the VM the Immigration Center Offices
[Einwanderungszentralen, EWZ.] with the Chief of the Security
Police and the Security Service of the SS (under the management of
SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. Sandberger) and the Settlement Staff of
the Reich-Commissioner were created, which, in cooperation with the
NSV [National Socialist Welfare Organization] and the Reich-Railroad
Agency, took charge of the Migration of National Germans.
Numerous SS-leaders and SS-men helped with untiring effort in bringing
about this systematic migration of peoples, which has no parallel in
history.
There were many authoritative and administrative difficulties which,
however, were immediately overcome due to the unbureaucratic working
procedure. This was especially guaranteed above all by the employment
of SS leaders.
The procedure called “Durchschluesung” [literally passing through the
lock] takes 3 to 4 hours as a rule. The resettler is being passed
through 8 to 9 offices, following each other in organic order:
registration office, card-index office, certificate and photo-office,
property office, and biological hereditary and sanitary test office.
The latter was entrusted to doctors and medical personnel of the SS
and of the Armed Forces. The SS-Corps Areas [Oberabschnitte] Alpenland,
North-West, Baltic Sea, Fulda-Werra, South and South-East, the
SS-Main Office [SS-Hauptamt], the NPEA [National Political Education
Institution] Vienna, and the SS-Cavalry-School in Hamburg provided
most of the SS-Officer and SS-Non-Coms who worked at this job of
resettlement.
Up to 30th April 1940, the Immigration Center dealt with 149,513
persons. Of these 56,777 were Germans from the Baltic countries, 92,736
Germans from Galizia, Wolhynia and the Narew-provinces.
While the resettlement of the Germans from Galizia and Wolhynia is now
in full swing, the resettlement of the Germans from Esthonia and Latvia
has nearly been finished. Of these resettling Baltic Germans, 37,134
persons have been resettled in the Warthe-district, a small number in
the district Danzig-Western Prussia, and in the Reich proper.
The statistics office of the Immigration Center dealt with 107,882
migraters from Galizia, Wolhynia and the Narew-area up to 23rd March
1940.
The settlement, establishment and care of the newly-won peasantry in
the liberated Eastern territory will be one of the most cherished tasks
of the SS in the whole future.
The Security Service [SD] of the SS is a thorough political
intelligence service, created in accordance with the principles of
racial and ideological selection as required by the SS; it became the
real security service for the SS, the Party and the Reich. It has
proved its significance during the war year of 1939/40.
The Security Service is organized in Corps Areas and division areas
in close similarity to the General-SS; its Chief is SS-Gruppenfuehrer
Heydrich, who is at the same time Chief of the Security Police. Part
of the duties of the Security Service is to watch for any changes in
the manner of working and the tactics of the enemy and to protect the
people against any kind of sedition. Leaders and men of the Security
Service work in close cooperation with the German Security Police,
whose members have the duty also to investigate and to fight against
any nationally hostile intentions in the provinces of the Protectorate
and the newly won Eastern territory, to evaluate and to gather the
results of the uprisings.
The Fuehrer also assigned missions of police nature during the war
year to the SS aside from those on military matters. Because of its
ideological and political education the spirit of the SS is alive in
the German Police.
Thus a front has been created in which the State and the Party, the
official and the soldier not only cooperate in the defense against
political and criminal enemies of the Nation, but also as protectors
of the people. The Police, whose new members are recruited out of the
ranks of the SS, has become friend and helper of the community of the
people.
The Chief of the SS-Main Office SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Heissmeyer, was
appointed Inspector of the National-Political Education Office. Thereby
it has been ensured that the selected men of the SS-NPEA (National
Political Education Office) are being educated exactly in the spirit
of the SS. The educators and teachers of the NPEA are exclusively SS
officers and non-coms.
The SS takes its share in the work in every sphere of racial life,
according to the motto given to us by the Fuehrer as our obligation:
“Our Honor means Faithfulness”.
Our work and fight continues in the spirit of the proclamation of the
Reichsfuehrer SS: “Thus we have fallen in and are marching forward, in
accordance with unchangeable laws, as a National Socialist soldierly
order of men of Nordic designation and as a sworn community of their
tribes, towards a far future. We wish and believe that we are not only
the grandchildren fighting better to the end, but that we shall be,
further, the ancestors of yet unborn generations, which are necessary
for the eternal life of the German and Germanic People.”
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2164-PS
NATIONAL SOCIALIST YEARBOOK 1940 [Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1940]
Editor: Dr. Robert Ley, Pp. 365-371
The SS (The Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP)
The SS since the Reichparteitag 1938
Between today and the Reichsparteitag 1938 there is a span of time
which, saturated with important political events, was rich in missions
and commitments for the SS as a whole. Only three of those occurrences
of special significance are mentioned:
the incorporation of the Sudetenland into the Reich,
the founding of the Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia,
the return of Memel to the greater Germany.
When the march into the liberated provinces of the Sudetenland began on
that memorable 1 October 1938, the Emergency Force [Verfuegungstruppen]
as well as the Death Head units [Totenkopfverbaende] were along with
those in the lead. Already previously they have proven themselves in
the fulfillment of their assigned missions in every respect and thereby
contributed to the results. However, not only the garrisoned parts of
the SS were employed. Also the General SS [Allgemeine SS] were brought
forth for special missions. Thousands of younger and older SS comrades
were employed for the strengthening of the Police and for the guarding
of Concentration Camps and have faithfully fulfilled their duty
throughout the weeks.
The 15th of March 1939 brought a similar utilization of the SS when it
served to establish order in the collapsing Czechoslovakia. This action
ended with the founding of the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia.
Only a week later, on the 29th March 1939, Memel also returned to the
Reich upon basis of an agreement with Lithuania. Again it was the SS,
here above all, the East Prussian SS, which played a prominent part in
the liberation of this province.
Aside from these illustrated commitments, the cordon-service
[Absperrdienst], which is included among the well known missions of the
SS, goes on. It placed increased requirements on the Berlin SS as a
result of visits by the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, (21 to
23 May 1939), the Prince regent Paul of Yugoslavia (1 to 5 June 1939),
and the return of the Condar Legion (6 June 1939). Also these missions
were readily fulfilled in cooperation with other formations of the
movement.
It is here especially emphasized that the SS did justice to the demand
required of it in all cases and have proven themselves worthy of the
confidence of the Fuehrer.
Naturally the territorial expansion of the Reich also brought along a
further expansion of the SS.
The return of Austria already resulted in the creation of the
SS-Regiment “Der Fuehrer” in the SS-V.T. [Verfuegungstruppen] and the
creation of the SS-Regiment “Austria” in the SS-T. [Totenkopfverbaende]
and the formation of the SS Corps area “Donau” in the General
[Allgemeine] SS. Likewise, the incorporation of the Sudeten-German
provinces necessitates the organization of new units by the Allgemeinen
SS.
The founding of the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia also brought the
possibility to construct an SS here which consists out of the
independent SS division XXXIX in Prague with the 107th SS Regiment in
Iglau and 108th in Prague, which are under the command of the higher SS
and Police-fuehrer Bohemia-Moravia, SS-Brigadier General Frank.
Upon the return of Memel, the whole Memel Ordnungsdienst was taken over
in the SS by the Reichsfuehrer SS. The members of the new Regiment
retained the right to wear the native insignia of Memel, the elk
antlers, as collar insignia.
The SS-Emergency Force [Verfuegungstruppen]
The SS-Emergency Force [Verfuegungstruppen]. The SS-Verfuegungstruppe
is a standing armed force although it belongs to the SS in its
entirety. It is neither a part of the Police nor a part of the
Wehrmacht and stands at the exclusive disposal of the Fuehrer.
The construction of the individual groups of the SS-Verfuegungstruppe
is similar to the corresponding units of the Army for organizational
reasons. The Truppe was recruited out of volunteers from the number who
are conscripted [Wehrpflichtigen]; these however are still subjected
to special selective laws of the SS in addition to their usefulness
determined by the Wehrmacht.
In the SS-Verfuegungstruppe, in which they must obligate themselves to
four years service, they fulfill the first two years of their active
lawful Army conscription.
In the year 1938 after the reincorporation of Austria into the Reich,
new SS-Regiment “Der Fuehrer” was formed in Austria by Fuehrer
decree. It appeared for the first time in public as a group on the
Reichsparteitag 1938.
During the September crisis of the year 1938, the SS-Verfuegungstruppe
was placed under the Army by special decree of the Fuehrer in order to
solve the mission of the liberation of the Sudeten provinces with this
combination.
In all parts of the newly returned German Sudeten provinces, units
of the SS-Verfuegungstruppen marched over the border, along with the
first formations of the Army. All the tasks assigned to the Truppe were
entirely fulfilled in every case. Hereby, the Truppe showed excellent
accomplishments.
Following the completion of this employment the order came to
completely motorize the Truppe during the course of the winter.
This brought a huge amount of work for all officers and men of the
SS-Verfuegungstruppe for the winter.
In addition to the organizational measures which were required by
this rearrangement, the training of a large number of drivers for
the various types of vehicles had to take place in this short time.
Specialists had to be schooled. Aside from that, the leadership
principles of offices and men had to be retaught. While everyone still
worked with all their might in the fulfillment of this task, already
the March of 1939 saw the new employment for the pacification of the
protectorate Bohemia-Moravia.
By decree of the Fuehrer the SS-Verfuegungstruppe again was committed
into the framework of the Army. This commitment offered an excellent
test of efficiency for the employability of the SS Verfuegungstruppe.
Hardly was the work of motorization completed when a new employment
in this new form had to follow without any apparent large preparatory
practices.
The return from this commitment however in no way signified the
continuation of the uninterrupted training period. A new decree by
the Fuehrer demanded the immediate conversion of the existing units
of the SS-Verfuegungstruppen into a motorized division. And so the
organizational preparations for the construction of new groups already
began on the military training grounds following their commitment
in the protectorate. The SS Artillery Regiment, the SS Anti-tank
Battalion, the SS Anti-aircraft machine gun Battalion and the SS
Reconnaissance Squadrons were created.
The training of these new formations to a battle-ready, employable unit
was the goal of the so short summer training of the year 1939.
The SS-Death Head Units [Totenkopfverbaende]
Once a year the SS-Totenkopfverbaende step forth into the open on a
large scale: on the Reichparteitag. The participation on this day is
a reward for the officers and men for the heavy services accomplished
during the preceding year. At the same time it should bear testimony of
the exclusiveness and of the soldierly discipline of this Armed part of
the SS.
If the work of construction and the commitment during the preceding
years should be quickly summarized then it must be said beforehand that
hardly a young German goes through a tougher school of self-training
and self-discipline as the men of the SS-Totenkopf regiments. The
service in the concentration camps, the guarding of State enemies and
of criminal sub-humanity requires unheard of demands of the man in
physical as well as in psychological respects; the man who fulfills
his duty day by day for the community in his unselfish commitment and
in his exemplary trustworthiness. Here it does not only mean to be
a soldier, but also beyond that, to be a character who remains hard
despite all enmities and who remains hard toward any temptations which
may approach him. Only the best human material, selected according to
character and heredity, grew in this organization for service.
During the last year, as in all of the years of its existence, the
spiritual tools for their daily employment were given by schooling
and instruction in the quiet work of the troop while the military
training provided for the increased striking power of the troop. This
systematic training made it possible for the SS Totenkopf regiments
[Standarte] to do justice to all their missions which were assigned
to them outside of the sphere of their daily service. Was it the
employment during the reincorporation of the Sudeten district into the
Reich in which especially the men of the SS Totenkopf regiments were
placed in the front lines and where it served to execute the quickest
and most reliable commitment capabilities under orders; or was it
the reception of foreign State officials which required the troop to
serve as parade troops in public--always the SS Totenkopf regiments
immaculately fulfilled their duties. Therefore, they can look back
with justifiable pride upon all their achievements, in which they were
employed and where they served to represent the SS. This also goes for
their employment on district and county days [Kreistag] of the Party or
on other occasions, as the Reich Warriors day in Kassel for example.
Everywhere the men happily and unselfishly served according to their
motto: “Be more than appears.”
One of the main missions in the past year was the continued
construction of Special Units [Sondereinheiten], for example, all
matters concerning transportation, communication and medical affairs.
In addition, there also was the establishment of E-Battalions
(Educational), the task of which is the training, in courses of 3
months each, of those comrades of the General [Allgemeinen] SS who are
not inducted for service in the Wehrmacht. They were trained in weapons
and terrain.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2168-PS
Writings of the Hochschule for Politics Edited by Paul
Meier-Beneckenstein
II The organizational structure of the Third Reich
Number 21
“The German laborer of brain and fist, who marches in the SA, has long
ago grown out of the bourgeoise notion of duty behind which stands
‘I must’ and has grown into the sublime feeling of the soldierly
conception of duty which culminates in the absolute voluntariness of ‘I
want to’.
We SA men want to live as men, to fight as men, and to die as men with
the consciousness that we have done our utmost for and devoted our
utmost to Fuehrer and Folk.”
/s/ VICTOR LUTZE
CONTENTS
I. History of the SA. The Path of the Struggle--The SA in the Third
Reich.
II. Organization. The Branches of the SA--The Operational Staff of
the Supreme SA Headquarters--The Operational Main Office--The Main
Office for Education--The Main Office for Health--The Main Office for
Personal Affairs--The Main Administrative Office--The Main Office
for NS Tournaments--The Adjutant’s Office of the Chief of Staff--The
Special Units of the SA--Engineer and Signal SA--The Mounted SA--The
Naval SA--The SA Sanitation Men--The “Feldherrnhalle” Regiment--The
Reichfuehrer School.
III. PROSPECTUS. The Law of Willingness to Volunteer.
THE SA
History, Work, Aim, and Organization of the Storm Troops of the Fuehrer
and the Supreme SA Headquarters.
Compiled on order of the Supreme SA Headquarters.
By SA--Sturmfuehrer
Dr. Ernst Bayer
1938
Junker and Luennhaupt Publishing House, Berlin
I. HISTORY OF THE SA
The Path of the Struggle
Germany experienced in the year 1918 a revolution whose spiritual
bearers were people to whom morals, honor, and love of the Fatherland
were unknown conceptions, who ridiculed soldierly virtues and fighting
behavior and laughed at the performance of the German Army. Their
example and their propaganda found followers because the man of that
time had not learned to think clear politically, because he was tossed
here and there between political, economic, and religious directions
and interests, and because he did not have the power, to decide for
himself, out of a deep anchorage and belief, in a great ideological
idea, and to hold himself firm against a breakdown. That which the
Reich of the Kaiser had failed to do, which was the internal shaping of
the human being into a knowing and convinced fighter for the nation,
avenged itself in 1918 bitterly.
At this time of the complete breakdown of Germany, the Fuehrer with his
Idea began the march among the people. And beside and with him marched
men, embodiment of soldierly spirit, who perceived their highest
mission in life to be in service for a new greater Germany, ready to
enter upon and to sacrifice everything for the victory of National
Socialism. They are the first political soldiers of the Fuehrer, the
original cell of the SA.
Are we able today to write a history of the SA? Scarcely, for this
history is still too much the present and we stand too close yet to
the experiences of a great period in order to be able to measure and
evaluate correctly the immense performance of the fighting period and
of the upheaval in its forcible measures.
Numbers are distinctive of the picture of history. And, indeed, if we
would give an historical presentation of the fight and the performance
of the SA, we must not only name the dates of great events, which
are apparent to all the world, but also we must go out into everyday
affairs and experience there the path, spirit, and struggle of the SA
as an historical performance of the unfolding power of a nation. Dates
and numbers, however, win meaning and become valuable only if they come
alive as the expression of a great deed, of an offered sacrifice or
of an historical performance for the nation. And the SA has produced
innumerable of such dates and figures which distinguish the path of
the SA as the sacrificial way of the best of a nation. Along this
path stand the eternal monuments of over 400 blood witnesses of the
Movement, who gave their lives for the resurrection of Germany.
The SA was not founded as one forms just any sort of club. It was born
in midst of strife and received from the Fuehrer himself the name
“Storm Troops” after that memorable hall battle in the Hofbrauhaus
at Munich on the 4th of November 1921. Forty-six National Socialist
regulars stood against a thousand Marxists on this memorable day. The
Fuehrer had spoken to his men before the meeting: “Today for the first
time you will have to preserve the faith of the Movement come what may.
Not one of us leaves the hall unless they bear us out as dead men.
He who cowardly yields, from him I will personally tear off his arm
band and take away his badge. Think about the fact that attack at the
slightest attempt to make an explosion is the best defense.”
In a bitter struggle 46 German men, who were determined to carry
through to the end even at the sacrifice of their lives, beat out
of the hall and put to flight a thousand Marxists. It was a baptism
of fire and a test of the willingness to bear a burden which this
young shocktroop of the Movement had masterfully undergone and which
secured for the Party peaceful meetings up to 9 November 1925, for no
Marxist dared to raise his fist again in National Socialist meetings.
Outside, however, on the streets the dissembling strife continued in
strengthened extent.
Blood and sacrifice were the most faithful companions of the young SA
on its hard path to power. The Storm Troops were and still are today
the fist and propaganda arm of the Movement. The SA was not only
messenger, but also pattern for the Idea, the spiritual and physical
armament of the Party and the assembly basin for the fanatical fighters
of the National Socialist ideology. So the SA became the school for
practical National Socialism for all German men; it has so remained up
to the present day and it will be so forever in the future.
It is one of the greatest historical services of the SA that at the
time when the German People’s Army had to undergo a dissolution, it
held high those virtues which marked the German soldier: personal
courage, idealism, willingness to sacrifice, consciousness of
responsibility, power to decide, and leadership. Thus, the SA became
among the people the messenger and bearer of German armed strength and
German armed spirit.
The 4th of November 1921 was not only the birth hour of the SA by
itself, but was the day from which the young fighting troop of the
Movement took its stand at the focal point of political events. With
the clear recognition that now the unity of a troop led to victory,
the SA was systematically reorganized and so-called “Centuries” were
established. The year 1922 saw the SA variously in action. On the 16th
of August the first marching columns demonstrated along with patriotic
associations against the protective law of the Republic. The Marxists
appeared but the SA struck destructively and by fighting gained for
itself the liberty and right of the streets. The flow into the SA grew
so, that in September 1922 eight Hundertschaften could be raised in
Munich. These quickly grew further. On the 23rd of November the 11th
Hundertschaft was formed, which was composed almost exclusively of
students. The present deputy of the Fuehrer, Rudolf Hess, took over the
leadership of this Century.
“We have to teach the Marxists that the master of the streets in the
future is National Socialism, exactly as it will once be the master of
the State”; thus, Adolf Hitler sketched the outlines of the task of
the SA. And sooner perhaps than one supposed, the opportunity came to
let deeds speak. The march in Coburg on the 14th and 15th of October
1922 became a beacon of the Germany which was awakening. It was to be
a “German Day” set up by the citizens and it became a break-through
battle for National Socialism. It became the day of the SA on which
800 SA men under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and Naval Lieutenant
retired, Klintzsch, broke completely the Red Terror.
This mighty success and its linking danger for the system of government
led to a step by the Berlin government which was often repeated in
the following years: prohibition of the NSDAP for Prussia and other
states. The more lively the activity became in Bavaria. For the first
time, on 28 January 1923, the Reich Party Day of the NSDAP was held
in Munich, where the four standards designed by Adolf Hitler himself
were handed over to the SA as campaign symbols. And here, too, the
11th Hundertschaft appeared for the first time in uniform: grey cap,
wind-breaker, swastika band, and knotted stick.
The Ruhr invasion by the French caused the conversion of the SA, which
up to then had been only a political fighting troop, into an armed
association for the purpose of employing these battle-tested men in
a desired active resistance against foreign domination. All pressed
for a decision. And in the matter the Storm Troops of the Fuehrer did
not want to be inactive. They joined themselves with other fighting
Bavarian bands and formed the “Labor group of patriotic fighting
associations” under the leadership of retired First Lieutenant Kriebel.
In March 1923 the last commandant of the Richthofen Squadron, Hermann
Goering, took command of the entire SA. Activity and readiness is
the password. Out at Forstenrieder Park and on the Froettmaninger
heath near Munich the Labor group held great exercises, at which on
May 1st an armed parade of the whole Bavarian SA and other fighting
associations ensues on the Oberwiesen field. This day was supposed to
bring the final reckoning with the Marxists. Only the employment of the
Reichswehr and police prevented this intention.
The decision is pressing; the collapse of the Ruhr resistance and
its consequences threaten the unity of the Reich and seem to bring
about chaos. The 8th of November comes around. That evening, full of
hope and certainty of success; the betrayal of that night, base and
unbelievable. No one believes yet that men in the fateful and difficult
hour have betrayed the struggle for Germany. On the morning of November
9th, Adolf Hitler casts his young Movement, his faithful and upright
fighters, onto the scales of decision; the march to the Hall of the
Field Generals through jubilant Munich. Betrayal causes this March of
Triumph to become a Death March for the best of the nation.
The Fuehrer is in custody. The Head of the Movement is missing in
the most difficult hours after the miscarriage of the revolution.
Everything appears beaten and lost. But one thing is not: that spirit
of the Storm Troops which has fought for the new Reich and which has
become, under the concept “Spirit of the SA”, the pattern for voluntary
and ceaseless preparedness for sacrifice and initiative for German men.
And it was victorious over betrayal.
The faithful collaborators and comrades of the Fuehrer rescue what
is to be rescued. The Illegal SA continues and waits for the return
of the Fuehrer from the prison in Landsberg. He returns in 1925, and
the men of the Storm Troops, with the same spirit of readiness for
sacrifice and use, come to him and are strongest support to him at
the Party refounding, which occurs on February 27, 1925. In his basic
directions for the reestablishment of the National Socialist German
Labor Party, Adolf Hitler ordered the refounding of the SA as a pure
Party organization for meeting hall protection and propaganda, without
having the character of an armed association.
And now a fight for Germany began of such a sort as was never before
fought. What are names, what are words or figures which are not indeed
able to express the magnitude of belief and of idealism on one side and
the magnitude of hate on the other side.
1925: The Party lives again, and its iron spearhead is the SA. With it
the power and meaning of the National Socialist movement grows. Around
the central events of the whole Movement, the Reich Party Days, dates,
decisions, fights, and victory roll themselves into a long list of
German men of undenying willingness to sacrifice.
One cannot count up all of this at one time. However, we wish to
present the sense and meaning as we tell what the SA was: the political
strong arm, the visible representation of the idealism and daily
initiative of the Party. Generally, it stopped the breaches. As an
example of a seemingly impossible deed, the 11th of February 1927
should be firmly preserved. It is the day on which the SA broke the Red
Terror, with heavy sacrifice, in the hall battle at the Pharaoh’s Hall
in Berlin, the stronghold of the Communists, and thereby established
itself decisively in the capital city of the Reich. In considering the
badly wounded SA men, Dr. Goebbels coined the phrase “Unknown SA man”,
who silently fights and bleeds, obeying only his duty.
Possession of the streets is the key to power in the state--for this
reason the SA marched and fought. The public would have never received
knowledge from the agitative speeches of the little Reichstag faction
and its propaganda or from the desires and aims of the Party, if the
martial tread and battle song of the SA companies had not beat the
measure for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of
affairs in the governmental system. They wanted the young Movement to
keep silent. Nothing was to be read in the press about the labor of the
National Socialists, not to mention the basic aims of its platform.
They simply did not want to awake any interest in it. However, the
martial tread of SA took care that even the drowsiest citizens had to
see at least the existence of a fighting troop.
The SA conquered for itself a place in public opinion and the
leadership of the National Socialist Movement dictated to its opponents
the law for quarrels. The SA was already a state within a state; a part
of the future in a sad present.
In this period there was only one thing: discretionless use of the
person and genuine spirit of offensive. This became more essential from
year to year for sudden attacks on individual National Socialists and
whole columns piled up in frightful quantity. The death roster of the
Movement grew. However, the greater the losses became, the more tightly
the SA men closed themselves into a sworn fighting partnership. Its
exemplary employment did not remain without effect. The best from the
ranks of the Reds came to the “Nazis”, because they were convinced by
their deeds. When at the very end of 1926 the volunteer-corps fighters
of the various Rossbach groups joined themselves to the SA, the SA
received not only strengthening alone through that but also strong
buoyancy.
With the end of 1926 there begins a new phase of development in the
history of the SA. The Storm Troops until now had stood in loose
connection with the political organization. A Reich branch or central
command office was not yet in existence. Both were created with the
ensuing founding of the Supreme SA Leadership Headquarters, on November
1st, 1926. With that a central control originated to which the SA, as
well as the SS and the HJ, were subordinate. Adolf Hitler appointed the
Gau leader and SA Fuehrer of the Gau of the Ruhr, Franz von Pfeffer as
the highest SA Leader. In the course of the years 1926 and 1927 the
SA was uniformly reorganized and divided into divisions [Gruppen],
Gau areas [Gaustuerme], brigades [Brigaden], regiments [Standarten],
battalions [Sturme], and platoons [Trupps] and at the same time a sharp
separation from the political organization was achieved. That which had
been established in practice became now the clear internal orientation
for the SA: the Storm Troop men should be educated into political
soldiers, politically dependable, spiritually motivated, physically
steeled, disciplined and devoted to the Fuehrer in unconditioned
fidelity and obedience. Thus the SA became the mightiest instrument in
the hands of the Fuehrer.
1927: The first huge demonstration in Nurnberg of National Socialism
which can no longer be dead silent. 30,000 SA men march a bloc of will
and strength. The System becomes nervous. Up to then the Executive has
looked on inactively for the most part. From then on it directed all
measures against National Socialism and allowed thereby more and more
liberty to Communism and Marxism. The word “Forbidden” was all too
well known to SA men. The Berlin SA, which had been forbidden with the
Party in May 1927, coined the password: In spite of prohibition, not
dead. And this slogan, to the discomfort of the System, became an all
too living reality when it issued like hail prohibitions of all shades
and shapes in the following years. One of the old veterans coined the
phrase once: the history of the SA and of the NSDAP generally has been
a single, almost uninterrupted succession of prohibitions. Something
was always prohibited. There was never a period in which the SA was
granted nearly the same liberty in all Germany as was granted to the
Reichbanner or certain patriotic associations.
Brown trousers and boots in themselves were dangerous for the State.
The white shirt had to substitute for the brown shirt for a long time.
Often the SA men came to meetings and parades with naked upper parts of
the body and with bare feet, and many in their underwear, because along
the way the pieces of clothes which were dangerous to the State were
taken off of them. Chicanery after Chicanery. But all of this had to be
borne. However, murder and terror governed this year of the strife. And
always it was National Socialists who were stamped as the attackers.
Emergency orders and measures for the protection of the Republic
aided the waves of prohibition. They promised themselves results from
this because they believed they dealt with factionists and did not
recognize that these National Socialists were bearers and heralds of an
ideology. They themselves were conscious that they were the last levy
of the German Folk. Thus the SA grew to be the troop which fought most
strongly against the decaying Republic. It was spared no sacrifice but
also no prohibition, no trickery, and no item could stem its march.
Almost 300 dead comrades marched with the ranks of the SA, foremost
among them the songster of the Movement, Horst Wessel. His sacrificial
death became a new beacon of the struggle for Germany. The labor and
the struggle of the SA was not in vain. They stood at the foremost
front of election fights. Adolf Hitler himself on the 2nd of September
1930 took over the leadership of the SA as the Supreme SA Fuehrer. He
himself guided his SA in the fateful election fight of the year 1930.
On the evening of the 14th of September the first battle was won. 107
representatives of the NSDAP took their seats in the German Reichstag.
A huge victory was earned through the fight, but, the System took no
reckoning of it.
1931: It was to be the year of decision. The Movement grew steadily;
everywhere the election results were great. The burden which tested the
SA was enormous, and only an iron discipline and internal union helped
it to bear all the difficulties.
SA, SS and HJ were newly articulated. On April the 1st the National
Socialist Automobile Corps as an auxiliary organization of the SA,
which performed valuable service at election time, was founded. The
17th and 18th of October brought the SA meeting in Brunswick at which
104,000 SA and SS men passed in review before Adolf Hitler. Here before
these faithful fighters the Fuehrer raised before all the world claim
to the total state leadership by National Socialism. The men returned
to every day affairs with enormous enthusiasm and new courage which
could not be dampened by the announcement on December 8 prohibiting the
uniform in all regions of the Reich.
The fateful year 1932 brings a heavy blow to the Movement. On April
13 the SA and SS are prohibited within the entire regions of the
Reich, even after the vote of unprecedented activity in the second
election for Reich president on April 10, 1932, had been 13,400,000
for the National Socialists. They wanted to beat an organization by
the most brutal means. The wearers of the brown shirt were treated
like criminals. Everything attainable was confiscated. SA homes and
SA kitchens which gave protection and meals to needy and jobless SA
men were pitilessly closed. Nevertheless, with exemplary discipline
the SA and SS carries on and does not allow themselves to be enticed
into rashness. As simple party partners the SA men fulfill their duty
now. Finally on June 14th the uniform and demonstration prohibition is
raised. Communism and Marxism raise themselves and want to stop the
victory parade with bloody force. Not less than 32 National Socialists
among whom were SA and SS men and Hitler Youths, fall as sacrifices to
the Red Terror in a short six weeks. The Bloody Sunday of Altona was
a terrible indictment against the governmental system. Eighteen Folk
comrades are killed and 50 badly hurt. Nevertheless, the SA remains
disciplined and unshaken. It is not the least of its meritorious
services that the Reichstag election of 31 July 1932 brings the NSDAP
a huge victory and makes the Movement the strongest Party in the
Reichstag. And in spite of all, the SA men are still unprotected game,
having nothing for their protection but their own strength and the
fidelity of their comrades. It is difficult to clothe in words what
lies and slanders were poured out over the SA during this period; it is
also difficult to tell with what incomparable discipline and devotion
these men have fought. “Bullies and beaters” they were called by the
satiated citizenry, and yet it was they who protected the security of
the citizenry from Bolshevism. “There can be no thanks for anyone when
considering this greatest success of our Movement, but there is only
the duty of all of us to take up and continue the fight again with
renewed and increased strength”--thus Adolf Hitler recalled to mind on
the night of the victory of his Movement, and that was a command for
the SA.
The time of the most difficult trials arrives. The SA knows it is for
the ultimate. Victory, already within grasp, must be finally gained
by fighting. Comrades fall but unswervingly the columns march. The
Fuehrer told them: “Victory belongs to him who in this fight brings the
last levy and the last battalion onto the battlefield.” And the SA was
prepared to enter its last battalion.
On the 22nd of January 1933 the decision, morally, comes. At the
Bulowplatz before the Karl-Liebknecht House in Berlin, the Moscow
Center in Germany, the Berlin SA parades. Before this collected
strength of the Party the hirelings of Moscow crept cowardly into their
lurking holes. Hour after hour the SA men passed in review before the
bulwark of Communism and none of the Moscow disciples dared to raise a
fist. It was a victory for the SA, the significance of which could only
be measured later.
Then the day dawns which meant victory and fulfillment of the struggle
of the SA: the 30th of January 1933. No command was given on this day,
and yet ten thousands of SA men and National Socialists stood ready
in the evening, in their old tattered brown shirts in which they had
marched through murder and terror, to greet the Fuehrer, their Highest
SA-Fuehrer, as Chancellor of the German Reich. In these SA men the
young Germany marched through the Brandenburg Gate into a Reich which
they had fought for at the foremost front and which to form and to
carry today is the highest commandment of their lives.
THE SA IN THE THIRD REICH
Just as there was no celebration of victory by Adolf Hitler and his
fighting comrades after the seizure of power, so was there no moment
of rest for the SA men. What was worth cleaning up, was cleaned up.
Whether as auxiliary police or with special orders, whether as a
propagandist or as helper, the SA man in general was there and labored
silently as the shining example of the Idea in the structure of the
new State. Even after victory the SA had heavy losses to lament. It
was generally employed where elements of the government foreign to the
people had not yet understood the signs of the time or where Communism
and elements hostile to the State still insolently dared to rebel. And
not the last the fight against disguised opponents was a difficult
labor of the SA. But it is proud, then and now, to be the tool for
strengthening the structure of the new State and of the Community of
Folk.
For the first time, on April 8, 1933, the entire SA in the regions of
the Reich and of Austria, stands drawn up at the same hour to avow
their immutable fidelity and willingness to follow to the Fuehrer, who
addressed his men over the radio from the Berlin Sports Palace. The
young Steel Helmets and the Steel Helmets during the year 1933 placed
themselves under the SA and became members of it. The SA during the
year experiences several changes which finally result in the present
form of the organization as will be described in the following chapter.
With the consolidation of inner political perceptions within Germany
the type of strife of the SA changed. Just as the SA man during the
fighting period was not a companion along the way to great decisions,
but was the one who prepared the way, so the SA retained in the
Third Reich its original task, namely: to be the Shock Troops for
Ideology and as the practical school of National Socialism. The SA
trained no specialists in any form for its area of labor was among the
entire German Folk. To carry to the Folk, through things previously
experienced and by acts, the revolutionary spirit of the fighting
period, the initiative and willingness to sacrifice and to keep
awake among them those virtues which are the fundamentals for the
preparedness of National Socialists, is one of the huge tasks of the
SA. “All that you are, you are through me; and all that I am, I am
through you alone”. These words of the Fuehrer, spoken to his SA on the
30th of January 1936, are a recognition as well as an obligation. It is
a short formula of the platform of the SA: Germany.
The deeds and achievements of the SA are not carried upon huge rosters
but are every day undertakings which will continue to live in the
hearts of the people. And that is more valuable than the written word.
Several things out of the manifold labor sphere of the SA should be
named in collective concepts: use at times of catastrophe, prevention
of damage, thanksgiving of the Nation, cultural work, colonization,
educational encampments, officer training schools, scholarships and
many more. Over all of this is the eternal charge: shaping of human
beings. The guiding motif of this labor to educate the German people in
this powerful entity: strong soul, sound spirit, steel-like body.
National Socialism has never demanded a new state form but has always
demanded the reformation of the individual German into a fighter who
has intelligence, who has conviction, who is politically dependable,
who is spiritually motivated, and physically hardened. Thus it was
only the consistent continuation of a labor already begun to win the
individual German when the Fuehrer handed over to the SA the execution
of protective and aggressive training and education of the individual
German. SA sports and SA sports badges, the latter established by
the Fuehrer himself on the 15th of February, 1933, “in order to lend
a conscious expression in all sections of the German people to the
cultivation of a warlike spirit”, are essentially the new shape of
the physical and spiritual training of the individual German within
the meaning of the National Socialist Ideology. Therewith, the SA was
commissioned to obtain an increase of and preservation of a warlike
power and a warlike spirit as the expression of an aggressive attitude.
The creation of the NS Contest Games on November 27, 1936, as a yearly
spectacle of accomplishments of physical prowess and of a warlike
spirit, and the order of March 18, 1937, that possession of the SA
sports badge is made dependent upon yearly repetitive performance of
the tests in order to maintain the warlike fitness of its bearers up to
old age, are milestones along the way to attainment of the great goal
of the SA.
The SA is aware of the magnitude of its task. But it is able to master
the tasks given by the Fuehrer only because it emanates from the Folk
and is a part of the Folk.
II. ORGANIZATION
The Branches of the SA
The Fuehrer himself has designated the SA as the guarantor of the
National Socialist Movement and the National Socialist Revolution. The
SA is the political soldiery. In this concept “political soldiery”,
which was coined and found its animated shape during the fighting
period, are contained all these tasks of the SA whose affairs represent
still today the educational work of the Storm Troops. Tasks of this
proportion are only completed by voluntary performance of service;
however, they require, too, an organization which branches out
widely and yet guarantees as much as possible, by a concentration of
individual supervisory offices and their work sphere, a central, clear
and united management.
The Supreme SA Fuehrer is Adolf Hitler, who gives his oldest fighting
formation its tasks, determines its direction of work, and commands its
uses. By order of the Fuehrer the Chief of Staff represents the SA in
its totality. A high measure of recognition and trust of the Fuehrer
lies in this charge, for to the Chief of Staff of the SA is entrusted,
for ideological and physical education and for further development, the
best and most valuable young strength of the German people.
The Supreme SA Headquarters in Munich and the Office of the Adjutant in
Berlin are both bureaus of the Chief of Staff; the SA Fuehrers who head
these are directly responsible to the Chief of Staff for their work.
The Supreme SA Headquarters is subdivided into the operational staff,
main offices, offices, and divisions. The Stabsfuehrer of the Supreme
SA Headquarters determines its employment as representative of the
Chief of Staff.
The Storm Troops of the Fuehrer himself, which exist in all the regions
of the Reich and in the free city of Danzig, are divided according to
political and territorial considerations.
The entire SA is composed of 24 groups which are subordinate to the
Chief of Staff. These are: SA Group Alpenland, Bavarian Eastern March,
Berlin-Brandenburg, Danube, Franken, Hanseatic, Hessian, Hochland,
Kurpfalz, Middle, Lower Rhine, Lower Saxony, North March, North Sea,
Eastland, Eastern March, Pomerania, Saxony, Silesia, Southern March,
Southwest, Thuringia, Westfalia, and Western March.
The next subordinate branch is the SA Brigade, which is composed of
several regiments. A regiment consists of three to five battalions,
which is formed from three to five companies. The SA Company is
organized generally into three platoons, each of which is further
subdivided into three squads.
The multilateral demands which are made of the SA formations
require, above all, in the use of the SA for preparations, parades,
catastrophes, accidents and all other acts of assistance, the
incorporation of special or technical units. Therefore, the following
special branches were established: signal, engineer, mounted, naval,
bicycle, and sanitary units. Local considerations and geographical
situations determine their incorporation into companies and battalions
and govern the consideration of subordinate positions.
THE OPERATIONAL STAFF OF THE SUPREME SA HEADQUARTERS
The Stabsfuehrer is the permanent deputy of the Chief of Staff. As such
he is the highest authority for the collective main offices of the
Supreme SA Headquarters and of the SA groups. All decisions of a basic
nature for the SA, as long as they are not reserved for the Chief of
Staff himself, are made by the Stabsfuehrer. Immediately subordinate to
him are the liaison office of the Supreme SA Headquarters, the central
division, the staff for military affairs, the press and propaganda
division, the legal division, and the architectural division. The
liaison office keeps in continuous touch with all important bureaus of
the Party and State in order to handle all the questions which are of
importance to the SA.
The treatment of occurrences of a fundamental sort, which require rapid
settlement and touch on the spheres of the various main offices so
that the closest cooperation with these main offices becomes a matter
of course, is the function of the central division with its two main
departments. The Staff commandant’s office bears the responsibility for
the total, internal operational service of the Supreme SA Headquarters.
The entire press and propaganda preparations or exploitations of all
important events within the SA emanate from the press and propaganda
division to which is also joined publication of the fighting sheet of
the Supreme SA Headquarters, the SA-Man. Following the directions given
by this division, the group press departments, whose function is the
trusteeship of the local press, work through the individual SA groups.
The activity is above all of an informative nature; for the SA lays no
value on the quantitative nature of the things written about it, but is
only concerned with the fact that the German editor may be trusted with
the character and task of the SA.
The legal division is still in process of being formed. On the other
hand the architectural division, which likewise was newly formed, is
working on plans and projects for new building designs in which the
creative genius of the SA will be expressed.
THE OPERATIONAL MAIN OFFICE
The chief of the operational main office is responsible for the entire
organization and branches of the SA, for the education and suitable
equipment of units, and, not last, for the employment of the SA.
The operational main office is subdivided into the office for
organization and employment and the office for physical fitness.
The latter, on the basis of the SA sports badges must prepare the
fighting training of the bodies of all Germans capable of bearing arms
and as preparation therefor must organize the execution of corporal
exercises (basic physical training) and sports performances, so that
the widest stratum of the population is laid hold upon and will be kept
in condition to bear arms, both physically and spiritual, as well as
ideologically in character up to the greatest old age.
The tasks of the organization and employment office are given in its
title. Besides this it is entrusted with the special units of the SA:
signal, engineer, naval, and mounted units; it treats with the air and
gas protection of the SA; it carries on the education of the SA in the
sphere of catastrophe protection and prevention of damage; and as well
as keeping liaison with all Party and public offices which come into
consideration for these questions.
In addition there arises the treatment of details of clothing and
equipping the SA and the regulations for office plans for SA offices as
well as the perfection of suggestions for investing certain SA units
with standards and names of heroic champions of the Movement.
THE MAIN OFFICE FOR EDUCATION
The office of education is responsible for the entire education and
orientation of the SA Officers’ Corps. Upon this office devolves one of
the tasks of greatest significance for the people, the Reichsfuehrer
School, which consists of the Reichsfuehrer School in Munich and
the Officers’ School of the Supreme SA Headquarters in Dresden. The
curricula and community of work at these officers’ schools, as well
as at the 21 group schools and special schools, serves the purpose of
creating an SA officers’ corps which bears the highest responsibility
and great capability.
The comparatively young officers’ school of the Supreme SA headquarters
in Dresden, above all, serves for the education of the intermediate
SA officers’ corps which has earned its qualification to attend at
one of the group schools. In this school the training for those who
want to try out for the SA sports badge stands in the foreground. The
spiritual and physical training on the fundamentals of the National
Socialist’s ideology pursues the purpose of making the SA Fuehrer into
a real educator of his troop. The threefold harmony: Soul, Spirit, and
Body, which sets in unison for the common group capability, knowledge,
and accomplishment, is an essential prerequisite here. Military sport,
as an SA expression of sports activity, is just as much a means to
accomplish our purpose as is instruction about the history of the
Party and the Folk, about racial teaching, or training as speakers.
The directions for this training hold good for the group schools, too,
which are subordinate to the same office. The work is performed in
close understanding with the leader of the group in whose territory
the school lies, because he himself possesses the best possibility
of choosing his future officers. This division, which is immediately
subordinate to the main office, maintains liaison with the offices of
Party and State, for which the experience won in the educational labor
of the SA are significant. Thereby it is achieved that the educational
labor of the SA stands in full and complete unison with the labor of
the Party and all its branches.
The third office, ideology and culture, counts as its assigned sphere
cultural forms of service, the cultivation of SA and Folk songs, and
music. Directly and strictly avoided is publication of any sort of
service plan for festive formations, for form is not the deciding
factor, but the spirit with which that form is accomplished.
The division for scientific exploitation, finally, contains a
voluminous library. It has the task of giving to every SA Fuehrer who
desires to train himself further, information about the most important
literature at hand on the subject.
THE MAIN OFFICE FOR HEALTH
The main health office is responsible for all questions of health
and sanitary service of the SA. Since health forms the basis and
prerequisite for physical fitness, the main health office inserts
itself quite particularly into this branch of the SA service. Not
only care of and looking after the sick and injured belong to the
accomplishments of health service but, above all, preventive health
care.
In the fighting period only the sanitation service existed. It is being
organized and changed in some particulars at present. Ten thousand
sanitation officers are trained and perfected in the best manner to be
able to perform first aid at any time. The Reich Sanitation School of
the SA in Tuebingen represents the ground floor for entire training
activity in the essentials of sanitation. In all regiments in the
whole Reich there are sanitation units ready for immediate employment
in catastrophe and great accidents. The sanitation man accompanies
his comrades everywhere in the SA service, whether it be employment
in preparations, construction of barriers, parades, marches with full
pack, or in the fields of sports contest.
Training, equipment, and organization of the sanitation service are
gathered together in one office, the main office for health. Next to
it is a second office with the task of health operations and fostering
of race. The men of the SA have recognized the value of the health
of a Folk, and bear the conviction that only a sound Folk can be an
eternal Folk. With this conviction they fight for accomplishment of
the directions and orders which emanate from the main office for Folk
health and from the Reich Surgeon. In the foremost place are the
sanitation men of the SA who use themselves for that great goal: Purity
of blood and Purity of Race.
THE MAIN OFFICE FOR PERSONAL AFFAIRS
The trusteeship of the SA Officers’ Corps, just as the care for future
SA officers, is a problem not only for the members themselves but, far
and above, is also of the greatest significance for the Party and for
the entire Nation.
The personal affairs main office, which is divided into three offices:
personnel, social welfare courts and justice office, works in
permanent, animated touch with the SA front, where the capabilities and
suitabilities of the SA officers show themselves in daily employment.
A continuous exchange between this front of staff work and application
to educational spheres marks the future path of the SA officers.
His evaluation results from consideration of the suitability of the
character, of his ability and knowledge, and, above all, of his service
to the Movement. The oldest veterans and champions of the SA also
receive leading positions within the branches in so far as they prove
their capability to do the job.
If there exists in one way a reward for the old tested fighters in
the assignment to fulfill a great obligation and a more responsible
mission, then the office for social welfare takes care that those SA
comrades who were wounded in the fight for the new Germany or who
find themselves in need, are looked out for. If it was imperative in
the first years after the seizure of power to provide a job generally
for these men, then, the problem of retraining stepped into the
foreground. In the camps of Lockstedt and Falkenstein the SA gives
unskilled manpower the possibility of earning, in about 40 weeks, the
journeyman’s certificate, and, thereby, the prerequisites for an
appointment as a skilled laborer in industry, or, in fact, in any of
those places which suffer because of lack of such laborers. In addition
to that men are retrained for mercantile professions and for work in
administrative offices.
The same is true for the choice of settlers for those home sites which
arise everywhere in the Reich by way of thanks offerings. Also here are
old veterans who find a new home in the thanks-offering settlements
alongside of the war victims.
To this office come officially the personal welfare matters of the men
and their families. Comrades who have suffered injury at sports or in
the service receive a cure or recuperation stay in the SA homes at Wyk
in Foehr, Hohenlychen, or Trillup bei Hamburg. The needy are permitted
support, and, in fact, in an understanding with the Reich treasurer,
the means of the Adolf Hitler Thanks and the Adolf Hitler Foundation
are placed at this office’s disposal. Above all, however, this office
interests itself in those who were injured in the fighting period by
political adversaries, so that a permanent personal touch gives to
these men the certainty that one will never forget their sacrifice.
As third within the main personal affairs office the courts and justice
office is mentioned. One task of this office lies in the fostering
of honor and of clean behavior of the SA and the SA Officer’s Corps.
For the clean behavior of the leadership two chambers of discipline
serve. The personal rights of SA men are taken care of in a particular
division.
Incumbent upon the justice division, composed of professional lawyers,
is legal counsel to the main offices of the Supreme SA Headquarters and
groups, cooperation with the remaining justice offices of the Movement,
and, thirdly, official traffic with the Chancellory of the Fuehrer and
treatment of pardon petitions of criminally convicted SA men as well as
former SA members. This proceeds from the viewpoint that the SA man, it
is true, on the one side has an enhanced duty to the Community of the
Folk; on the other side, however, there comes into discussion manifold
economics and mental after-effects of the period of the wrestling for
power in the case of old tested veterans of the SA in which their
significance can be fully adjudicated only by the SA.
THE MAIN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
The administration of the SA, in its present standard organization and
proper economic operations, represents the tool which the Chief of
Staff uses for the solution of great tasks given to him by the Fuehrer.
Clarity is the distinguishing feature of SA administration in all its
many spheres.
The matters pertaining to the property right of the NSDAP and,
therefore, of concern to the SA, are placed under the Reich treasurer
as Plenipotentiary of the Fuehrer. The deputy of the Reich treasurer
for the entire SA administration is the Reich cashier administrator
of the SA, who, without prejudice to his responsibility to the Reich
treasurer, is at the same time in his quality as Chief of the main
administrative office, the specialist of the Chief of Staff for all
matters which touch upon the administration of the entire SA.
The large sphere of the tasks of the main administrative office is
divided into three offices: _a._ money economy, budget bookkeeping,
control of finances, and economics; _b._ things of value, procurement,
insurance and contracts; _c._ construction and settlement office.
The salary of SA officers and men who are on the staffs which are
essential to the main offices is regulated uniformly on the basis of
an office plan. It is composed of base pay, quarters allowance, and
increase for marriage and children. Considering it from the political
standpoint of population, the increase for children in this ideal
echelon of society was settled upon.
Great frugality which is pointed to particularly at every opportunity,
is understood as a matter of course in the SA. A splendidly working
accounting and control system makes possible an exact review of the
economic operation of all units and makes easier the immediate remedy
of a shortage of any kind. The examination reports, which are requested
by the Deputy of the Reich treasurer of the units are treated and made
use of in one special division of the Main Administrative Office.
The great property values of the SA, which is a consistent part
of the total fortune of the NSDAP, is laid hold upon according to
number and value and carefully administered. Many millions flow into
economy through the settlement work called into being by the Supreme
SA Headquarters with the aid of the thanks-offering of the Nation.
The settlement work should offer to many thousands of needy people
and to families, sound in heredity and rich in children, their own
homes. Aside from settlements on the edge of town the construction
and settlement office in the neighborhood of Aurich erected farm
settlements with 60 to 80 acres of land, which, above all, are managed
by former farm laborers. Here, too, they put cattle and even crops at
their disposal gratuitously.
The many sided tasks of SA Administration are united closely with
those of the headquarters. Parades and other arrangements, training,
equipping, procurement, etc., cannot be accomplished without standard
cooperation of the administration.
THE MAIN OFFICE FOR NS-TOURNAMENTS
On the 27th of November 1936 the Fuehrer decreed the following order:
In pursuance of my proclamation at the Reich Party Day of Honor I
hereby create for future Reich Party Days the NS-Tournament. The SA is
charged with the preparation and execution of this tournament. I decree
that the determinations necessary for execution be left up to the
suggestions of the Chief of Staff of the SA. The Reich Sports Fuehrer
is directed to cooperate with the sports department of the Supreme SA
Headquarters. The Chief of Staff will keep me continually informed
about the measures planned.
In order to solve organizationally the tasks sketched in this order
of the Fuehrer, the main tournament office was created in February
1937. As the chief of this main tournament office, the Chief of Staff
appointed the Reich Sports Fuehrer von Tschammer und Osten. By this
appointment the guarantee is given that, in comradely cooperation with
the Reichsbund for physical training, the tasks set by the Fuehrer in
respect to the military fitness of the entire nation and the formation
of a Folk will be solved by physical training.
Therewith, SA Obergruppenfuehrer von Tschammer und Osten holds in his
hand responsibility for the organization and accomplishment of the NS
Tournaments, which are to be held each year in Nurnberg during the
Reich Party Day as an exhibition of the achievement of the whole German
people.
Incumbent upon the office simultaneously is direction of the NS
Winter Tournaments and Reich Contests of the SA which also experience
continuous enlargement.
The main office for the NS Tournaments is divided into three offices:
organization, military sports, and sports which from their titles alone
indicate the limits of their spheres of work.
THE ADJUTANT’S OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF
In the Adjutant’s Office of the Chief of Staff are treated all
questions which are proposed directly to the Chief of Staff by the
offices of the Party and of the State, as well as by others. Next to
the very voluminous labor of dealing with those questions and lectures
of the Chief of Staff on important matters, the Adjutant’s Office, as
the personal office of the Chief of Staff, has to take care of the
preparation for and smooth execution of travel of the Chief of Staff.
Continuously the Chief of Staff visits the individual Groups, using
in the first place airplane, then rail transportation and automobile.
All of the troublesome details, which these official trips demand,
require thorough discharge so that appointments shall be kept and the
entire program developed as foreseen. As a matter of course many SA
Fuehrers, spending a while in the Reich capital, come in person to the
Adjutant’s Office to speak with the Chief of Staff. Various wishes are
attended to here and many worthwhile suggestions come from the ranks of
the visitors. The men in the Adjutant’s Office whose task it is to do
their duties in the personal service of the Chief of Staff endeavor,
in order to facilitate for him his difficult and responsible task,
take care of at least the pressing questions or help their fellows
with professional advice. Next to that this office has value in that
it fixes appointments for various official conferences of the Chief of
Staff with leading men of the Party and State and in that it divides up
the daily program according to current demands, so that all work can be
executed smoothly. It is not easy work which the men in the Adjutant’s
Office have to perform; only the consciousness of helping their fellows
in the broad Front everywhere in the Reich and of supporting their
fight gives to their work a valuable substance.
SPECIAL UNITS OF THE SA
Engineers and Signal SA
In the same measure that the little Shocktroop of the National
Socialist Idea grew up into an organization in whose hands the Fuehrer
has laid the whole physical and ideological education of our people,
so in the same measure the sphere of the tasks of the brown Army of
Adolf Hitler grew and received a multiformity which made necessary the
special training of units which were capable of continuous employment
and highest performance within their special areas.
First it was engineer companies, then further, it was signal companies.
Since the time they were established, both units, when put to the test
have proved that the men with “Pi” and “Na” on the lapels of their
service uniform are found where German humanity needs their help. If
storms whip the waves of the seas, and masses of water threaten the
coasts of the Reich; if downpours and melting snows swell the mountain
streams so that fields, plains, and farms are in danger; if fire is on
the point of destroying the property of German people; or if anywhere
a natural catastrophe happens, one finds, in all the Gaus of the Reich
and at all times, the engineers and signal men among the first helpers
who strike with cheer and with readiness to sacrifice. Very few have a
suspicion of what takes place in the hour of bitterest wrestle with the
might of Nature, but they scarcely think about the fact that these very
same men, who perhaps gave their utmost during the entire night, are a
few hours later going about their callings; and only the least number
have a clear understanding of what basic and careful training and what
untiring practice was necessary in order to achieve a complete success
in time of serious accident. And in these practices we see how a bridge
is made at the turn of a hand, how blasting is executed, and can
alongside the performances of the engineers, who work hand in hand with
the signal units, see with amazement how the latter lay their field
cables, set up their telephones, let the blinker apparatus speak, and
relay reports by bicycle riders, messenger dogs or carrier pigeons, in
short, how they establish connection between the front and the staffs
and thereby secure smooth cooperation. The status of training of the
men of the signal units is kept under constant control by the signal
certificate. This certificate is proof for its holder that his status
of training is complete and excellent. It must be won by examinations
for three consecutive years before it is finally the possession of the
signal man.
Thus there originates in these technical units of the SA a trained
crew whose capabilities and knowledge are not the last things of
extraordinary value in the service for defense of the country. On one
side the young SA man, who enters the Army from his branch, comes
prepared with a multitude of prerequisites which facilitate and speed
up his training in technical respects; while on the other side those
very soldiers, having served, who return out of the Army into the
SA, keep themselves, by constant practice, in a trained condition
physically and spiritually and impart their knowledge to their fellows.
Thus they contribute a considerable portion to the enhancement of
military strength and military spirit of the German people. As
everywhere, the soldier of the army finds here, too, his closest
confederates in political soldiers.
The Mounted SA
If today in Germany the sport of riding is not as it was in past
decades, the prerogative and affair of a propertied class, but a thing
for all of those who from enthusiasm and love of horses profess to
ride, then it is just something else for which to thank the SA which
has interested itself in the sport of riding as a means of fitting
the people physically. The Fuehrer himself by his order about the
establishment of the NS cavalry Corps on March 17, 1936, created the
basis upon which first the SA Cavalry itself and then the German youth
and above all the compulsory military duty classes could be led to the
sport of riding. This order soon created the necessary organizational
prerequisites, so that at present the SA each year is able to furnish
many thousands of young trained cavalrymen to our Wehrmacht. All those
who are 18 to 20 years of age must join the NSKK and even those in
younger and older year groups, may join it, who come up for cavalry
and motor training and want to earn a cavalry certificate before their
period of service in order to be able to serve with a mounted or
motorized troop.
The organization of the NSKK has its apex in the Reich Inspectorate
for mounted and mobile units who is directly subordinate to the
Chief of Staff and who at the same time presides over the recently
created main office for mounted and mobile training within the Supreme
SA Headquarters. In this way a conceivably close liaison has been
established between both organizations, and in it at the same time
lies the foundation for fruitful exchange between the SA cavalry and
the NSKK. In each S.A. group was created the office of Group Cavalry
Fuehrer, who is responsible to the Reich Inspectorate as his deputy
for training and organization. At present the S.A. cavalry has at its
disposition 101 cavalry regiments in whose schools, year in and year
out, young Germans who are obligated for service receive the training
which fits them for entrance into a section of troops which is of their
own choosing.
The NSKK has discovered, by creation of the cavalry certificate,
a means of fostering and requiring cavalry fitness. The cavalry
certificate is granted only after careful testing and fulfilling
essential conditions successfully; it requires an all-embracing
quantity of riding ability. Thus the cavalry certificate is a way to
select and require real talent. The NSKK is still young, but two years
of serious labor have already proven the correctness of its objective.
The Naval S.A.
The men of the water’s edge, the navigators and fishermen, for the most
part do their duty in the naval SA, since they are concerned in their
daily professions with all sorts of things having to do with navigation
and water. Nevertheless, there are not only naval S.A. regiments
along the ocean but also in the interior. If there is no big ship at
their disposal for training, a ship built on land often suffices for
the accomplishment of the careful training of the men about masts,
shrouds, and deck structure. The service of the naval S.A. operates as
preparation and development for the Navy. Semaphore, radio, Morse Code,
and flags as signal service, navigation, cutter operation, astronomy,
professional use of sailing craft, rescue service--to mention only a
few spheres of its tasks--complete its curriculum.
For the seafaring S.A. men however, who pass the greater portion of
their lives on the seas of the world, there is, in the first place,
ideological use as a border troop who make their appearance in foreign
countries at celebrations, parades, and similar events. The naval S.A.
furnishes yearly to the German merchant marine and navy splendidly
prepared material and is, therefore, practically and theoretically, a
valuable support of German seafaring and German navigating.
The SA Sanitation Men
The “Sani” men, the sanitation men of the S.A., were already at hand
in the fighting period if it was necessary to bring help to injured
comrades. Endless numbers thanked the S.A. for these S.A. sanitation
men of the fighting period. And from these simple men came physicians
for body and soul, who continuously struck the correct note and whom
one knew could be depended upon in every situation of life. If security
and peace rule internally at present, the S.A. sanitation men have not
indeed become superfluous. The Service in the S.A. which is continually
prepared for use, brings with it physical danger, and many injuries
can be avoided or lessened by speedy aid. Be it hot weather or frost,
mischance or sudden sickness, the “sani-men” are at their post. Highest
demands, however, are placed on them if, at time of catastrophe medical
assistance is not sufficient and the life of many depends upon the
success of appropriate initial treatment. Then the S.A. sanitation men
fall to the task and give their utmost. Unnamed and unknown they do
their duty in the spirit and tradition demanded by the organization to
which they belong.
The “Feldherrnhalle” Regiment
Under the symbol, which for us National Socialists is the embodiment of
supreme preparedness to sacrifice, the sacrificial runic symbol, the
S.A. has created a troop which is set up to symbolize the political
soldiery of our time: The Feldherrnhalle Regiment. The fact that the
Supreme S.A. Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has appointed his tested comrade,
S.A. Obergruppenfuehrer Hermann Goering, as its chief, proves the high
calling which falls to the lot of this regiment today and tomorrow.
As the elite troop of the S.A. it seeks to be the shining example in
service and in obedience.
The measures are very strict which have been laid upon this young body
of men who have assigned their lives to this regiment. Yearly young men
from all callings and skills of the people thrust themselves into this
original body. Differences of heredity or property are unknown. Here it
is only the man, his performance and his obligation to obey as an ever
ready S.A. man the commands of his leader, which has worth.
Every possibility stands open to him who proves himself true in this
regiment. He who has performed his year of service may decide to
remain or return to his calling. Likewise it is possible to work his
way up into the main offices of the S.A. headquarters or to enter the
administrative service; the decisive factors for that, frankly, are the
capabilities of the candidate and the possibilities for their use in
the political life of the people.
In six great camps, which lie scattered in the whole Reich, a valuable
work of education is consummated for many hundreds of apt persons.
The political value of this work cannot be grasped by bare numbers
and dry statistics. These are not decisive factors; it seems to us to
be much more essential and for the justification of this information
of political soldiery, that out of the training of the Feldherrnhalle
Regiment, National Socialists go forth who shall do their part to
assure the continuation of that work begun by Adolf Hitler. For this
reason there belongs in the Feldherrnhalle regiment the concepts of
discipline, voluntary subordination, and leading a soldierly life as
first prerequisites and basic conditions for the acceptance of future
members.
Out of the apparent forms of political life developed by the present
emulating in their behavior the proven example of the old S.A., the
Feldherrnhalle regiment professes itself to the concept of a soldierly
life. It unites in its ranks young, consciously political individuals
who voluntarily wish to live their lives in hardiness and soldierly
strictness.
The Reichsfuehrer School
Selection of officers and planned education of officers was the
innovation drawn into the circle of political work of the Party after
the seizure of power. An effective instrument for such officer training
is the Reichsfuehrer School in Munich created in 1931 by the Fuehrer.
Many thousands of S.A. officers are oriented here in accordance with
the perceptions of the fighting period in their new form and have been
trained and then, supplied with knowledge and ideological learning,
have gone out into their units where they impart to those whom they
have to lead, the Front of the political struggle of the present and
their experiences and recently gained insights.
The work of the Reichsfuehrer School today is set aside to bring the
synthesis of body and mind very near to the ideal form. All technical
means are employed to do that. In a nine months course of study the
future S.A. officers are introduced into all spheres of political
life. The Reichsfuehrer School desires to stimulate self-created
labor, to teach meditation, and to shape the young S.A. officer
into a consciously strong charactered, political personality. Body,
mind, soul--one cannot be thought of without the other. A hardy
physical training, strict measures about health and racial values and
continued supervision of the life being led are valuable, but are also
indispensable expedients for strict and serious work.
A second task has been given to the Reichsfuehrer School with the
comprehensive two weeks labor conference which takes place yearly in
the time after the Reich Party Day, and is for the older unit officers
from regimental commanders up to, and including, staff divisions. At
these labor conferences the political balance sheet of the year is
reckoned. Consequently, the Reichsfuehrer School has an outstanding
part in the political training work of the Party. The success of the
education of future officers will perhaps become apparent only in later
decades, but even today the goal stands out in a clearly recognizable
fashion: the individual German trained in National Socialism, hardened
in mind and strength, and firm in character.
The Reichsfuehrer School of the S.A. in Dresden is guided according to
similar directions. For special training of particular units there is
at the disposal of the S.A. the Reich Sanitation School in Tuebingen
and the Reich Cavalry School in Zehlendorf.
III. PROSPECTUS
The Law of Willingness to Volunteer.
In the beginning of the fight there was the Party and the S.A. The
goal, tasks and changing requirements of the fight have led to the
establishment of the branches of the Party out of the great collecting
basin of the S.A. The strong impulses which emanated from the S.A. have
been carried over into the labor of all branches of the Party. All
branches fulfill their work at present according to their own laws and
responsibilities. Most of their officers, however, and many of the men
have marched in the ranks of the Storm Troops, and, thus at present
there lives and works in these branches the further quality which we
call the S.A. spirit.
“The fight continues”--that was from the start the password of the S.A.
and will continue to be for all time. Never has the S.A. man fought
just to be fighting, and never to be destructive, but he has fought
only to be constructive. And only for that reason can the Fuehrer
extend tasks to the S.A. in the new State, which have a decisive
significance.
Our comrades in the past years in Austria have demonstrated with
what spirit the S.A. is blessed. They were unshaken in avowal to
the Fuehrer, in belief in the strength of blood, and in fidelity to
their native place. They have fixed for themselves a monument to the
S.A. spirit which will always renew itself. Their sacrifice was a
cornerstone of liberty. They were proud to be permitted to suffer for
Germany. Fate has let these men and their families go along a path
whose milestones were need, hate, suffering, terror, and pursuit. Many
have sacrificed their lives, and for many, who sat behind dungeon and
prison walls, the hope of liberty had sunk away to nothing, and, yet
not one word of bitterness came past their lips. He who fought thus is
worthy of being called a German and an S.A. man.
A few months ago the S.A. men of Austria still stood in the midst of
bloody fighting, and yet now they work in peaceful construction. Thus
the S.A. in German Austria became the peace army of the people in the
National Socialist State. The S.A. was only able to master this task
because the goal always remained the same and they marched along all
paths which the Fuehrer commanded, and because the voluntary will to
serve is the supreme law of National Socialism.
Today the S.A. stands before the great task of being guardian and
fashioner of the armed desire and armed strength of the German people.
Its devotion, its preparedness to sacrifice, its belief in the idea,
and its soldierly, combatant attitude will create and preserve in the
German people that physical fitness and armed preparedness which the
Fuehrer and the Reich need and without which a people cannot live.
Great achievements are only produced with unheard of personal
application based upon voluntary will. And this law of voluntary
service is the key to preparedness and successful labor of the S.A. Not
spectator, but active participant is the password of the S.A. in all
things it takes hold of.
The Storm Troops have made their way through most difficult trials.
They have withstood them because this nucleus troop bears in it
unshakeably the spirit of unconditional fidelity and unconditional
obedience to the Fuehrer. The S.A. exists today stronger and firmer
now and forever. It knows that the Fuehrer will also assign to it in
the future new work spheres. The Storm Troops are ready to fulfil the
commands of the Fuehrer and his charges with complete application
because they desire in all things to be nothing other than the bearers
of the Idea, the strong arm of the Movement, the secure support of the
people and the German people’s infantry, prepared to sacrifice and
happy to attack.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2169-PS
Copy
SS Garrison-doctor Hmb. Neuengamme
Kl. Hmb.-Neuengamme 29 March 1945
_Az.: 14 h (Kl) 3.45/Tr./Um._--
Subject: Quarterly Sickreport on Internees of Concentration Camp
Hmb.-Neuengamme
Re: Circular from there dated 27-12-1944 No. 242/Az.:14 h
(Kl.)
Attachments: 2 Diagrams
Date: 1-4-1945
To the Head of the Medical-Service at SS Chief office of Economic
Administration [Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt] and Chief of Bureau D
III
Oranienburg
I. Concentration Camp
1. The average number of internees in the Concentration Camp
Hmb.-Neuengamme during the quarter of the year reported on amounted to
_40,393_ (including the affiliated working camps).
In addition there is an average of 11,768 female internees.
2. There were _6,224_ death cases during the quarter of the year
reported on (from 26-12-1944 to 25-3-1945), among them _95_ female
internees. Of this number the following deaths have occurred in the
affiliated camps:
Base-Camp Hamburg 944 deaths
” Bremen 515 ”
” Druette 102 ”
” Watenstedt 298 ”
” Reimstedt 9 ”
” Porta 89 ”
” Hannover 453 ”
” Braunschweig 198 ”
Affiliated Camp Meppen-Versen 379 ”
” Woebbelin 53 ”
------------
Total 3,040 deaths
at concentration camp
Hmb.-Neuengamme 3,089 ”
------------
Total deaths 6,129
In addition of the female internees: 95 deaths
------------
3. The average number of internees in the hospital buildings I, II,
III, IV, and V during the quarter of the year reported on amounted to
_1711_ daily.
4. During the period of time reported on _815_ internees daily were
treated without being hospitalized.
SS Garrison doctor Kl. Hmb.-Neuengamme
SS Captain
COPY OF DOCUMENT 2171-PS
Report B-2833
THE NUMERICAL EXPANSION OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP BUCHENWALD DURING THE
YEARS 1937-1945
(Based on the complete records of the competent service units)
PREFACE
The following figures are compiled from authentic material that the
SS in their flight from the camp were unable to destroy. Particular
attention is called to the fact that every number can be substantiated
by the personal records of the prisoners in question.
I
In July 1937 the first advance headquarters of the so-called
professional criminals arrived on the completely unimproved, untouched
wooded terrain of the Ettersberg near Weimar for the construction of
a new large concentration camp. At the time the SS had not yet named
the future camp and called it KL Ettersberg. The first roll call was
made on 19 July 1937 and recorded 149 prisoners. On the following
day 70 prophylactic prisoners, that is to say so-called professional
criminals from the KL Sachsenburg, arrived. On the 27th of July the
first 91 political prisoners, among them 7 Bible research students
also arrived from the KL Sachsenburg. On the 29 July 1937 the name “KL
Buchenwald” appeared for the first time in the official correspondence.
At that time the number in the camp had increased to 327 persons. On 30
July 1937 600 prisoners from the KL Lichtenburg were added and another
convoy from the Lichte [Lichtenburg] arrived on 6 August 1937.
On the lists of the Reich’s German nationals the name of Hermann
Kempek appears as the first deceased, who died on 13 August 1937 in
Buchenwald. The two next dead persons are already reported on 15 August
1937.
Additional convoys followed from Sachsenburg and the Lichte individual
arrivals were also recorded. The total number of arrivals in the year
1937 amounted to 2,912 persons. By 1 January 1938 already 48 or 1.65%
of them had died.
The last roll call made by the SS took place on 3 April 1945. At the
time the number of prisoners in the camp amounted to 80,011 persons. On
11 April 1945 the victorious Allied troops liberated the concentration
camp.
The expansion of the concentration camp is shown in Table 1, which
gives the total number of arrivals and the deceased for each year.
_Table 1_
---------------+--------------+----------------
Year | Arrivals | Deceased
---------------+--------------+----------------
1937 | 2,912 | 48
1938 | 20,122 | 771
1939 | 9,553 | 1,235
1940 | 2,525 | 1,772
1941 | 5,890 | 1,522
1942 | 14,111 | 2,898
1943 | 42,177 | 3,516
1944 | 97,866 | 8,644
1945 (3 month) | 43,823 | 13,056
+--------------+----------------
Total | 238,980 | 33,462
---------------+--------------+----------------
It is self-evident that under normal living conditions only a minor
fraction of these 33,462 persons would have died. Most of them had
reached the best years of their manhood. The living and working
conditions in Buchenwald were such that every one could easily contract
a serious illness, especially during the first months, owing to the
sudden and violent change in their daily habits of life. In Buchenwald
a serious illness resulted nearly always in death, because during the
first years no medical help was dispensed or was so inefficient that
the hope of a recovery was perforce without any prospects.
The number of unnatural deaths also reached a shocking figure. In
desperation many chose voluntary death by hanging themselves or
touching the electrically charged wire fence. In addition in the
KL Buchenwald, like everywhere else where the SS and the Gestapo
were in charge, numerous prisoners were shot “in flight”. This
“shooting-in-flight” was often conducted after a certain pattern by
forcing the prisoners in the labor units to cross the line of guards.
This happened especially in the stone quarries, where they were
maltreated to such a degree that in desperation they could find no
other way of escape. The nearest SS guard would shoot them down only a
few yards beyond the line. In the following Table 2 are not included
those who were wounded by rifle fire or those who died in the camp area
from the results of the maltreatment they received.
_Table 2_
----------+--------------------+------------------
| Number shot while | Number who chose
Year | in flight | voluntary death
----------+--------------------+------------------
1937 | 7 | --
1938 | 34 | 11
1939 | 9 | 3
1940 | 89 | 11
1941 | 16 | 17
1942 | 48 | 3
1943 | 46 | 2
1944 | no accurate record | 46
1945 | no accurate record | 16
----------+--------------------+------------------
A satanical asphyxiation installation equal to the one in the KL
Auschwitz was not erected in the KL Buchenwald. The SS probably feared
that they would not be able to keep the secret in the most densely
settled part of Germany. But this does not mean that we were spared
such installation in Buchenwald. Already on 13 July 1941 a convoy was
formed consisting of 94 “invalide”, German Reich nationals and Poles,
for the greater part but not exclusively Jews, and taken to Hohenstein
near Dresden, guarded by heavily armed SS troopers. On the following
day 93 more were dispatched. Several days later their clothes,
including their personal effects, false teeth, etc., were returned to
Buchenwald. In so far it became known at that time these persons were
poisoned by gas at the place of their destination. It is probable that
the SS had already at that time perfected its asphyxiation chambers
and tested them. On 2, 11 and 12 March 1942 further convoys followed
containing 285 prisoners, exclusively Jews.
Beginning Fall 1942 increasingly larger mass transports and individual
transports of Jews, who had already been a long time in the camp, to KL
Auschwitz took place, where unquestionably they were murdered. For this
reason these prisoners were probably not entered on the records of the
KL Auschwitz. In detail it concerns the following transports:
27 July 1942 163 prisoners, among them 119 Soviet PWs.
26 Sept. 1942 200 gypsies.
6 Oct. 1944 1,183 Jews.
It can no longer be determined today how high the number of the
individual transports ran, but it is definite that these individual
transports were carried out on special instructions from Berlin.
Since the beginning of the war a continually rising number of
executions were carried out in the KL Buchenwald. The shooting or
hanging of individual persons or of certain categories of prisoners
took place on the basis of the orders issued by the SS Reich Management
without any judicial verdict. Three executions in the KL Buchenwald by
hanging were performed in public, that is to say, before the entire
assembled camp inmates on the roll call grounds. The first prisoner
was hung on 4 June 1938, the second on 21 December 1938, both of
whom had beaten down their SS guards in their flight from an advance
headquarters on 8 May 1938. The victim of the third execution on 13
September 1944 was a recaptured fugitive.
When other prisoners in the camp were to be executed they were called
to the entrance and taken away. Exact figures can only be given
with certainty for the years 1944 and 1945, because until then such
prisoners were recorded as being turned over to the Gestapo and it is
no longer possible to determine now which were actually turned over
and which only allegedly. In the year 1944 at least 177 and in 1945 at
least 54 prisoners of the camp were executed.
The mass executions of Soviet prisoners of war, officers, political
officers and troops were introduced. However, Polish officers, German
officials and higher ranking officers as well as German and foreign
women were executed in Buchenwald. At that time the execution places
were installed in the DAW terrain and in the horse stable and the
crematory was considerably enlarged. Upon arrival, those destined to be
executed were not entered on the camp records, but were separated from
those arriving simultaneously in the normal course of procedure and
handed over to the Court of Justice Division for “special treatment”,
which in official language meant, for execution. Unfortunately the SS
had already destroyed on 1 and 2 April 1945 all the relating documents
therefore no figures of any kind can be quoted.
Based on the observations of the prisoners it would seem that
approximately 7,000 persons were executed.
Furthermore to the total number of those who died in the concentration
camp Buchenwald must be added the others who were killed in April 1945
during the retransport from the advance headquarters to the camp,
in the advance headquarters itself and on the march. In addition
innumerable others must be added, who during the evacuation of the camp
died in other camps en route.
If on the whole the number of the victims of death is set at 50,000
this frightful figure will not be estimated too high.
II
The development of the camp shall now be followed in all its details.
The camp strength rose gradually after 1 January 1938 until it reached
the figure of 3,000 on 1 May 1938. Then the phase “Arbeitsscheu Reich”
(shirking to work for the Reich) set in. The first “asocials” 5 May
1938. Larger transports of a total of 1,000 “asocial” Jews arrived
on 14 and 15 June 1938. With this event the camp strength jumped and
reached its first high point of 7,968 on 7 August 1938. The number of
the dead also jumped. Whereas the number of dead prisoners amounted to
4 in April 1938 it amounted to 16 in May, 62 in June and 105 in July.
In the following months the camp strength slowly decreased through
deaths and discharges and only amounted to 7,791 persons on 1 September
1938. The first foreigners arrived in September 1938, namely, in round
figures, 2,200 Austrian Jews from the KL Dachau. This influx increased
the camp strength to 10,471 on 1 October 1938.
In November 1938 the notorious great movement against the Jews in the
Third Reich was carried through, which Hitler tried to justify by
referring to the attempt on the life of the official of the German
Embassy in Paris, von Rath. In a very short time the camp strength
doubled itself. Whereas on 9 November 1938 it still amounted to 9,842,
it had grown to 19,676 on 13 November 1938. No lodging facilities
were available for such an increase. Temporarily the new arrivals
were camped on the roll call ground and in the half completed sheep
stable, until very primitive wooden barracks without any sanitary
installations were erected alongside the roll call grounds, which later
became famous as the Blocks 1a-5a. During the first few days the SS
had no clear survey that the keeper of the records would announce over
the loudspeaker, “If another Jew hangs himself, will he kindly stick a
piece of paper with his name on it in his pocket, so that one knows who
he is.”
Where the Jews came from is given in the survey in Table 3.
_Table 3_
-----------------------------------+--------
Place of Origin | Number
-----------------------------------+--------
Giessen | 138
Mainz | 97
Kassel | 693
Breslau | 2,471
Dresden | 151
Magdeburg | 375
Chemnitz | 171
Leipzig | 270
Oppeln | 703
Bielefeld | 406
Meiningen | 91
Dessau | 85
Darmstadt | 169
Frankfurt a/M | 2,621
Friedberg | 99
Erfurt | 197
Halle/Saale | 124
Hannover | 316
Nordhausen | 89
Aachen | 135
Wuerzburg | 103
Eisenach-Gotha | 112
Offenbach | 82
Worms | 87
Various small places in Thueringen | 689
This increase in the camp strength not only resulted in a definite but
also in a greater percentage number of death cases, as indicated in
Table 4.
_Table 4_
---------------------+------------+---------------+---------------
| Number of | Average | Deaths in %
Period | deaths | Camp Strength | Camp Strength
---------------------+------------+---------------+---------------
Oct. 10-Nov. 9, ’38 | 53 | 10 156 | 0.52%
Nov. 10-Dec. 12, ’38 | 244[4] | 17 262 | 1.41%
---------------------+------------+---------------+---------------
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Among them 3 unknown dead and 3 suicides.
At that time the first construction work of the concentration camp
and the necessary troop billets were finished in the rough. The SS
sent their prophylactic prisoners to new places for the erection of
other camps and SS barracks. The first professional criminals were
sent to Camps Mauthausen and Flossenburg on 3 November 1938. Other
Transports followed shortly. The “Actions-Juden” (Jews arrested during
the movement or campaign against them) were also discharged after a
comparatively short time, that is to say, after plundering them and
requisitioning their property, they were for the greater part expelled
from the Third Reich and upon leaving the camp had to immediately
board a ship or cross the frontier. Through these proceedings and the
inclusion of death cases the camp strength went down to 8,650 in round
figures by the end of February 1939 and stayed at this level, for the
time being.
III
Immediately after the beginning of the war the camp strength rose
anew. At that time the “Aktions” prisoners, Reich nationals and
Austrians unfit to carry arms, arrived. Also the Czech hostages from
the Protectorate were delivered as the next batch of foreigners in
September 1939 amounting to a total number of 756, some of them
coming from the KL Dachau. At the start of the war the KL Dachau was
completely evacuated and on 26 September 1939 no less than 2,200
prisoners were transferred to Buchenwald.
On 5 October 1939 members of the Polish minority in Germany numbering
181 persons followed.
After the conclusion of the Polish campaign Buchenwald experienced
a grim and tragic sequel in the action taken against the so-called
Polish snipers and other Poles coming from those parts of Poland which
belonged to Germany before 1918.
On 15 October 1939 and 16 October no less than 1,000 and 1,098 Poles
arrived and were put in tents under the most primitive and barbaric
conditions on the half-finished roll call grounds, where they received
only half of the amount of the food furnished to the other prisoners.
The terrible results of this annihilation process is reflected in the
comparison of the death cases. In the period 16 September to 15 October
1939--44 prisoners died in the KL Buchenwald, and from 16 October to 15
November 1939, therefore in the same space of time, 6.4 times as many,
or 283 prisoners.
After the attempt on Hitler’s life in the Buergerbraeu in Munich on
9 November 1939 a new terror deed by the SS filled the camp with a
shuddering and paralyzing fright. The 9 November was a holiday and
no work was being done. In the morning under the command of the SS
Staff Sergeant Blanck heavily armed SS soldiers appeared and without
any list or records selected at random 7 men from each block of Jews,
mostly young ones. Thereupon, without any further explanation, they
were marched to the stone quarry and shot down. The particulars of the
records of these 21 victims are known.
The unbelievable bad conditions, especially the sanitary ones, in
the special camp of the Poles, spread to the rest of the camp. The
epidemics in the camp and the fear of contagion on the part of the
troops forced the SS to quarantine the camp. Individual additions
arrived only in exceptional cases. From 1 November 1939 to 30 June
1940, i.e. in 8 months, only a total of 131 additions arrived.
Correspondingly the discharges from the camp were almost completely
discontinued. Therefore, it was in the main the death cases which in
this first winter of the war, owing to the miserable nourishment,
hunger and dysentery, caused a decrease in the number of prisoners
from 12,841 on 24 October 1939 to 7,986 on 1 May 1940. Death took an
especially high toll among the Burgenland gypsies confined in the camp.
In the aforementioned figures showing the decrease, a transport of
1,000 prisoners on 6 March 1940 and one of 3,000 on 14 April 1940 sent
to the KL Mauthausen, is included. Who ever knows the reputation of
this newly erected camp in Mauthausen must also know that not many of
these prisoners remained alive.
A larger number of additions to the camp only began to arrive again in
August 1940, namely again 1,100 Poles in two transports from Posen.
In the following winter the camp strength remained about the same and
averaged in round numbers about 7,500 prisoners.
(Hitler had promised a very generous pardon decree for his 50th
birthday. It consisted in discharging in round figures 2,300 mostly
“asocial” prisoners. Later delayed pardon act reduced the camp strength
from 6,363 on 1 May 1939 to a low figure of 5,376 on 21 August 1939.)
IV
The first results of the Western Campaign soon manifested themselves
in Buchenwald. Already on 2 July 1940 delivery of 216 Hollanders was
made to the KL Buchenwald, mostly high-ranking officials and officers
as hostages, and was followed by an additional 111 on 8 and 9 October
1940. The last Dutch hostages arrived on 23 August 1941. They were
isolated in a block from the other camp inmates like the preceding
ones, and were conceded certain modest facilities. A selected few of
them were discharged during the year. The main body, however, remained
in Buchenwald until 15 November 1941 and were then transported to the
vicinity of Herzogenbusch.
In the beginning of 1941 the German security police raided the
Amsterdam Jewish quarter after a strike and abducted for transfer to
Buchenwald 389 Dutch Jews on 28 February 1941. They were immediately
employed in the hardest physical work and in this manner destroyed. The
balance of them, 341, with 350 other prisoners were transferred to the
KL Mauthausen on 22 May 1941.
Finally it should be mentioned, that a large transport of 2,000
prisoners arrived from the KL Dachau at the beginning of the Summer of
1941. In contrast to Buchenwald the construction regarded as a sort of
recreation camp to which invalids and sick prisoners were sent. When
they had recuperated they were again sent to other camps for heavy
enforced labor. More will be told later about these “transfers”, as
they were officially termed, from one camp to another.
The aforementioned addition and transports, augmented by the regular
additions which were delivered two or three a week from the police
prisons, caused the camp strength to rise from the low figure of 6,705
on 1 June 1941 to 8,370 prisoners on 1 October 1941.
V
On June 22 1941 Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. The delivery of 2,000
Soviet prisoners of war was the first direct effect on the camp on 18
October 1941. The SS troopers could not prevent the joyful reception
of these prisoners of war by the camp inmates who provided them
with additional bread, food, tobacco and other articles. The whole
camp was punished and especially certain individuals who attracted
most attention. The prisoners were also strictly isolated from the
others and their barracks provided with a sign having the inscription
“prisoners of war”.
Probably Soviet reprisals were feared and they did not want to give
the impression that the prisoners of war had been turned over to a
concentration camp. Nevertheless they were subjected to the same
strict camp discipline as the other prisoners and in the first months
especially the quality of their food was considerably inferior. They
were compelled to do the hardest physical work. Details of the future
fate of the prisoners of war will be reported later. A transfer of
1,000 of them to the KL Mauthausen was made on 19 May 1942. In the
following months and years more Soviet prisoners of war were delivered.
At the end there were 821 prisoners of war in the camp which were
evacuated in one group, when during the last days before the liberation
the SS began to clean out the camp.
The camp strength rose to 10,342 persons with the arrival of the
prisoners of war on 16 October 1941. During the winter of 1941/42
the figure slowly decreased and on 12 March 1942 amounted to 9,770
prisoners. On that day and the following one two large transports
departed from the camp one on 12 March 1942 of 400 to the KL Natzweiler
and one of 800 to the KL Ravensbrueck. The SS apparently tried to
break the anti-fascist character of the camp by these transfers, which
had manifested itself especially in its attitude toward the Soviet
prisoners of war. Many long term political prisoners were sent away
without any consideration. Undernourished and badly billeted they were
forced to the hardest kind of physical labor in the new camps, so
that the majority of them died and only a few were able to return to
Buchenwald after a long time with other transports. After the departure
of the transports the camp was again strictly searched for German
political prisoners and a number of them isolated in a special company
for hard physical labor. This matter will also be treated by another
source in a special report, therefore, it will not be necessary to go
into details at this time. These transports and the aforementioned
transport of 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war to the KL Mauthausen reduced
the camp strength on 1 June 1942 to the figure of 7,601, due to the
relatively minor additions.
About this time, Sauckel, the Gauleiter of Thuringia and Hitler’s
General Deputy for labor Employment, began to abduct on a large scale
the population of the occupied eastern territories for forced labor
in Germany. Partly voluntary, with a naive belief in the promises of
the Nazis, and partly concerned they came in large mass transports
to Germany for employment. Already at the beginning the Germans must
have recognized that many undisciplined and politically undesirable
“elements” were to be found among them, which threatened to endanger
peace and order.
They were harshly treated and locked up for minor infraction in the
punishment and concentration camps for “commitment to labor”, which in
other words meant life-long slavery. No trouble was taken to determine
in the individual cases the question of guilt. No one felt responsible
for the fate of the abducted. The SS demanded and received their share
of the booty derived from this unpaid labor and exploited it without
any consideration and brutally for their own selfish purposes.
Beginning 1 June rapidly increasing numbers of Ukrainian, Russian,
Tartar civilian workers and former prisoners of war arrived in the
camp. In addition the normal collecting transports abducted people of
all the various nations and of every age to the Ettersberg. Within a
very short space of time the camp was inhabited by persons from 25
countries from all over Europe and overseas, one might say, shortly
from nearly all the countries in the world. At the end for 1944
nationals from 36 different countries were imprisoned in the camp. If
the influx let up, the Reich leader of the SS would issue new decrees
on the basis of which new raids and actions were carried out causing
the inflow to increase again by leaps and bounds.
The SS also understood how to procure slave labor from inside Germany.
Beginning December 1942 the judicial authorities had to turn over in
part their cheap labor employees to the concentration camps. A decree
was issued which ordered the transfer of the prisoners of the courts
of justice to the concentration camps for labor commitment. Committees
visited the penal prisons and shortly thereafter pronounced criminals
(murderers, persons guilty of manslaughter, persons guilty of moral
turpitude) sentenced to long and life-long penal imprisonment were sent
from the penal prisons Saxony, Thuringia, Hessen, the Rhineland and
Westphalia, as well as from the Province of Brandenburg, (were sent)
to the KL Buchenwald. Many of them were used as “guinea pigs” in the
spotted fever barracks, while many others, accustomed to living for
years in confined quarters, died, because they could not endure the
sudden transition to a life in the open during the winter and in the
spring.
If some of the concentration camps were overcrowded or workmen were
needed at certain points, whether for the construction of airdromes,
defense fortifications or barracks, or even for the completion
of castles, country houses and homes of individual high-ranking
SS officials and their staffs, the private slaves of the SS were
dragged, without any consideration from one camp to another. Further
developments are shown in Table 5, in which the camp strength and the
number of the addition for the 12 months from 1 June 1942 to 31 May
1943 are given.
_Table 5_
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------------------------
| Camp Strength | Additions |
Month | beg. of month | during month | Special Transport
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------------------------
June ’42 | 7,601 | 1,019 | On 5 July--300 invalids
July ’42 | 8,000 | 1,996 | and 51 clergymen to Dachau.
Aug. ’42 | 8,849 | 1,715 |
Sept. ’42 | 9,886 | 1,709 | 500 from KL Dachau
Oct. ’42 | 10,075 | 984 | 13 Oct.--619 to KL
| | | Sachsenhausen.
| | | 17 Oct.--405 to KL Auschwitz.
Nov. ’42 | 8,831 | 794 |
Dec. ’42 | 9,092 | 1,044 |
Jan. ’43 | 9,517 | 2,500 | On 23 Jan. 43--843 foreign
| | | workers from Duesseldorf.
Feb. ’43 | 11,275 | 1,291 |
Mar. ’43 | 11,920 | 2,474 | The first in the small camp.
Apr. ’43 | 12,461 | 2,773 | On 5 Mar.--500 to KL Dachau.
May ’43 | 13,326 | 2,939 | On 23 Mar. to Riga.
31 May ’43 | 14,441 | | On 3 Apr.--933 Poles from
| | | Lublin.
| | | On 12 Apr.--339 from KL
| | | Wewelsberg.
-----------+---------------+--------------+------------------------------
In what manner the terrible conditions in the overcrowded German
concentration camps and the pitiless exploitation of the prisoners
crossed the plans of the higher authorities of an increased production,
is revealed in a communication of the SS Main Office of the Economic
Administration. According to this letter, the total number of additions
in all the German concentration camps in the 6 months from June to
November 1942 amounted to 136,780, whereas 70,610 died in the same
period. (See copy of the document in Annex IV.)
VI
The Germans had to leave the Soviet Union after the decisive defeat
at Stalingrad. During the retreat all the still available manpower
reserves were combed out everywhere. Men and women, children and old
men were dragged off to Germany. A great number of them were not even
employed as foreign workers, but instead immediately delivered to the
concentration camps. In the Fall of 1943 the following transports from
the still occupied parts of the Soviet Union arrived in Buchenwald.
_Table 6_
-------------+-----------------+---------
Date | Origin | Number
-------------+-----------------+---------
26 Aug. ’43 | Dnjepropetrowsk | 998
29 Aug. ’43 | Dnjepropetrowsk | 781
19 Sept. ’43 | Dnjepropetrowsk | 1,362
5 Oct. ’43 | Nikolajew | 604
10 Oct. ’43 | Kiriwograd | 529
31 Oct. ’43 | Kiew | 233
1 Nov. ’43 | Kiriwograd | 318
28 Nov. ’43 | Nikolajew | 192
24 Mar. ’44 | Nikolajew | 377
| +--------
| | 5,394
-------------+-----------------+---------