From modest beginnings the SS(Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.
In the Nazi state, the SS assumed leading responsibility for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence collection and analysis. The SS controlled the German police forces and the  concentration camp system. The SS conceived and implemented plans designed to restructure the ethnic composition of eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet Union.
From 1939, the SS assumed responsibility for "solving" the so-called Jewsih Question; after 1941, its leadership planned, coordinated and directed the so-called Final Soulution of the Jewsih Question. This "solution" was the annihilation of the European Jews, which we now refer to as the Holocaust.
Source:http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007400 |
