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146-665: Walter Friedrich Schellenberg (16 January 1910 – 31 March 1952) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era . He rose through the ranks of the SS, becoming one of the highest ranking men in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and eventually assumed the position as head of foreign intelligence for Nazi Germany following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944. Schellenberg, born in Saarbrücken , Germany ,

292-702: A Prussian secret police force, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo , and appointed Rudolf Diels as its head. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, Göring handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934. Also on that date, in a departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. Himmler named his deputy and protégé Reinhard Heydrich chief of

438-782: A general ( Brigadeführer ) in the Allgemeine-SS (General-SS). The operation was a major victory for the RSHA at the expense of the Abwehr , who had been oblivious to the Soviet operation. Historian Klaus Fischer asserts that Schellenberg's "only major success was smashing the Red Orchestra." Reportedly, Schellenberg and Wilhelm Canaris , the head of the Abwehr , were friends. They would go horseback-riding together in Berlin's wooded Grunewald, where they discussed

584-489: A higher casualty rate than the army. Generaloberst Fedor von Bock was quite critical; following an April 1940 visit of the SS-Totenkopf division, he found their battle training was "insufficient". Hitler thought the criticism was typical of the army's "outmoded conception of chivalry." In its defence, the SS insisted that its armed formations had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal and were improperly equipped by

730-666: A long prison sentence, Schellenberg testified against the SS organisation and the Nazi leaders in its fold during the postwar trials. During the Ministries Trial , he wrote his memoirs, titled The Labyrinth . Historian Robert Gerwarth describes certain content of Schellenberg's memoirs as "questionable." On 4 November 1949, he was sentenced to six years in prison for failing to prevent the murder of Soviet POWs who were utilized as agents in Operation Zeppelin . The tribunal found that near

876-635: A meeting, called the Wannsee Conference , to discuss the implementation of the plan. During battles in the Soviet Union in 1941 and 1942, the Waffen-SS suffered enormous casualties. The LSSAH and Das Reich lost over half their troops to illness and combat casualties. In need of recruits, Himmler began to accept soldiers that did not fit the original SS racial profile. In early 1942, SS-Leibstandarte , SS-Totenkopf , and SS-Das Reich were withdrawn to

1022-604: A new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando (Protection Command). It was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at party functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national organisation and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel (Storm Squadron), and finally the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squad; SS). Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 (the second anniversary of

1168-465: A number of occasions. Despite Kaltenbrunner's animosity towards Schellenberg, the latter's soothing manners kept him in good graces with Himmler and allowed him to "retain the ear of the SS overlord". Allied military intelligence documents have been unearthed linking French couturier Coco Chanel to espionage activity in concert with Schellenberg, who reportedly was also one of her romantic liaisons. In 1943–1944, Operation Modellhut ( Operation Model Hat )

1314-609: A pagan ceremony invented by Himmler. These pseudo-religious rites and ceremonies often took place near SS-dedicated monuments or in special SS-designated places. In 1933, Himmler bought Wewelsburg , a castle in Westphalia . He initially intended it to be used as an SS training centre, but its role came to include hosting SS dinners and neo-pagan rituals. In 1936, Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organisation": We shall take care that never again in Germany,

1460-631: A separate peace with the Western Allies , using as an excuse Hitler's poor health; however, Himmler never took action, but instead vacillated. He also convinced Himmler to meet with the former president of Switzerland, Jean-Marie Musy , who promised to pay in Swiss francs for the release of Jews. At the end of the war, Schellenberg was able to persuade Himmler to try negotiating with the Western Allies through Count Folke Bernadotte . Schellenberg had earlier in

1606-675: A small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance , and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS

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1752-642: The Civil Service . After graduating he joined the SS in 1933. (Schellenberg later wrote that the "better type of people" preferred the SS over the other Nazi organizations.) Although educated as a lawyer, Schellenberg distrusted administrative attorneys and was intent on ensuring that the SD could operate outside the constraints of normal law. Subscribing to the Führerprinzip , Schellenberg also regarded Hitler's directives as beyond

1898-567: The Heer (German Army). However, it never obtained total "independence of command", nor was it ever a "serious rival" to the German Army. Members were never able to join the ranks of the German High Command and it was dependent on the army for heavy weaponry and equipment. Although SS ranks generally had equivalents in the other services, the SS rank system did not copy the terms and ranks used by

2044-574: The SS-Verfügungs-Division . A second SS division, the SS-Totenkopf , was formed from SS-TV concentration camp guards, and a third, the SS-Polizei , was created from police volunteers. The SS gained control over its own recruitment, logistics, and supply systems for its armed formations at this time. The SS, Gestapo, and SD were in charge of the provisional military administration in Poland until

2190-453: The 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" when it was reorganised as a Panzergrenadier division in 1942. In April 1941, the German Army invaded Yugoslavia and Greece . The LSSAH and Das Reich were attached to separate army Panzer corps . Fritz Klingenberg , a company commander in the Das Reich division, led his men across Yugoslavia to the capital, Belgrade , where a small group in

2336-504: The Abwehr , which was part of the Wehrmacht). Nonetheless, there are indications that Schellenberg preferred to deal with Canaris' Abwehr over the Gestapo, particularly since he distrusted its chief, Heinrich Müller . However, after the attempted assassination of Hitler on 20 July 1944 , the Abwehr was dissolved and the SD was given additional powers over intelligence across the Reich. Canaris

2482-594: The Bandenkampfverbände had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralised control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations. Once the Wehrmacht had secured territorial objectives, the Bandenkampfverbände first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings. An additional priority

2628-537: The Einsatzgruppen reached a total strength of 3,000 men. Einsatzgruppen A, B, and C were attached to Army Groups North , Centre , and South ; Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th Army . The Einsatzgruppe for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941. Historian Richard Rhodes describes them as being "outside the bounds of morality"; they were "judge, jury and executioner all in one", with

2774-523: The Einsatzgruppen took place on 6 September 1939 during the attack on Kraków . Satisfied with their performance in Poland, Hitler allowed further expansion of the armed SS formations but insisted new units remain under the operational control of the army. While the SS-Leibstandarte remained an independent regiment functioning as Hitler's personal bodyguards, the other regiments— SS-Deutschland , SS-Germania, and SS-Der Führer —were combined to form

2920-613: The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall Security) to provide security at their meetings in Munich . The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a small bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA), which he did not trust. The new formation

3066-507: The Reichsführer's confidence. After Heydrich's death in June 1942, Schellenberg became the "closest professional confidant" of Himmler. Himmler bestowed upon Schellenberg a unique position beyond that of a simple aide, making him his special plenipotentiary ( Sonderbevollmächtigter ). When Walter Schellenberg moved to Frankfurt in 1934, he recalled meeting an SS- Oberführer , who explained to him

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3212-497: The SS-Leibstandarte had taken Wormhout , 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. There, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were responsible for the Wormhoudt massacre , where 81 British and French soldiers were murdered after they surrendered. According to historian Charles Sydnor, the "fanatical recklessness in the assault, suicidal defence against enemy attacks, and savage atrocities committed in the face of frustrated objectives" exhibited by

3358-573: The SS-Oberführerbereich Ost , SS-Oberführerbereich West , and SS-Oberführerbereich Süd . The lower levels of the SS remained largely unchanged. Although officially still considered a sub-organisation of the SA and answerable to the Stabschef (SA Chief of Staff), it was also during this time that Himmler began to establish the independence of the SS from the SA. The SS grew in size and power due to its exclusive loyalty to Hitler, as opposed to

3504-408: The SS-Totenkopf division during the invasion were typical of the SS troops as a whole. At the close of the campaign, Hitler expressed his pleasure with the performance of the SS-Leibstandarte , telling them: "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack." The SS-VT was renamed the Waffen-SS in a speech made by Hitler in July 1940. Hitler then authorised

3650-630: The Stiftung Nordhav on 30 July 1939. The State Secretary Wilhelm Stuckart recognized the foundation 3 August 1939. The foundation's official purpose was to obtain real estate to be used as rest and recreation centers for members of the SS , Reich Security Police, and their families. Besides this official function, Heydrich intended to make use of the organization to acquire real property for himself. Heydrich named five directors: Karl Wilhelm Albert , Herbert Mehlhorn , Werner Best , Kurt Pomme , and Walter Schellenberg . The initial foundation endowment

3796-512: The Wehrmacht ' s branches. Instead, it used the ranks established by the post-World War I Freikorps and the SA. This was primarily done to emphasise the SS as being independent of the Wehrmacht . In the September 1939 invasion of Poland , the LSSAH and SS-VT fought as separate mobile infantry regiments. The LSSAH became notorious for torching villages without military justification. Members of

3942-663: The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS encountered resistance from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the Greek Army . The fighting was intensified by the mountainous terrain, with its heavily defended narrow passes. The LSSAH was at the forefront of the German push. The BEF evacuated by sea to Crete , but had to flee again in late May when the Germans arrived. Like Yugoslavia, the conquest of Greece brought its Jews into danger, as

4088-481: The Wehrmacht to acquire logistical support from the army (both on the front-line and in rear areas) so the Einsatzgruppen could carry out their killing operations more effectively. Acting on behalf of Heydrich, Schellenberg issued a circular on 20 May 1941 to all segments of the German Security Police which forbade any Jews from emigrating out of German-controlled territory; this new policy formed part of

4234-474: The bugging of Salon Kitty , a high-class Berlin brothel. Some of the Nazi regime's upper echelons even visited this brothel unaware at first, such as Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop . However, intelligence collection efforts at Salon Kitty were essentially a failure as they never revealed anything significant. Direct access to Himmler also made Schellenberg privy to some of the Reich's most sensitive material. For example, Schellenberg knew early on about

4380-668: The massacre of Polish officers at the Katyn forest . According to Schellenberg, the Germans then blamed the Soviets for the atrocity in an effort to split the allies. The U.S., British, and Soviet intelligence services had all been searching for him as a valuable intelligence asset. Captain Horace Hahn , a member of the OSS, was one of the few Americans allowed to interrogate Schellenberg. Looking to recover as much information as they could from Schellenberg,

4526-477: The 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union had stalled, Schellenberg conceived and implemented a large-scale spy operation designed to penetrate into the Soviet Union, an initiative known as Operation Zeppelin ( Unternehmen Zeppelin ). Using anti-Communists selected from the many thousands of POWs captured by the Germans, he soon had anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 potential candidates in training, who were accordingly indoctrinated. Only between 2,000 and 3,000 completed

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4672-402: The 258,000 Romani . The SS was involved in murdering people viewed as threats to race hygiene or Nazi ideology, including the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, and political dissidents. Members of trade unions and those perceived to be affiliated with groups that opposed the regime (religious, political, social, and otherwise), or those whose views were contradictory to the goals of

4818-504: The Bahamas along with a signed statement from the chief of the Portuguese counterespionage police that he could not guarantee the duke's safety if he sailed on that ship. Finally, Schellenberg bribed the duke's British chauffer to talk to him about how dangerous it would be for him to go to the Bahamas. Despite all of Schellenberg's efforts, the duke and duchess of Windsor left for the Bahamas. In

4964-543: The Beer Hall Putsch). The new SS protected party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to include combat units. Schreck, a founding member of the SA and a close confidant of Hitler, became the first SS chief in March 1925. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold succeeded him as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the title of the office to Reichsführer-SS (Reich Leader-SS). Berchtold

5110-711: The Berlin Chancellory Guard, the SS security regiment assigned to the Obersalzberg, and a Munich-based bodyguard unit which protected Hitler when he visited his apartment and the Brown House Nazi Party headquarters in Munich. Although the unit was nominally under Himmler, Dietrich was the real commander and handled day-to-day administration. Two other SS units composed the inner ring of Hitler's protection. The SS-Begleitkommando des Führers (Escort Command of

5256-547: The Berlin Gasworks, the largest financial crime of the Nazi era. From his jail cell in Berlin, Minoux sold the villa to the Stiftung Nordhav for 1.95 million reichsmarks . Heydrich's intention was to use the villa as an SS guesthouse and vacation lodging, with part reserved for his own needs. On 20 January 1942, the Wannsee Villa became the venue for the Wannsee Conference , the meeting Heydrich held with senior officials of

5402-551: The British launched an armoured counterattack against the flanks of the 7th Panzer Division and SS-Totenkopf . The Germans then trapped the British and French troops in a huge pocket at Dunkirk . On 27 May, 4 Company, SS-Totenkopf perpetrated the Le Paradis massacre , where 97 men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine-gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets . Two men survived. By 28 May

5548-549: The British sent him to London in July, 1945 where he was extensively interrogated; their intention (along with the Americans) was to extract information on any remaining Nazi resistance yet to surface and to gather what they could on Germany's possible postwar intelligence activities. Schellenberg confirmed to the Allies that no such plans were in place, which was supported by Allied intelligence efforts. The fact that Schellenberg had been on

5694-635: The Director in Switzerland of the OSS , Allen Dulles , expressed deep concern about the possible intelligence leaks between Masson and Schellenberg. Signals intelligence intercepts alerted the Gestapo and SD to the "Red Orchestra", the Soviet spy ring in Germany . Schellenberg led extensive efforts over many months to identify the participants. 116 were arrested by the Gestapo, half of whom were executed following intense interrogations. By this time, Schellenberg had become

5840-687: The Führer), formed in February 1932, served as Hitler's protection escort while he was travelling. This unit consisted of eight men who served around the clock protecting Hitler in shifts. Later the SS-Begleitkommando was expanded and became known as the Führerbegleitkommando ( Führer Escort Command; FBK). It continued under separate command and remained responsible for Hitler's protection. The Führer Schutzkommando ( Führer Protection Command; FSK)

5986-530: The Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Heydrich also continued as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; security service). The Gestapo's transfer to Himmler was a prelude to the Night of the Long Knives , in which most of the SA leadership were arrested and subsequently executed. The SS and Gestapo carried out most of the murders. On 20 July 1934, Hitler detached the SS from the SA, which was no longer an influential force after

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6132-588: The Holocaust. After Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power on 30 January 1933, the SS was considered a state organisation and a branch of the government. Law enforcement gradually became the purview of the SS, and many SS organisations became de facto government agencies. The SS established a police state within Nazi Germany, using the secret state police and security forces under Himmler's control to suppress resistance to Hitler. In his role as Minister President of Prussia , Hermann Göring had in 1933 created

6278-501: The Jews interned in concentration camps represented a bargaining chip for the Nazi leadership: one they could use to derive concessions from the Western allies. To foster goodwill for their negotiations, Schellenberg—with Himmler's consent—organised the transport of 1,700 Jews out of German-controlled territory to Switzerland and Sweden. Hitler found out and put a stop to further evacuations. After

6424-580: The LSSAH committed war crimes in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine-gunned in Złoczew . Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec , Torzeniec , Goworowo , Mława , and Włocławek . Some senior members of the Wehrmacht were not convinced the units were fully prepared for combat. Its units took unnecessary risks and had

6570-439: The Nazi Party government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses , Freemasons , Communists , and Rotary Club members. According to the judgements rendered at the Nuremberg trials , as well as many war crimes investigations and trials conducted since then, the SS was responsible for the majority of Nazi war crimes. In particular, it was the primary organisation that carried out

6716-423: The Nazi regime became more oppressive, the concentration camp system grew in size and lethal operation, and grew in scope as the economic ambitions of the SS intensified. Intensification of the killing operations took place in late 1941 when the SS began construction of stationary gassing facilities to replace the use of Einsatzgruppen for mass murders. Victims at these new extermination camps were killed with

6862-403: The Nazis immediately took a variety of measures against them. Initially confined in ghettos, most were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in March 1943, where they were murdered in the gas chambers on arrival. Of Greece's 80,000 Jews, only 20 per cent survived the war. On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union . The expanding war and

7008-402: The Nazis set their sights on the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia , a region with over three million ethnic Germans which they wanted to incorporate into the Reich; more than that, Hitler once told his generals that he desired for Czechoslovakia to "disappear from the map". In the summer of 1938, the Gestapo and SD-Ausland , which had taken control of the Secret Service in Czechoslovakia, helped

7154-419: The Poles. Another one of his areas of responsibility was counter-espionage, both within Germany and the occupied territories—a task for which Schellenberg seemed well-suited given his penchant for intrigue. Operating as an intelligence adviser to Himmler in Poland meant Schellenberg was at the front edge of the spear, but this did not mean he was incapable of being surprised. In fact, he was particularly shocked at

7300-399: The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in July 1939, he had Schellenberg to thank as both the organisation's name and its existence resulted from his plans. On 27 September 1939, Himmler decreed the RSHA an official state organisation. As the role of the SS and its action groups, the Einsatzgruppen , expanded in the war zones and prospective war zones in May 1941, Schellenberg negotiated with

7446-417: The SA, which was seen as semi-independent and a threat to Hitler's hegemony over the party, mainly because they demanded a "second revolution" beyond the one that brought the Nazi Party to power. By the end of 1933, the membership of the SS reached 209,000. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS continued to gather greater power as more and more state and party functions were assigned to its jurisdiction. Over time

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7592-616: The SA. Except in the Munich area, the SS was unable to maintain any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SA continued its rapid growth. As Heiden attempted to keep the SS from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler displayed better organisational abilities than Heiden. The SS established a number of Gaue (regions or provinces). The SS-Gaue consisted of SS-Gau Berlin , SS-Gau Berlin Brandenburg , SS-Gau Franken , SS-Gau Niederbayern , SS-Gau Rheinland-Süd , and SS-Gau Sachsen . With Hitler's approval, Himmler assumed

7738-401: The SA. Some 500 to 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, mostly by arson. On 11 November, Heydrich reported a death toll of 36 people, but later assessments put the number of deaths at up to two thousand. On Hitler's orders, around 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps by 16 November. As many as 2,500 of these people died in the following months. It was at this point that

7884-495: The SD diamond on the lower left sleeve. The SS was closely associated with Nazi Germany's concentration camp system. On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed SS- Oberführer Theodor Eicke as commandant of Dachau concentration camp , one of the first Nazi concentration camps. It was created to consolidate the many small camps that had been set up by various police agencies and the Nazi Party to house political prisoners. The organisational structure Eicke instituted at Dachau stood as

8030-429: The SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a propaganda campaign. Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the Bandenbekämpfung (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the Bandenkampfverbände (bandit fighting formations), with SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski as its chief. Employing troops primarily from the SS police and Waffen-SS ,

8176-418: The SS and police organs should merge, a move which Schellenberg fully supported: on 24 February 1939 he released a memorandum which advocated further centralization within the state. In summer 1939, Schellenberg became one of the directors of Heydrich's foundation, the Stiftung Nordhav . Schellenberg was mentored by Herbert Mehlhorn while at the SS-Hauptamt . When Heydrich announced his intention to create

8322-403: The SS answered only to Hitler, the de facto merger of the SS and the police made the police independent of Frick's control. In September 1939, the security and police agencies, including the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) and SD (but not the Orpo), were consolidated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich. This further increased the collective authority of

8468-565: The SS became answerable only to Hitler, a development typical of the organisational structure of the entire Nazi regime, where legal norms were replaced by actions undertaken under the Führerprinzip (leader principle), where Hitler's will was considered to be above the law. In the latter half of 1934, Himmler oversaw the creation of SS-Junkerschule , institutions where SS officer candidates received leadership training, political and ideological indoctrination, and military instruction. The training stressed ruthlessness and toughness as part of

8614-410: The SS grew in size and importance, so too did Hitler's personal protection forces. Three main SS groups were assigned to protect Hitler. In 1933, his larger personal bodyguard unit (previously the 1st SS-Standarte ) was called to Berlin to replace the Army Chancellery Guard, assigned to protect the Chancellor of Germany . Sepp Dietrich commanded the new unit, previously known as SS-Stabswache Berlin;

8760-406: The SS men did not meet the criteria. Inducements such as higher salaries and larger homes were provided to members of the SS since they were expected to produce more children than the average German family as part of their commitment to Nazi Party doctrine. Commitment to SS ideology was emphasised throughout the recruitment, membership process, and training. Members of the SS were indoctrinated in

8906-402: The SS state began in earnest its campaign of terror against political and religious opponents, who they imprisoned without trial or judicial oversight for the sake of "security, re-education, or prevention". In September 1939, the authority of the SS expanded further when the senior SS officer in each military district also became its chief of police. Most of these SS and police leaders held

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9052-499: The SS value system, which helped foster a sense of superiority among the men and taught them self-confidence. The first schools were established at Bad Tölz and Braunschweig , with additional schools opening at Klagenfurt and Prague during the war. The SS was regarded as the Nazi Party's elite unit. In keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany , in the early days all SS officer candidates had to provide proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800. Once

9198-476: The SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought Soviet partisans , but by the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the Einsatzgruppen , they formed firing parties that participated in the liquidation of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union. On 31 July 1941, Göring gave Heydrich written authorisation to ensure

9344-489: The SS. During Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), SS security services clandestinely coordinated violence against Jews as the SS, Gestapo, SD, Kripo, SiPo, and regular police did what they could to ensure that while Jewish synagogues and community centres were destroyed, Jewish-owned businesses and housing remained intact so that they could later be seized. In the end, thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and graveyards were vandalised and looted, particularly by members of

9490-423: The SS. In November 1939 Schellenberg played a major part in the Venlo Incident , which led to the capture of two British MI6 agents , Captain Sigismund Payne-Best and Major Richard Stevens . Schellenberg posed as a "Major Schaemmel" claiming to be part of an anti-Nazi group of officers planning a coup against Hitler. At Schellenberg's third meeting with Stevens and Best in the German-Dutch border town of Venlo,

9636-445: The Sudeten Nazis from the Sudetendeutsche Partei infiltrate regional and local organizations, veterans groups, musical societies, sporting associations, sailing clubs, and cultural societies—which gave them insight into the economic, political, and military situation there. So thorough was the Nazi penetration in much of the Sudetenland, that Schellenberg stated later it was necessary to establish two telephone transmission stations along

9782-445: The West to refit and were converted to Panzergrenadier divisions. The SS-Panzer Corps returned to the Soviet Union in 1943 and participated in the Third Battle of Kharkov in February and March. The SS was built on a culture of violence, which was exhibited in its most extreme form by the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war on the Eastern Front . Augmented by personnel from the Kripo, Orpo (Order Police), and Waffen-SS ,

9928-437: The aircraft door that he had been leaning against was not properly secured. Throwing Himmler aside in the process, Schellenberg earned the gratitude of the Reichsführer , who promised to reciprocate the favor if the chance ever presented itself. Following the exuberant reception of Hitler when he arrived in Vienna, Schellenberg later wrote, "'never...have I seen such tremendous, enthusiastic and joyous crowds." Much like Austria,

10074-439: The appointment of Hans Frank as Governor-General on 26 October 1939. On 10 May 1940, Hitler launched the Battle of France , a major offensive against France and the Low Countries . The SS supplied two of the 89 divisions employed. The LSSAH and elements of the SS-VT participated in the ground invasion of the Netherlands . Simultaneously, airborne troops were dropped to capture key Dutch airfields, bridges, and railways. In

10220-403: The army. After the invasion, Hitler entrusted the SS with extermination actions codenamed Operation Tannenberg and AB-Aktion to remove potential leaders who could form a resistance to German occupation. The murders were committed by Einsatzgruppen (task forces; deployment groups), assisted by local paramilitary groups. Men for the Einsatzgruppen units were drawn from the SS, the SD, and

10366-405: The arrangement between Germany and the Soviet Union concerning the partition of Poland, an agreement that presaged the military invasion. Once the Nazis invaded and occupied Polish territory, Schellenberg was entrusted with securing the rear areas by Himmler and Heydrich, which meant he oversaw the deployment of special commandos from the SD and Gestapo, units which carried out brutal measures against

10512-515: The authority to kill anyone at their discretion. Following Operation Barbarossa, these Einsatzgruppen units, together with the Waffen-SS and Order Police as well as with assistance from the Wehrmacht , engaged in the mass murder of the Jewish population in occupied eastern Poland and the Soviet Union. The greatest extent of Einsatzgruppen action occurred in 1941 and 1942 in Ukraine and Russia. Before

10658-484: The camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS members. This rotation of personnel meant that nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organisation liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity . Stiftung Nordhav The name Nordhav came from an old Germanic term for the North Sea . Heydrich established

10804-664: The command of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt ( SS Main Economic and Administrative Office ; WVHA) under Oswald Pohl . Richard Glücks served as the Inspector of Concentration Camps , which in 1942 became office "D" under the WVHA. Exploitation and extermination became a balancing act as the military situation deteriorated. The labour needs of the war economy, especially for skilled workers, meant that some Jews escaped

10950-495: The cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments to undertake genocide of the Jews in territories under German control. Heydrich was instrumental in carrying out these exterminations, as the Gestapo was ready to organise deportations in the West and his Einsatzgruppen were already conducting extensive murder operations in the East. On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired

11096-507: The detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralisation of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology , and providing domestic and foreign intelligence. The SS was the organisation most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust . Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS

11242-522: The duke to declare himself for peace with Germany. Under Schellenberg's plan, the duke and duchess would be invited to go hunting near the Portuguese-Spanish border, and then a corrupt Portuguese border official would allow a German team to cross over the frontier to kidnap the Windsors. The plan failed when the duke of Windsor declined the offer to go hunting. When it became clear that the duke of Windsor

11388-706: The end of the war, Schellenberg had started aiding victims of the Nazi regime. It questioned whether he was acting out of good faith, but nevertheless credited him for his actions. He was released from prison after two years on the grounds of ill-health, due to a worsening liver condition, and moved to Switzerland, before settling in Verbania-Pallanza , Italy. In 1952, he died in Turin , Italy. Schutzstaffel The Schutzstaffel ( German: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ; lit.   ' Protection Squadron ' ; SS ; also stylised with Armanen runes as ᛋᛋ )

11534-524: The end, the mission was a failure; Schellenberg managed nothing more than a delay of the Duke's baggage for a few hours. In June, 1940, he was charged with compiling the Informationsheft G.B. , a blueprint for the occupation of Britain after a proposed invasion by Nazi Germany. The preparations for invasion, known as Operation Sea Lion ( Unternehmen Seelöwe ), were ultimately abandoned. He based his work on

11680-466: The enlistment of "people perceived to be of related stock", as Himmler put it, to expand the ranks. Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns volunteered to fight in the Waffen-SS under the command of German officers. They were brought together to form the new division SS-Wiking . In January 1941, the SS-Verfügungs Division was renamed SS-Reich Division (Motorised), and was renamed as

11826-513: The entire transaction. The outbreak of World War II in Europe on 1 September 1939 caused the foundation to become inactive for the next six months. The most important financial transaction of the Stiftung Nordhav occurred in November 1940: the acquisition of the Wannsee Villa at Am Grossen Wannsee 56–58, in Berlin. The industrialist Friedrich Minoux , owner of the villa, had been jailed for defrauding

11972-433: The fall of 1942 with the Swiss intelligence chief, Colonel Roger Masson. He even went so far as providing Masson with a list of all the Abwehr (military intelligence) agents operating in Switzerland with the intention of "having them expelled." When the Allies invaded Italy in 1943, Schellenberg went to great lengths to ensure the safety of Amin al-Husseini , the anti-Semitic and anti-British Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who

12118-671: The file also depicted him as "firm, tough, possesses energy" and as "very sharp thinking"; his National Socialist worldview was labeled "thoroughly fortified". Many of the SS street-brawling types despised men like Schellenberg, considering them effete, but for the most part Schellenberg made a good impression on the Nazi elite. Sometime in 1938 Schellenberg married Käthe Kortekamp, a seamstress three years his senior, whom he dated for seven years and who had supported him through college. Their marriage proved brief, partially because of her social standing and because many things about her embarrassed him;

12264-450: The first set of failed meetings, Schellenberg requested Bernadotte to intercede directly with General Eisenhower but this final action proved futile as well. At war's end, Schellenberg was in Denmark attempting to arrange his own surrender when the British took him into custody in June, 1945. That same month, a Swedish dispatch reported that Schellenberg had "confessed" to Germany's complicity in

12410-571: The five-day campaign, the LSSAH linked up with army units and airborne troops after several clashes with Dutch defenders. SS troops did not take part in the thrust through the Ardennes and the river Meuse . Instead, the SS-Totenkopf was summoned from the army reserve to fight in support of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel 's 7th Panzer Division as they advanced toward the English Channel . On 21 May,

12556-422: The framework of the legal system and believed it was best to "unquestioningly" carry out anything ordered by the Nazi leader. In 1935, Schellenberg met Reinhard Heydrich and worked for him in the counter-intelligence department of the SD. Besides his native German, Schellenberg also spoke French and English fluently. Correspondingly, his first foreign-intelligence assignment was to Paris in 1934 to check up on

12702-567: The frontier to communicate with Berlin. Eventually after strained negotiations with the West, Hitler acquired the Sudetenland when the Munich Agreement was concluded. Following this event, Schellenberg accompanied Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich into Prague on 15 March 1939 and reported that Himmler was so pleased with the performance and racial makeup of the Czech police, that he incorporated them into

12848-440: The future of Nazi Germany. Often present at these equestrian outings were Heydrich and Werner Best . Their alleged friendship aside, Canaris was careful around Schellenberg, a man whose ambitions included controlling all intelligence for the Reich. Like Heydrich, Schellenberg ultimately envisioned a centrally directed "all-embracing security system" and a singular "Greater German Intelligence Service" under direct Nazi control (unlike

12994-434: The gas chambers and crematoria before being murdered themselves. On Himmler's orders, by early 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz was greatly expanded to include the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide Zyklon B . For administrative reasons, all concentration camp guards and administrative staff became full members of the Waffen-SS in 1942. The concentration camps were placed under

13140-552: The genocidal Final Solution . The language within the circular Schellenberg issued even contained the explicit expression: "in view of the undoubtedly imminent Final Solution of the Jewish question ", wording that makes it clear he was both complicit in and aware of the impending extermination activities. Despite being Heydrich's direct subordinate, Schellenberg skillfully ingratiated himself with Himmler by first delivering his intelligence reports to him instead of to Heydrich, which earned him

13286-602: The genocide. On 30 October 1942, due to severe labour shortages in Germany, Himmler ordered that large numbers of able-bodied people in Nazi-occupied Soviet territories be taken prisoner and sent to Germany as forced labour . By 1944, the SS-TV had been organised into three divisions: staff of the concentration camps in Germany and Austria, in the occupied territories, and of the extermination camps in Poland. By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of

13432-480: The heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without. The SS ideology included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political issues. The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party. The SS

13578-510: The impending action; this was done so they could coordinate and control access to the execution grounds. Initially, the victims were shot, but this method proved impracticable for an operation of this scale. Also, after Himmler observed the shooting of 100 Jews at Minsk in August 1941, he grew concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men. He decided that alternate methods of murder should be found, which led to

13724-564: The influence of the British Secret Service and German collaborators. Upon further investigation, Schellenberg also reported to Hitler that Hess made his flight under the advice of an astrologer, which incited the activity of Heydrich who promptly arrested as many mediums, psychics, and astrologers he could round up in Berlin. Besides reactive intelligence reports like those he provided concerning Hess, Schellenberg arranged numerous plots of subterfuge and intelligence gathering , including

13870-464: The interrogations of British agents Best and Stevens, along with his own "preconceptions". Part of what he prepared was described as "a handbook for German troops and officials as a guide to the British institutions they would encounter." The extent of his direct involvement in compiling the book and its supplement, however, has been disputed. The supplement was the "Special Wanted List, GB" ( Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. , also known as "The Black Book"), which

14016-419: The introduction of gas vans . However, these were not popular with the men, as they regarded removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them to have been unpleasant. Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma. In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to

14162-430: The invasion there were five million registered Jews throughout the Soviet Union, with three million of those residing in the territories occupied by the Germans; by the time the war ended, over two million of these had been murdered. The extermination activities of the Einsatzgruppen generally followed a standard procedure, with the Einsatzgruppen chief contacting the nearest Wehrmacht unit commander to inform him of

14308-405: The mission of the SD; he was told the following, which he wrote in his memoirs: In March 1938, Schellenberg traveled with Himmler and Heydrich to Vienna for the impending Anschluss with Austria. One of the reasons for their journey was so the SD could "confiscate Austrian secret service material." During the trip, Schellenberg allegedly saved Himmler from a potential mishap when he noticed that

14454-463: The model for all later concentration camps. After 1934, Eicke was named commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), the SS formation responsible for running the concentration camps under the authority of the SS and Himmler. Known as the "Death's Head Units", the SS-TV was first organised as several battalions, each based at one of Germany's major concentration camps. Leadership at the camps

14600-472: The name was changed to SS-Sonderkommando Berlin . In November 1933, the name was changed to Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler . In April 1934, Himmler modified the name to Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The LSSAH guarded Hitler's private residences and offices, providing an outer ring of protection for the Führer and his visitors. LSSAH men manned sentry posts at the entrances to the old Reich Chancellery and

14746-420: The need to control occupied territories provided the conditions for Himmler to further consolidate the police and military organs of the SS. Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organisations as they struggled to adjust to the changing security challenges. The 1st and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of

14892-560: The new Reich Chancellery. The number of LSSAH guards was increased during special events. At the Berghof , Hitler's residence in the Obersalzberg , a large contingent of the LSSAH patrolled an extensive cordoned security zone. From 1941 forward, the Leibstandarte became four distinct entities, the Waffen-SS division (unconnected to Hitler's protection but a formation of the Waffen-SS ),

15038-479: The opposite side of the RSHA faction which included Kaltenbrunner, Müller, Ohlendorf and Skorzeny , along with other war criminals, was the "best thing" he had going for him at the end of the war. Additional independent signals intelligence also proved helpful in evaluating Schellenberg. After the war, Schellenberg was arrested by British military police and eventually stood trial in Nuremberg . To spare himself from

15184-515: The opposition in Germany. In 1940, Schellenberg was sent to Portugal by Heydrich at Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop 's request to intercept the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and try to persuade them to work for Germany ( Operation Willi ). Ribbentrop believed that the former King Edward VIII, was open to making peace with the Reich in exchange for being allowed to regain his throne. The duke of Windsor

15330-620: The outbreak of World War II, the SS had consolidated into its final form, which comprised three main organisations: the Allgemeine SS , SS-Totenkopfverbände , and the Waffen-SS , which was founded in 1934 as the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and renamed in 1940. The Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army alongside the Wehrmacht and operated in tandem with them, especially with

15476-475: The police. Some 65,000 Polish civilians, including activists, intelligentsia , scholars, teachers, actors, former officers, and others, were murdered by the end of 1939. When the army leadership registered complaints about the brutality being meted out by the Einsatzgruppen , Heydrich informed them that he was acting "in accordance with the special order of the Führer ." The first systematic mass shooting of Jews by

15622-444: The police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview. As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements. In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits". Himmler set

15768-584: The political views of a professor. Then in 1937, Schellenberg was sent to Italy for a police assignment which included security duties for an upcoming visit by Mussolini ; his outstanding work in providing security garnered positive attention from Heydrich, who then gave him additional organizational responsibilities, some of which later helped give birth to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in 1939. The official SS personnel report on Schellenberg described him as "open, irreproachable, and reliable";

15914-607: The populations of the conquered territories, seizing their assets and deporting them to concentration camps and ghettos , where they were used as slave labour or immediately murdered. Chosen to implement the Final Solution ordered by Hitler, the SS were the main group responsible for the institutional murder and democide of more than 20 million people during the Holocaust, including approximately 5.2 million to 6 million Jews and 10.5 million Slavs . A significant number of victims were members of other racial or ethnic groups such as

16060-550: The position of Reichsführer-SS in January 1929. There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party announced that it was for "family reasons". Under Himmler, the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold. He considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organisation, a "conflation of Teutonic knights , the Jesuits , and Japanese Samurai ". His ultimate aim

16206-434: The purge. The SS became an elite corps of the Nazi Party, answerable only to Hitler. Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS now became his actual rank – and the highest rank in the SS, equivalent to the rank of field marshal in the army (his previous rank was Obergruppenführer ). As Himmler's position and authority grew, so in effect did his rank. On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united under

16352-474: The purview of Himmler and the SS. Himmler and Heydrich thus became two of the most powerful men in the country's administration. Police and intelligence forces brought under their administrative control included the SD, Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal investigative police), and Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; regular uniformed police). In his capacity as police chief, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick . In practice, since

16498-456: The racial policy of Nazi Germany and were taught that it was necessary to remove from Germany people deemed by that policy as inferior. Esoteric rituals and the awarding of regalia and insignia for milestones in the SS man's career suffused SS members even further with Nazi ideology. Members were expected to renounce their Christian faith, and Christmas was replaced with a solstice celebration . Church weddings were replaced with SS Eheweihen ,

16644-460: The rank of SS- Gruppenführer or above and answered directly to Himmler in all SS matters within their district. Their role was to police the population and oversee the activities of the SS men within their district. By declaring an emergency, they could bypass the district administrative offices for the SS, SD, SiPo, SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; concentration camp guards), and Orpo, thereby gaining direct operational control of these groups. As

16790-498: The relationship ended in divorce in 1939, but only after Schellenberg promised her an " aryanized " fashion -business expropriated from Jewish owners. Shortly thereafter, he married a more socially-acceptable woman named Irene Grosse-Schönepauck, the daughter of an insurance executive, but this relationship was also troubled. As the Nazis tightened their grip on German society, Hitler and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler determined that

16936-570: The touch of a button. According to the memoirs of SS intelligence officer Wilhelm Hoettl, Schellenberg was very suspicious of Gestapo Chief Müller, whom he claimed to have evidence against by way of radio surveillance recordings (allegedly revealing Müller's plans to work with the Soviets); when he informed then RSHA chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner of possessing proof to that end, he was ignored. Kaltenbrunner disliked Schellenberg, perhaps due to his direct access to Himmler, and complained about him in particular on

17082-499: The training, and as little as a few hundred of them were ever committed to the operation due to insufficient numbers of aircraft and radio communication equipment. What started as a large-scale effort by Schellenberg, quickly became a precision one with very limited success. Most of them produced little to no useful intelligence and/or were killed once deployed. One German intelligence officer commented that if losses "were not over 90 percent, we were satisfied." In March, 1942, Heinz Jost

17228-459: The trap was sprung; the two British agents were captured. Hitler awarded Schellenberg the Iron Cross for his actions. Success in this operation helped the SD acquire greater leverage in foreign policy and gave their police Attachés access to foreign networks through the diplomatically immune offices of the German embassies abroad. The operation also damaged British morale and inclined them to mistrust

17374-538: The use of carbon monoxide gas from automobile engines. During Operation Reinhard , run by officers from the Totenkopfverbände , who were sworn to secrecy, three extermination camps were built in occupied Poland: Bełżec (operational by March 1942), Sobibór (operational by May 1942), and Treblinka (operational by July 1942), with squads of Trawniki men (Eastern European collaborators) overseeing hundreds of Sonderkommando prisoners, who were forced to work in

17520-534: The utter devastation wrought by the Wehrmacht in Poland and commented in his Memoirs upon seeing it that, "Until then I had no real conception of what total war meant." In March, 1940, he did help convince Hitler that Dutch military intelligence was working closely with the British intelligence services, which Hitler used as a pretext to attack the Netherlands "for violating their neutrality." In February, 1942, after

17666-537: The vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later Yugoslavia surrendered. SS police units immediately began taking hostages and carrying out reprisals, a practice that became common. In some cases, they were joined by the Wehrmacht . Similar to Poland, the war policies of the Nazis in the Balkans resulted in brutal occupation and racist mass murder. Serbia became the second country (after Estonia ) declared Judenfrei (free of Jews). In Greece,

17812-528: The wake of the First World War. Schellenberg returned to Germany to attend university, first at the University of Marburg and then, from 1929, at the University of Bonn . He initially studied medicine, but soon switched to law. While in law school, Schellenberg performed some spy work for the SD. He reported actually having been recruited by two SD agents who were college faculty, who also advised him to join

17958-503: The war started and it became more difficult to confirm ancestry, the regulation was amended to proving only the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws . Other requirements were complete obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people and nation. Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these requirements were only loosely enforced, and over half

18104-400: The war, hundreds of camps of varying size and function had been created, holding nearly 715,000 people, most of whom were targeted by the regime because of their race. The concentration camp population rose in tandem with the defeats suffered by the Nazi regime; the worse the catastrophe seemed, the greater the fear of subversion, prompting the SS to intensify their repression and terror. By

18250-582: The year worked as an intermediary between Count Bernadotte and Himmler for the release and safe passage of a number of prisoners and inmates held in concentration camps through the Swedish Red Cross . In the spring of 1945, Schellenberg instigated further meetings with Count Bernadotte as an opening to the western powers. He personally went to Stockholm in April, 1945 to arrange the meetings for Himmler. Both Himmler and Schellenberg continued to believe that

18396-540: Was 150,000 reichsmarks. The first foundation acquisition was the Katharinenhof , a farm on Fehmarn , a Baltic Sea island and vacation spot. Heydrich intended to use this property as a vacation home, in addition to the Fehmarn summer home he already owned. The 11-hectare Katharinenhof had its own beachfront, archaeologically significant Stone Age graves, a beach house with a thatched roof, and stables. Schellenberg handled

18542-507: Was a list of 2,300 prominent Britons to be arrested immediately after the successful invasion of Britain. Both Schellenberg and Heydrich perceived Great Britain as a country run by "Freemasons, Jews, and a small public-school-trained elite." Despite the poor opinion of Britain shared by both men, their full attention was turned there when on 10 May 1941, Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess made his infamous flight to Scotland. Subsequently, SD Chief Schellenberg informed Hitler that Hess had been long under

18688-531: Was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany , and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II . It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich . In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from

18834-621: Was a protection unit founded by Himmler in March 1933. Originally it was only charged with protecting Hitler while he was inside the borders of Bavaria . In early 1934, they replaced the SS-Begleitkommando for Hitler's protection throughout Germany. The FSK was renamed the Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service; RSD) in August 1935. Johann Rattenhuber , chief of the RSD, for the most part, took his orders directly from Hitler. The current FBK chief acted as his deputy. Wherever Hitler

18980-505: Was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labour . After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organisations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner , the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946. By 1923,

19126-464: Was arrested on 23 July 1944 on the basis of the interrogation of his successor at military intelligence, Georg Hansen . As a result, sections of the Abwehr were incorporated into RSHA Amt VI SD-Ausland and therefore placed under Schellenberg's command. Assumption of these powers made Schellenberg the "absolute master" of Nazi intelligence". He was infamous for his "office fortress" desk, which had two automatic guns built into it that could be fired by

19272-457: Was conceived to capitalize on Chanel's long-standing associations with British aristocracy and her friendship with Winston Churchill. Schellenberg recruited Chanel to act as an intermediary in a plan (proposed by Chanel) whose goal was to broker a separate peace between Nazi Germany and Britain independently of other Allied powers; Operation Modellhut failed. During early 1945, Schellenberg encouraged Himmler to overthrow Hitler in order to negotiate

19418-423: Was considered more dynamic than his predecessor but became increasingly frustrated by the authority the SA had over the SS. This led to him transferring leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden , on 1 March 1927. Under Heiden's leadership, a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would have been tolerated in the SA. Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered to be a small Gruppe (battalion) of

19564-629: Was designated the Stabswache (Staff Guard). Originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold , and was modelled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade , a Freikorps of the time. The unit was renamed Stoßtrupp (Shock Troops) in May 1923. The Stoßtrupp was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch , an attempt by the Nazi Party to seize power in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organise

19710-403: Was divided into five departments: commander and adjutant, political affairs division, protective custody, administration, and medical personnel. By 1935, Himmler secured Hitler's approval and the finances necessary to establish and operate additional camps. Six concentration camps housing 21,400 inmates (mostly political prisoners) existed at the start of the war in September 1939. By the end of

19856-431: Was entrusted with the commission of war crimes such as the murder of Jewish civilians. Himmler once wrote that an SS man "hesitates not for a single instant, but executes unquestioningly..." any Führer-Befehl ( Führer order). Their official motto was " Meine Ehre heißt Treue " (My Honour is Loyalty). As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of Jews from

20002-427: Was fired as RSHA Chief of Amt VI, SD-Ausland (SD foreign intelligence). In his place, Schellenberg was appointed chief of SD-Ausland by Heydrich. Sometime in mid-1942, Schellenberg had been involved in planning operations in neutral Ireland including Operation Osprey : a plan involving No.1 SS Special Service Troop. Knowledge that Germany might lose the war prompted Schellenberg to open communication channels during

20148-409: Was going to leave Lisbon to take up his post as Governor of the Bahamas, Schellenberg tried hard to keep the duke from leaving. Schellenberg sent a bouquet of flowers to the duchess of Windsor along with a death threat, saying she and her husband would die if they went to the Bahamas. Schellenberg sent the duke of Windsor a list of all the Jews who would be sailing on the same ship that was to take him to

20294-591: Was his parents' seventh child; his father was a piano manufacturer. Schellenberg moved with his family to Luxembourg when the French occupied (1920) the Saar Basin after the First World War and the Weimar Republic experienced an economic crisis in the early 1920s. Like many young intellectuals who later joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), Schellenberg was deeply affected by the economic woes which befell Germany in

20440-494: Was imminent. By asking Schellenberg this question, Masson naively revealed to Schellenberg that a leak existed within Hitler's headquarters, but it also meant the Germans lost the opportunity for a surprise attack against Switzerland. To further ingratiate himself to the Swiss, Schellenberg claimed that he had convinced the German high command of the needlessness for such an operation. Despite having direct contacts to Schellenberg himself,

20586-413: Was in residence, members of the RSD and FBK would be present. RSD men patrolled the grounds and FBK men provided close security protection inside. The RSD and FBK worked together for security and personal protection during Hitler's trips and public events, but they operated as two groups and used separate vehicles. By March 1938, both units wore the standard field grey uniform of the SS. The RSD uniform had

20732-671: Was residing in Rome, by having him transported away to Berlin. As the Red Army repulsed the Germans and began driving their forces back towards the west, the German General Staff began planning a retreat into Fortress Europe which included the incorporation of Switzerland into the defensive operation. Using his previous channels to Schellenberg, the Swiss intelligence chief Masson, who was privy to this plan known as "Case Switzerland", contacted Schellenberg as to whether or not an attack on Switzerland

20878-575: Was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; " Death's Head Units" ), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps . Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with

21024-612: Was scheduled to leave Lisbon for the Bahamas where he had been appointed governor. Schellenberg was supposed to offer them 50 million Swiss francs to go to neutral Switzerland. However, Winston Churchill dispatched an attorney, Walter Monckton , an old friend of the Duke's, to convince them to leave Portugal. Schellenberg planned to repeat the same operation used in Venlo to kidnap the duke and duchess of Windsor which added with "psychologically adroit influence" would in Schellenberg's view cause

21170-608: Was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations. Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents. After the start of the war, Himmler intensified the activity of the SS within Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe. Increasing numbers of Jews and German citizens deemed politically suspect or social outsiders were arrested. As

21316-561: Was to turn the SS into the most powerful organisation in Germany and the most influential branch of the party. He expanded the SS to 3,000 members in his first year as its leader. In 1929, the SS-Hauptamt (main SS office) was expanded and reorganised into five main offices dealing with general administration, personnel, finance, security, and race matters. At the same time, the SS-Gaue were divided into three SS-Oberführerbereiche areas, namely

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