- SS-Hauptamt
The "SS-Hauptamt" (translated as "SS Head Office") was the central command office of the German "
Schutzstaffel " (SS). The office can trace its origins to 1931 when the SS created the "SS-Amt" to serve as an SS Headquarters staff overseeing the various units of the "Allgemeine-SS ".In
1933 , after theNazi Party came to power and established theThird Reich , the "SS-Amt" was renamed as the "SS-Oberführerbereichen" and placed in command of all SS units in Germany. By 1936, the office had adapted its final name as the "SS-Hauptamt" and would remain as such until the fall of the SS in 1945.The "SS-Hauptamt" was responsible for all administrative matters within the SS which typically involved manpower allocation, personnel transfers, and screenings for promotion. The office was technically subordinate to the "Persönlicher Stab
Reichsführer-SS " (Personal Staff of the SS Reich Leader), but in reality maintained its own autonomy.After the close of
World War II , members of the SS-Hauptamt were branded aswar criminal s because it was this office which had maintained the "paper trail " for such activities as theEinsatzgruppen and the commission of theHolocaust by other branches of the SS. Those so labelled challenged this assertion, stating that members of the SS-Hauptamt were little more than file clerks who held desk jobs and could not be held responsible for atrocities occurring under the name of the SS as a whole.The files of the SS-Hauptamt can be today be found (via
microfiche ) withNational Archives and Records Administration atCollege Park, Maryland . The original documentation is kept inGermany , under the authority of the "Bundesarchiv" in Berlin.External links
* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=122500 selection from SS Hauptamt records]
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