Chapter CXII: Section 13 (1)

This decree comes into effect on the day after its promulgation.

Berlin, 20 May 1938.

The Reichsminister of the Interior
Frick

The Deputy of the Fuehrer
Hess

The Reich Minister for Justice
per Dr. Schlegelberger.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 2149-PS

SECRET

[STAMP:]
German Armistice Delegation
14 December 1942
Del. W. 7903
Berlin, 11 December 1942

Foreign Office,
No. Ha Pol 7563 g

The enclosed statement of the Reichsbank, Department for National Economy [Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung], of the capability of France is submitted for your information.

To this the Reichsbank remarks as follows:

“The statement deals solely with the effect of an increase of the
occupation expenses through levying on the French budget in regard to
economy and currency.

“It is an entirely different question, however, how to act in
practice in the face of the imperative military necessities.

* * * * * * *

“The Armed Forces’ money requirements must be supplied in any
case--either through the budget of the French Government or in the
form of an advance from the issuing bank or in any other form of
financing; otherwise it would be necessary to issue Reich Credit
Bills [Reichskredit Kassenscheine], which is undesirable.”

To:
The German Armistice Delegation for Economy in Paris

per
(signed:) DUMONT
[pencil notation:]

The German Embassy _in Paris_

Occup. SECRET

--each separate--

# # # # #

Copy to be attached to Ha Pol. 7563/42 g

Berlin, 7, December 1942

SECRET:

German Reichsbank

Department for National Economy

Concerning the question of an increase of French contributions to the
Occupation expenses.

Altogether the burden for France hitherto as an effect of the Armistice is nearly 18.5 billion marks or 370 billion francs.

* * * * * * *

France therefore has transferred the greatest part of her payments (17.6 billion marks) in the form of goods and labor.

* * * * * * *

Anyhow the conclusion is obvious that the French National Economy has been taxed more heavily since the Armistice in June 1940 than Germany was after the World War.

* * * * * * *

Since the French contributions for the occupation expenses could not be covered by taxes, they had to be financed in part from the proceeds of the issuing of treasury bills, but mostly by credit from the bank of issue.

* * * * * * *

Whether the economic exploitation of France could be intensified by raising the daily contributions to the occupation expenses from 15 to 25 million marks for the rest of the War seems to us--as far as we can judge from here--rather doubtful for the following reasons:

* * * * * * *

Under these circumstances the French Government would be obliged to utilize the credit of the bank of issue to still greater extent than hitherto in order to finance the demands for increased occupation expenses.

* * * * * * *

Inflationary rises in prices and wages in France would cause very grave disadvantages for Germany.

* * * * * * *

Such a measure also seems very problematical in regard to the goods [gueterseite] in French national economy.

* * * * * * *

With the loss of a large part of French imports, industrial production as well as the capacity of France to supply us with food will have to be further reduced in the future. Such a great weakening of French economic power is to be reckoned with that it does not seem to make much sense to raise the expenses of the occupation.

* * * * * * *

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].

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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!

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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.