Schutzstaffel (SS)

The Schutzstaffel (SS) was a major paramilitary organization in Nazi Germany, founded to serve as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard. Over time, it expanded into a powerful and brutal force responsible for many of the Holocaust's atrocities, including the running of concentration camps and mass executions. The SS enforced Nazi ideology through terror and repression, operating outside the boundaries of regular military conduct. Led by Heinrich Himmler, it became a symbol of the regime’s violence, racism, and persecution of Jews, Romani people, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. After WWII, the SS was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials.