The history of the creation of security detachments
(SS)

In 1923, the first units of Hitler's Life Guards were born in the bowels of the assault detachments (SA) - the basis for future SS formations... They were created to guard the Nazi Fuehrer, as well as to counterbalance the SA, although this was not openly stated. Their functions were strictly limited; they had no right to interfere in party affairs.

After his release from prison in 1925, Hitler reformed his guards. Now she began to be called "Schutzstaffel" ( Schutzstaffel), which means "cover squadron". The term was borrowed from the aviation vocabulary of the First World War. The closest associate of Hitler in the party, Hermann Goering, a famous fighter pilot of the First World War, suggested that the security unit be called that. Later, the original meaning of the term was forgotten and began to sound like "security detachments" ( Schutzstaffeln, abbr. - SS).

At the end of the summer of 1925, a further reorganization of the security detachments followed: they were divided into formations stationed in different places of the empire, where Adolf Hitler most often appeared. The high command of the SS units was stationed in Munich, in the "capital of the movement," as Hitler called it. The security detachments were divided into "tens", headed by the "ten's manager". In Berlin, there were two dozen in 1925. In a special order of the Fuehrer, it was indicated that the duties of the SS detachments included "the protection of the Fuehrer and prominent figures of the National Socialist Party and the protection of these figures from attack." Security detachments were formed "from party cadres, ready for action at any time."

Already by myself composition of the SS fundamentally different from the composition of other organizations adjoining the NSDAP. For example, for such a mass organization as the assault squads (SA), the membership of its members with the Nazi party was not mandatory. From the very beginning, SS units were created as an integral part of the party and its elite.

Beginning in 1925, it became clear: SS units were created not only to protect the Fuehrer from his enemies outside the party, but also to protect Hitler from his accomplices - from the SA, from other party leaders, each of whom had his own team, from various " power contenders "and" oppositionists "among the Nazis themselves.

The first SS chief was Joseph Berchtold, very short (later Heinrich Himmler demanded that only people of the guard height be taken to the SS). Berchtold, a former stationery dealer, recruited the SS not from the retired military, like the head of the SA Ernst Röhm, but from ruined artisans. For example, Adolf Hitler's bodyguard Ulrich Graf was a butcher and amateur boxer, Christian Weber, who previously served as a groom, later became a Gauleiter.

After 1923, when Berchtold fled to Austria after taking part in the "beer coup", the "security detachments" received a new leader - Julius Schreck, Hitler's chauffeur.

In April 1926, Berchtold returned to Germany and again led the SS. However, he could not get along with the apparatus of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).

In March 1927, Erhard Hayden became the head of the SS.

By 1929, the SS numbered about 300. On January 6, 1929, he became the head of the SS. Heinrich Himmler... The new leader immediately began to increase the size of the organization with the aim of creating a powerful force in the Nazi movement, subordinate only to the will of Hitler.

In January 1930, there were already 2 thousand people in the security detachments. According to Himmler, for the SS, "the service requirements and conditions of admission are becoming more and more stringent from month to month."

The password for the SS units was Hitler's dictum: “SS man! Faithfulness is your honor. " This saying was engraved on the SS belt buckles. (After the suppression of a "riot" by the SA detachments led by Stennes in 1930 with the help of the SS, Hitler publicly declared that his victory was a merit of the SS.)

SS men differed from attack aircraft in their form. The SS were black, the attack aircraft were brown. At first, the SS men wore a khaki shirt with a black tie, a bandage on the sleeve (a swastika in a black circle), a black cap with a silver emblem (a dead head). Under Himmler, the paramilitary blouse was replaced by a black uniform. Black was formally approved as the base color in 1930. The "active" and "formal" SS men wore the same uniform, equipment and insignia.

Black has always been considered one of the most important colors in Germany. This color was worn by many of the "free shooters" (Freischutzen) who resisted Napoleon in the liberation war of 1813-1815. The predominance of black was also observed in the uniforms of the most famous cavalry regiments of the Kaiser's army - the 1st and 2nd Life Hussars (the hussar of the "Dead Head"). The political meaning of black may have been given by the fact that this color was chosen by the officer regiments fighting against the Red Army.

Runes on SS collar tabs, usually interpreted as double lightning bolts, related to the Nordic past, in which Himmler piously believed. By 1945, there were 14 basic runes in use in the SS. Oak leaves and acorns were the emblems of the first German Empire. The "head of death", in addition to its grave threat, was the famous emblem of four well-known regiments of the Kaiser's army: the 92nd and 17th infantry, the 1st and 2nd hussars.

Himmler sought to make the SS a successor of the medieval traditions of chivalry, he developed mystical rituals for joining the ranks of the SS, conferring titles and recommending SS men to marry "exemplary wives." Himmler preached the idea of ​​racial superiority of pure Aryans over other peoples, expansion to the East, and the cult of physical health. The criteria for selecting members of the SS were obedience to iron discipline, good physical shape, sobriety and endurance. The SS candidate also had to present evidence of the purity of his ancestry for three generations. Both old SS members and future SS wives were required to have a "clean" genealogy. The directives for the creation of SS units said: "Chronic alcoholics, talkers and people with other vices are absolutely unsuitable."

For a long time, the SS formally belonged to another paramilitary organization - CA(assault squads). Therefore, the first years of his leadership, G. Himmler devoted to the struggle for supremacy over the SA.

Hitler needed the support provided assault squads his party. However, for Hitler himself, stormtroopers in 1930-1933 posed a real threat. He feared that stormtroopers could become an obstacle to the implementation of his plans. In the event of an open armed action by the Nazis against the Weimar Republic, the German government could ban the Nazi party, and the Reichswehr obeyed its orders. The force that could provide balance could be the guard squads. On the eve of the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Heinrich Himmler had to postpone the introduction of his selection standards in order to increase the number of SS units. New fighters began to join the ranks of the SS in large numbers. This, in the end, provided Himmler's advantage over the leader of the assault detachments (SA) Rem.

Even before coming to power Hitler completed the most important task - he created the Nazi guard, drilled, not reasoning detachments of thugs, which protected himself from the encroachments of his rivals. One of the "postulates" of the SS was: "The security detachments" are completely independent.

On January 30, 1933, the 86-year-old President of Germany, Field Marshal Hindenburg, with the "feed" of the reactionary circles of German monopoly capital, handed power to the former corporal Adolf Hitler. Immediately Nazi troops took to the streets, one "draconian" decree followed another, political assassinations and monstrous provocations (up to the burning of the Reichstag) became a daily routine in the life of the state.

Hitler introduced the death penalty. A little later - the death penalty by hanging, still later - the death penalty by guillotine.

January 31, 1933 Hermann Goering captured the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, which controlled the Prussian police, the most powerful police agency in Germany. This police consisted of 76 thousand people.

Immediately all over Prussia resignations and new appointments began. Officials known as supporters of left-wing parties - from the senior chairman to criminal commissioners - were dismissed or released on long vacations. Most often the National Socialists became their successors. Numerous National Socialist functionaries or stormtroopers have been appointed by the police president.

On February 17, 1933, Goering issued an unprecedented "shooting order" - permission to use weapons against unarmed civilians. Hermann Goering instructed his subordinates: “I will protect police officers who use weapons in the performance of their duties, regardless of the consequences ... On the contrary, anyone who shows false kindness must wait for punishment in the service. Let the official always remember that failure to take measures is a greater offense than a mistake that was made during their implementation. "

On February 22, Hermann Goering issued another order: "On the involvement of auxiliary forces in the police in Prussia," in other words, stormtroopers and SS men. Thus, the police, that is, state bodies, became organs of the Nazi party, more precisely, supranational punitive bodies. The auxiliary police were to be half stormtroopers. In total, about fifty thousand people were involved in the auxiliary police in Prussia.

Here is how G. Goering admonished the auxiliary police officers: “I did not come here to observe justice, my goal is to destroy and eradicate. That's all".

On March 26, a secret state police emerged as part of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, headed by Hermann Goering - gestapo... This department in the Ministry of the Interior was originally called the "Secret Department of the State Police" (geheime Staatspolizeiabteilung). Some official created an abbreviation that read "Gestapa". This abbreviation did not last long, soon the letter "a" was replaced by "o" - it turned out "Gestapo". The immediate creator of the Gestapo was 33-year-old Rudolf Diels, a friend and later a relative of Goering. In his youth, Diels was a drunkard and lecher, a member of the most reactionary student organizations, he went to serve in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior under the Social-Democrat Zevering. Then he made perjury against his first boss, when he accused him of being associated with the communists, then served the Chancellors Papen and Schleicher, and finally went into the service of the Nazis. At the same time, Diels did not join the NSDAP. He expanded the department to 250 officials, then founded "Security service" (SD) , which was already acting independently of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then the Gestapo and the security service (SD) officially separated from the police presidium and received a huge building of their own in Berlin, which previously housed an art school. This building was located on the infamous Prinz-Albrechtstrasse. Part of the Gestapo - a special department for the fight against Bolshevism - moved from the police presidium to the house of Karl Liebknecht seized by stormtroopers on Alexanderplatz.

After the Nazis came to power Himmler began by consolidating his position in Bavaria. On April 1, 1933, he became the official head of the political police in this land and assumed the title of "political police commander". Formally, he was subordinate to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior (in this ministry, he took the post of head of a special department).

G. Himmler unleashed terror against the main enemies of the Nazi Reich - the German communists. Thousands of communists, social democrats and other opponents of the regime were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The main concentration camp in Munich was the Dachau concentration camp, which was housed in the buildings of a former gunpowder factory.

Dachau was Himmler's first "legal" concentration camp. Extreme cruelty reigned in him. The "disciplinary charter" of this concentration camp from 10/01/1933 said: "Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this concept, everyone must be mercilessly punished when the interests of the motherland demand it ... Let this be a warning to politicians, agitators and provocateurs, regardless of their type. Be on the lookout for being caught off guard. Otherwise, your neck will suffer and you will be shot, according to the methods that you yourself use. "

Himmler sought to expand his zone of influence far beyond the borders of Bavaria: "I am determined to create, finally, out of the currently existing 16 different state police, a real imperial police force, for only the imperial police can become the most important unifying force in the state."

In November 1933, G. Himmler became the head of the political police of Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In December of the same year, he was appointed chief of the political police in the provinces of Anhalt, Baden, Bremen, Hesse, Thuringia and Württemberg. In January 1934, he was appointed Chief of the Political Police of Braunschweig, Oldenburg and Saxony.

On June 30, 1934, G. Himmler staged a "night of long knives" - reprisals against Rem and other leaders of the SA, and at the same time a massive purge of veterans in their ranks. After the "night of long knives", the SS was formally withdrawn from the SA.

To consolidate his own power, G. Himmler began to increase the number of tasks assigned to the SS. At the same time, two branches of the SS were established: the paramilitary SS and units created to guard the concentration camps.

Until now, teenagers in cinemas (or during a more thorough study of the topic from photographs on the net) catch an aesthetic thrill from the type of uniforms of war criminals, from the SS uniform. And adults do not lag behind: in the albums of many elderly people, famous artists Tikhonov and Bronevoy flaunt in the appropriate attire.

Such a strong aesthetic impact is due to the fact that the form and emblem for the SS troops (die Waffen-SS) were developed by a talented artist, a graduate of the Hanover Art School and the Berlin Academy, author of the iconic painting "Mother" Karl Diebitsch. SS designer and designer Walter Heck collaborated with him to create the final version. And they sewed uniforms at the factories of the then little-known fashion designer Hugo Ferdinand Boss, and now his brand is famous all over the world.

History of the SS form

Initially, the SS guards of the party leaders of the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - National Socialist German Workers' Party), like Rem's stormtroopers (the leader of the SA - assault detachments - Sturmabteilung), wore a light brown shirt plus breeches and boots.

Even before the final decision on the expediency of the existence of simultaneously two parallel "forward guard detachments of the party" and before the sweep of the SA, the "imperial leader of the SS" Himmler continued to the members of his squad to wear a black piping on the shoulder of a brown tunic.

The black uniform was introduced personally by Himmler in 1930. A black tunic of the model of a military Wehrmacht jacket was worn over a light brown shirt.

At first, this tunic had three or four buttons, the general appearance of the full dress and field uniform was constantly being refined.

When the black uniforms, designed by Diebitsch-Heck, were introduced in 1934, only a red armband with a swastika remained from the days of the first SS troops.

At first, there were two sets of uniforms for SS soldiers:

• ceremonial;
• everyday.

Later, without the participation of famous designers, field and camouflage uniforms (about eight variants of summer, winter, desert and forest camouflage) were developed.

Distinctive features of SS units in appearance for a long time have become:

• red armbands with black piping and a swastika inscribed in a white circle ─ on the sleeve of a tunic of a uniform, jacket or overcoat;
• emblems on caps or caps ─ first in the form of a skull, then in the form of an eagle;
• exclusively for the Aryans - signs of belonging to the organization in the form of two runes on the right buttonhole, signs of military seniority on the right.

In those divisions (for example, "Viking") and individual units where foreigners served, the runes were replaced by the emblem of the division or legion.

The changes affected the appearance of the SS in connection with their participation in hostilities, and the renaming of "Allgemeine (general) SS" in "Waffen (armed) SS".

Changes for 1939

It was in 1939 that the famous "death's head" (a skull made first of bronze, then of aluminum or brass) was transformed into the eagle, famous from the TV series, wearing a cap or cap cockade.

The skull itself, along with other new distinctive features, remained the property of the SS Panzer Corps. In the same year, the SS men received a white dress uniform (white jacket, black breeches).

During the reconstruction of the "Algemein SS" in the "Waffen SS" (the purely "party army" was reorganized into combat troops under the nominal high command of the Wehrmacht General Staff) with the uniform of the SS, the following changes took place, under which the following changes were introduced:

• field uniform of gray (famous "fieldgrau") color;
• formal white uniform for officers;
• black or gray overcoats, also with armbands.

At the same time, the charter was allowed to wear overcoats unbuttoned on the top buttons, so that it was easier to navigate in the insignia.

After the decrees and innovations of Hitler, Himmler and (under their leadership) Theodor Eicke and Paul Hausser, the SS was finally divided into police officers (first of all, units of the "Death's Head" type) and combat units.

Interestingly, the "police" units could be ordered exclusively personally by the Reichsfuehrer, but the combat units, considered the reserve of the military command, could be used by the generals of the Wehrmacht. Service in the Waffen SS was equated with conscription, and the police and security forces were not considered military units.

However, the SS units remained under the close scrutiny of the supreme party leadership as "an example of political power." Hence the constant changes, even during the war, in their uniforms.

SS uniform in wartime

Participation in military companies, the expansion of SS units to full-blooded divisions and corps gave rise to a system of ranks (not too different from the general army) and insignia:

• a private (schutzman, in common parlance simply "man", "man of the SS") wore simple black shoulder straps and buttonholes with two runes on the right (the left one is empty, black);
• an ordinary "tested", after six months of service (obershutze) received a silver "bump" ("star") on the shoulder strap of the field ("camouflage") uniform. The rest of the insignia were identical to the schutzman;
• The corporal (navigator) received a thin double silver stripe on the left buttonhole;
• the junior sergeant (rottenfuehrer) already had four stripes of the same color on the left buttonhole, and on the field uniform the "lump" was replaced by a triangular patch.

The non-commissioned officers of the SS troops (it is easiest to define their affiliation by the particle "ball") received no longer empty black shoulder straps, but with a silver edging and included the ranks from sergeant to senior sergeant major (head sergeant major).

The triangles on the field form were replaced by rectangles of various thicknesses (the thinnest for the Unterscharführer, the thickest, almost square, for the Sturmscharführer).

These SS men had the following insignia:

• sergeant (unterscharführer) ─ black shoulder straps with silver piping and a small "star" ("square". "lump") on the right buttonhole. The SS Junker had the same insignia;
• senior sergeant (Scharführer) ─ the same shoulder straps and silver stripes on the side of the "square" on the buttonhole;
• foreman (oberscharführer) ─ shoulder straps are the same, there are two stars on the buttonhole without stripes;
• warrant officer (Hauptscharführer) ─ buttonhole, like a foreman's, but with stripes, there are already two bumps on the shoulder straps;
• senior warrant officer or sergeant major (sturmscharführer) ─ shoulder straps with three squares, on the buttonhole the same two "squares" as the warrant officer, but with four thin stripes.

The last rank remained quite rare: it was awarded only after 15 years of blameless service. On the field uniform, the silver edging of the shoulder strap was replaced with a green one with a corresponding number of black stripes.

SS officer uniform

The uniform of the junior officers differed already in the shoulder straps of the camouflage (field) uniform: black with green stripes (thickness and quantity, depending on the rank) closer to the shoulder and intertwined oak leaves above them.

• lieutenant (untersturmführer) ─ silvery "blank" shoulder straps, three squares on the buttonhole;
• Senior Lieutenant (Obersturführer) ─ a square on shoulder straps, a silver stripe was added to the badges on the buttonhole, two lines on the sleeve patch under the “leaves”;
• captain (Hauptsturmführer) ─ additional lines on the patch and on the buttonhole, shoulder straps with two "bumps";
• Major (Sturmbannführer) ─ silvery "braided" shoulder straps, three squares on the buttonhole;
• lieutenant colonel (oberbannshturmführer) ─ one square on a twisted pursuit. Two thin stripes under the four squares on the buttonhole.

Starting with the rank of major, the insignia underwent minor differences in 1942. The color of the backing of the twisted shoulder straps corresponded to the type of troops; on the chase itself, sometimes there was a symbol of a military specialty (a sign of a tank unit or, for example, a veterinary service). "Bumps" on shoulder straps after 1942 turned from silvery to golden insignia.

Upon reaching the rank above colonel, the right buttonhole also changed: instead of SS runes, stylized silver oak leaves were placed on it (single for the colonel, triple for the colonel general).

The rest of the insignia of senior officers looked like this:

• Colonel (Standartenführer) ─ three stripes under double leaves on a patch, two stars on shoulder straps, an oak leaf on both collar tabs;
• the unparalleled title of Oberführer (something like “senior colonel) ─ four thick stripes on a patch, a double oak leaf on the buttonholes.

It is characteristic that these officers also had black-green "camouflage" shoulder straps for "field" combat uniforms. For commanders of higher ranks, the colors were no longer so “protective”.

SS generals uniform

On the uniforms of the SS, the top commanding staff (generals) appear already golden-colored shoulder straps on a blood-red substrate, with silver symbols.

The shoulder straps of the "field" uniform also change, since there is no need for special camouflage: instead of green on a black field for officers, generals wear thin gold insignia. The shoulder straps become gold on a light background, with silver insignia (with the exception of the Reichsführer's uniform with a modest thin black shoulder strap).

Insignia of the high command on shoulder straps and buttonholes, respectively:

• Major General of the SS troops (in the Waffen SS ─ Brigadenführer) ─ gold embroidery without symbols, double oak leaf (before 1942) with a square, triple leaf after 1942 without an additional symbol;
• Lieutenant General (Gruppenführer) ─ one square, triple oak leaf;
• full general (obergruppenführer) ─ two "cones" and an oak leaf trefoil (until 1942, the lower leaf on the buttonhole was thinner, but there were two squares);
• Colonel General (Oberstgruppenführer) - three squares and a triple oak leaf with the symbol below (until 1942, the Colonel General also had a thin sheet at the bottom of his buttonhole, but with three squares).
• The Reichsfuehrer (the closest, but not the exact analogue ─ "People's Commissar of the NKVD" or "Field Marshal") wore a thin silver shoulder strap with a silver trefoil on his uniform, and oak leaves in a buttonhole surrounded by a bay leaf on a black background.

As you can see, the SS generals neglected (with the exception of the Reich Minister) the protective color, however, in battles they, with the exception of Sepp Dietrich, had to participate less often.

Insignia in the Gestapo

In the SD security service, the Gestapo also wore SS uniforms, ranks and insignia practically coincided with the ranks in the "Waffen" or in the "Algemein SS".

Employees of the Gestapo (and later the RSHA) were distinguished by the absence of runes on their collar tabs, as well as the obligatory security badge.

An interesting fact: in the great television film by Lioznova, the viewer almost always sees Stirlitz in, although at the time of the spring of 1945, the black uniform was almost everywhere in the SS replaced by a dark green “parade” more convenient for front-line conditions.

In an exceptionally black tunic, Müller could walk both as a general and as an advanced leader of a high rank who rarely gets out to the regions.

Camouflage

After the transformation of the guard detachments into combat units by decrees of 1937, the elite combat units of the SS began to receive samples of camouflage uniforms by 1938. It included:

• helmet cover;
• jacket;
• face mask.

Later, camouflage capes (Zelltbahn) appeared. Trousers (breeches) until the appearance in the 1942-43 region of reversible overalls were from the usual field uniform.

The design itself on camouflage overalls could use many "small-spot" forms:

• dotted;
• under oak (eichenlaub);
• palm (palmenmuster);
• plane leaves (platanen).

At the same time, camouflage jackets (and then double-sided overalls) had almost the entire required range of colors:

• autumn;
• summer (spring);
• smoky (black and gray peas);
• winter;
• "Desert" and others.

Initially, uniforms made of camouflage waterproof fabrics were supplied to the Verfugungstruppe (disposition troops). Later, camouflage became an integral part of the uniform of the "target" groups of the SS (Einsatzgruppen) of reconnaissance and sabotage detachments and subunits.

During the war, the German leadership approached the creation of camouflage uniforms creatively: the finds of Italians (the first creators of camouflage) and the developments of the Americans and the British, which were received as trophies, were successfully borrowed.

Nevertheless, one cannot underestimate the contribution of the German scientists themselves and those who collaborated with the Hitler regime to the development of such famous camouflage brands as

• ss beringt eichenlaubmuster;
• sseichplatanenmuster;
• ssleibermuster;
• sseichenlaubmuster.

Physics (optics) professors worked on these types of colors to study the effects of light rays passing through rain or foliage.
The Soviet intelligence knew less about the SS-Leibermuster camouflage overalls than the allied ones: it was used on the Western Front.

At the same time (according to American intelligence) yellow-green and black lines were applied to the tunic and crest with a special "light-absorbing" paint, which also reduced the level of radiation in the infrared spectrum.

The existence of such a paint in 1944-1945 is still relatively little known, it is suggested that it was a "light-absorbing" (of course, partially) black fabric, on which drawings were later applied.

In the 1956 Soviet film "In Square 45", saboteurs can be seen in suits most reminiscent of SS-Leibermuster.

In a single copy, a sample of this military uniform is in the military museum in Prague. So there can be no question of any mass tailoring of the form of this sample, such camouflages were released so little that now they are one of the most interesting and expensive rarities of the Second World War.

It is believed that it was these camouflages that gave impetus to American military thought for the development of camouflage clothing for modern commandos and other special forces.

The SS-Eich-Platanenmuster camouflage was much more common on all fronts. Actually "Platanenmuster" ("woody)" is found in pre-war photos. By 1942, "reverse" or "reversible" jackets of the "Eich-Platanenmuster" colors began to be supplied to the SS troops in large quantities ─ autumn camouflage on the front, spring colors on the reverse side of the fabric.

Actually, this tricolor combat uniform with broken lines of "rain" or "branches" is most often found in films about the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War.

Camouflage colors "eichenlaubmuster" and "beringteichenlaubmuster" (respectively "oak leaves type" A ", oak leaves type" B ") were widely popular in the Waffen SS in 1942-44.

However, for the most part, from them, in the main, capes, cloak-tents were made. And the soldiers of special forces already independently (in many cases) sewed jackets and crests from capes.

SS form today

The advantageously aesthetically resolved black SS uniform is still popular today. Unfortunately, most of the time it is not where you really need to recreate authentic uniforms: not in Russian cinema.

Above, we mentioned a small "blunder" of Soviet cinema, but for Lioznova, the almost constant wearing of black uniforms by Stirlitz and other characters could be justified by the general concept of the "black and white" series. By the way, in the colored version, Stirlitz appears a couple of times in the "green" "parade".

But in modern Russian films on the theme of the Great Patriotic War, horror drives in horror in terms of reliability:

• the notorious film of 2012, "I Serve the Soviet Union" (about how the army fled, but political prisoners on the western border defeated SS sabotage units) ─ we observe SS men in 1941, dressed in something between "Beringtes Eichenlaubmuster" and even more modern digital camouflages;
• the sad picture "In June 41st" (2008) allows you to see SS men on the battlefield in full black dress uniform.

There are many similar examples, even the "anti-Soviet" joint Russian-German film of 2011 with Guskov "4 days in May", where the Nazis, in 1945, are mostly dressed in camouflage uniforms of the first years of the war, is not spared from blunders.

But the SS dress uniform is well-deserved respect among the reenactors. Of course, various extremist groups are also striving to pay tribute to the aesthetics of Nazism, and even those not recognized as such, such as relatively peaceful "Goths".

Probably, the fact is that thanks to the story, as well as the classic films "The Night Porter" by Cavani or "Death of the Gods" by Visconti, the public developed a "protest" perception of the aesthetics of the forces of evil. No wonder the leader of the "Sex Pistols" Sid Vishers often appeared in a T-shirt with a swastika; in the collection of fashion designer Jean-Louis Shearer in 1995, almost all the toilets were ornamented with either imperial eagles or oak leaves.

The horrors of war are forgotten, but the feeling of protest against the bourgeois society remains almost the same ─ such a sad conclusion can be drawn from these facts. Another thing, created in Nazi Germany, "camouflage" colors of fabrics. They are aesthetic and comfortable. And therefore they are widely used not only for games of reenactors or work on personal plots, but also by modern fashion couturiers in the world of big fashion.

Video

During the Second World War, the divisions of the SS troops were considered the elite formations of the armed forces of the Third Reich.

Almost all of these divisions had their own emblems (tactical, or identification, signs), which were by no means worn by the ranks of these divisions as sleeve patches (rare exceptions did not change the overall picture), but were applied with white or black oil paint on divisional military equipment and vehicles, buildings in which the ranks of the corresponding divisions were quartered, the corresponding signs in the locations of the units, etc. These identification (tactical) insignia (emblems) of SS divisions - almost always inscribed on heraldic shields (having a "Varangian" or "Norman", or tarch form) - in many cases differed from the lapel insignia of the ranks of the corresponding divisions.

1. 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler".

The name of the division means "SS Adolf Hitler's bodyguard regiment." The emblem (tactical, or identification, sign) of the division was a shield-tarch with the image of a master key (and not a key, as they often write and think incorrectly). The choice of such an unusual emblem is explained very simply. The surname of the division commander Josef ("Sepp") Dietrich was "speaking" (or, in heraldic language, "vowel"). In German, "dietrich" means "master key". After Dietrich's Sepp was awarded with Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the division emblem was framed with 2 oak leaves or a semicircular oak wreath.

2. 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich".

The name of the division - "Reich" ("Das Reich") translated into Russian means "Empire", "Power". The emblem of the division was the "wolfsangel" ("wolf hook") inscribed in the shield-tarch - an old German amulet symbol that scared away wolves and werewolves (in German: "werewolves", in Greek: "lycanthropes", in Icelandic: " ulfkhedinov ", in Norwegian:" varulvov "or" wargs ", in Slavic:" ghouls "," wolkolaks "," wolkudlaks "or" wolkodlaks "), located horizontally.

3. 3rd SS Panzer Division "Death's Head" ("Totenkopf").

The division got its name from the SS emblem - "dead (Adam's) head" (skull with bones) - a symbol of loyalty to the leader until death. The same emblem, inscribed in the tarch shield, served as the division's identification mark.

4. 4th SS Motorized Infantry Division "Police" ("Police"), also known as "(4th) SS Police Division".

This division received this name because it was formed from the ranks of the German police. The division's emblem was a "wolf's hook" - "Wolfsangel" in an upright position, inscribed in a heraldic shield-tarch.

5. 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking".

The name of this division is explained by the fact that, along with the Germans, it was recruited from the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden), as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, Swiss, Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish volunteers served in the ranks of the Viking division. The division's emblem was a "kosovidny cross" ("sun wheel"), that is, a swastika with arched bent crossbeams, on a heraldic shield-tarche.

6. 6th SS Mountain (Mountain Rifle) Division "Nord" ("North").

The name of this division is explained by the fact that it was recruited mainly from the natives of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia). The emblem of the division was the ancient Germanic rune "Hagall" (reminiscent of the Russian letter "Ж") inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch. The hagall (hagalaz) rune was considered a symbol of unshakable faith.

7. 7th SS Volunteer Mountain (Mountain Rifle) Division "Prince Eugene (Eugen)".

This division, recruited mainly from ethnic Germans living in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Vojvodina, Banat and Romania, was named after the famous commander of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" of the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries. Prince Eugene (German: Eugen) of Savoy, famous for his victories over the Ottoman Turks and, in particular, for the Roman-German emperor conquered Belgrade (1717). Yevgeny Savoisky also became famous in the War of the Spanish Succession for his victories over the French and earned himself no less fame as a patron of the arts. The emblem of the division was the ancient Germanic rune "odal" ("otilia"), inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch, meaning "heritage" and "blood relationship".

8. 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer.

This division was named in honor of the imperial knight Florian Geyer, who led one of the detachments of German peasants ("Black Detachment", in German: "Schwarzer Gaufen") during the Peasant War in Germany (1524-1526), ​​who rebelled against the princes (large feudal lords who opposed the unification of Germany under the emperor's scepter). Since Florian Geyer wore black armor and his "Black Squad" fought under a black banner, the SS viewed him as their predecessor (especially since he opposed not only the princes, but also for the unification of the German state). Florian Geyer (immortalized in the eponymous drama by the classic of German literature Gerhart Hauptmann) heroically died in battle with the superior forces of the German princes in 1525 in the Taubertal valley. His image entered German folklore (especially song), enjoying no less popularity than, say, Stepan Razin - in Russian song folklore. The emblem of the division was a naked sword inscribed in a heraldic shield-tarch with a point upward, crossing the shield from right to left diagonally, and a horse's head.

9. 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen".

This division was named after the dynasty of the Swabian dukes (since 1079) and the medieval Roman-German emperors-Kaisers (1138-1254) - the Hohenstaufens (Staufens). Under them, the medieval Germanic state ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation"), founded by Charlemagne (in 800 AD) and renewed by Otto I the Great, reached the peak of its power, subjugating Italy to its influence, Sicily, the Holy Land and Poland. The Hohenstaufens tried, relying on the economically highly developed Northern Italy as a base, to centralize their power over Germany and restore the Roman Empire - "at least" - the Western (within the borders of Charlemagne's empire), ideally, the entire Roman Empire, including the Eastern Roman (Byzantine), which, however, did not succeed. The most famous representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty are Kaisers-crusaders Frederick I Barbarossa (who died during the Third Crusade) and his grand-nephew Frederick II (Emperor of Rome, King of Germany, Sicilian and Jerusalem), as well as Konradin, who was defeated and defeated by the Pope Duke Charles of Anjou for Italy and beheaded by the French in 1268. The division's emblem was inscribed in a heraldic shield-tarch, a vertically drawn sword with a point upward, superimposed on the capital Latin letter "H" ("Hohenstaufen").

10. 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg".

This SS division was named after the German Renaissance commander Georg (Jorg) von Frundsberg, nicknamed "Father of the Landsknechts" (1473-1528), under whose command the troops of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and King of Spain Charles I of Habsburg conquered Italy and in 1514 year took Rome, forcing the Pope to recognize the primacy of the Empire. They say that the fierce Georg Frundsberg always carried with him a golden noose, which he intended to strangle the Pope if he fell into his hands alive. In his youth, the famous German writer, Nobel Prize winner Gunter Grass served in the ranks of the SS Frundsberg Division. The emblem of this SS division was the capital Gothic letter "F" ("Frundsberg") inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch, superimposed on an oak leaf located diagonally from right to left.

11. 11th SS Motorized Infantry Division "Nordland" ("Northern Country").

The name of the division is explained by the fact that it was recruited mainly from volunteers natives of Northern European countries (Denmark, Norway. Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Latvia and Estonia). The emblem of this SS division was a heraldic shield-tarch with the image of a "sun wheel" inscribed in a circle.

12. 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth"

This division was recruited mainly from the ranks of the youth organization of the Third Reich "Hitler Youth" ("Hitler Youth"). The tactical sign of this "youth" SS division was the ancient German "solar" rune "sig" ("sovulo", "sovelu") inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch - a symbol of victory and the emblem of Hitler's youth organizations "Jungfolk" and "Hitler Youth", from among members of which were recruited volunteers of the division, imposed on the master key ("alignment with Dietrich").

13. 13th mountain (mountain rifle) division of the Waffen SS "Khanjar"

(often referred to in military literature as "Handshar" or "Yatagan"), which consisted of Croatian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian Muslims (Bosniaks). "Khanjar" is a traditional Muslim edged weapon with a curved blade (akin to the Russian words "konchar" and "dagger", also meaning bladed edged weapons). The division's emblem was inscribed in a heraldic shield-tarch curved sword-khanjar, directed from left to right upward diagonally. According to the surviving data, the division also had another identification mark, which was an image of a hand with a khanjar superimposed on a double "SS" rune "sig" ("sovulo").

14. 14th Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the Waffen SS (Galician No. 1, since 1945 - Ukrainian No. 1); she is the SS Galicia division.

The emblem of the division was the old coat of arms of the city of Lvov, the capital of Galicia - a lion walking on its hind legs, surrounded by 3 three-toothed crowns, inscribed in the "Varangian" ("Norman") shield.

15. 15th grenadier (infantry) division of the Waffen SS (Latvian No. 1).

The division's emblem was originally a "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the Roman numeral "I" over a stylized printed capital Latin letter "L" ("Latvia"). Subsequently, the division acquired another tactical sign - 3 stars against the background of the rising sun. 3 stars meant 3 Latvian provinces - Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Latgale (a similar image adorned the cockade of the military personnel of the pre-war army of the Republic of Latvia).

16. 16th SS Motorized Infantry Division "Reichsfuehrer SS".

This SS division was named after SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler. The emblem of the division was a bundle of 3 oak leaves inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch with 2 acorns at the handle framed with a laurel wreath, inscribed in the shield-tarch.

17. 17th SS Motorized Division "Götz von Berlichingen".

This SS division was named after the hero of the Peasant War in Germany (1524-1526), ​​the imperial knight Georg (Götz, Götz) von Berlichingen (1480-1562), the fighter against the separatism of the German princes for the unity of Germany, the leader of the detachment of insurgent peasants and the hero of the drama Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Goetz von Berlichingen with an iron hand" (knight Goetz, who lost his arm in one of the battles, ordered to make himself an iron prosthesis, which he owned no worse than others - a hand of flesh and blood). The emblem of the division was the iron hand of Goetz von Berlichingen, clenched into a fist (crossing the shield-tarch from right to left and from bottom to top diagonally).

18. The 18th SS Horst Wessel Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division.

This division was named after one of the "martyrs of the Hitlerite movement" - the commander of the Berlin stormtroopers Horst Wessel, who composed the song "Banners up"! (which became the anthem of the NSDAP and the "second anthem" of the Third Reich) and killed by communist militants. The division's emblem was a naked sword, point upward, crossing the shield-tarch diagonally from right to left. According to the surviving data, the Horst Wessel division also had another emblem, which was a stylized rune-like Latin letters SA (SA = Sturmabteilungen, that is, "assault squads"; "Martyr of the Movement" Horst Wessel, after whom the division received its name , was one of the leaders of the Berlin stormtroopers), inscribed in a circle.

19. 19th grenadier (infantry) division of the Waffen SS (Latvian # 2).

At the time of formation, the division's emblem was a "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the Roman numeral "II" over a stylized printed capital Latin letter "L" ("Latvia"). Subsequently, the division acquired another tactical sign - an upright right-sided swastika on the "Varangian" shield. The swastika - "fiery cross" ("ugunskrusts") or "the cross (of the god of thunder) Perkon" ("perkonkrusts") has been a traditional element of Latvian folk ornament from time immemorial.

20. 20th Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the Waffen SS (Estonian No. 1).

The division's emblem was a "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield depicting a straight drawn sword with its tip upward, crossing the shield from right to left diagonally and superimposed on the capital Latin letter "E" ("E", that is, "Estonia"). According to some reports, this emblem was sometimes depicted on the helmets of the Estonian SS volunteers.

21. The 21st mountain (mountain rifle) division of the Waffen SS "Skanderbeg" (Albanian No. 1).

This division, recruited mainly from the Albanians, was named after the national hero of the Albanian people, Prince George Alexander Kastriot (nicknamed by the Turks "Iskander Beg" or, for short, "Skanderbeg"). While Skanderbeg (1403-1468) was alive, the Ottoman Turks, who had repeatedly suffered defeats from him, could not subjugate Albania. The emblem of the division was the ancient coat of arms of Albania - a two-headed eagle, inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch (the ancient Albanian rulers claimed kinship with the Basileus emperors of Byzantium). According to the surviving information, the division also had another tactical sign - a stylized image of a "Skanderbeg helmet" with goat horns, superimposed on 2 horizontal stripes.

22. The 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresa.

This division, recruited mainly from ethnic Germans living in Hungary and from Hungarians, was named after the Empress of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" and Austria, Queen of Bohemia (Bohemia) and Hungary, Maria Theresa von Habsburg (1717-1780), one of the most prominent rulers of the second half of the 18th century. The emblem of the division was the image of a cornflower flower inscribed in a heraldic shield-tarch with 8 petals, a stem, 2 leaves and 1 bud - (subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Danube monarchy, who wanted to join the German Empire, until 1918 wore a cornflower in their buttonhole - the favorite flower of the German emperor Wilhelm II of Hohenzollern).

23.23rd Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division of the Waffen SS "Kama" (Croatian No. 2)

consisted of Croatian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian Muslims. "Kama" is the name of a cold weapon with a curved blade (something like a scimitar), which is traditional for Balkan Muslims. The tactical sign of the division was a stylized image of the astronomical sign of the sun in a crown of rays on a heraldic shield-tarche. Preserved information about another tactical sign of the division, which was the Tyr rune with 2 arrow-shaped processes perpendicular to the rune trunk, in its lower part.

24.23rd Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division Waffen SS "Netherlands"

(Dutch No. 1).

The name of this division is explained by the fact that its personnel were recruited mainly from the Dutch (Dutch) Waffen SS volunteers. The division's emblem was the "odal" ("otiliya") rune with the lower ends in the form of arrows, inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch.

25. 24th mountain (mountain rifle) division of the Waffen SS "Karst Jaegers" ("Karst Jaegers", "Karstjeger").

The name of this division is explained by the fact that it was recruited mainly from the natives of the mountainous region of Karst, located on the border between Italy and Yugoslavia. The division's emblem was a stylized image of a "karst flower" ("karstbloom") inscribed in the heraldic shield of the "Varangian" ("Norman") form.

26.25th Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the Waffen SS "Hunyadi"

(Hungarian # 1).

This division, recruited mainly from Hungarians, was named after the medieval Transylvanian-Hungarian Hunyadi dynasty, the most prominent representatives of which were Janos Hunyadi (Johannes Guniades, Giovanni Vaivoda, 1385-1456) and his son King Matthew Corvin (Matthias Hunyadi, 1443- 1490), who heroically fought for the freedom of Hungary against the Ottoman Turks. The division's emblem was the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the "arrow-shaped cross" - the symbol of the Vienna National Socialist Party "Arrows Crossed" ("Nigerlashists") by Ferenc Salasi - under two three-toothed crowns.

27. 26th Grenadier (infantry) division of the Waffen SS "Gömbös" (Hungarian # 2).

This division, which consisted mainly of Hungarians, was named after the Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Gyula Gömbes (1886-1936), a staunch supporter of a close military-political alliance with Germany and an ardent anti-Semite. The division's emblem was the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the same arrow-shaped cross, but under 3 three-toothed crowns.

28. 27th SS Volunteer Grenadier (Infantry) Division "Langemark" (Flemish No. 1).

This division, formed from German-speaking Belgians (Flemings), was named after the site of the bloody battle that took place in Belgium during the Great (First World) War, in 1914. The division's emblem was the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the "triskelion" ("tryphos" or "triquetra").

29.28 SS Panzer Division. Information about the tactical mark of the division has not been preserved.

30. The 28th SS Wallonia Volunteer Grenadier (Infantry) Division.

This division owes its name to the fact that it was formed mainly from French-speaking Belgians (Walloons). The emblem of the division was a heraldic shield-tarch with the image of a straight sword crossed in the shape of the letter "X" and a curved saber with the handles up.

31. 29th Grenadier Infantry Division of the Waffen SS "RONA" (Russian # 1).

This division - "Russian Liberation People's Army" consisted of Russian volunteers B.V. Kaminsky. The tactical sign of the division, applied to its equipment, judging by the surviving photographs, was a widened cross with the abbreviation "RONA" under it.

32. 29th Grenadier (infantry) division of the Waffen SS "Italy" (Italian No. 1).

This division owes its name to the fact that it consisted of Italian volunteers who remained loyal to Benito Mussolini after his release from prison by a detachment of German paratroopers led by SS Sturmbannfuehrer Otto Skorzeny. The tactical sign of the division was the vertically located lictor fascia (in Italian: "littorio"), inscribed in the heraldic shield of the "Varangian" ("Norman") form - a bunch of rods (rods) with an ax embedded in them (the official emblem of the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini) ...

33. 30th Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the Waffen SS (Russian No. 2, it is also Belarusian No. 1).

This division consisted mainly of former soldiers of the "Belarusian Regional Defense" detachments. The division's tactical sign was the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield with the image of the double ("patriarchal") cross of the Holy Princess Euphrosyne of Polotsk, located horizontally.

It should be noted that the double ("patriarchal") cross, located vertically, served as a tactical sign of the 79th Infantry, and located diagonally - the emblem of the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division of the German Wehrmacht.

34. 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division (aka 23rd Waffen SS Volunteer Mountain Rifle Division).

The division's emblem was a full-face deer head on the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield.

35. The 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier (Infantry) Division "Bohemia and Moravia" (German: "Boehmen und Mairen").

This division was formed from the natives of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, who came under the German control of the territories of the Czech Republic (after the declaration of independence by Slovakia). The emblem of the division was the Bohemian (Czech) crowned lion walking on its hind legs, and the orb, crowned with a double cross, on the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield.

36. 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier (Infantry) Division "January 30".

This division was named in memory of the day Adolf Hitler came to power (January 30, 1933). The division's emblem was a "Varangian" ("Norman") shield with the image of a vertically located "battle rune" - the symbol of the ancient German war god Tyr (Tyra, Tiu, Tsiu, Tuisto, Tuesco).

37. 33rd Waffen SS Cavalry Division "Hungaria", or "Hungary" (Hungarian # 3).

This division, which consisted of Hungarian volunteers, received the appropriate name. Information about the tactical sign (emblem) of the division has not been preserved.

38. 33rd grenadier (infantry) division of the Waffen SS "Charlemagne" (French No. 1).

This division was named after the Frankish king Charlemagne ("Charlemagne", from the Latin "Carolus Magnus", 742-814), who was crowned in 800 in Rome by the emperor of the Western Roman Empire (which included the territory of modern Northern Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and part of Spain), and is considered the founder of modern German and French statehood. The division's emblem was a dissected "Varangian" ("Norman") shield with half the Roman-German imperial eagle and 3 fleurs de lys (fr .: fleurs de lys) of the French kingdom.

39. 34th SS Landstorm Nederland Volunteer Grenadier (Infantry) Division (Dutch No. 2).

"Landstorm Nederland" means "Dutch militia". The division's emblem was inscribed in the "Varangian" ("Norman") heraldic shield "Dutch national" version of the "wolf hook" - "Wolfsangel" (adopted in the Dutch National Socialist movement of Anton-Adrian Mussert).

40.36th SS Police Grenadier (Infantry) Division ("Police Division II")

consisted of German police officers mobilized for military service. The division's emblem was a "Varangian" ("Norman") shield with the image of the Hagall rune and the Roman numeral "II".

41. 36th Waffen SS Grenadier Division "Dirlewanger".

The emblem of the division was inscribed in the "Varangian" ("Norman") shield 2 crossed in the shape of the letter "X" hand grenades - "beaters" with handles down.

In addition, in the last months of the war, the formation of the following new SS divisions, mentioned in the orders of the Reich SS leader (Reichsführer) Heinrich Himmler, was initiated (but not completed):

42. 35th SS Grenadier (Infantry) Division "Police" ("Police"), it is also the 35th SS Grenadier (Infantry) Police Division. Information about the tactical sign (emblem) of the division has not been preserved.

43.36th Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the Waffen SS. Information about the division's emblem has not been preserved.

44. 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division "Luttsov".

The division was named in honor of the hero of the fight against Napoleon - Major of the Prussian army Adolf von Lutzoff (1782-1834), who formed the first volunteer corps in the history of the War of Independence (1813-1815) of German patriots against Napoleonic tyranny ("Lutzov's black huntsmen"). The tactical sign of the division was the image of a straight, naked sword, point up, inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch, superimposed on the capital Gothic letter "L", that is, "Luttsov").

45. The 38th SS Grenadier (Infantry) Division "Nibelungen" ("Nibelungen").

The division was named after the heroes of the medieval Germanic heroic epic - the Nibelungen. This was the original name for the spirits of darkness and fog, elusive to the enemy and possessing innumerable treasures; then - the knights of the kingdom of the Burgundians who seized these treasures. As you know, SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler dreamed after the war to create an "order state of the SS" on the territory of Burgundy. The emblem of the division was the image of the Nibelungian winged invisibility helmet inscribed in the heraldic shield-tarch.

46. ​​The 39th SS Mountain (Mountain Rifle) Division Andreas Gofer.

The division was named after the national hero of Austria, Andreas Hofer (1767-1810), the leader of the Tyrolean rebels against Napoleonic tyranny, betrayed by the traitors to the French and shot in 1810 in the Italian fortress of Mantua. To the tune of the folk song about the execution of Andreas Hofer - "Under Mantua in chains" (German: "Tsu Mantua in banden"), the German social democrats in the 20th century composed their own song "We are the young guard of the proletariat" (German: "Vir zind di jungue garde des proletarians "), and the Soviet Bolsheviks -" We are the young guard of workers and peasants. " Information about the division's emblem has not been preserved.

47. 40th SS Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division "Feldgerrngalle" (not to be confused with the same name division of the German Wehrmacht).

This division was named after the building of the "Gallery of Generals" (Feldgerrngalle), in front of which on November 9, 1923, the Reichswehr and the police of the leader of the Bavarian separatists Gustav Ritter von Kara shot a column of participants in the Hitler-Ludendorff coup against the government of the Weimar Republic. Information about the tactical mark of the division has not been preserved.

48. 41st Waffen SS Kalevala Infantry Division (Finnish # 1).

This SS division, named after the Finnish heroic folk epic, began to be formed from the Finnish Waffen SS volunteers who did not obey the order of the Finnish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Baron Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim, given in 1943, to return from the Eastern Front to their homeland and rejoin the Finnish army ... Information about the division's emblem has not been preserved.

49. 42nd SS Infantry Division "Lower Saxony" ("Niedersachsen").

Information about the emblem of the division, the formation of which was not completed, has not been preserved.

50. 43rd Waffen SS Infantry Division "Reichsmarshal".

This division, the formation of which was begun on the basis of units of the German air force ("Luftwaffe"), left without aviation equipment, cadets of flight schools and ground personnel, was named after the Imperial Marshal (Reichsmarshal) of the Third Reich Hermann Goering. Reliable information about the emblem of the division has not been preserved.

51. 44th Waffen SS Wallenstein Motorized Infantry Division.

This SS division, recruited from ethnic Germans living in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia, as well as from Czech and Moravian volunteers, was named after the German imperial commander during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Duke of Friedland Albrecht Eusevius Wenzelsevius von (1583-1634), a Czech by birth, the hero of the dramatic trilogy of the classic of German literature Friedrich von Schiller "Wallenstein" ("Wallenstein's Camp", "Piccolomini" and "Death of Wallenstein"). Information about the division's emblem has not been preserved.

52. 45th SS Infantry Division "Varyags" ("Vareger").

Initially, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler intended to give the name "Varyags" ("Vareger") to the Nordic (North European) SS division, formed from Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and other Scandinavians who sent their volunteer contingents to help the Third Reich. However, according to several sources, Adolf Hitler "rejected" the name "Varangians" for his Nordic SS volunteers, seeking to avoid undesirable associations with the medieval "Varangian Guard" (which consisted of Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Russians and Anglo-Saxons) in the service of the Byzantine emperors. The Fuhrer of the Third Reich had a negative attitude towards the Tsargrad "Vasilevs", considering them, like all Byzantines, "morally and spiritually corrupted, deceitful, insidious, venal and treacherous decadents", and did not want to be associated with the rulers of Byzantium.

It should be noted that Hitler was not alone in his antipathy to the Byzantines. Most Western Europeans fully shared this antipathy to the "Romans" (since the era of the Crusades), and it is no coincidence that in the Western European lexicon there is even a special concept of "Byzantinism" (meaning: "deceit", "cynicism", "meanness", " groveling before the strong and ruthlessness to the weak, "perfidy" ... in general, "the Greeks are deceitful to this day," as the famous Russian chronicler wrote). As a result, the German-Scandinavian division formed in the Waffen SS (which later included the Dutch, Walloons, Flemings, Finns, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians and Russians) was given the name "Viking". Along with this, on the basis of Russian White emigrants and former citizens of the USSR in the Balkans, the formation of another SS division called "Vareger" ("Varyags") was started; however, due to the circumstances, the matter was limited to the formation in the Balkans of the "Russian (guard) corps (Russian guard group)" and a separate Russian SS regiment "Varyag".

During the Second World War on the territory of Serbia in 1941-1944. In alliance with the Germans, the Serbian SS Volunteer Corps also operated, consisting of former servicemen of the Yugoslav Royal Army (mostly of Serbian origin), most of whom were members of the Serbian monarchist-fascist movement "Z.B.O.R.", headed by Dmitry Lötich. The tactical sign of the corps was a tarch shield and an image of an ear of bread superimposed on a naked sword with the tip down, located diagonally.

Schutzstaffel, or a guard detachment - so in Nazi Germany in 1923-1945. SS soldiers, paramilitary formations were called. The main task of a combat unit at the initial stage of formation is the personal protection of the leader, Adolf Hitler.

SS soldiers: the beginning of history

It all began in March 1923, when the personal guard and driver of A. Hitler, a watchmaker by profession, together with a stationery dealer, and also a politician of Nazi Germany, Joseph Berchtold, created a headquarters guard in Munich. The main purpose of the newly formed combat formation was to protect the NSDAP Fuhrer Adolf Hitler from possible threats and provocations from other parties and other political formations.

After a humble start as a defense unit for the leadership of the NSDAP, the combat unit grew into the Waffen-SS, armed with a defense squadron. The officers and soldiers of the Waffen-SS were a huge combat unit. The total number was more than 950 thousand people, a total of 38 combat units were formed.

Beer putsch A. Hitler and E. Ludendorff

"Bürgerbreukeller" - a beer hall in Munich on Rosenheimerstrasse, 15. The area of ​​the premises of the drinking establishment allowed to receive up to 1830 people. Since the times of the Weimar Republic, thanks to its capacity, Bürgerbreukeller has become the most popular venue for various events, including political ones.

So, on the night of November 8-9, 1923, an uprising took place in the hall of a drinking establishment, the purpose of which was to overthrow the current government of Germany. The first to speak was Hitler's political associate Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, who outlined the general goals and objectives of this gathering. The main organizer and ideological inspirer of the event was Adolf Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP, a young Nazi party. In his, he called for the ruthless destruction of all enemies of his National Socialist Party.

To ensure the safety of the Beer Putsch - this is how this political event went down in history - the SS soldiers, led at that time by the treasurer and close friend of the Fuhrer J. Berchtold, undertook. However, the German authorities reacted in time to this gathering of Nazis and took all measures to eliminate them. Adolf Hitler was convicted and imprisoned, and the NSDAP party in Germany was banned. Naturally, the need for the protective functions of the newly-made militarized guard has disappeared. The SS soldiers (photo presented in the article), as a combat formation of the "Strike Force", were disbanded.

Restless Fuhrer

Released from prison in April 1925, Adolf Hitler orders his fellow party member and bodyguard J. Shrek to form a personal guard. Preference was given to former members of the Strike Force. Having collected eight people, Yu. Shrek creates a defense team. By the end of 1925, the total number of the combat formation was about a thousand people. Henceforth they were given the name "SS soldiers of the National Socialist German Workers' Party".

Not everyone could join the organization of the SS NSDAP. Tough conditions were imposed on candidates for this "honorary" position:

• age from 25 to 35 years old;
• living in this area for at least 5 years;
• the presence of two guarantors from among the party members;
• good health;
• discipline;
• sanity.

In addition, in order to become a party member and, accordingly, an SS soldier, the candidate had to confirm his belonging to the highest Aryan race. These were the official rules of the SS (Schutzstaffel).

Education and training

The soldiers of the SS troops had to undergo appropriate combat training, which was carried out in several stages and lasted for three months. The main objectives of the intensive training of recruits were:

• excellent;
• knowledge of small arms and impeccable possession of them;
• political indoctrination.

The training in the art of war was so intense that only one in three people could walk the entire distance to the end. After the basic training course, recruits were sent to specialized schools, where they received additional education corresponding to the chosen branch of the army.

Further training in military wisdom in the army was based not only on the specialization of the type of troops, but also on mutual trust and respect between candidates for officers or soldiers. This is how the Wehrmacht soldiers differed from the SS soldiers, where strict discipline and a tough policy of division into officers and privates were at the forefront.

New Chief of the Combat Unit

The newly created troops of their own, which were distinguished by impeccable loyalty and loyalty to their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler attached special importance to. The main dream of the leader of Nazi Germany was the creation of an elite formation capable of performing any tasks that the National Socialist Party set for them. This required a leader who could handle the task. So, in January 1929, on the recommendation of A. Hitler, Heinrich Luitpold Himmler, one of A. Hitler's loyal assistants in the Third Reich, became the Reichsfuehrer SS. The personal personnel number of the new SS chief is 168.

The new boss began his work as the head of an elite division by tightening up the personnel policy. Having developed new requirements for personnel, G. Himmler cleared the ranks of the combat formation by half. The Reichsfuehrer SS personally spent hours studying photographs of SS members and candidates, finding flaws in their "racial purity." However, soon the number of SS soldiers and officers increased markedly, increasing almost 10 times. The SS chief achieved such successes in two years.

Thanks to this, the prestige of the SS troops increased significantly. It is G. Himmler who is credited with the authorship of the famous gesture, familiar to everyone from the films about the Great Patriotic War - "Heil Hitler", with the raising of his right arm straightened at an angle of 45 degrees. In addition, thanks to the Reichsfuehrer, the uniform of the Wehrmacht soldiers (including the SS) was modernized, which existed until the fall of Nazi Germany in May 1945.

Fuehrer's order

The authority of the Schutzstaffel (SS) has grown significantly thanks to the personal orders of the Fuehrer. The published order stated that no one has the right to give orders to SS soldiers and officers, except for their immediate superiors. In addition, it was recommended that all SA units, assault detachments, known as "brown shirts", help in every possible way in staffing the SS army, supplying the latter with their best soldiers.

Waffen SS uniform

From now on, the uniform of the SS soldier was noticeably different from the clothing of the assault detachments (SA), the security service (SD) and other combined arms units of the Third Reich. A distinctive feature of the SS military uniform was:

• black jacket and black trousers;
• White shirt;
• black cap and black tie.

In addition, on the left sleeve of the jacket and / or shirt, from now on, a digital abbreviation was flaunted, indicating that it belonged to one or another standard of the SS troops. With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1939, the uniforms of SS soldiers began to change. The strict implementation of the order of G. Himmler on a single black-and-white color of the uniform, which distinguished the soldiers of A. Hitler's personal army from the combined-arms color of other Nazi formations, was somewhat weakened.

The party factory for sewing military uniforms, due to the enormous workload, was not able to provide uniforms for all SS units. The servicemen were asked to alter the signs of belonging to the Schutzstaffel from the combined arms of the Wehrmacht.

Military ranks of the SS troops

As in any military unit, the SS army had its own hierarchy in military ranks. Below is a comparative table of the equivalent military ranks of the military personnel of the Soviet army, the Wehrmacht and the SS troops.

Red Army	Ground Forces of the Third Reich	SS troops
Red Army soldier	Private, shooter
Corporal	Chief Grenadier	Rottenfuehrer SS
Lance Sergeant	Non-commissioned officer	Unterscharführer SS
	Unter-sergeant-major	Scharführer SS
Staff Sergeant	Feldwebel	Oberscharführer SS
Sergeant Major	Ober-Feldwebel	Haupscharführer SS
Ensign
Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Untersturmführer SS
Senior lieutenant	Chief Lieutenant	Obersturmführer SS
	Captain / Hauptmann	Hauptsturmführer SS
		SS Sturmbannfuehrer
Lieutenant colonel	Oberst Lieutenant	Obersturmbannfuehrer SS
Colonel		Standartenfuehrer SS
Major General	Major General	Brigadefuehrer SS
Lieutenant general	Lieutenant general	SS Gruppenfuehrer
Colonel general	General of the Troops	Oberstgruppenführer SS
Army General	Field marshal general	Oberstgruppenführer SS

The highest military rank in the elite army of Adolf Hitler was the Reichsfuehrer SS, which until May 23, 1945 belonged to Heinrich Himmler, which corresponded to the Marshal of the Soviet Union in the Red Army.

Awards and insignia in the SS

Soldiers and officers of the elite unit of the SS troops could be awarded orders, medals and other insignia, as well as servicemen of other military formations of the army of Nazi Germany. There were only a small number of distinctive awards, which were developed specifically for the "favorites" of the Fuhrer. These included medals for 4 and 8 years of service in the elite unit of Adolf Hitler, as well as a special cross with a swastika, which was awarded to the SS for 12 and 25 years of loyal service to their Fuhrer.

Faithful sons of their Fuhrer

Remembrance of an SS soldier: “Duty, loyalty and honor were the driving principles in us. Defense of the Fatherland and a sense of camaraderie are the main qualities that we cultivated in ourselves. We were forced to kill everyone who was in front of the barrel of our weapon. The feeling of pity should not stop a soldier of great Germany, neither in front of a woman begging for mercy, nor in front of children's eyes. We were taught the motto: "Accept death and bear death." Death should become commonplace. Each soldier understood that by giving himself up as a sacrifice, he thereby helped great Germany in the struggle against the common enemy, communism. We considered ourselves warriors behind Hitler's elite. "

These words belong to one of the soldiers of the former Third Reich, private SS infantry unit Gustav Frank, who miraculously survived the Battle of Stalingrad and was captured by the Russians. Were these words of remorse or the simple youthful bravado of a twenty-year-old Nazi? Today it is difficult to judge this.

CC (German "Die SS", from "Das Schutzstaffel" - "security detachment", or, according to another version, "cover squadron" - according to this version it is believed that the author of the name was Hermann Goering, who took this term from the military aviation of the times World War I, as the fighter unit was called, which covered the main unit; in Russian, the abbreviation requires the use of the plural) is a subsidiary paramilitary organization of the NSDAP (until 1934, subordinate to another subsidiary party organization - the SA), which considered itself "an organization of political soldiers party ". Its function was originally to protect the leaders of the party (it was organized on the basis of the "Headquarters Guard" Adolf Hitler "", intended to protect the Fuhrer); Subsequently, a wide variety of functions were transferred to this organization (from ensuring the functioning of the system of institutions for extrajudicial confinement and re-education - concentration camps to teaching young people in special party schools, the so-called national-political academies). From the moment of her appointment as its leader, Heinrich Himmler, she saw her mission in the recreation of "a new Aryan humanity", even before the Nazis came to power, she acquired in the eyes of both her own members and outsiders the image of an "elite" part of the Nazi party. Some of the members (at the end of the war, the most significant) served in structures created on the model of army formations, units and subunits (up to the headquarters of the armies), from 1939 operatively subordinate to the German armed forces and de facto included in their composition as the fourth component Wehrmacht (in 1940 they received the name "Waffen SS", SS troops).

The Gestapo (German "Gestapo" from "Die Geheime Staatspolizei", - "secret state police"), a state institution created in March 1933 initially as a political department within the Prussian police on the orders of the minister-president of this German state Hermann Goering; it was subsequently merged with the political police departments of other German states into a single political police service. After that, she entered the SS-Gruppenfuehrer R. Heydrich, headed by the chief of the "SS Reichsfuehrer Security Service" (SD, German "Der Sieherheitsdienst" - "Security Service"), as part of the SS. Then, when the Main Directorate of Imperial Security was created in 1940 (also as part of the SS), it was included in it as one of the directorates.

In order to see the difference between these two organizations, you need to understand that these organizations were different in nature: if the SS was a party organization, then the Gestapo was a state one. Due to the peculiarities of the functioning of the police in the Third Reich (in the Weimar Republic there was no single German police, the police departments were under the jurisdiction of the lands; starting in 1933, G. Himmler, the head of the SS, began to unite all police services under his leadership; after he he achieved this, he became Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Reich with the title "Chief of the German Police") a situation arose when government departments were headed by the SS Fuhrer; The state police structures, which formally retained their independent status from the party and party organizations (in addition to the security police, there was a police of order, which united all other police forces of the Reich) were united in the administrative structures of the party organization (SS); police officials most often (but not always) received SS ranks in addition to their bureaucratic ranks (criminal inspectors, commissioners, advisers; government or ministerial advisers, etc.). In 1940, the party security organs (SD) and state police services (Gestapo and Kripo - criminal police) were united into a single department (RSHA). The purpose of such a union was Himmler's dream to unite all the Reich police departments within the SS under his leadership (i.e. make all police agencies part of his SS, without double subordination to the Ministry of the Interior), but this idea met with opposition from the rivals of the Reichsfuehrer SS in the ruling elite of the Reich (they tried to prevent an excessive increase in his influence), so such an association remained purely mechanical - despite the fact that both the state and the criminal police were headed by the SS Fuhrer, they remained state institutions not included in the party apparatus.