Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

==War in the east==
On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched [[Operation Barbarossa]], the invasion of the [[Soviet Union]].{{sfn|Glantz|2001|pp=7–9}} The expanding war and the need to control occupied territories provided the conditions for Himmler to further consolidate the police and military organs of the SS.{{sfn|Bracher|1970|p=409}} Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organisations as they struggled to adjust to the changing security challenges.{{sfn|Blood|2006|p=64}}

The 1st and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of the SS-TV, and the [[SS Cavalry Brigade]] moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought [[Soviet partisans]], but by the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the ''Einsatzgruppen'', they formed firing parties that participated in the liquidation of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Windrow|Burn|1992|p=9}}{{sfn|Heer|Naumann|2000|p=136}}

On 31 July 1941, Göring gave Heydrich written authorisation to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments to undertake genocide of the Jews in territories under German control.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=315}} Heydrich was instrumental in carrying out these exterminations, as the Gestapo was ready to organise deportations in the West and his ''Einsatzgruppen'' were already conducting extensive murder operations in the East.{{sfn|Hilberg|1985|p=164}} On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired a meeting, called the [[Wannsee Conference]], to discuss the implementation of the plan.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=696–697}}

During battles in the Soviet Union in 1941 and 1942, the ''Waffen-SS'' suffered enormous casualties. The LSSAH and ''Das Reich'' lost over half their troops to illness and combat casualties.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=168}} In need of recruits, Himmler began to accept soldiers that did not fit the original SS racial profile.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=171}} In early 1942, ''SS-Leibstandarte'', ''SS-Totenkopf'', and ''SS-Das Reich'' were withdrawn to the West to refit and were converted to ''Panzergrenadier'' divisions.{{sfn|Reynolds|1997|p=9}} The SS-Panzer Corps returned to the Soviet Union in 1943 and participated in the [[Third Battle of Kharkov]] in February and March.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=173}}

===The Holocaust===
[[File:Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942.jpg|link=Ivanhorod Einsatzgruppen photograph, 1942|thumb|upright=1.15|Murder of Jews by ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' in [[Ivanhorod]], Ukraine, 1942]]
The SS was built on a culture of violence, which was exhibited in its most extreme form by the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].{{sfn|Fritz|2011|pp=69–70, 94–108}} Augmented by personnel from the Kripo, Orpo (Order Police), and ''Waffen-SS'',{{sfn|Krausnik|1968|p=77}} the ''Einsatzgruppen'' reached a total strength of 3,000 men. ''Einsatzgruppen'' A, B, and C were attached to [[Army Group North|Army Groups North]], [[Army Group Centre|Centre]], and [[Army Group South|South]]; ''Einsatzgruppe'' D was assigned to the [[11th Army (Wehrmacht)|11th Army]]. The ''Einsatzgruppe'' for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=185}} Historian [[Richard Rhodes]] describes them as being "outside the bounds of morality"; they were "judge, jury and executioner all in one", with the authority to kill anyone at their discretion.{{sfn|Rhodes|2003|pp=159–160}} Following Operation Barbarossa, these ''Einsatzgruppen'' units, together with the ''Waffen-SS'' and Order Police as well as with assistance from the ''Wehrmacht'', engaged in the mass murder of the Jewish population in occupied eastern Poland and the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Rhodes|2003|pp=159–160}}{{sfn|Bessel|2006|pp=118–119}}{{sfn|Stackelberg|2007|p=163}} The greatest extent of ''Einsatzgruppen'' action occurred in 1941 and 1942 in Ukraine and Russia.{{sfn|Laqueur|Baumel|2001|p=164}} Before the invasion there were five million registered Jews throughout the Soviet Union, with three million of those residing in the territories occupied by the Germans; by the time the war ended, over two million of these had been murdered.{{sfn|Bessel|2006|p=119}}

The extermination activities of the ''Einsatzgruppen'' generally followed a standard procedure, with the ''Einsatzgruppen'' chief contacting the nearest ''Wehrmacht'' unit commander to inform him of the impending action; this was done so they could coordinate and control access to the execution grounds.{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1991|p=227}} Initially, the victims were shot, but this method proved impracticable for an operation of this scale.{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=256–257}} Also, after Himmler observed the shooting of 100 Jews at [[Minsk]] in August 1941, he grew concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men. He decided that alternate methods of murder should be found, which led to the introduction of [[Gas van|gas vans]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=547}}{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=199}} However, these were not popular with the men, as they regarded removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them to have been unpleasant. Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma.{{sfn|Rhodes|2003|p=243}}

===Anti-partisan operations===
{{further|Bandenbekämpfung}}
In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to the police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=70–71}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=625}} As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=198}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=626, 629}} In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits".{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=627}}

Himmler set the SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda]] campaign.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=71–77}} Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the ''[[Bandenbekämpfung]]'' (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' (bandit fighting formations), with ''SS-Obergruppenführer'' [[Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]] as its chief. Employing troops primarily from the SS police and ''Waffen-SS'', the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralised control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations.{{sfn|Blood|2006|p=121}} Once the ''Wehrmacht'' had secured territorial objectives, the ''Bandenkampfverbände'' first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings. An additional priority was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations.{{sfn|Blood|2006|pp=152–154}} Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=628–629}}

===Death camps===
[[File:May 1944 - Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Jews from [[Carpathian Ruthenia]] arriving at [[Auschwitz concentration camp]], 1944]]
After the start of the war, Himmler intensified the activity of the SS within Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe. Increasing numbers of Jews and German citizens deemed politically suspect or social outsiders were arrested.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2010|p=27}} As the Nazi regime became more oppressive, the concentration camp system grew in size and lethal operation, and grew in scope as the economic ambitions of the SS intensified.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2010|pp=26–27}}

Intensification of the killing operations took place in late 1941 when the SS began construction of stationary gassing facilities to replace the use of ''Einsatzgruppen'' for mass murders.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=208}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=279–280}} Victims at these new [[extermination camp]]s were killed with the use of carbon monoxide gas from automobile engines.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=283}} During [[Operation Reinhard]], run by officers from the ''Totenkopfverbände'', who were sworn to secrecy, three extermination camps were built in occupied Poland: [[Belzec extermination camp|Bełżec]] (operational by March 1942), [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibór]] (operational by May 1942), and [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]] (operational by July 1942),{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=283, 287, 290}} with squads of [[Trawniki men]] (Eastern European collaborators) overseeing hundreds of ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' prisoners,{{efn|Not to be confused with ''SS-Sonderkommandos'', ad hoc SS units that used the same name.}} who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria before being murdered themselves.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=141}} On Himmler's orders, by early 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz was greatly expanded to include the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide [[Zyklon B]].{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=295, 299–300}}{{sfn|Wachsmann|2010|p=29}}

For administrative reasons, all concentration camp guards and administrative staff became full members of the ''Waffen-SS'' in 1942. The concentration camps were placed under the command of the ''SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt'' ([[SS Main Economic and Administrative Office]]; WVHA) under [[Oswald Pohl]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=559}} [[Richard Glücks]] served as the [[Concentration Camps Inspectorate|Inspector of Concentration Camps]], which in 1942 became office "D" under the WVHA.{{sfn|Koehl|2004|pp=182–183}}{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=115}} Exploitation and extermination became a balancing act as the military situation deteriorated. The labour needs of the war economy, especially for skilled workers, meant that some Jews escaped the genocide.{{sfn|Gruner|2012|pp=174–175}} On 30 October 1942, due to severe labour shortages in Germany, Himmler ordered that large numbers of able-bodied people in Nazi-occupied Soviet territories be taken prisoner and sent to Germany as [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=629}}

By 1944, the SS-TV had been organised into three divisions: staff of the concentration camps in Germany and Austria, in the occupied territories, and of the extermination camps in Poland. By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of the camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded ''Waffen-SS'' members.{{sfn|Reitlinger|1989|p=265}} This rotation of personnel meant that nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organisation liable for war crimes and [[crimes against humanity]].{{sfn|Stein|2002|pp=258–263}}