Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

===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}}