Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

==Business empire==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-269, KZ Mauthausen, Häftlinge im Steinbruch.jpg|thumb|left|upright|At [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]], inmates were forced to carry heavy granite blocks out of the quarry on the "Stairs of Death".]]
In 1934, Himmler founded the first SS business venture, ''Nordland-Verlag'', a publishing house that released propaganda material and SS training manuals. Thereafter, he purchased [[Allach (porcelain)|Allach Porcelain]], which then began to produce SS memorabilia.{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=114}} Because of the labour shortage and a desire for financial gain, the SS started exploiting concentration camp inmates as slave labour.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|pp=119, 120}} Most of the SS businesses lost money until Himmler placed them under the administration of Pohl's ''Verwaltung und Wirtschaftshauptamt Hauptamt'' (Administration and Business office; VuWHA) in 1939.{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=115}} Even then, most of the enterprises did not fare well, as SS men were not selected for their business experience, and the workers were starving.{{sfn|Mazower|2008|pp=312–313}} In July 1940 Pohl established the ''[[Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe|Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe GmbH]]'' (German Businesses Ltd; DWB), an umbrella corporation under which he took over administration of all SS business concerns.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=485}} Eventually, the SS founded nearly 200 holding companies for their businesses.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=482}}

In May 1941 the VuWHA founded the ''Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke'' GmbH (German Equipment Works; DAW), which was created to integrate the SS business enterprises with the burgeoning concentration camp system.{{sfn|Allen|2002|p=95}} Himmler subsequently established four major new concentration camps in 1941: Auschwitz, [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp|Gross-Rosen]], [[Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp|Natzweiler-Struthof]], and [[Neuengamme concentration camp|Neuengamme]]. Each had at least one factory or quarry nearby where the inmates were forced to work.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=480–481}} Himmler took a particular interest in providing labourers for [[IG Farben]], which was constructing a synthetic rubber factory at [[Monowitz concentration camp|Auschwitz III–Monowitz]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=480}} The plant was almost ready to commence production when it was overrun by Soviet troops in 1945.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=129}} The life expectancy of inmates at Monowitz averaged about three months.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=56}} This was typical of the camps, as inmates were underfed and lived under disastrously bad living conditions. Their workload was intentionally made impossibly high, under the policy of [[extermination through labour]].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=316}}

In 1942, Himmler consolidated all of the offices for which Pohl was responsible into one, creating the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (''Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt''; WVHA).{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=559}} The entire concentration camp system was placed under the authority of the WVHA.{{sfn|Koehl|2004|pp=182–183}} The SS owned Sudetenquell GmbH, a mineral water producer in the [[Sudetenland]]. By 1944, the SS had purchased 75 per cent of the mineral water producers in Germany and were intending to acquire a monopoly.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=484}} Several concentration camps produced building materials such as stone, bricks, and cement for the SS-owned ''[[German Earth and Stone Works|Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke]]'' (German Earth And Stone Works; DEST).{{sfn|Weale|2012|pp=114–115}} In the occupied Eastern territories, the SS acquired a monopoly in brick production by seizing all 300 extant brickworks.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=484}} The DWB also founded the ''Ost-Deutsche Baustoffwerke'' (East German Building Supply Works; GmbH or ODBS) and ''Deutsche Edelmöbel'' GmbH (German Noble Furniture). These operated in factories the SS had confiscated from Jews and Poles.{{sfn|Allen|2002|p=102}}

The SS owned experimental farms, bakeries, meat packing plants, leather works, clothing and uniform factories, and small arms factories.{{sfn|Weale|2012|pp=115–116}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=483}} Under the direction of the WVHA, the SS sold camp labour to various factories at a rate of three to six ''[[Reichsmark]]s'' per prisoner per day.{{sfn|Frei|1993|p=128}} The SS confiscated and sold the property of concentration camp inmates, confiscated their investment portfolios and their cash, and profited from their dead bodies by [[August Frank memorandum|selling their hair to make felt]] and melting down their dental work to obtain gold from the fillings.{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=116}} The total value of assets looted from the victims of Operation Reinhard alone (not including Auschwitz) was listed by [[Odilo Globocnik]] as 178,745,960.59 Reichsmarks. Items seized included {{cvt|2,909.68|kg|lb}} of gold worth 843,802.75 RM, as well as {{cvt|18,733.69|kg|lb}} of silver, {{cvt|1,514|kg|lb}} of platinum, 249,771.50 American dollars, 130 diamond solitaires, 2,511.87 carats of brilliants, 13,458.62 carats of diamonds, and 114 kg of pearls.{{sfn|International Military Tribunal|1950}} According to Nazi legislation, Jewish property belonged to the state, but many SS camp commandants and guards stole items such as diamonds or currency for personal gain or took seized foodstuffs and alcohol to sell on the black market.{{sfn|Baxter|2014|p=67}}