Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

===Battle for Germany===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28510, Ardennenoffensive, deutsche Infanterie geht im Wald vor..jpg|thumb|upright|German infantry travelling on foot in the Ardennes, December 1944]]
''Waffen-SS'' units that had survived the summer campaigns were withdrawn from the front line to refit. Two of them, the [[9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen|9th SS]] and [[10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg|10th SS Panzer Divisions]], did so in the [[Arnhem]] region of Holland in early September 1944. Coincidentally, on 17 September, the Allies launched in the same area [[Operation Market Garden]], a combined airborne and land operation designed to seize control of the lower [[Rhine]].{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|p=701}} The 9th and 10th Panzers were among the units that repulsed the attack.{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2001|pp=439–442}}

In December 1944, Hitler launched the Ardennes Offensive, also known as the [[Battle of the Bulge]], a significant counterattack against the western Allies through the Ardennes with the aim of reaching [[Antwerp]] while encircling the Allied armies in the area.{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|pp=765–766}} The offensive began with an artillery barrage shortly before dawn on 16 December. Spearheading the attack were two panzer armies composed largely of ''Waffen-SS'' divisions.{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2001|p=465}} The battlegroups found advancing through the forests and wooded hills of the Ardennes difficult in the winter weather, but they initially made good progress in the northern sector. They soon encountered strong resistance from the US [[2nd Infantry Division (United States)|2nd]] and [[99th Infantry Division (United States)|99th Infantry Divisions]]. By 23 December, the weather improved enough for Allied air forces to attack the German forces and their supply columns, causing fuel shortages. In increasingly difficult conditions, the German advance slowed and was stopped.{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|pp=767–769}} Hitler's failed offensive cost 700 tanks and most of their remaining mobile forces in the west,{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|p=769}} as well as most of their irreplaceable reserves of manpower and materiel.{{sfn|Stein|2002|p=232}}

During the battle, SS-''[[Obersturmbannführer]]'' [[Joachim Peiper]] left a path of destruction, which included ''Waffen-SS'' soldiers under his command murdering American [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] and unarmed Belgian civilians in the [[Malmedy massacre]].{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2001|p=468}} Captured SS soldiers who were part of ''Kampfgruppe Peiper'' were tried during the [[Malmedy massacre trial]] following the war for this massacre and several others in the area. Many of the perpetrators were sentenced to hang, but the sentences were commuted. Peiper was imprisoned for eleven years for his role in the murders.{{sfn|Parker|2012|p=278}}

[[File:Bodies of U.S. officers and soldiers slain by the Nazis after capture near Malmedy, Belgium. - NARA - 196544.jpg|thumb|upright|left|American POWs murdered by SS forces led by [[Joachim Peiper]] in the [[Malmedy massacre]] during the [[Battle of the Bulge]], December 1944]]

In the east, the Red Army resumed its offensive on 12 January 1945. German forces were outnumbered twenty to one in aircraft, eleven to one in infantry, and seven to one in tanks on the Eastern Front.{{sfn|Kershaw|2011|p=168}} By the end of the month, the Red Army had made bridgeheads across the [[Oder]], the last geographic obstacle before Berlin.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=70}} The western Allies continued to advance as well, but not as rapidly as the Red Army.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=83}} The Panzer Corps conducted a successful defensive operation on 17–24 February at the [[Hron]] River, stalling the Allied advance towards Vienna.{{sfn|Duffy|2002|p=293}} The [[I SS Panzer Corps|1st]] and [[II SS Panzer Corps|2nd SS Panzer Corps]] made their way towards Austria but were slowed by damaged railways.{{sfn|Ziemke|1968|p=439}}

Budapest fell on 13 February.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=82}} Hitler ordered Dietrich's [[6th Panzer Army]] to move into Hungary to protect the [[Nagykanizsa]] oilfields and refineries, which he deemed the most strategically valuable fuel reserves on the Eastern Front.{{sfn|Seaton|1971|p=537}}{{sfn|Duffy|2002|p=293}} ''Frühlingserwachsen'' ([[Operation Spring Awakening]]), the final German offensive in the east, took place in early March. German forces attacked near Lake Balaton, with 6th Panzer Army advancing north towards Budapest and 2nd Panzer Army moving east and south.{{sfn|Duffy|2002|p=294}} Dietrich's forces at first made good progress, but as they drew near the Danube, the combination of muddy terrain and strong Soviet resistance brought them to a halt.{{sfn|Stein|2002|p=238}} By 16 March, the battle was lost.{{sfn|Ziemke|1968|p=450}} Enraged by the defeat, Hitler ordered the ''Waffen-SS'' units involved to remove their [[cuff title]]s as a mark of disgrace. Dietrich refused to carry out the order.{{sfn|Messenger|2001|pp=167–168}}

By this time, on both the Eastern and Western Front, the activities of the SS were becoming clear to the Allies, as the concentration and extermination camps were being overrun.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=542–548}} Allied troops were filled with disbelief and repugnance at the evidence of Nazi brutality in the camps.{{sfn|Fritz|2004|pp=50–55}}

On 9 April 1945, [[Königsberg]] fell to the Red Army, and on 13 April Dietrich's SS unit was forced out of Vienna.{{sfn|Stein|2002|p=237}} The [[Battle of Berlin]] began at 03:30 on 16 April with a massive artillery barrage.{{sfn|Kershaw|2011|p=302}} Within the week, fighting was taking place inside the city. Among the many elements defending Berlin were French, Latvian, and Scandinavian ''Waffen-SS'' troops.{{sfn|Stein|2002|p=246}}{{sfn|McNab|2013|pp=328, 330, 338}} Hitler, now residing in the ''[[Führerbunker]]'' under the Reich Chancellery, continued to hope that his remaining SS soldiers could rescue the capital. In spite of the hopelessness of the situation, members of the SS patrolling the city continued to shoot or hang soldiers and civilians for what they considered to be acts of cowardice or defeatism.{{sfn|Moorhouse|2012|pp=364–365}} The Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May, two days after [[Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler committed suicide]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2011|p=302}} As members of SS expected little mercy from the Red Army, they attempted to move westward to surrender to the western Allies instead.{{sfn|Stein|2002|pp=248–249}}