Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

===SS Medical Corps===
[[File:Selection Birkenau ramp.jpg|thumb|[[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jews]] on the ''Judenrampe'' (Jewish ramp) after disembarking from the [[Holocaust trains|transport trains]]. Photo from the [[Auschwitz Album]], May 1944]]
{{Main|SS Medical Corps}}
The SS Medical Corps were initially known as the ''Sanitätsstaffel'' (sanitary units). After 1931, the SS formed the headquarters office ''Amt'' V as the central office for SS medical units. An SS medical academy was established in Berlin in 1938 to train ''Waffen-SS'' physicians.{{sfn|Proctor|1988|p=86}} SS medical personnel did not often provide actual medical care; their primary responsibility was medicalised genocide.{{sfn|Lifton|1986|p=147}} At Auschwitz, about three quarters of new arrivals, including almost all children, women with small children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be completely fit were killed within hours of arrival.{{sfn|Levy|2006|pp=235–237}} In their role as ''Desinfektoren'' (disinfectors), SS doctors also made selections among existing prisoners as to their fitness to work and supervised the murder of those deemed unfit. Inmates in deteriorating health were examined by SS doctors, who decided whether or not they would be able to recover in less than two weeks. Those too ill or injured to recover in that time frame were killed.{{sfn|Lifton|1986|pp=148–149}}

At Auschwitz, the actual delivery of gas to the victims was always handled by the SS, on the order of the supervising SS doctor.{{sfn|Piper|1994|p=170}}{{sfn|Lifton|Hackett|1994|p=304}} Many of the SS doctors also conducted inhumane medical experiments on camp prisoners.{{sfn|Yahil|1990|p=368}} The most well-known SS doctor, [[Josef Mengele]], served as a medical officer at Auschwitz under the command of [[Eduard Wirths]] of the camp's medical corps.{{sfn|Yahil|1990|p=369}} Mengele undertook selections even when he was not assigned to do so in the hope of finding subjects for his experiments.{{sfn|Levy|2006|pp=248–249}} He was particularly interested in locating sets of twins.{{sfn|Posner|Ware|1986|p=29}} In contrast to most of the doctors, who viewed undertaking selections as one of their most stressful and horrible duties, Mengele undertook the task with a flamboyant air, often smiling or whistling a tune.{{sfn|Posner|Ware|1986|p=27}}{{sfn|Lifton|1985}} After the war, many SS doctors were charged with war crimes for their medical experiments and for their role in gas chamber selections.{{sfn|Pringle|2006|pp=294–296}}