Editing Schutzstaffel (section)

===Concentration camps founded===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26996, KZ Dachau, Verbrennungsofen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Crematorium at [[Dachau concentration camp]], May 1945 (photo taken after liberation)]]
The SS was closely associated with Nazi Germany's concentration camp system. On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed SS-''[[Oberführer]]'' [[Theodor Eicke]] as [[commandant]] of [[Dachau concentration camp]], one of the first Nazi concentration camps.{{sfn|Padfield|2001|pp=128–129}} It was created to consolidate the many small camps that had been set up by various police agencies and the Nazi Party to house political prisoners.{{sfn|Weale|2010|p=95}} The organisational structure Eicke instituted at Dachau stood as the model for all later concentration camps.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=85}} After 1934, Eicke was named commander of the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV), the SS formation responsible for running the concentration camps under the authority of the SS and Himmler.{{sfn|Hilberg|1985|p=222}} Known as the "Death's Head Units", the SS-TV was first organised as several battalions, each based at one of Germany's major concentration camps. Leadership at the camps was divided into five departments: commander and adjutant, political affairs division, protective custody, administration, and medical personnel.{{sfn|Hein|2015|p=63}} By 1935, Himmler secured Hitler's approval and the finances necessary to establish and operate additional camps.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2010|p=22}} Six concentration camps{{efn|[[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Flossenbürg concentration camp|Flossenbürg]], [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp|Mauthausen]], [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], and [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]].{{sfn|Weale|2010|pp=106–108}} }} housing 21,400 inmates (mostly political prisoners) existed at the start of the war in September 1939.{{sfn|Weale|2010|p=108}} By the end of the war, hundreds of camps of varying size and function had been created, holding nearly 715,000 people, most of whom were targeted by the regime because of their race.{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=366–367}}{{sfn|Weale|2010|pp=108–109}} The concentration camp population rose in tandem with the defeats suffered by the Nazi regime; the worse the catastrophe seemed, the greater the fear of subversion, prompting the SS to intensify their repression and terror.{{sfn|Ayçoberry|1999|p=273}}