The Kindly Ones

In 1939, just after the invasion of Poland, an attempt was made to officialize this curious situation by creating a bastard structure: the RSHA, which was supposed to regroup the SP and the SD into a single organization. This reorganization was in fact carried out successfully: all the administrative services of the different structures were fused into an Amt I (personnel) and an Amt II (budget, administration, organization); the SD was divided into an Amt III (SD-Inland, or “Interior”) and an Amt VI (SD-Ausland, or “External”); the Gestapo was rebaptized Amt IV, with the pompous designation of Gegnererforschung und -bekämpfung (“Investigation and Struggle Against Adversaries”); and the Kripo became Amt V under the name Verbrechensbekämpfung (“Struggle Against Criminals”). An Amt VII was also created for “Ideological Research and Evaluation,” Weltanschauliche Forschung und Auswertung. But none of this was ever legalized: the ministerial bureaucracy was opposed to the amalgamation of State administrations and Party organizations; it was out of the question to finance the SD out of the Reich’s budget. Thus, even if the RSHA existed in actual fact, it had no letterhead, and it was forbidden to use the term in correspondence; Heydrich officially remained “Chief of the SP and the SD.”

The structure of the RSHA was reproduced at all the regional levels, Oberabschnitt, Abschnitt, etc.: in each district there was an Amt III, an Amt IV, and an Amt V, all under the responsibility of an Inspekteur der SP und des SD (IdS). After the beginning of the war, the same structures were established in the occupied territories, where the Inspekteur became a Befehlshaber (“Commander”) der SP und des SD (BdS), who sometimes had under his orders several Kommandeur der SP und des SD (KdS). The Orpo followed the same scheme, with IdO, BdO, and KdO.

SA (Sturmabteilung, “Stormtroops”): Paramilitary units of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) who played a major role during the rise to power of the Party and just after the Seizure of Power in January 1933. In June 1934, with the support of the SS and the Wehrmacht, Hitler liquidated the leaders of the SA, including its chief, Ernst Röhm. The SA continued to exist until the fall of the regime, but no longer played any political role.

SD (Hauptamt Sicherheitsdienst, “Main Office of the Security Service”): SS structure created in the autumn of 1931 under command of Reinhard Heydrich. See also RSHA.

SP (Hauptamt Sicherheitspolizei, “Main Office of the Security Police”): Sometimes called Sipo. See also RSHA.

SPIESS: Familiar term designating the noncom in charge of a company, usually a Hauptfeldwebel (Sergeant-Major).

SS (Schutzstaffel, “Protection Detachment”): The first SS units were formed within the National Socialist Party in the summer of 1925, initially as bodyguards for the Führer, Adolf Hitler, who was already seeking to create a counterweight to the SA. Heinrich Himmler was appointed Reichsführer-SS, “Supreme Leader of the SS,” on January 6, 1929. The SS became completely independent of the SA in the fall of 1930 and played a major role in the elimination of its leaders in June 1934.

STO (Service du travail obligatoire): Program instituted in France by the German occupants to send forcibly recruited workers to Germany.

VOLKSDEUTSCHEN: Unlike Reichsdeutschen, these were Germans who had been living for several generations abroad, most of them in homogeneous communities.