Between 1925 and 1945, the German Schutzstaffel (SS) grew from eight members to over a quarter of a million Waffen-SS and over a million Allgemeine-SS members. Other members included the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), which ran the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. The following list of SS personnel gives the names of notable persons who are counted among the organization's most famous, influential or notorious members. Women were not allowed to join the SS[citation needed] but were allowed into the SS-Gefolge and many served within the concentration camps.
Prior to 1934 the SS were nominally under the command of the Sturmabteilung[1] and so it could be said that both Adolf Hitler as Oberster SA-Führer and Ernst Röhm as Stabschef SA outranked the most senior SS position of Reichsführer-SS. Following the Night of the Long Knives Hitler "raised the SS, hitherto subordinate to the SA, to the rank of an independent organisation".[2] Hitler also was considered SS Member No. 1, Emil Maurice (considered the founder of the SS) was member No. 2, although leadership was assumed by Julius Schreck who was member No. 5. Himmler was SS member No. 168. Based on the seniority system of SS membership number, this made Hitler senior in the SS to all other members even if not by rank.
After the Night of the Long Knives, when the SS became independent from the SA, Hitler was listed on SS officer rolls as member No. 1 and considered supreme commander of the entire SS (Oberster Führer der Schutzstaffel: Literally, "Supreme Leader of the SS") by virtue of his position as the Führer of Germany. There is no photographic record of Hitler ever wearing an actual SS uniform nor was there a special SS insignia for Hitler above that worn by Himmler.
Oberster Führer der Schutzstaffel
SS Generals
Following is the list of persons holding the title positions as well as actual highest ranks of the Schutzstaffel (SS) since the earliest inception of the armed SS units in Nazi Germany. The ranks include distinctive insignia designs worn on the collar at one points by all officers.
^Office, United States Patent (1 January 1932). Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office. The Office – via Internet Archive. Scheid.
^"US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128". cuttingthroughthematrix.com. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
^"SCHEID, Dr".
^Schleip, Walter (1 January 1944). "Totale rationalisierung des industriebetriebes". O.Elsner – via Google Books.
^Butcher, Captain Harry C. (1 January 1946). My Three Years with Eisenhower – via Internet Archive. Scheid.
^ a b c d e"Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263)". National Archives and Records Administration. 15 August 2016. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"www.balsi.de". Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
^Ian Kershaw, Death in the Bunker, Penguin, 2005, p. 2
^Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, S. 371. Die bei Tuchel angegebenen Ränge sind auf die zum Zeitpunkt der Ernennung gebräuchlichen Bezeichnungen geändert.
^"New revelations about the Mufti's Nazi ties – and Nasser's".
^ a b c d eLee, Daniel (2020). The S.S. Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi. New York: Hachette Books. ISBN 9780316509091.
^"Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1942". Google Books (in German). 28 July 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^"Numery członków SS od 56 000 do 56 999". DWS-XIP Druga Wojna Światowa (in Polish). Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^"Harvard Law School Library – Nuremberg Trials Project". nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 29 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^holocaustresearchproject. "The Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp! - Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team Overblog". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
^David Wingeate Pike, Franco and the Axis Stigma, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p. 63
^Rodak, Wojciech. "Paul Fuchs zwany "Lisem z Radomia". Gestapowiec, który szachował Podziemie". Polskatimes.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 18 June 2018.
^ a b c"Numery członków SS od 193 000 do 193 999". www.dws-xip.pl.
^ a b"Numery członków SS od 177 000 do 177 999". www.dws-xip.pl.
^Kerstin Freudiger, Die juristische Aufarbeitung von NS-Verbrechen, Mohr Siebeck, 2002, p. 203
^Albanese, David (2015). In search of a lesser evil: anti-Soviet nationalism and the Cold War (PhD thesis). Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
^Lichtblau, Eric (2014). The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-66919-9.
^Kittel, Manfred (12 June 2018). Provinz zwischen Reich und Republik: politische Mentalitäten in Deutschland und Frankreich 1918-1933/36. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. ISBN 9783486565010 – via Google Books.
^Spartacus International
^"SCHMOLLER". Der Spiegel (in German). 24 September 1967.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.