It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz "Hall Security" made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In , Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction — it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany.
From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in , the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance , and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler.
They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi state, the neutralisation of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology , and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.
The SS was the organisation most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5. The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labour. Ernst Kaltenbrunner , the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in By , the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz Hall Security to provide security at their meetings in Munich.
He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung "Storm Battalion"; SA , which he did not trust. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national organisation and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel Storm Squadron , and finally the Schutzstaffel Protection Squad; SS.
