SPY EXCHANGES. See GLIENICKER BRIDGE.
SQUILLACOTE, THERESA MARIA. See STAND, KURT ALAN,
and SQUILLACOTE, THERESA MARIA.
SS. An elite quasi-military organization of the Nazi Party, the SS
(Schutzstaffel; Protection Squad) originated as a personal bodyguard
for Adolf Hitler in 1928 under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler
and rapidly grew to a force of more than 50,000 within five years.
After the Nazi seizure of power, the SS eliminated its major competi-
tor, the Sturmabteilung, during the Night of the Long Knives in June
1934 and increasingly penetrated the surviving police units of the
Weimar Republic. Of particular importance was the early creation
of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) under Reinhard
Heydrich.
Himmler saw the SS not merely as a special body of loyal troops
but as the disciplined core of a new racial order. An elaborate hier-
archy of titles along with redesigned uniforms was introduced, and
special typewriters had a key with the pseudo-runic version of the
letters “SS.” An aura of mystery and invincibility was cultivated,
and the general public gained no glimpse of its often chaotic and
intrigue-filled inner workings. By 1939, the SS was broadly divided
between the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed
SS). Charged with handling police and racial matters, the former
was centered in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, while the latter,
rigorously trained for battlefield combat, performed no discernible
intelligence functions.
Despite its formidable presence in the Third Reich, Hitler never
allowed the SS to gain a commanding position, preferring instead to
issue his orders to a series of subordinates with overlapping respon-
sibilities. Himmler was never considered by the Führer as a viable
successor. Although the International Military Tribunal in Nurem-
berg declared the SS to be a criminal organization and a number of
officials were executed after 1945—among them Ernst Kaltenbrun-
ner, Kurt Daluege, and Otto Ohlendorf—the majority were treated
with leniency, some even finding postwar intelligence careers with
the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps and the Organisation Gehlen.
See also EINSATZGRUPPEN.
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