I. The SS as an Order
As can be seen from this brief overview, over the years the tasks of the SS became more diverse and their fulfilment was only possible through the unification of the entire Protection Troop.
Until 1929, the SS was a tried and tested troop for the protection of leaders and speakers. The Reichsführer made it an Order of Honour, Loyalty, Service and Combat for the Führer and the Reich.
The SS is a Nordic Order. Adolf Hitler based his world view on the unchanging essence of the Nordic species. The people and the Empire must be the structural future of this Nordic nature. As the leader of the Germanic peoples, the German people have the predestined task of being the first to lead the fight for the rebirth of Germanism. The Nordic race is also the major source of the Nordic blood heritage. The first objective of National Socialism must therefore be to pursue a sound racial policy. This requires a purification of the German people from all foreign influences in blood and character.
The SS therefore selects its members according to the ideal of the Nordic race in order to form a free Germanic type. Since the value of a man’s soul cannot be judged at first sight, the selection is made according to the physical ideal of the Nordic race and according to his height. Experience has shown that a man’s worth and ability are mainly determined by what his racial appearance suggests.
The selection criteria of the SS thus became ever stricter. The racial policy of the Reich encouraged the Nordicisation of the entire population. The closer one gets to this goal, the stricter the racial criteria of the SS become.
The SS does not aspire to acquire a privileged position among the people. It is an order which, through its combat action, serves to carry out a racial selection of the community and realizes the principles of racial politics as a distant goal for the community. In this way, the SS applies a fundamental law of our socialist scale of values, according to which each person receives his or her place according to the value of the result achieved within the popular community.
The SS sees clearly that it must be more than just a Männerbund. It builds its ideas of the Order on the community of dans. It wants to be an Order of dans which will produce men of the best Nordic kind to serve the Reich. Thus, selection will increasingly judge not the individual, but the worth of an entire clan.
Absolute clarity and consensus are needed in the ideological questions concerning this principle of a Nordic racial clan community. This is the necessary condition for the strength of the SS and gives it its assurance.
With the basic laws of the SS, the Reichsführer gave each SS member guidelines for action.
The first of these fundamental laws is the Order on Engagement and Marriage of 31 December. This order introduces a “marriage licence” for all unmarried members of the SS, considering that the future of our people lies in the selection and preservation of hereditarily healthy racial blood. Therefore, this marriage licence, which every SS member must obtain before marriage, is granted only and solely on the basis of racial and hereditary considerations.
This order was necessarily the result of the desire to create a community of clans. Because a biological selection will only be successful if the choice of spouses and the offspring of the selected individuals are controlled. The SS must marry a woman of at least equal value. The man and the woman must be racially and conjugally valid. Such a law is not a constraint, but a link to a God-given order. It is natural that individuals of the Nordic species value those of their own kind.
It is not only the value of the hereditary heritage that determines the strength of a people. In the struggle for a living space and the right to life, the fertility of a people, the number of children, is decisive. An order such as the SS must therefore create a broad biological selection ground for itself. There must always be a large number of offspring. According to the best marital choice, the most worthy must always provide the Order with a rich progeny.
“The Golden Age is where there are children. Children are the greatest happiness of the SS. He himself, his will and his desires, his feeling and his thought live in them. What he receives from the chain of generations he gives to his children and thus confers eternal life on the people and the Reich of fighting men and faithful women, the guardians of the species and of civilisation.
The SS also takes care of the single mother. Love and procreation are the eternal laws of life that will always break down the barriers of custom and law. Here, too, the SS is closely linked to life. It knows no false morality and also deals with the illegitimate child of good blood. Thus, the racially and hereditarily healthy man can follow his destiny in the community and the people benefit from the strength, the value of a whole generation and thus from a future hereditarily healthy offspring.
As an Order, the SS has inscribed on its flag the preservation and perpetuation of the Nordic race, and is also leading a frontline fight for biological victory. Only the victory of the cradles gives the soldier’s victory a historically lasting character.
After the outbreak of the present war, the Reichsführer SS once again summarised these fundamental views of racial policy with a particular reference to the bloodshed that the present war entails. He said in this order: "The old wisdom that only he who has sons and children can die in peace must again become the watchword for the Protection Troop in this war. He can die in peace who knows that his clan, that all that he and his ancestors strived for and wanted, finds its continuation in the children. The greatest gift to the widow of a dead fighter is always the child of the man she loved.
In the Widow and Orphan Assistance Act of 1937, the Reichsführer stipulates that the SS community must take responsibility for the care of the widow and child in the event that a member should give his or her life in the fight for the Führer and the people. The unit commanders are personally responsible for the support of all clans in their district.
The “Lebensborn” (source of life) also ensures the preservation and increase of pure blood. The dedication of the entire SS ensures that this requirement is met. Pure-blooded children were brought into the world in maternity homes and raised in the Lebensborn nurseries.
The racial idea also determines the importance given by the SS to physical exercises. Every SS member had to be able to perform well in sports. The Reichsführer ordered sport in the SS, not to achieve individual feats but to ensure general physical fitness.
The internal unity of the Protection Troop is also expressed in a law of honour determined by the Reichsführer. A special law on the sanctity of property teaches the troop an exemplary conception of property, honour and probity.
II. The Waffen SS
With the practical knowledge of National Socialist selection, leadership and education, the Waffen SS (SS in arms) was created on the basis of the Allgemeine SS by setting up the SS-Verfügungstruppen (SS troops at disposal) and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (skull and crossbones units) after the takeover. It subsequently evolved into its present form.
It has already been said that it was created by the Führer to give the SS acting inside the country the possibility of having a force for action outside, in case of danger.
Units of the Waffen SS regiments, the Leibstandarte SS “Adolf Hitler”, the Standarten “Deutschland” and “Germania” as well as parts of the former Totenkopfverbände faced the enemy with the German army when the Polish borders were crossed in September 1939 in a rapid offensive.
These regiments became organised divisions, built and run under the Protection Troop’s own responsibility, thanks to the Führer’s trust.
Even today, it is impossible to estimate the level of development of the Waffen SS achieved during the war. With all its divisions together, it consists only of volunteers selected according to the basic laws of the Protection Troop. It was only after the war that the German people became aware of the enormous amount of work that had been done by the SS-Hauptamt (SS High Office) to enable the constant recruitment of new units. It is a result that has taken a special place in the history of the German war. The task of the SS-Führungshauptamt (SS higher leadership office) was to set up, equip and train the units.
The harsh winter of 1941/42 demonstrated the importance of the Waffen SS in the conduct of the war. From Karelia to the Sea of Azov, Waffen SS divisions were in the thick of the fighting everywhere. Thanks to them, the Reichsführer SS gave the Führer units of steel which, even during that winter, did not reach their limits.
This winter, which tested the mettle of the German people so mercilessly, also tested this Waffen SS. It was up to the task. When, in front of the Reichstag on 26 April 1942, the Führer made clear to the German people what that winter had really meant, he praised the Waffen SS, touching every one of our brave comrades.
“Speaking of this infantry, I would like to emphasize for the first time the consistent and exemplary bravery and toughness of my brave SS divisions and SS police units. From the very beginning I have regarded them as an unshakable, obedient, faithful and courageous troop in war, as they have promised to be during peace.
The fight of the Waffen SS was part of the proud tradition of the National Socialist Protection Troop. Here, too, the principle of selection, the temperament of a type of man and the consciousness of representing an idea proved effective.
III. German volunteers and the German SS
The Führer’s order to establish the ‘Nordland’ and ‘Westland’ units within the Waffen SS at the beginning of 1941 was fundamentally new in its nature and scope. A clear understanding of the implications of this order is essential to understanding the principles of the new European order planned by Germany and the development of the Empire in a National Socialist spirit. The establishment of the volunteer units was not the reparation of an oversight and a mark of generosity, but a political act The enemies of National Socialism saw this immediately. It was a clear decision on the question of the formation of the future political order and the principle of German organisation in the living space conquered by hard fighting.
The fact that this order of the Führer found such an echo among German youth proves how much the meaning of our struggle was understood in all circles. It also reveals a strong desire to participate in this struggle. At the same time, it is a great proof of the esteem in which the Waffen SS, still so young, is held after the first confrontation, and of the trust placed in the SS in general regarding its vanguard position. Countless young comrades from German-speaking countries found their destiny in its ranks.
When the first volunteers joined the Waffen SS, the front was mainly against England. But the situation changed completely with the entry into the war against Bolshevism. In the last few years, the hostility provoked by the Bolshevist system in almost all European countries prompted Germany to consider participating in the struggle on a much larger scale. This was an opportunity to set up homogeneous units in each country. Naturally, the contribution to this movement in the German-speaking world was particularly high. The Norwegian and Dutch legions, the Flanders legion, the ‘Denmark’ free corps and the Finnish volunteer battalion came into being. These units also fought as part of the Waffen SS. Their struggle meant more than a pragmatic stand; it also represented a legal commitment of national forces to the power available for combat.
The conditions for admission to the Waffen SS were the same for all countries as for the Reich. Entry into the legion depended on character and suitability for service. Assistance and support in accordance with the provisions in force were regulated in the broadest sense for German volunteers, including family support. Particular support might be necessary for young National Socialists whose families were exposed to economic or political coercive measures in their homeland as a result of this voluntary commitment.
A special German section was created within the SS-Hauptamt to assist the volunteers. Together with its branches it was responsible for planning all political work in the German-speaking area. A strong Germanic Protection Troop was being created in Flanders, the Netherlands and Norway. In addition, there were also the recruitment commandos of the Waffen SS as well as the newly formed units and the entire complement of the legions, all of which depended on the German Volunteer Section.
Already during the war, the SS considered it its task to bring together the forces of the individual German-speaking countries with its own resources and to lay the foundations for close, joint work in the future.
Already long before the war the Reichsführer SS wanted to create a new German police force whose officers and men would meet the criteria of the SS and also be members of the Protection Troop. The present situation was therefore a development of the organisation. The nature of police work also changed under the influence of the National Socialist world view. Today, its primary function is educational: rather than punishing offences, it is more important to prevent wrongdoing, to protect the people and the state from acts that are harmful or dangerous to the community. Today, the SS not only ensures political security but also protects the people from the actions of anti-social elements. It has therefore created a specific institution for this purpose, the concentration camps. Under the old system, these elements had become the focus of professional criminality and caused great harm to the people. By the maxim above the entrance gate “work makes you free”, these men are exhorted to productive work in these large educational centres because they are not yet lost to the community. They can regain their freedom through a strict education and their being brought to their senses.
An intelligence apparatus had to be created to support the preventive work of the police. As there was a lack of examples at the national level, one could only refer to the security service of the SS Reichsführer, which, under the leadership of SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, had already been created by the SS as a party organisation. The joining of the security police and the security service represented a particular fusion of state and movement forces in an extremely important area.
In contrast to the secret state police (Gestapo), which represented the political executive, the criminal police (Kripo) generally took care of the non-political executive, and was wrongly compared to the old criminal police, i.e. the one before 1933. But this is not true. A people’s community that demands that its members follow a certain worldview, a type of state that is penetrated to the extreme by this ideology, must, of course, have a helpful criminal police force that views its tasks in terms of this. Exactly as in the field of the political executive, the absolute rule of the criminal executive requires: the prevention, and therefore the neutralisation of all elements that can harm the public good through their actions on the popular and economic force.
Fighting crime therefore means recognising and arresting the criminal, the anti-social element, before further crimes are committed or an antisocial existence is led. Preventive action against criminals is nowadays a generally accepted and approved measure.
The work of the security service provides the spiritual basis for the work of the security police. The work of the security service is not about the security police or the state, but about the simple reporting of a situation from material findings to the scientific examination of specific events and phenomena.
Similarly, from the time of the seizure of power until the beginning of the war, the overall work of the regular police, the security police and the SD contributed considerably to creating favourable conditions for the conduct of this great war among the German people. It also gave rise to new, more extensive and important tasks. Units and commandos of the order police, the security police and the SD entered all conquered territories with the victorious armies of our proud German Wehrmacht to take measures as quickly as possible – following the example of peacetime – firstly to create conditions that would restore calm to the rear of the fighting troops and, secondly, to establish civil or military administrative centres to facilitate the administrative work of the troops.
The events that followed the battles of the past months in the greatest winter war in history forced many police regiments and battalions to intervene at the front. In this battle, the men of the regular police proved their military valour, bravery and tenacity side by side with their comrades of the army and the Waffen SS. In this battle they showed that the German regular police perform their duty seriously wherever they are. The police battalions fought remarkably well. Neither the incessant Soviet attacks nor the relentless and deadly cold could overcome their tenacity and courage.
Even today, police units are still engaged in many hot spots on the Eastern Front. Their successful testing in tough battles is ultimately the result of the basic training of officers and men.
Germany’s new colonising work in the East found its rightful leader in the Führer’s order of 7 October 1939, by which the Reichsführer SS was appointed Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German Nation. Throughout the great periods of its history, the German people have always looked to the East for the deployment of their creative talent But this history also teaches us that military victory alone is not enough to conquer a country. The tragic aspect of German eastern policy in the past centuries is that the movements of the people towards the East did not have a homogeneous objective and thus could not distribute their forces in an organised and planned way.
Thus, the Eastern mission is above all a mission of ethnic politics. The ethnic damage caused by the random individual emigration of the past centuries was corrected by the repatriation of the Volksdeutsche and Reichsdeutsche from abroad to the Reich. At the same time, the harmful influence of certain foreign population groups that posed a danger to the German community was stopped. The creation of new areas of German settlement, above all through the immigration and settlement of Volksdeutsche and Reichsdeutsche from abroad, is the third and most important task which the Führer has entrusted to the SS Reichsführer by his order. It includes the reparation of the historical mistake made by the Germans, which caused the popular forces to dry up through lack of comprehensive management of the national destiny.
An appropriate and effective apparatus was at the Führer’s disposal to carry out this ethnic policy work immediately. As a doctrinaire who tirelessly taught the idea of the natural link between race and colonisation, the SS Reichsführer gave his Protection Troop a basic National Socialist conception and thus provided it with an executive body to carry out extensive constructive work. The idea of the peasant-soldier which this educational work gave rise to implied, in contrast to the ‘colonies’ of past centuries, that a settlement area had to be created in accordance with the racial character of the men who settled there. Through conscious selection, the SS forms a community in which the best strengths of our people can best flourish creatively. In order to achieve its final reattachment, the Eastern space needs men selected according to criteria of character and worth. This selection, which nature itself makes in groups of men struggling to survive and which future generations need, is guaranteed by the vanguard struggle of the SS.
We have only been able to deal here with the most important practical tasks of the SS. But the spirit of the SS is not limited to the fulfilment of these tasks, and – it must again be stressed – it sees its ultimate justification in the creation, education and selection of a new type of men and leaders capable of mastering all the great tasks of the future. For them, the concept of ‘political soldiers’ was used. But when the SS speaks of political soldiers, it is not only thinking of a revolution of the political by the military, but also of a revolution of the military by the political. It is not only the “political fighter" who must be selected and educated, but also – in the narrowest sense – the “political fighter”! In view of the war period, this task must be mentioned again in conclusion.
Historical development has taken its course since the French Revolution and the Prussian uprising of 1813 made the people the principle of military potential in war. More than ever before, ideology marches side by side and among the people on the battlefields. The racial idea clarifies the fronts.
The racial idea melts people and ideology into a solid whole and fights globalist ideologies of all kinds.
But the war also became an ideological war. The combination of the political idea and the conduct of war was achieved by a revolution in the art of warfare.
The predominance of worldview over politics makes any war with an enemy worldview a matter of survival. The fundamental law of ideological warfare is victory or defeat.
The historical situation of war demands of the soldier the utmost firmness and dedication. Each individual must strengthen himself in the idea of triumphing or dying. To consider that the military character is independent of the political and ideological form of life of the people is already a mortal threat and represents, from the start, a weakness in relation to the adversary.
Contrary to what many people think, there is no such thing as a good military type as a world view. The military character includes a whole series of virtues: courage, firmness, boldness, obedience, fulfilment of duty, dignity. The world view is the field where all these virtues are best expressed.
Arms, equipment and training are not essentially different in modern armed forces. Discipline and duty alone do not win an ideological war either. It is the one who, beyond the fulfilment of duty and obedience, surpasses the opponent by the harshness of the action and the audacity of the risk.
The foundation of the best military spirit is not only the fulfilment of moral duty, but above all the constancy of faith. For it is faith that ensures the stability of moral action in the first place.
To develop this constancy of faith is the supreme task of the SS. With this faith we will be able to build the future faithfully, in the words of the Reichsführer SS:
“Thus we approach and follow the path to a more distant future according to immutable laws as a National Socialist and military order of Nordic men and as a community sworn to its lineages. We wish and believe that we are not only the descendants who have done this best, but above all the ancestors of future generations who are indispensable for the eternal life of the Germanic people.
Power is only justified when it implies an obligation to serve.
Darré
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