Allgemeine SS

General SS

Allgemeine SS
The general SS was the administrative and non-combative part of the SS.
Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler leads an SS ceremony on the anniversary of the death of Heinrich I at Quedlinburg, July 1938
Agency overview
Formed	September 1934
Preceding agencies	Sturmabteilung Schutzstaffel
Dissolved	8 May 1945
Jurisdiction	Germany and occupied Europe
Headquarters	SS-Hauptamt, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E / 52.50722; 13.38250
Employees	100,000 c.1940
Minister responsible	Heinrich Himmler (1934–1945), Reichsführer-SS
Parent agency	Schutzstaffel
Child agencies	RSHA (Gestapo, Sicherheitspolizei, SD and Kriminalpolizei) SS Economic and Administrative Departments (WHVA) SS Courts Office SS Office of Race and Settlement SS Personalhauptamt SS Education Office Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans (RKFDV)

The Allgemeine SS ([ˌalɡəˈmaɪ̯nə ˈɛs ˈɛs]; "General SS") was a major branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (SS-Hauptamt). The Allgemeine SS was officially established in the autumn of 1934 to distinguish its members from the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS Dispositional Troops or SS-VT), which later became the Waffen-SS, and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS Death's Head Units or SS-TV), which were in charge of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen.^[1]

Starting in 1939, foreign units of the Allgemeine SS were raised in occupied countries. From 1940 they were consolidated into the Directorate of the Germanic-SS (Leitstelle der germanischen SS). When the war first began, the vast majority of SS members belonged to the Allgemeine SS, but this proportion changed during the later years of the war after the Waffen-SS opened up membership to ethnic Germans and non-Germans.