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SS-Obergruppenführer
- Reinhard Heydrich
- Joachim von Ribbentrop
- Martin Bormann
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner
- Karl Wolff
- Konstantin von Neurath
- Albert Forster
- Hans Jüttner
- Otto Hofmann
- Max Amann
- Karl Fiehler
- Heinrich von Maur
Reich Security Main Office
Reinhard Heydrich held the title of Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Chief of the Security Police and SD) until 27 September 1939, when he became chief of the newly established Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). From that point forward, the RSHA was in charge of SS security services. It had under its command the SD, Kripo, and Gestapo, as well as several offices to handle finance, administration, and supply. Heinrich Müller, who had been chief of operations for the Gestapo, was appointed Gestapo chief at this time. Arthur Nebe was chief of the Kripo, and the two branches of SD were commanded by a series of SS officers, including Otto Ohlendorf and Walter Schellenberg. The SD was considered an elite branch of the SS, and its members were better educated and typically more ambitious than those within the ranks of the Allgemeine SS. Members of the SD were specially trained in criminology, intelligence, and counterintelligence. They also gained a reputation for ruthlessness and unwavering commitment to National Socialist ideology.
Heydrich was attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to assassinate him in Operation Anthropoid. He died from his injuries a week later. Heinrich Himmler ran the RSHA personally until 30 January 1943, when Heydrich's positions were taken over by Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
SS Race and Settlement Main Office
The SS Race and Settlement Main Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS, RuSHA) was the organization responsible for "safeguarding the racial 'purity' of the SS" within National Socialist Germany.
The RuSHA was founded in 1931 by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and Richard Walther Darré, who later rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer. In 1935, it was upgraded to an SS Main Office. Under its first director, Darré, it propagated the National Socialist ideology of blood and soil. Darré was dismissed by Himmler in 1938 and was succeeded by SS-Gruppenführer Günther Pancke, SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann in 1940, and then SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt in 1943.
SS Court Main Office
The SS Court Main Office (Hauptamt SS-Gericht) was an internal legal system for conducting investigations, trials, and punishment of the SS and police. It had more than 600 lawyers on staff in the main offices in Berlin and Munich. Proceedings were conducted at 38 regional SS courts throughout Germany. It was the only authority authorised to try SS personnel, except for SS members who were on active duty in the Wehrmacht (in such cases, the SS member in question was tried by a standard military tribunal). Its creation placed the SS beyond the reach of civilian legal authority. Himmler personally intervened as he saw fit regarding convictions and punishment. Historian Karl Dietrich Bracher describes this court system as one factor in the creation of the National Socialist totalitarian police state, as it removed objective legal procedures, rendering citizens defenceless against the "summary justice of the SS terror."
Ahnenerbe
The Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Organisation) was founded in 1935 by Himmler and became part of the SS in 1939. It was an umbrella agency for more than fifty organisations tasked with studying German racial identity and ancient Germanic traditions and language. The agency sponsored archaeological expeditions in Germany, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Tibet, and elsewhere to search for evidence of Aryan roots, influence, and superiority. Further planned expeditions were postponed indefinitely at the start of the war.
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