The Theory and Practice of Hell (6 page)

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EUGEN KOGON

was to develop and protect with all the methods of power
a
German system of rule, based on race. That this meant guard ing the person of its Messianic preincamation, the so-called Ftihrer, was understood.

The very qualifications for SS candidates were unusual.

They had to be at least five feet, eleven inches tall. (Later on this qualification was largely waived, and even the halt and the lame found their way into the SS, until the “ elite guards” bore little resemblance any longer to the supposed ideal of “ Teutonic braves.”) Their pedigreees had to be traced back to 1750 and to be of pure “ German blood.” Their character—in the Nazi sense—had to be impeccable.

For the purpose of suppressing political opposition, however, Himmler needed bullies and strong-arm men who

were also fanatics. The members of the elite guard in actual fact, therefore, were necessarily capable of reacting to but two extremes: the Fiihrer—that meant
Sieg Heil\
while the “ enemy” meant
Nieder
(down). On the one side was the per sonified symbol of a world of radiance—and significantly enough it did not matter in the least that their idol in no way corresponded to any ideal concept of the Teutonic race, for neither did they themselves. On the other side were the Jews, the Marxists, the Free Masons, the Jesuits—all of them un differentiated blanket images of the foe, absurdly primitive in character. The
SS
was predominantly composed of unem ployed from every class, men who had come to accept it as convenient and grand to serve the nationalist upsurge with brass knuckles and revolver.

There is some question whether the rank and file which joined the
SS
in the course of the years, voluntarily or by com pulsion, had any real knowledge of the true aims of Himmler and his immediate staff. It is a question of no great moment in judging the blueprint of the
SS
super state, considering the system of authority that prevailed in the organization. The SS leadership, at any rate, did pursue such a plan, consistently, step by step, at any cost. Each partial objective was sought with a degree of ruthlessness completely transcending or dinary concepts. The testimony and documentary evidence since the end of the war have established the inner structure of the
SS
for all the world to see.

The
SS
was established in 1929 as Hitler’s black-uniformed

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF HELL 5

bodyguard. Originally it numbered but 250 men. Its chief, Heinrich Himmler, was under the command of Ernst Rohm, the chief of the SA.1 A significant sidelight on Himmler’s plans, which even then far transcended the protection of Hitler’s person, is thrown by the fact of the simultaneous establishment within the SS of a “ Race and Settlement Of fice,” later to acquire ominous significance. Eventually it guarded the purity of the original ideal of a sacred order, protected the elite character of the SS, conducted a con tinuous process of selecting the master class for the super state and, by means of extermination, resettlement and land distribution, buttressed its rule throughout Germany and Europe.

The recruitment appeal of the General SS was directed primarily to the aristocracy, the intelligentsia and the scions of the wealthy middle class. This by no means meant that the “ consecrated fellowship of the SS” was to be turned into a fashionable gentlemen’s club. The General SS was merely to furnish the leaders of the SS with broad connections, money and prestige among the German people—a facade behind which true SS aims could be realized all the easier. It was a transition phase. When it had served its purpose it was allowed to wither away without fanfare though it was never formally abolished. By 1939 its only remaining role was to serve as the vehicle for the summary calling up of many of its members to the SS Reserve. These were then simply assigned to such SS units as suffered from a shortage of enlisted men or officers.

Many a German in this way paid dearly for the social privileges of former membership in the General SS, being swept into the doom that engulfed the SS as a whole. In the early days it was counted as a fine thing to be permitted to belong to what was looked on as the national elite! Propa ganda was centered on the proposition that the General SS was to become the equivalent of the old Guard and Corps units. The SS leaders made it easy for new members. There was little work even for men on active duty. They could simply look on themselves as lords of the realm engaged in

1 The
Sturm-Abteilungen
, the brown-shirted storm troops, Hitler’s private army o f bully boys who really swept the Nazi movement into power.—
Tr.

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EUGEN KOGON

aristocratic pastimes—such as prancing about on horseback in the Mounted SS. All that so-called “ Sponsoring Members” had to do to wear the black pin with the runic symbol of the SS was to pay a monthly contribution. There was no trace of any hardheaded theoretical or political indoctrination to make them fit for the “ sacred order.”

These tactics skillfully exploited prevailing trends. “ Spon

soring Members” saw in their financial contributions a cheap way of evading all other Nazi organizations and compulsions while yet being “ insiders.” Active Nazis, who recoiled from the Storm Troops as no more than an organized rabble, gained distinction over the general run of the people by wearing the fabulous black uniform—a perfect job of tailoring which was not issued but had to be paid for at fancy prices from one’s own pocket. The uniform made it possible to strut about in the spirit of the German military tradition, reaping the prestige due a crack outfit.

From the outset, Himmler boasted the title of Reichsfiihrer SS, and the spread of his organization across the German Reich was relatively rapid. By 1930 there were two thousand members; a year later, ten thousand. But the general Nazi up sweep soon created such a wealth of opportunity for careers involving prestige and financial remuneration—in the govern ment, the foreign service, the army, industry—that there was no longer any question of consolidating the General SS in the direction of ideals of “ consecration.” The Blood Purge of June 30, 1934, and the ensuing terror caused many members to sever even their outward connection with the SS. But many others stayed in as a matter of form. Essentially their mem bership was no more than participation in a loose kind of association for the mutual promotion of social and professional ambitions. Yet precisely such an organization fitted in well with the intelligence needs of the Security Service chief, Heydrich, and with the financial needs of the SS leader ship. The dregs of the aristocracy, the intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie who were caught up in the General SS—men who for some reason had failed to make a career in government, the army or industry, or who were especially attracted by the SS ideals—this negative elite, as it were, readily found its way from the General SS into the real SS cadres.

Until the purge of June 30, 1934, it was the SA, however,

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF HELL 7

that stood in the foreground of Nazi activity, far outdoing the SS in undisciplined terror. The SA was, according to Hitler’s plan, the couter-balance to the German army. Hitler intended to build his state upon those two pillars. The purge was skillfully stage-managed by the General Staff of one of these props, the German army, against its rival, the SA, and especially against the chief of the SA, Rohm. But it gave the SS, Himmler and his lieutenants, the long-awaited op portunity for the clean-up for which they had prepared. At last they were able to put their blueprint into effect. For weeks and months after the purge, the SS cleaned house. Opposing SA leaders, high Nazi officials, any political leaders at all who offered opposition or could not be controlled, were ruthlessly disposed of. In the end the SA stood stripped of all its power.

But it is highly significant that down to 1944 the Army General Staff stubbornly resisted pressure to accord Himmler any form of recognition whatever. Long after Himmler’s divisional commanders as well as his high police officials had been confirmed by the army as officers, he himself, the all-powerful ruler of the SS, was denied the privilege of calling himself a general. Himmler never forgave this slight, and af ter the plot of July 20, 1944, when he rose to the position of “ commander-in-chief of the home army,” he wreaked bitter vengeance.

By 1936 Himmler had become not only supreme head of the SS but chief of the German police, and by 1944, had become also commander-in-chief of the German replacement forces. He was at the head of the whole machine, the many diver sified branches of which often enjoyed considerable degrees of independence, for all that they were attuned to each other. All the threads ran together in his hands. At his beck and call were the SD (the Security Service); the Reich Main Security Office; the SS troops; the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office; the Personal Staff of the Reichsfiihrer SS; and the Operational Main Office.

To guard against the rapid growth of the SS and safeguard his own objectives, Himmler had created in 1931 the SD (
Sicherheits-Dienst),
his own personal Security Service. It was a harmless sounding name. It did not then partake of the terror its very mention was to spread only two years later even in the ranks of the Nazi party itself. No less a personage than

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EUGEN KOGON

Hitler’s powerful deputy, Rudolf Hess, took part in setting up the SD. He called it the “ nerve center of party and state.” Ac tual organizer and chief of this nerve center was a young ex-naval lieutenant, Reinhard Heydrich, a man of diabolical cast. &

The original sphere of the SD was the Nazi party rather than the German people. It became a kind of “ shoo-fly squad” with an elaborate system of stool pigeons. Heydrich’s slogan was: “ It’s all right if you know about it—but you’ve got to know.”