Portion of the Schutzstaffel membership from Austria
The
Austrian SS
was that portion of the
Schutzstaffel
(SS) membership from
Austria
. The term and title was used unofficially. They were never officially recognized as a separate branch of the SS. Austrian SS members were seen as regular personnel and they served in every branch of the SS.
History
[
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The term "Austrian SS" is often used to describe that portion of the SS membership from
Austria
, but it was never a recognized branch of the SS. In contrast to SS members from other countries, who were grouped into either the Germanic-SS or the Foreign Legions of the Waffen-SS, Austrian SS members were regular SS personnel. It was technically under the command of the SS in Germany, but often acted independently concerning Austrian affairs. The Austrian SS was founded in 1930 and, by 1934, was acting as a covert force to bring about the
Anschluss
with Germany, which occurred in March 1938. Early Austrian SS leaders were
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
and
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
.
Austrian SS men were organized in the same manner as the
Allgemeine-SS
, but operated as an underground organization, in particular after 1936 when the Austrian government declared the SS an illegal organization. Kaltenbrunner, for example, repeatedly made trips to
Bavaria
to consult with Himmler and Heydrich. Hiding on a train and on a ship that traveled to
Passau
, he would return with money and orders for Austrian comrades.
Kaltenbrunner was arrested for a second time in 1937, by Austrian authorities on charges of being head of the illegal Nazi Party organisation in
Upper Austria
. He was released in September.
One of the largest formations of the Austrian SS was the
11th SS-Standarte
operating out of
Vienna
.
After 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany, the Austrian SS was folded into
SS-Oberabschnitt Donau
with the 3rd regiment of the
SS-Verfugungstruppe
,
Der Fuhrer,
and the fourth
Totenkopf
regiment,
Ostmark
, recruited in Austria shortly thereafter.
Mauthausen
was the first concentration camp opened in Austria following the
Anschluss
.
Starting with a single camp at Mauthausen, the complex expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 Mauthausen had become one of the largest
labour camp
complexes in the German-controlled part of Europe, with four main
subcamps
at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, and
nearly 100 other subcamps
located throughout Austria and southern Germany, directed from a central office at Mauthausen.
In Vienna, the
Hotel Metropole
was transformed into Gestapo headquarters in April 1938. With a staff of 900 (80 per cent of whom were recruited from the Austrian police), it was the largest Gestapo office outside of Berlin. An estimated 50,000 people were interrogated or tortured there. Thereafter, the people would be deported to concentration camps throughout the German Reich.
[7]
The Gestapo in Vienna was headed by
Franz Josef Huber
, who also served as chief of the
Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Vienna
. Although its de facto leaders were
Adolf Eichmann
and later
Alois Brunner
, Huber was still responsible for the mass deportation of Austrian Jews.
Austrian SS members served in every branch of the SS, including
Nazi concentration camps
,
Einsatzgruppen
, and the Security Services. Political scientist David Art of
Tufts University
notes that Austrians comprised 8 per cent of the Third Reich's population and 13 percent of the SS; he states that 40 per cent of the staff and 75 per cent of commanders at death camps were Austrian.
Besides Eichmann, who was one of the major organisers of
the Holocaust
,
Amon Goth
was another infamous Austrian-SS member. He became the commandant of the
Krakow-Płaszow concentration camp
in
Płaszow
(who was portrayed in the film
Schindler's List
by
Ralph Fiennes
).
See also
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References
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]
Citations
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Bibliography
[
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]
- Anderson, Christopher (1 November 2011).
"Crossing the Painful Threshold of Memory"
.
Vienna Review
. Archived from
the original
on 22 March 2016
. Retrieved
17 March
2016
.
- Art, David (2006).
The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria
. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0-521-85683-3
.
- Bischof, Gunter; Pelinka, Anton (1996).
Austrian Historical Memory and National Identity
.
Transaction Publishers
.
ISBN
1-56000-902-0
.
- Browder, George C (1996).
Hitler's Enforcers: The Gestapo and the SS Security Service in the Nazi Revolution
. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19510-479-0
.
- Crowe, David M. (2004).
Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List
. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.
ISBN
978-0-465-00253-5
.
- Dobosiewicz, Stanisław (2000).
Mauthausen-Gusen: w obronie ?ycia i ludzkiej godno?ci (Mauthausen-Gusen: in defence of life and human dignity)
. Warsaw:
Bellona
.
ISBN
83-11-09048-3
.
- Mang, Thomas (2003).
"Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien ? "Mein Name ist Huber"
"
[Head Gestapo Agency of Vienna: "My name is Huber"]
(PDF)
.
Dow Mitteilungen
(in German).
164
. Documentationsarchiv des Osterreichischen Widerstands: 1?5.
- Miller, Michael (2015).
Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 2
. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender.
ISBN
978-19-329-7025-8
.
- Rosmus, Anna (2015).
Hitlers Nibelungen: Niederbayern im Aufbruch zu Krieg und Untergang
(in German). Grafenau: Samples Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-93840-132-3
.
- Weale, Adrian
(2012).
Army of Evil: A History of the SS
. New York; Toronto: NAL Caliber (Penguin Group).
ISBN
978-0-451-23791-0
.