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''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV), rendered in English as Death's Head Units, was the SS organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps for the Third Reich, among similar duties.〔 While the ''Totenkopf'' (skull) was the universal cap badge of the SS, the SS-TV also wore the Death's Head insignia on the right collar to distinguish itself from other Nazi ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) formations. The SS-TV created originally in 1933 was an independent unit within the SS with its own ranks and command structure. It ran the camps throughout Germany and later, the Nazi-occupied Europe. Camps in Germany included Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald; camps elsewhere in Europe included Auschwitz in German occupied Poland and Mauthausen in Austria among the numerous other concentration camps and death camps. The extermination camps' primary function was genocide and included Treblinka, Bełżec and Sobibór built for ''Aktion Reinhard''. They were responsible for facilitating what the Nazis called the Final Solution, known since the war as HaShoah or the Holocaust.〔 It was perpetrated by the SS in collaboration with the Reich Main Security Office, and the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office or WVHA. At the outbreak of World War II one of the first combat units of the Waffen-SS, the SS Division ''Totenkopf'', was formed from SS-TV personnel. It soon developed a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism, participating in war crimes such as the Le Paradis massacre in 1940 during the Fall of France. On the Eastern Front the mass shootings of Polish and Soviet civilians in Operation Barbarossa was the work of special task forces known as ''SS-Einsatzgruppen'', which were organized by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.〔 ''Also in:'' 〕 ==Formation== After taking national power in 1933, the Nazi state needed a system for incarcerating enemies of the state. Originally there was only a loose mixture of prisons and camps for detention. The SA ran the detention camps. However, following the fall of that party branch from power with the purge known as the Night of the Long Knives (30 June to 2 July 1934), the SS took control of the "fledgling system". On 26 June 1933, ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler appointed SS-''Oberführer'' Theodor Eicke the ''Kommandant'' of the first Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. Eicke requested a permanent unit that would be subordinate only to him and Himmler granted the request; the ''SS-Wachverband'' (Guard Unit) was formed. Promoted on 30 January 1934 to SS-''Brigadeführer'' (equivalent to Major-general in the army), Eicke as commander of Dachau began new reforms. He reorganized the SS camp, establishing new guarding provisions, which included blind obedience to orders, and tightening disciplinary and punishment regulations for detainees, which were adopted by all concentration camps of Nazi Germany on 1 January 1934. Following the Night of the Long Knives, Eicke, who had played a role in the affair, was again promoted to the rank of SS-''Gruppenführer'' and officially appointed ''Inspector of Concentration Camps'' and Commander of SS guard formations. Thereafter, the remaining SA-run camps were taken over by the SS. In his role as the Concentration Camps Inspector, Eicke began a large reorganisation of the camps in 1935. The smaller camps were dismantled. Dachau concentration camp remained, then personnel from Dachau went on to work at Sachsenhausen and Oranienburg, where Eicke established his central office. In 1935 Dachau became the training center for the concentration camps service. Many of the early recruits came from the ranks of the SA and ''Allgemeine SS''. Senior roles were filled by personnel from the German police service. On 29 March 1936, concentration camp guards and administration units were officially designated as the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV). In the summer of 1937, Buchenwald became operational, followed by Ravensbrück (near Lichtenburg) in May 1939. There were other new camps in Austria, such as Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp which opened in 1938. All SS camps' regulations, both for guards and prisoners, followed the Dachau camp model. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS-Totenkopfverbände」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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