Three Phases in the History of the Waffen-SS

The organisational and military history of the Waffen-SS is short, frantic and violent beyond comprehension. It began in the early 1920s and ended abruptly in 1945 with the fall of the Third Reich. Despite its brevity in time, the development of the Waffen-SS was also characterised by a mixture of organic development and considerable fragmentation caused by events and ad hoc decisions. This history can nevertheless be viewed as a number of phases which will each be treated separately in the three following chapters. The first of these, Chapter 2, covers the period beginning with the foundational pre-war development of the SS and the first war-years in 1939 and 1940, where the Waffen-SS formations were still relatively insignificant and few in numbers. During these years, the foundations were laid for the military branch of the SS, and the political and judicial footing of the SS organisation was established. This period in the history of the Waffen-SS is delineated by, on the one hand, the organisational and ideological establishment of Nazism and the SS, and, on the other, two limited employments of active service for the newly established, armed SS formations.

Chapter 3 will treat the second phase in the organisational and military history of the Waffen-SS which stretches from 1941 to 1943 and begins in earnest with the German onslaught against the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. The campaign in the east had the short-term consequence that Himmler's sphere of authority increased considerably, and the power, influence and size of the SS and Waffen-SS grew in tandem. The prolonged war against the Soviet Union eroded Hitler's faith in the steadfastness of his army commanders and conversely made the Waffen-SS look like the model Nazi soldiers of the future. However, it was also during the war against the Soviet Union that the military SS drastically changed its ethnic composition and began to field more, and more insufficiently trained, officers and men. Finally, the invasion marked a new nadir of German behaviour in the occupied territories and it contributed to radicalising Nazi treatment of prisoners-of-war and civilians even further. Now, the war of extermination entered its decisive phase moving quickly towards the Nazis’ attempt at total physical annihilation of Europe's Jews. Although the war dragged on, it did not necessarily appear lost.