Schutzstaffel, abbreviated as SS, literally means "protective guard." The roots of the SS go back to 1923, when Hitler designated fifty men to serve as his personal bodyguards. After Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in January 1933, the tasks of the SS expanded, eventually resulting in the SS serving as instruments of murder, terror, repression, and intimidation under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, who held the office of Reichsführer-SS (Reich leader of the SS) through 1945.

After Hitler's failed attempt to overthrow the government of Weimar Germany in November 1923, the Nazi Party and all its organizations were temporarily declared illegal. When the Nazi Party was allowed to participate again in the political life of Germany in 1925, Hitler created the SS, a small force of some two hundred men, to provide protection for himself and other Party members.

In 1929, Hitler appointed the former Bavarian...