RSHA

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RSHA

The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Head Office, also Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS

Schutzstaffel

The , abbreviated SS- or - was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force that served as the F?hrer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force that, fielding almost a million men, managed to exert as much political influence as th...
. The RSHA was created by Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a Nazi Germany German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel. He was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, competing with Hermann G?ring, Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels....
on September 22 1939 through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst

The Sicherheitsdienst was primarily the intelligence service of the Schutzstaffel and the NSDAP. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily after 1934....
(SD, or Security Agency), the Geheime Staatspolizei
Gestapo

The was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel , it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei ....
(Gestapo, Secret State Police), and the Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei

is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland....
(Criminal Police). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" within and outside the borders of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
.

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Encyclopedia

The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Head Office, also Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS

Schutzstaffel

Heinrich Himmler

Nazi Germany

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, Romani people and other "racially undesirables" as well as Communists

Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
and other secret organization members such as Freemasons

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal and service organizations that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around 5 million ....
; thus the RSHA coordinated activities among a number of different agencies with wide-ranging responsibilities.

The first director of the RSHA was SS-Obergruppenführer

Obergruppenführer

Obergruppenf?hrer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a Ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsf?hrer-SS ....
Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was an Schutzstaffel-Obergruppenf?hrer und General der Polizei, chief of the RSHA and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia....
, who led the organization until his assassination

Operation Anthropoid

Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the assassination of top Nazi Germany leader Reinhard Heydrich. He was the chief of the RSHA , the acting Protector of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and a chief planner of the Final Solution, the Nazi Germany programme for the genocide of the Jews of Europe....
on June 4, 1942. SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Ernst Kaltenbrunner was a senior Germany official during World War II, holding the offices of Chief of the RSHA, and President of Interpol. He was the highest-ranking Schutzstaffel leader to face trial, having the full rank of Obergruppenf?hrer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS....
replaced him for the remainder of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. The director of the RSHA oversaw the Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen were paramilitary groups formed by Heinrich Himmler and operated by the Schutzstaffel before and during World War II. Their principal task, per SS General Erich von dem Bach, at the Nuremberg Trials: "was the annihilation of the Jews, Roma people, and Soviet Union political commissars"....
death squad

Death squad

A death squad is an armed squad that kills civilians, terrorists or guerillas. These groups tend to commit extrajudicial punishment assassinations / extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances of persons....
s that followed the invasion forces of the German army

Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
into the eastern territories.

The actual RSHA acronym for its director was 'CSSD': Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service).

Organization

Gerald Reitlinger writes that it 'became a typical overblown bureaucracy. . . The complexity of RSHA was unequalled. . . with at least a hundred sub-sub sections', and quotes an Lt-Colonel who called it a 'maze of offices'

The organization was divided into seven offices (or Ämter)http://www.wsg-hist.uni-linz.ac.at/Auschwitz/HTML/RSHA.html:

Amt I, Personnel and Organization, headed by SS-Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer

Brigadef?hrer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadef?hrer was also an SA rank.The rank was first created due to an expansion of the Schutzstaffel and assigned to those officers in command of SS-Brigaden....
Bruno Streckenbach
Bruno Streckenbach

Bruno Streckenbach held the rank of SS-Brigadef?hrer, when was the head of the RSHA's Amt I: Personnel, but eventually achieved rank of SS-Gruppenf?hrer both in Allgemeine-SS and Waffen SS....

Amt II, Administration, Law, and Finance, headed by SS-Standartenführer
Standartenführer

Standartenf?hrer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in both the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 the rank became one of the first commissioned Nazi ranks and was bestowed upon those S.A....
Dr. Hans Nockemann.

Amt III, Inland-SD, headed by SS-Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer

Gruppenf?hrer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior Ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung....
Otto Ohlendorf
Otto Ohlendorf

Otto Ohlendorf was a German Schutzstaffel-Gruppenf?hrer and head of the interior division of the Sicherheitsdienst. He was convicted of and executed for war crimes committed during WWII....
, which dealt with ethnic Germans
Volksdeutsche

Volksdeutsche is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to describe ethnic Germans living outside of the Reich. This is in contrast to Imperial Germans , German citizens living within Germany....
outside of Germany's prewar borders, and matters of culture.

Amt IV, Geheime Staatspolizei
Gestapo

The was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel , it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei ....
(Gestapo), headed by SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller. SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann

Karl Adolf Eichmann , sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust", was a Nazism and Schutzstaffel-Obersturmbannf?hrer . Due to his organizational talents and ideological reliability, he was charged by Obergruppenf?hrer Reinhard Heydrich with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of J...
, one of the main architects of the Holocaust
The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as , Churben is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler....
, was head of the Amt IV section called Referat IV B4.

Amt V, Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei

is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland....
(Kripo), under SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe
Arthur Nebe

Arthur Nebe was a Gruppenf?hrer in the Schutzstaffel . Other positions included Berlin Police Commissioner in the 1920s, an early member of both the Sturmabteilung and President of Interpol ....
. This was the Criminal Police, which dealt with non-political serious crimes, such as rape, murder, and arson.

Amt VI, Ausland-SD
Sicherheitsdienst

The Sicherheitsdienst was primarily the intelligence service of the Schutzstaffel and the NSDAP. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily after 1934....
, led first by SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Jost, and later by SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg
Walter Schellenberg

Walter Friedrich Schellenberg was a Germans Nazism who rose through the SS to become, following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944, head of foreign intelligence....
. This was the foreign intelligence service of the SS.

Amt VII, Written Records, overseen by SS-Brigadeführer Professor Dr. Franz Six
Franz Six

Dr. Franz Alfred Six was a Nazism official who was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich to direct state police operations in Nazi Germany-occupied Great Britain....
. This was responsible for "ideological" tasks, the creation of anti-semitic and anti-masonic propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
.

Amt IV, the Gestapo, and Amt V, the Kripo, together constituted the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei — Sipo). It was the Sipo that did most of the work in rounding up Jews, Romani People and other people deemed to be enemies of the Reich and deporting them to the concentration and extermination camps in German Occupied Poland and Ukraine.

The RSHA also supplied security forces on an "as needed" basis to local SS and Police Leader

SS and Police Leader

SS and Police Leader was a title for senior National Socialist German Workers Party officials that commanded large units of the Schutzstaffel during and prior to World War II....
s.

RSHA

Organization

Further reading

External links