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The ideology of the Schutzstaffel ("Protection Squadron"; SS), a paramilitary force and an instrument of terror of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, emphasized a racist vision of "racial purity", primarily based on antisemitism and loyalty to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
The SS ideology included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political issues. The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party.
Nazism’s ideology was shaped by Hitler’s beliefs in German racial superiority and the dangers of communism. It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stressing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of strict obedience to leaders.
The SS as Ideological Executive Force. When the Nazis seized power in January 1933, members of the SS numbered more than 52,000. As a reward for its role in murdering Ernst Röhm and the top leadership of the SA on June 30-July 2, 1934, Hitler announced that the SS was an independent organization.
Members of the SS were chosen based on their ‘racial purity’, blind obedience and fanatical loyalty to Hitler. The SS saw themselves as the ultimate defenders of the ‘Aryan’ race and Nazi ideology.
In what ways did the SS coordinate the activities of German and foreign police agencies to promote the systematic persecution and mass murder of Europe's Jews? What non-SS institutions were critical to SS success in the murder of millions? Across Europe, the Nazis found countless willing helpers who collaborated or were complicit in their crimes.
A core element of the Nazi Party ideology was anti-Semitism, and Hitler used this period of consolidation to mobilize the power of the Nazi police state against Germany’s Jewish citizens. Jews were deprived of virtually all legal rights under the Nürnberg Laws of September 15, 1935, and prewar state-sponsored persecution of Jews reached its ...
