The SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV)
— the Death's Head Formations — were made
up of Nazi
Germany's concentration
camp guards. During World
War II the SS-TV also provided troops for the first
combat unit of the Waffen-SS,
the Totenkopf Division, which eventually evolved into
one of Nazi Germany's most formidable combat formations.
The SS-TV was established by Standartenführer Theodor Eicke to provide the personnel for the manning of the concentration
camps, such as Dachau (where the first unit was established), Sachsenhausen
and Oranienburg, the town north of Berlin where the Eicke's office had been established.
Following the Night
of the Long Knives, a purge ordered
by Adolf
Hitler of potential political rivals
in the Sturmabteilung, or S.A. in June 1934,
Eicke, who had played a major role in
that affair, was appointed the Inspector
of Concentration Camps and Commander
of SS guard
formations (Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager
und Führer
der SS Wachverbände); he was also promoted
to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer. On
March 29, 1936,
the Reichsführer SS officially designated
these units as the SS-Totenkopfverbände.
The term Totenkopf, or “Death's Head,” remained until the dissolution of the SS in 1945, although the nature of the organization
had changed dramatically before and during
the war.
