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A SOCIOGRAPHY of the SS OFFICER CORPS, -1925-1939 by Gunnar Charles Boehnert Submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy Scho

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A SOCIOGRAPHY of the SS OFFICER CORPS, -1925-1939 by Gunnar Charles Boehnert Submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy Scho '0 -1 ?" A SOCIOGRAPHYOF THE SS OFFICER CORPS, -1925-1939 by Gunnar Charles Boehnert Submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy School of Slavonic and East European Studies University of London I / R6SUME A SOCIOGRAPHYOF THE SS OFFICER CORPS, 1925-1939 Gunnar C. Boehnert This quantitative study of the SS Officer Corps was designed to discover who in German society joined the SS between its inception in 1925 and the outbreak of the war in 1939. The study is based on data contained in 5250 SS officer personnel files which were selected from 61,340 personnel files housed at the Berlin Document Center. The selection criteria used were, (1) the officer had to have reached commissioned rank prior to 1 September 1939, and (2) the personnel file had to supply an answer to all the questions deemed important by the investigator. The selection of cases can be called random since there was no indication that certain files were incomplete because of any systematic bias, i. e., interference by the SS Personalhauptamt. In order to determine who joined the SS at specific stages of its pre-war history, the fourteen year time span under investigation was divided into six time periods determined by a date important to either the NSDAPor the SS. The four major branches of the SS - the Allgemeine SS or general SS, the Totenkopfverb9nde or deaths head units, the Sicherheitsdienst or security service, and the Verfogungstruppe or the armed SS - were looked at separately. This division further allowed for an analysis of the composition of the various branches of the Black Order over the time periods of interest. The information gathered on each officer, i. e., date of joining, highest rank achieved, date of birth, place of birth, education, occupation, other organizational affiliations, religious background, marital status and number of children was coded and transferred to computer cards. (The material is presently available on magnetic tape). The information was analyzed on the IBM computer at the University of Guelph using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) subprogram Crosstabs. The results show that there was a tendency for those with little education to have joined the SS in its early stages. While the lower Mittelstand in the sampled FUhrerkorps was overrepresented prior to Hitler's seizure of power on 30 January 1933, it was the educated segment of society that flocked to the elite formation of the Third Reich after that date. As might be expected, the median age of the incoming officers after January 1933 also increased. While the proportion of officers born north of the Main River roughly equalled that of the general population, there was a marked tendency for southern rural-born men to dominate the Fbhrerkorps prior to September 1930. A levelling process then took place with norther-born officers dominating the FUhrer after January 1933. As far as the family life of the officers was concerned, the quantitative analysis showed that Himmler had little influence over his officers. About 80% of the sampled officers did not meet the guidelines set by Himmler of four children per family. Also only about 20% of the officers' wives were party members. Differences were also found in the officers who served in the various branches of the SS. Thus the FOhrerkorps of the general SS and the security service had the highest percentage of university graduates, while the armed SS had the largest percentage of officers who gave the Abitur as their highest educational achievement. The deaths head units had the highest percentage of elementary school educated officers. This study shows that the SS attracted different men at different times and that the social composition of the officer corps varied from branch to branch. While the lower educated joined the SS during the early days of the Kampfzeit, it was the educated and established segment of German society that rushed to join the 61ite formation of National Socialism after Hitler assumed power. PREFACE A few years ago when I was employed as a military historian at the RCAF Staff College, I was involved in the teaching of a course entitled "The Officer in Society. " It was after lectures that dealt with the traditional role of the officer in German society and the changes that occurred during the Nazi era that a number of questions were raised about the character and role of the officers of Hitler's &lite formation, the SS. Who were the men who became officers in such a notorious organization? Did they have special characteristics, or were they simply individuals who would do anything to get ahead? Were they social misfits? Were there any systematic differences between the officers who led crack panzer units and those who selected people for the gas chambers? Who were the men who methodically planned the murder of thousands of men, women, and children in the eastern territories? At that time, I was unable to give satisfactory answers to these questions. This study is an attempt to supply answers to questions such as those posed above. Who in German society volunteered for service in an organization of which even Himmler said, Ich weiss, dass es manche Leute in Deutschland gibt, denen es schlecht wird wenn sie diesen schwarzen Rock sehen, wir haben Verständnis dafür und ýrwarten nicht, dass wir von allzu vielen geliebt werden. Forty years have gone by since Heinrich Himmler uttered these words, and 1 Heinrich Himmler, Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistisc Kampforganization, Zentralv des NSDAP. Z-München1936), p. 29. i thirty-two years have passed since Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. With his death came also the ignoble end of his creation, the Reich that was to last a thousand years. While the Nazi regime could be brought to an end by the conquest of arms, many of its effects can be felt to this day. Hundreds of small children abducted in the conquered territories in the mad scheme to salvage all members of'pure blood, I were never returned to their homes. Their parents will never forget the terror of the Black Order in their homelands. In Germany, too, the son of a former concentration camp commandant is haunted by the past. Even today he tries to discover what made his father do the things of which he is accused. Yet not all people are haunted by the Nazi past. The high ranking SS officer who in 1942 advised Himmler that to kill Jews from a political motif was not punishable, is to this day a practising lawyer in Stuttgart. The professor of anthropology who lectured SS officers on the subject of race and heredity only recently retired from the University of Tbbingen. I It took the courts of the German Federal Republic twelve years to bring to justice the former chief of the security police in Warsaw. The senior officer who could claim to have "cleansed" Holland of 71% of its Jewish population remained employed for years as a senior civil servant in the Bavarian state government, even though the authorities knew of his past. This study is not intended to serve as a roster of those SS men who are still active and contributing members of society. Whenever the names of former SS officers are mentioned, it is not to embarrass them or their families, but tohelp complete the picture of those Germans, prominent or unknown, who were attracted to the SS. It is my hope that this study ii will provide some valuable sociographic data on the pre-World War II members of the elite formation of the Third Reich whose aim it was to provide the "FUhrungsschicht fUr ganz Europa"l in the post-war, Nazi- dominated, era. This study is submitted to the University of London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. To Professor F. L. Carsten, under whose guidance this study was written, I would like to express my thanks for his encouragement and helpful comments. I should also like to thank the Central Research Fund of the University of London. This study was made possible by the generous grants given to me by the funding committee. It goes without saying that I am indebted to a number of people for the completion of this study. I would like to express my thanks to the late Richard Bauer, of the National Archives and deputy director of the Berlin Document Center, for making it possible for me to have complete access to the holdings of the Center. Regretably, Richard Bauer passed away before he could see the completed version of this study in which he took such an interest. I should also like to thank Herrn Pix, Herrn Kronenberg, Herrn Weber and Frau Teetz, who, over the years, eased the burden of research at the Document Center, whenever possible. I am also indebted to Professor Michael Kater of York University, Toronto, Canada, who in the early stages of the study not only aided me in the setting up of a classification system, but also pointed out the 1 Himmler's address to senior SS officers, 4 October 1943. Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg 1948), vol. xxxix, Document 1919-PS, p. 171 (Henceforth listed as IMT). iii many pitfalls associated with quantitative research. To Dr. Simon Wiesenthal of the Dokumentationszentrum in Vienna, I owe my thanks for his generously taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my many questions, and in supplying me with many documents dealing with the post- 1945 fate of a number of SS officers. To my friend and colleague, Dr. John Neill, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, a special word of thanks for undertaking the difficult task of introducing a historian to the world of the computer.
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