R & A No. 3113.7 / Principal Nazi Organizations Involved in the ...

The SS (Schutzstaffeln)
lo Definition
Among the Ilasi organizations charged with the ac^uaL commission
of atrocitJ.es, the SS ranks supreme«, In officii, statements,
including; the Declaration of Potudam, and in individual reports
on Nazi crimes, reforonce is mad«, alternatively or collectively
to the SS, SD, and Gestapo as the perpetrators of various atroc­
ities. The differentiation in most cases appears to be arbitrary
and based on the assumption that, in speaking of RS-, SD, and
Gestapo, one is confronted with three different agencies which,
although similar in oypa of activity, are each independent and
self-sufficient from s.n organisational point of view»
Actually both SD and Gestapo were organizations which functioned
under the command of the ßai£ii;^teox_^S-_(Reich leader of the SS),
A.
Heinrich Hlmaler., who» simultaneously, waspief der Deutschen
Polizei (Chief of the German Folic©)» They were simply org&iized
in separate offices, .lamely III, IV, and VI, of the Reichs sicher-»
heltshauptgat (Reich Security ,.&in Office)* The He Ichs si eher«
heltahauptarat, in euro, was a so-called Hauptamt (Ilain-Office)
'within the Reichs :fuhrung SS (Sa])remo Command of the SS) end,
at the s.lne time, part of the ;':-nistry of the Interior, immedia­
tely subordinate to the Chef de:-- acherheitspollaei(Slpo)und des
•Sicherheitsdienstes(SD) (Chief of the Security Police and Security
Service), Ernst Kal t enbrunner, and ultimately subordinate to the
Reichsfuhrer SS und Chef der Peitschen Polizei (Reich Leader of
the SS and Chief of the German Police), Hokirich Himmler0
»