The officers produced by this system were far from being simple-minded robots. Instead, they formed a corps of “true believers” who were effective leaders because, in addition to convictions about their own superiority to other men, they felt a common racial bond with their troops and were imbued with a medieval sense of noblesse oblige toward them. Furthermore, since most of these officers had virtually surrendered their sense of personal identity to Hitler and the SS, they were rarely troubled by any of the personal doubts which can divert men from putting total energy into their work.4
Members were eased out if they could not achieve the required discipline and fanatical zeal.
There were many reasons why members of the SS felt special and superior. First, they were selected for being racially “pure” and superior in appearance. Officer candidates in the 1930s had to prove an “Aryan” ancestry dating back to the 1750s. Second, many members were aristocrats or had advanced degrees, including doctorates; both titles of nobility and educational credentials were highly valued in Germany. Although most SS members had only a high school diploma – a more respectable degree in Germany than in the United States – they could feel that they were in select company. At the same time, the SS had a democratic quality. At least through the mid-1930s men without privileged family background could advance more easily in the SS than in the army.
There were other sources of prestige, honor, and power. The SS was Hitler’s private army and Hitler gave it unlimited support and privileges. Late in 1936 it was placed beyond conventional law. The SS were permitted any actions authorized by Hitler or his policies. Internal disputes and conflicts were resolved by its own courts of honor. A propaganda campaign presented the SS to the German people as the elite of Nazi institutions. Distinguished Germans were offered honorary command ranks and the right to wear the SS uniform.
Thus SS members saw themselves as an elite, with common values, common practices, a shared mystique, a sense of camaraderie, and devotion to their organization, ideology, and cause. After a detailed study, Tom Segev concluded that “joining the SS was to become part of an elite, an aristocracy, a religious order, a secret society, a gang, an army and a family all at the same time.... At times the SS was something of a mentality, a way of life.”5 An SS veteran who served as a concentration camp commander described the comradeship this way: “We were Germany’s best and hardest. Every single one of us dedicated himself to the others. What held us together was an alliance of comradeship. Not even the bond of marriage can be stronger. Comradeship is everything. It gave us the mental and physical strength to do what others were too weak to do.”6 Part of the SS identity involved pride in being able to do especially difficult, but necessary, important deeds – including murder on a large scale.
In place of earlier deprivation, uncertainty, weakness, and threat, membership offered many satisfactions and a strong identity. The SS was a total institution, the center of the lives of its members. Under such circumstances it was extraordinarily difficult to deviate from SS standards of conduct. The more a person’s life is centered in a group, the more a person derives identity, self-concept and self-esteem, rewards and satisfactions, conceptions of the right way of life, and ideals from membership, the more difficult it is to deviate and to defy the group. Men who joined the SS after Hitler came to power were shaped not only by personal characteristics (self-selection) and the “socializing” and guiding influence of the organization, but also by a strong need to prove themselves to earlier members who suspected them of opportunism.
At the same time, both the growth and functioning of the SS were complex. For example, there was financial corruption. In principle, all Jewish property belonged to the Reich. In reality, the SS members appropriated some possessions of Jews and others they rounded up. They were also open to bribery. Such practices, common among superiors such as Goering, many have been simply part of the system. Other groups of mass murderers, for example, military units involved in the disappearances in Argentina, were also allowed to “reward” themselves with the property of victims. Bribery in a system where all roads eventually lead to extermination, where it did not matter whether these or those Jews were taken to fill a cattle car going to an extermination camp, need not conflict with the basic policy. Personal enrichment may have been a legitimate reward. In fact, although Himmler issued an order against taking property without authorization, much of what the SS men took for themselves was “authorized” distribution of goods.7
Characteristics of SS members
The nature of the tasks the SS performed was a basis of self-selection. Initially created as Hitler’s bodyguards, their job was to fight political opponents. They progressively took on the jobs of rounding up people, transporting them to concentration camps, murdering opponents or former comrades, police work, torture, and the administration of concentration camps. Even before the war they enforced boycotts of Jewish stores, destroyed Jewish property, burned buildings, and killed Jews. Some of these duties had to be known to those who volunteered. They had to be willing to do these things. Many probably had a taste for them. In addition to their anti-Semitism and ideology, many apparently enjoyed the violence. Early members especially were probably devoted to Hitler or to the National Socialist ideology; after all, they joined a powerless leader. Those who joined early were usually young. The SS offered them the opportunity to fulfill interests and inclinations for which
