The SS Were the Reincarnation of Teutonic Order

The Holocaust was such a monstrous (in many aspects) project that its implementation could have been done only by a genuinely monstrous (ditto) organization. Organization that would have viewed this serial mass murder as a genuine crusade – a quasi-religious existential war. The Holy War.

Unfortunately for the Jews in territories under German control, such an organization existed. It was the SS. Schutzstaffel. The Protection Squads – guardians of NSDAP (initially) and of the whole F;hrerstaat (ultimately).

However, the SS were much, much more than that. Essentially, the SS were the XX-century secular (on some aspects, neo-pagan) reincarnation of Teutonic Order – a Catholic (both Himmler and Hitler were Roman Catholics) military-religious order of knights (the SS even had the same colors – black and white).

The parallels (and thus the reincarnation) were obvious. Teutonic Knights were formed to protect the Catholic Church in the Holy Land and the Outremer (the Crusader States there).

Teutonic Order was the key military force in so-called Northern Crusades (Baltic Crusades) were Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.

Those crusades had two primary objectives: (1) to obtain the “living space” for the Germans in the East – these were very much colonial wars and the Teutonic Order was a German military order; and (2) establish the Catholic rule over those territories. By any and all means necessary. Including genocide – the whole nation (meaning people) of Old Prussians – or simply Prussians – ceased to exist.

Teutonic Order was unique among catholic military-religious orders because it had its own state – Ordensstaat. The State of the Teutonic Order was a theocratic state located along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.

It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order in 1237 and existed for more than three hundred years. Its spiritual capital was Rome (obviously) and its administrative capital was initially Marienburg (currently in Poland) and then K;nigsberg (currently in Russia).

The SS was initially formed to protect NSDAP and its F;hrer Adolf Hitler and ultimately became the security/protection service for all F;hrerstaat – including political, criminal and order police, domestic and foreign intelligence and even its own armed forces – Waffen-SS (ultimately more than million-strong).

However, the SS was much, much more than that – it was for all practical purposed “a state within a state” which controlled a substantial chunk of German economy… and had two capitals. Administrative – in Berlin; and spiritual – in Wewelsburg.

Like the Teutonic Order hundreds of years earlier, the SS viewed itself as the primary force for “pacifying” the Lebensraum for Germans in the East (in Poland) and for establishing and protecting the National-Socialist rule there. By any and all means necessary. Including genocide – the whole Jewish nation was to be exterminated (the non-Jewish locals were a different story entirely).

Hence, there is no surprise at all that the SS became the primary agency that implemented the murderous “Holocaust project”. RSHA (part of the SS) and its boss Reinhard Heydrich were officially put in charge of finding and implementing the “final solution to the Jewish question”.

Einsatzgruppen and Order Police battalions implemented the “Holocaust by Bullets” (the latter assisted in the “Holocaust by Gas” as well). WVHA built and operated death factories (killing centers). RuSHA – SS Race and Settlement Main Office – was heavily involved in ethnic cleansing of occupied territories (there was even a special “RuSHA trial” after the war).

Many officials outside of the SS structure who provided assistance to the “Holocaust Project” were members of the SS. Head of the Foreign Office Joachim von Ribbentrop was SS-Obergruppenf;hrer – full SS general. Nine out of 15 attendees of Wannsee Conference were SS officers or generals.

Officially, the SS was founded on November 1925 (the second anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch). Ironically, it barely survived the first two years of its existence. Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered to be a small battalion of the SA.

Except in the Munich area, the SS was unable to maintain any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SA continued its rapid growth. To put it simply, no one was interested in that murky outfit.

Things radically changed for the better when Heinrich Himmler became deputy SS-Reichsfuhrer in September 1927. He came up with a plan (developed most likely by former members of Thule Society as Himmler showed no capability of the kind required for such a feat) to transform the SS into a “Black Order” in NSDAP.

Hitler approved – and Himmler assumed the position of Reichsf;hrer-SS in January 1929. His ultimate aim was to turn the SS into the most powerful organization in Germany – in which he succeeded. Rumors were that he wanted to transform Germany into SS-Staat (getting rid of Hitler in the process). Unsuccessfully.