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SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; lit. ' Death's Head Units ' [ 2 ] ) was a major branch of the Nazi Party 's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. It was responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany , among similar duties. [ 3 ]
The Schutzstaffel (German: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ⓘ; lit. ' Protection Squadron '; SS; also stylised with Armanen runes as ᛋᛋ) was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.
By the late 1400s, the choice of spelling between sz and ss was usually based on the sound's position in the word rather than etymology: sz ( ſz ) tended to be used in word final position: uſz (Middle High German: ûz, German: aus), -nüſz (Middle High German: -nüss(e), German: -nis); ss ( ſſ ) tended to be used when the sound occurred ...
Based on the seniority system of SS membership numbers, this made Hitler senior in the SS to all other members. The SS membership number system was also a means to denote the "old guard" of the SS, and to hold a number below 50,000 was considered a special place of honor since it denoted SS membership before the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
Symbol Name Meaning Comments Wolfsangel: Liberty and independence The Wolfsangel ('wolf hook') was used as a heraldic symbol alluding to a wolf trap, and is still found on the municipal arms of a number of German towns and cities. It was adopted by a fifteenth-century peasants' uprising, thus acquiring an association with liberty and independence.
Meine Ehre heißt Treue was frequently inscribed on SS objects, including honorary daggers and belt buckles of the Allgemeine SS.Many Germanic SS units (non-German SS units in German-occupied Europe) adopted a translation of the motto in their own languages, such as Mijn Eer Heet Trouw/Mijn Eer is mijn Trouw in Dutch, Min Ære er Troskap in Norwegian, and Troskab vor Ære in Danish.
Totenkopf (German: [ˈtoːtn̩ˌkɔpf], i.e. skull, literally "dead person's head") is the German word for skull. The word is often used to denote a figurative, graphic or sculptural symbol, common in Western culture, consisting of the representation of a human skull – usually frontal, more rarely in profile with or without the mandible.
SS-Panzerdivision "Totenkopf") [1] was an elite division of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, formed from the Standarten of the SS-TV. Its name, Totenkopf, is German for "death's head" – the skull and crossbones symbol – and it is thus sometimes referred to as the Death's Head Division. [2]