Reinhard Heydrich - the first director of RSHA

The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939, through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" within and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. Included within the rubric of "enemies" were communists, freemasons, Jews, Gypsies and other "racially undesirables"; thus the RSHA coordinated activities among a number of different agencies with wideranging responsibilities. Image File history File linksMetadata Reinhard_Heydrich-NARA.jpg‎ File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Reinhard Heydrich RSHA Operation Anthropoid Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/May 27 Portal:Germany/Anniversaries/June Portal:Germany/Anniversaries/June/June 4 Holocaust... Image File history File linksMetadata Reinhard_Heydrich-NARA.jpg‎ File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Reinhard Heydrich RSHA Operation Anthropoid Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/May 27 Portal:Germany/Anniversaries/June Portal:Germany/Anniversaries/June/June 4 Holocaust... The double-Sig Rune SS insignia. ...   (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... September 22 is the 265th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (266th in leap years). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... Sicherheitsdienst (SD) sleeve insignia. ... The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... Kriminalpolizei is the usual designation of the criminal investigation services in the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... Tzigane redirects here; for the composition by Maurice Ravel, see Tzigane (Ravel). ...

The first director of the RSHA was SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, who led the organization until his assassination on June 4, 1942. SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner replaced him for the remainder of World War II. The director of the RSHA oversaw the Einsatzgruppen death squads that followed the invasion forces of the German army into the eastern territories. SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski SS-Obergruppenführer patch SA-Obergruppenführer insignia Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as Senior Group Leader, the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by... Reinhard Heydrich as SS-Gruppenführer. ... Reinhard Heydrich, the target of Operation Anthropoid. ... June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski SS-Obergruppenführer patch SA-Obergruppenführer insignia Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as Senior Group Leader, the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by... SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (October 4, 1903 – October 16, 1946) was a senior Nazi official during World War II. // Born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, he was the son of a lawyer. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Image:Wehrmacht 20 April 1939 Birthday Parade. ...

Ernst Kaltenbrunner - the second and last director of RSHA

Ernst Kaltenbrunner File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Ernst Kaltenbrunner File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Organization

The organization was divided into seven offices (or Ämter):

• Amt I, Personnel and Organization, headed by SS-Brigadeführer Bruno Streckenbach

• Amt II, Administration, Law, and Finance, headed by SS-Standartenführer Dr. Hans Nockemann.

• Amt III, Inland-SD, headed by Otto Ohlendorf, which dealt with ethnic Germans outside of Germany's prewar borders, and matters of culture.

• Amt IV, Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo), headed by Heinrich Müller. Adolf Eichmann, one of the main executioners of the Holocaust, was head of the Amt IV section called Referat IV B4.

• Amt V, Kriminalpolizei, under SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe. This was the "Criminal Police", which dealt with non-political serious crimes, such as rape, murder, and arson.

• Amt VI, Ausland-SD, led first by Heinz Jost, and later by Walter Schellenberg. This was the foreign intelligence service of the SS.

• Amt VII, Written Records, overseen by Professor Franz Six. This was responsible for "ideological" tasks, by which was meant the creation of anti-semitic and anti-masonic propaganda.

The RSHA also supplied security forces on an "as neededddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd" basis to local SS and Police Leaders. Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. ... Bruno Streckenbach (February 7, 1902 – October 28, 1977) holding the rank of SS-Brigadeführer, was head of the RSHAs Amt I: Personnel. ... SS-Standartenführer insignia Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in both the SA and the SS. First created as a title in 1925, in 1928 the rank became one of the first commissioned Nazi ranks and was bestowed upon those SA and SS officers... Sicherheitsdienst (SD) sleeve insignia. ... Otto Ohlendorf Otto Ohlendorf (February 4, 1907 - June 8, 1951) was an SS-Gruppenführer and head of the interior division of the SD. Nazi Official Born in Hoheeggelsen bei Hildersheim near Hannover the son of a farm owner, he joined the Nazi party in 1925 (member #6631) followed by... Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) is a historical term which arose in the early 20th century to apply for Germans living outside of the German Empire. ... The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... Heinrich Müller Heinrich Müller (born 28 April 1900; date of death unknown), German police official, was head of the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Germany, and played a leading role in the planning and execution of the Holocaust. ... Adolf Eichmann in Germany in 1940 Otto Adolf Eichmann (known as Adolf Eichmann; March 19, 1906 – May 31, 1962) was a high-ranking Nazi and SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel). ... This article is becoming very long. ... Kriminalpolizei is the usual designation of the criminal investigation services in the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. ... SS-Gruppenführer collar patch SA-Gruppenführer rank insignia Volkssturm Gruppenführer insignia Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Translated as “Group Leader”, a Gruppenführer was typically in charge of large numbers... SS-Gruppenführer Artur Nebe (1894–21 March 1945) was Berlin Police Commissioner in the 1920s and an early member of both the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schutzstaffel (SS). ... Sicherheitsdienst (SD) sleeve insignia. ... Correctly: Walther Schellenberg, full name Walther Friedrich Schellenberg (January 16, 1910 - March 31, 1952) was a German Nazi and second-in-command of the Gestapo. ... SS-Brigadeführer Franz Six Dr. Franz Alfred Six (August 12, 1909 in Mannheim - July 9, 1975 in Bozen-Bolzano) first rose to prominence as dean of the faculty of Economics of the University of Berlin. ... Higher SS and Police Leaders were senior Nazi Party officials that commanded large units of the SS during and prior to the Second World War. ...

External link

• Wiesenthal Centre - Reichssicherheitshauptamt

Further reading

• Michael WILDT Generation of the Unbound Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2002 (Engl., in Orig. German, Hamburg: 2002)

The organizations of the Schutzstaffel ( ) view • talk • edit
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Special services
Concentration camp guards | Death squads | Hitler's bodyguards | Intelligence service (SD) | Ahnenerbe
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SS publications
Das Schwarze Korps
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Holdings: Ostindustrie | Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe Weapons: Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke Art: Allach porcelain Drinking water: Apollinaris | Mattoni | Sudetenquell