Chapter CXIII: Section 13 (2)

The fateful year 1932 brings a heavy blow to the Movement. On April 13 the SA and SS are prohibited within the entire regions of the Reich, even after the vote of unprecedented activity in the second election for Reich president on April 10, 1932, had been 13,400,000 for the National Socialists. They wanted to beat an organization by the most brutal means. The wearers of the brown shirt were treated like criminals. Everything attainable was confiscated. SA homes and SA kitchens which gave protection and meals to needy and jobless SA men were pitilessly closed. Nevertheless, with exemplary discipline the SA and SS carries on and does not allow themselves to be enticed into rashness. As simple party partners the SA men fulfill their duty now. Finally on June 14th the uniform and demonstration prohibition is raised. Communism and Marxism raise themselves and want to stop the victory parade with bloody force. Not less than 32 National Socialists among whom were SA and SS men and Hitler Youths, fall as sacrifices to the Red Terror in a short six weeks. The Bloody Sunday of Altona was a terrible indictment against the governmental system. Eighteen Folk comrades are killed and 50 badly hurt. Nevertheless, the SA remains disciplined and unshaken. It is not the least of its meritorious services that the Reichstag election of 31 July 1932 brings the NSDAP a huge victory and makes the Movement the strongest Party in the Reichstag. And in spite of all, the SA men are still unprotected game, having nothing for their protection but their own strength and the fidelity of their comrades. It is difficult to clothe in words what lies and slanders were poured out over the SA during this period; it is also difficult to tell with what incomparable discipline and devotion these men have fought. “Bullies and beaters” they were called by the satiated citizenry, and yet it was they who protected the security of the citizenry from Bolshevism. “There can be no thanks for anyone when considering this greatest success of our Movement, but there is only the duty of all of us to take up and continue the fight again with renewed and increased strength”--thus Adolf Hitler recalled to mind on the night of the victory of his Movement, and that was a command for the SA.

The time of the most difficult trials arrives. The SA knows it is for the ultimate. Victory, already within grasp, must be finally gained by fighting. Comrades fall but unswervingly the columns march. The Fuehrer told them: “Victory belongs to him who in this fight brings the last levy and the last battalion onto the battlefield.” And the SA was prepared to enter its last battalion.

On the 22nd of January 1933 the decision, morally, comes. At the Bulowplatz before the Karl-Liebknecht House in Berlin, the Moscow Center in Germany, the Berlin SA parades. Before this collected strength of the Party the hirelings of Moscow crept cowardly into their lurking holes. Hour after hour the SA men passed in review before the bulwark of Communism and none of the Moscow disciples dared to raise a fist. It was a victory for the SA, the significance of which could only be measured later.

Then the day dawns which meant victory and fulfillment of the struggle of the SA: the 30th of January 1933. No command was given on this day, and yet ten thousands of SA men and National Socialists stood ready in the evening, in their old tattered brown shirts in which they had marched through murder and terror, to greet the Fuehrer, their Highest SA-Fuehrer, as Chancellor of the German Reich. In these SA men the young Germany marched through the Brandenburg Gate into a Reich which they had fought for at the foremost front and which to form and to carry today is the highest commandment of their lives.

THE SA IN THE THIRD REICH

Just as there was no celebration of victory by Adolf Hitler and his fighting comrades after the seizure of power, so was there no moment of rest for the SA men. What was worth cleaning up, was cleaned up. Whether as auxiliary police or with special orders, whether as a propagandist or as helper, the SA man in general was there and labored silently as the shining example of the Idea in the structure of the new State. Even after victory the SA had heavy losses to lament. It was generally employed where elements of the government foreign to the people had not yet understood the signs of the time or where Communism and elements hostile to the State still insolently dared to rebel. And not the last the fight against disguised opponents was a difficult labor of the SA. But it is proud, then and now, to be the tool for strengthening the structure of the new State and of the Community of Folk.

For the first time, on April 8, 1933, the entire SA in the regions of the Reich and of Austria, stands drawn up at the same hour to avow their immutable fidelity and willingness to follow to the Fuehrer, who addressed his men over the radio from the Berlin Sports Palace. The young Steel Helmets and the Steel Helmets during the year 1933 placed themselves under the SA and became members of it. The SA during the year experiences several changes which finally result in the present form of the organization as will be described in the following chapter.

With the consolidation of inner political perceptions within Germany the type of strife of the SA changed. Just as the SA man during the fighting period was not a companion along the way to great decisions, but was the one who prepared the way, so the SA retained in the Third Reich its original task, namely: to be the Shock Troops for Ideology and as the practical school of National Socialism. The SA trained no specialists in any form for its area of labor was among the entire German Folk. To carry to the Folk, through things previously experienced and by acts, the revolutionary spirit of the fighting period, the initiative and willingness to sacrifice and to keep awake among them those virtues which are the fundamentals for the preparedness of National Socialists, is one of the huge tasks of the SA. “All that you are, you are through me; and all that I am, I am through you alone”. These words of the Fuehrer, spoken to his SA on the 30th of January 1936, are a recognition as well as an obligation. It is a short formula of the platform of the SA: Germany.

The deeds and achievements of the SA are not carried upon huge rosters but are every day undertakings which will continue to live in the hearts of the people. And that is more valuable than the written word.

Several things out of the manifold labor sphere of the SA should be named in collective concepts: use at times of catastrophe, prevention of damage, thanksgiving of the Nation, cultural work, colonization, educational encampments, officer training schools, scholarships and many more. Over all of this is the eternal charge: shaping of human beings. The guiding motif of this labor to educate the German people in this powerful entity: strong soul, sound spirit, steel-like body.

National Socialism has never demanded a new state form but has always demanded the reformation of the individual German into a fighter who has intelligence, who has conviction, who is politically dependable, who is spiritually motivated, and physically hardened. Thus it was only the consistent continuation of a labor already begun to win the individual German when the Fuehrer handed over to the SA the execution of protective and aggressive training and education of the individual German. SA sports and SA sports badges, the latter established by the Fuehrer himself on the 15th of February, 1933, “in order to lend a conscious expression in all sections of the German people to the cultivation of a warlike spirit”, are essentially the new shape of the physical and spiritual training of the individual German within the meaning of the National Socialist Ideology. Therewith, the SA was commissioned to obtain an increase of and preservation of a warlike power and a warlike spirit as the expression of an aggressive attitude. The creation of the NS Contest Games on November 27, 1936, as a yearly spectacle of accomplishments of physical prowess and of a warlike spirit, and the order of March 18, 1937, that possession of the SA sports badge is made dependent upon yearly repetitive performance of the tests in order to maintain the warlike fitness of its bearers up to old age, are milestones along the way to attainment of the great goal of the SA.

The SA is aware of the magnitude of its task. But it is able to master the tasks given by the Fuehrer only because it emanates from the Folk and is a part of the Folk.

II. ORGANIZATION

The Branches of the SA

The Fuehrer himself has designated the SA as the guarantor of the National Socialist Movement and the National Socialist Revolution. The SA is the political soldiery. In this concept “political soldiery”, which was coined and found its animated shape during the fighting period, are contained all these tasks of the SA whose affairs represent still today the educational work of the Storm Troops. Tasks of this proportion are only completed by voluntary performance of service; however, they require, too, an organization which branches out widely and yet guarantees as much as possible, by a concentration of individual supervisory offices and their work sphere, a central, clear and united management.

The Supreme SA Fuehrer is Adolf Hitler, who gives his oldest fighting formation its tasks, determines its direction of work, and commands its uses. By order of the Fuehrer the Chief of Staff represents the SA in its totality. A high measure of recognition and trust of the Fuehrer lies in this charge, for to the Chief of Staff of the SA is entrusted, for ideological and physical education and for further development, the best and most valuable young strength of the German people.

The Supreme SA Headquarters in Munich and the Office of the Adjutant in Berlin are both bureaus of the Chief of Staff; the SA Fuehrers who head these are directly responsible to the Chief of Staff for their work.

The Supreme SA Headquarters is subdivided into the operational staff, main offices, offices, and divisions. The Stabsfuehrer of the Supreme SA Headquarters determines its employment as representative of the Chief of Staff.

The Storm Troops of the Fuehrer himself, which exist in all the regions of the Reich and in the free city of Danzig, are divided according to political and territorial considerations.

The entire SA is composed of 24 groups which are subordinate to the Chief of Staff. These are: SA Group Alpenland, Bavarian Eastern March, Berlin-Brandenburg, Danube, Franken, Hanseatic, Hessian, Hochland, Kurpfalz, Middle, Lower Rhine, Lower Saxony, North March, North Sea, Eastland, Eastern March, Pomerania, Saxony, Silesia, Southern March, Southwest, Thuringia, Westfalia, and Western March.

The next subordinate branch is the SA Brigade, which is composed of several regiments. A regiment consists of three to five battalions, which is formed from three to five companies. The SA Company is organized generally into three platoons, each of which is further subdivided into three squads.

The multilateral demands which are made of the SA formations require, above all, in the use of the SA for preparations, parades, catastrophes, accidents and all other acts of assistance, the incorporation of special or technical units. Therefore, the following special branches were established: signal, engineer, mounted, naval, bicycle, and sanitary units. Local considerations and geographical situations determine their incorporation into companies and battalions and govern the consideration of subordinate positions.

THE OPERATIONAL STAFF OF THE SUPREME SA HEADQUARTERS

The Stabsfuehrer is the permanent deputy of the Chief of Staff. As such he is the highest authority for the collective main offices of the Supreme SA Headquarters and of the SA groups. All decisions of a basic nature for the SA, as long as they are not reserved for the Chief of Staff himself, are made by the Stabsfuehrer. Immediately subordinate to him are the liaison office of the Supreme SA Headquarters, the central division, the staff for military affairs, the press and propaganda division, the legal division, and the architectural division. The liaison office keeps in continuous touch with all important bureaus of the Party and State in order to handle all the questions which are of importance to the SA.

The treatment of occurrences of a fundamental sort, which require rapid settlement and touch on the spheres of the various main offices so that the closest cooperation with these main offices becomes a matter of course, is the function of the central division with its two main departments. The Staff commandant’s office bears the responsibility for the total, internal operational service of the Supreme SA Headquarters.

The entire press and propaganda preparations or exploitations of all important events within the SA emanate from the press and propaganda division to which is also joined publication of the fighting sheet of the Supreme SA Headquarters, the SA-Man. Following the directions given by this division, the group press departments, whose function is the trusteeship of the local press, work through the individual SA groups. The activity is above all of an informative nature; for the SA lays no value on the quantitative nature of the things written about it, but is only concerned with the fact that the German editor may be trusted with the character and task of the SA.

The legal division is still in process of being formed. On the other hand the architectural division, which likewise was newly formed, is working on plans and projects for new building designs in which the creative genius of the SA will be expressed.

THE OPERATIONAL MAIN OFFICE

The chief of the operational main office is responsible for the entire organization and branches of the SA, for the education and suitable equipment of units, and, not last, for the employment of the SA.

The operational main office is subdivided into the office for organization and employment and the office for physical fitness. The latter, on the basis of the SA sports badges must prepare the fighting training of the bodies of all Germans capable of bearing arms and as preparation therefor must organize the execution of corporal exercises (basic physical training) and sports performances, so that the widest stratum of the population is laid hold upon and will be kept in condition to bear arms, both physically and spiritual, as well as ideologically in character up to the greatest old age.

The tasks of the organization and employment office are given in its title. Besides this it is entrusted with the special units of the SA: signal, engineer, naval, and mounted units; it treats with the air and gas protection of the SA; it carries on the education of the SA in the sphere of catastrophe protection and prevention of damage; and as well as keeping liaison with all Party and public offices which come into consideration for these questions.

In addition there arises the treatment of details of clothing and equipping the SA and the regulations for office plans for SA offices as well as the perfection of suggestions for investing certain SA units with standards and names of heroic champions of the Movement.

THE MAIN OFFICE FOR EDUCATION

The office of education is responsible for the entire education and orientation of the SA Officers’ Corps. Upon this office devolves one of the tasks of greatest significance for the people, the Reichsfuehrer School, which consists of the Reichsfuehrer School in Munich and the Officers’ School of the Supreme SA Headquarters in Dresden. The curricula and community of work at these officers’ schools, as well as at the 21 group schools and special schools, serves the purpose of creating an SA officers’ corps which bears the highest responsibility and great capability.

The comparatively young officers’ school of the Supreme SA headquarters in Dresden, above all, serves for the education of the intermediate SA officers’ corps which has earned its qualification to attend at one of the group schools. In this school the training for those who want to try out for the SA sports badge stands in the foreground. The spiritual and physical training on the fundamentals of the National Socialist’s ideology pursues the purpose of making the SA Fuehrer into a real educator of his troop. The threefold harmony: Soul, Spirit, and Body, which sets in unison for the common group capability, knowledge, and accomplishment, is an essential prerequisite here. Military sport, as an SA expression of sports activity, is just as much a means to accomplish our purpose as is instruction about the history of the Party and the Folk, about racial teaching, or training as speakers. The directions for this training hold good for the group schools, too, which are subordinate to the same office. The work is performed in close understanding with the leader of the group in whose territory the school lies, because he himself possesses the best possibility of choosing his future officers. This division, which is immediately subordinate to the main office, maintains liaison with the offices of Party and State, for which the experience won in the educational labor of the SA are significant. Thereby it is achieved that the educational labor of the SA stands in full and complete unison with the labor of the Party and all its branches.

The third office, ideology and culture, counts as its assigned sphere cultural forms of service, the cultivation of SA and Folk songs, and music. Directly and strictly avoided is publication of any sort of service plan for festive formations, for form is not the deciding factor, but the spirit with which that form is accomplished.

The division for scientific exploitation, finally, contains a voluminous library. It has the task of giving to every SA Fuehrer who desires to train himself further, information about the most important literature at hand on the subject.

THE MAIN OFFICE FOR HEALTH

The main health office is responsible for all questions of health and sanitary service of the SA. Since health forms the basis and prerequisite for physical fitness, the main health office inserts itself quite particularly into this branch of the SA service. Not only care of and looking after the sick and injured belong to the accomplishments of health service but, above all, preventive health care.

In the fighting period only the sanitation service existed. It is being organized and changed in some particulars at present. Ten thousand sanitation officers are trained and perfected in the best manner to be able to perform first aid at any time. The Reich Sanitation School of the SA in Tuebingen represents the ground floor for entire training activity in the essentials of sanitation. In all regiments in the whole Reich there are sanitation units ready for immediate employment in catastrophe and great accidents. The sanitation man accompanies his comrades everywhere in the SA service, whether it be employment in preparations, construction of barriers, parades, marches with full pack, or in the fields of sports contest.

Training, equipment, and organization of the sanitation service are gathered together in one office, the main office for health. Next to it is a second office with the task of health operations and fostering of race. The men of the SA have recognized the value of the health of a Folk, and bear the conviction that only a sound Folk can be an eternal Folk. With this conviction they fight for accomplishment of the directions and orders which emanate from the main office for Folk health and from the Reich Surgeon. In the foremost place are the sanitation men of the SA who use themselves for that great goal: Purity of blood and Purity of Race.

THE MAIN OFFICE FOR PERSONAL AFFAIRS

The trusteeship of the SA Officers’ Corps, just as the care for future SA officers, is a problem not only for the members themselves but, far and above, is also of the greatest significance for the Party and for the entire Nation.

The personal affairs main office, which is divided into three offices: personnel, social welfare courts and justice office, works in permanent, animated touch with the SA front, where the capabilities and suitabilities of the SA officers show themselves in daily employment. A continuous exchange between this front of staff work and application to educational spheres marks the future path of the SA officers. His evaluation results from consideration of the suitability of the character, of his ability and knowledge, and, above all, of his service to the Movement. The oldest veterans and champions of the SA also receive leading positions within the branches in so far as they prove their capability to do the job.

If there exists in one way a reward for the old tested fighters in the assignment to fulfill a great obligation and a more responsible mission, then the office for social welfare takes care that those SA comrades who were wounded in the fight for the new Germany or who find themselves in need, are looked out for. If it was imperative in the first years after the seizure of power to provide a job generally for these men, then, the problem of retraining stepped into the foreground. In the camps of Lockstedt and Falkenstein the SA gives unskilled manpower the possibility of earning, in about 40 weeks, the journeyman’s certificate, and, thereby, the prerequisites for an appointment as a skilled laborer in industry, or, in fact, in any of those places which suffer because of lack of such laborers. In addition to that men are retrained for mercantile professions and for work in administrative offices.

The same is true for the choice of settlers for those home sites which arise everywhere in the Reich by way of thanks offerings. Also here are old veterans who find a new home in the thanks-offering settlements alongside of the war victims.

To this office come officially the personal welfare matters of the men and their families. Comrades who have suffered injury at sports or in the service receive a cure or recuperation stay in the SA homes at Wyk in Foehr, Hohenlychen, or Trillup bei Hamburg. The needy are permitted support, and, in fact, in an understanding with the Reich treasurer, the means of the Adolf Hitler Thanks and the Adolf Hitler Foundation are placed at this office’s disposal. Above all, however, this office interests itself in those who were injured in the fighting period by political adversaries, so that a permanent personal touch gives to these men the certainty that one will never forget their sacrifice.

As third within the main personal affairs office the courts and justice office is mentioned. One task of this office lies in the fostering of honor and of clean behavior of the SA and the SA Officer’s Corps. For the clean behavior of the leadership two chambers of discipline serve. The personal rights of SA men are taken care of in a particular division.

Incumbent upon the justice division, composed of professional lawyers, is legal counsel to the main offices of the Supreme SA Headquarters and groups, cooperation with the remaining justice offices of the Movement, and, thirdly, official traffic with the Chancellory of the Fuehrer and treatment of pardon petitions of criminally convicted SA men as well as former SA members. This proceeds from the viewpoint that the SA man, it is true, on the one side has an enhanced duty to the Community of the Folk; on the other side, however, there comes into discussion manifold economics and mental after-effects of the period of the wrestling for power in the case of old tested veterans of the SA in which their significance can be fully adjudicated only by the SA.

THE MAIN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE

The administration of the SA, in its present standard organization and proper economic operations, represents the tool which the Chief of Staff uses for the solution of great tasks given to him by the Fuehrer. Clarity is the distinguishing feature of SA administration in all its many spheres.

The matters pertaining to the property right of the NSDAP and, therefore, of concern to the SA, are placed under the Reich treasurer as Plenipotentiary of the Fuehrer. The deputy of the Reich treasurer for the entire SA administration is the Reich cashier administrator of the SA, who, without prejudice to his responsibility to the Reich treasurer, is at the same time in his quality as Chief of the main administrative office, the specialist of the Chief of Staff for all matters which touch upon the administration of the entire SA.

The large sphere of the tasks of the main administrative office is divided into three offices: _a._ money economy, budget bookkeeping, control of finances, and economics; _b._ things of value, procurement, insurance and contracts; _c._ construction and settlement office.

The salary of SA officers and men who are on the staffs which are essential to the main offices is regulated uniformly on the basis of an office plan. It is composed of base pay, quarters allowance, and increase for marriage and children. Considering it from the political standpoint of population, the increase for children in this ideal echelon of society was settled upon.

Great frugality which is pointed to particularly at every opportunity, is understood as a matter of course in the SA. A splendidly working accounting and control system makes possible an exact review of the economic operation of all units and makes easier the immediate remedy of a shortage of any kind. The examination reports, which are requested by the Deputy of the Reich treasurer of the units are treated and made use of in one special division of the Main Administrative Office.

The great property values of the SA, which is a consistent part of the total fortune of the NSDAP, is laid hold upon according to number and value and carefully administered. Many millions flow into economy through the settlement work called into being by the Supreme SA Headquarters with the aid of the thanks-offering of the Nation. The settlement work should offer to many thousands of needy people and to families, sound in heredity and rich in children, their own homes. Aside from settlements on the edge of town the construction and settlement office in the neighborhood of Aurich erected farm settlements with 60 to 80 acres of land, which, above all, are managed by former farm laborers. Here, too, they put cattle and even crops at their disposal gratuitously.

The many sided tasks of SA Administration are united closely with those of the headquarters. Parades and other arrangements, training, equipping, procurement, etc., cannot be accomplished without standard cooperation of the administration.

THE MAIN OFFICE FOR NS-TOURNAMENTS

On the 27th of November 1936 the Fuehrer decreed the following order: In pursuance of my proclamation at the Reich Party Day of Honor I hereby create for future Reich Party Days the NS-Tournament. The SA is charged with the preparation and execution of this tournament. I decree that the determinations necessary for execution be left up to the suggestions of the Chief of Staff of the SA. The Reich Sports Fuehrer is directed to cooperate with the sports department of the Supreme SA Headquarters. The Chief of Staff will keep me continually informed about the measures planned.

In order to solve organizationally the tasks sketched in this order of the Fuehrer, the main tournament office was created in February 1937. As the chief of this main tournament office, the Chief of Staff appointed the Reich Sports Fuehrer von Tschammer und Osten. By this appointment the guarantee is given that, in comradely cooperation with the Reichsbund for physical training, the tasks set by the Fuehrer in respect to the military fitness of the entire nation and the formation of a Folk will be solved by physical training.

Therewith, SA Obergruppenfuehrer von Tschammer und Osten holds in his hand responsibility for the organization and accomplishment of the NS Tournaments, which are to be held each year in Nurnberg during the Reich Party Day as an exhibition of the achievement of the whole German people.

Incumbent upon the office simultaneously is direction of the NS Winter Tournaments and Reich Contests of the SA which also experience continuous enlargement.

The main office for the NS Tournaments is divided into three offices: organization, military sports, and sports which from their titles alone indicate the limits of their spheres of work.

THE ADJUTANT’S OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF

In the Adjutant’s Office of the Chief of Staff are treated all questions which are proposed directly to the Chief of Staff by the offices of the Party and of the State, as well as by others. Next to the very voluminous labor of dealing with those questions and lectures of the Chief of Staff on important matters, the Adjutant’s Office, as the personal office of the Chief of Staff, has to take care of the preparation for and smooth execution of travel of the Chief of Staff. Continuously the Chief of Staff visits the individual Groups, using in the first place airplane, then rail transportation and automobile. All of the troublesome details, which these official trips demand, require thorough discharge so that appointments shall be kept and the entire program developed as foreseen. As a matter of course many SA Fuehrers, spending a while in the Reich capital, come in person to the Adjutant’s Office to speak with the Chief of Staff. Various wishes are attended to here and many worthwhile suggestions come from the ranks of the visitors. The men in the Adjutant’s Office whose task it is to do their duties in the personal service of the Chief of Staff endeavor, in order to facilitate for him his difficult and responsible task, take care of at least the pressing questions or help their fellows with professional advice. Next to that this office has value in that it fixes appointments for various official conferences of the Chief of Staff with leading men of the Party and State and in that it divides up the daily program according to current demands, so that all work can be executed smoothly. It is not easy work which the men in the Adjutant’s Office have to perform; only the consciousness of helping their fellows in the broad Front everywhere in the Reich and of supporting their fight gives to their work a valuable substance.

SPECIAL UNITS OF THE SA

Engineers and Signal SA

In the same measure that the little Shocktroop of the National Socialist Idea grew up into an organization in whose hands the Fuehrer has laid the whole physical and ideological education of our people, so in the same measure the sphere of the tasks of the brown Army of Adolf Hitler grew and received a multiformity which made necessary the special training of units which were capable of continuous employment and highest performance within their special areas.

First it was engineer companies, then further, it was signal companies. Since the time they were established, both units, when put to the test have proved that the men with “Pi” and “Na” on the lapels of their service uniform are found where German humanity needs their help. If storms whip the waves of the seas, and masses of water threaten the coasts of the Reich; if downpours and melting snows swell the mountain streams so that fields, plains, and farms are in danger; if fire is on the point of destroying the property of German people; or if anywhere a natural catastrophe happens, one finds, in all the Gaus of the Reich and at all times, the engineers and signal men among the first helpers who strike with cheer and with readiness to sacrifice. Very few have a suspicion of what takes place in the hour of bitterest wrestle with the might of Nature, but they scarcely think about the fact that these very same men, who perhaps gave their utmost during the entire night, are a few hours later going about their callings; and only the least number have a clear understanding of what basic and careful training and what untiring practice was necessary in order to achieve a complete success in time of serious accident. And in these practices we see how a bridge is made at the turn of a hand, how blasting is executed, and can alongside the performances of the engineers, who work hand in hand with the signal units, see with amazement how the latter lay their field cables, set up their telephones, let the blinker apparatus speak, and relay reports by bicycle riders, messenger dogs or carrier pigeons, in short, how they establish connection between the front and the staffs and thereby secure smooth cooperation. The status of training of the men of the signal units is kept under constant control by the signal certificate. This certificate is proof for its holder that his status of training is complete and excellent. It must be won by examinations for three consecutive years before it is finally the possession of the signal man.

Thus there originates in these technical units of the SA a trained crew whose capabilities and knowledge are not the last things of extraordinary value in the service for defense of the country. On one side the young SA man, who enters the Army from his branch, comes prepared with a multitude of prerequisites which facilitate and speed up his training in technical respects; while on the other side those very soldiers, having served, who return out of the Army into the SA, keep themselves, by constant practice, in a trained condition physically and spiritually and impart their knowledge to their fellows.

Thus they contribute a considerable portion to the enhancement of military strength and military spirit of the German people. As everywhere, the soldier of the army finds here, too, his closest confederates in political soldiers.

The Mounted SA

If today in Germany the sport of riding is not as it was in past decades, the prerogative and affair of a propertied class, but a thing for all of those who from enthusiasm and love of horses profess to ride, then it is just something else for which to thank the SA which has interested itself in the sport of riding as a means of fitting the people physically. The Fuehrer himself by his order about the establishment of the NS cavalry Corps on March 17, 1936, created the basis upon which first the SA Cavalry itself and then the German youth and above all the compulsory military duty classes could be led to the sport of riding. This order soon created the necessary organizational prerequisites, so that at present the SA each year is able to furnish many thousands of young trained cavalrymen to our Wehrmacht. All those who are 18 to 20 years of age must join the NSKK and even those in younger and older year groups, may join it, who come up for cavalry and motor training and want to earn a cavalry certificate before their period of service in order to be able to serve with a mounted or motorized troop.

The organization of the NSKK has its apex in the Reich Inspectorate for mounted and mobile units who is directly subordinate to the Chief of Staff and who at the same time presides over the recently created main office for mounted and mobile training within the Supreme SA Headquarters. In this way a conceivably close liaison has been established between both organizations, and in it at the same time lies the foundation for fruitful exchange between the SA cavalry and the NSKK. In each S.A. group was created the office of Group Cavalry Fuehrer, who is responsible to the Reich Inspectorate as his deputy for training and organization. At present the S.A. cavalry has at its disposition 101 cavalry regiments in whose schools, year in and year out, young Germans who are obligated for service receive the training which fits them for entrance into a section of troops which is of their own choosing.

The NSKK has discovered, by creation of the cavalry certificate, a means of fostering and requiring cavalry fitness. The cavalry certificate is granted only after careful testing and fulfilling essential conditions successfully; it requires an all-embracing quantity of riding ability. Thus the cavalry certificate is a way to select and require real talent. The NSKK is still young, but two years of serious labor have already proven the correctness of its objective.

The Naval S.A.

The men of the water’s edge, the navigators and fishermen, for the most part do their duty in the naval SA, since they are concerned in their daily professions with all sorts of things having to do with navigation and water. Nevertheless, there are not only naval S.A. regiments along the ocean but also in the interior. If there is no big ship at their disposal for training, a ship built on land often suffices for the accomplishment of the careful training of the men about masts, shrouds, and deck structure. The service of the naval S.A. operates as preparation and development for the Navy. Semaphore, radio, Morse Code, and flags as signal service, navigation, cutter operation, astronomy, professional use of sailing craft, rescue service--to mention only a few spheres of its tasks--complete its curriculum.

For the seafaring S.A. men however, who pass the greater portion of their lives on the seas of the world, there is, in the first place, ideological use as a border troop who make their appearance in foreign countries at celebrations, parades, and similar events. The naval S.A. furnishes yearly to the German merchant marine and navy splendidly prepared material and is, therefore, practically and theoretically, a valuable support of German seafaring and German navigating.

The SA Sanitation Men

The “Sani” men, the sanitation men of the S.A., were already at hand in the fighting period if it was necessary to bring help to injured comrades. Endless numbers thanked the S.A. for these S.A. sanitation men of the fighting period. And from these simple men came physicians for body and soul, who continuously struck the correct note and whom one knew could be depended upon in every situation of life. If security and peace rule internally at present, the S.A. sanitation men have not indeed become superfluous. The Service in the S.A. which is continually prepared for use, brings with it physical danger, and many injuries can be avoided or lessened by speedy aid. Be it hot weather or frost, mischance or sudden sickness, the “sani-men” are at their post. Highest demands, however, are placed on them if, at time of catastrophe medical assistance is not sufficient and the life of many depends upon the success of appropriate initial treatment. Then the S.A. sanitation men fall to the task and give their utmost. Unnamed and unknown they do their duty in the spirit and tradition demanded by the organization to which they belong.

The “Feldherrnhalle” Regiment

Under the symbol, which for us National Socialists is the embodiment of supreme preparedness to sacrifice, the sacrificial runic symbol, the S.A. has created a troop which is set up to symbolize the political soldiery of our time: The Feldherrnhalle Regiment. The fact that the Supreme S.A. Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has appointed his tested comrade, S.A. Obergruppenfuehrer Hermann Goering, as its chief, proves the high calling which falls to the lot of this regiment today and tomorrow. As the elite troop of the S.A. it seeks to be the shining example in service and in obedience.

The measures are very strict which have been laid upon this young body of men who have assigned their lives to this regiment. Yearly young men from all callings and skills of the people thrust themselves into this original body. Differences of heredity or property are unknown. Here it is only the man, his performance and his obligation to obey as an ever ready S.A. man the commands of his leader, which has worth.

Every possibility stands open to him who proves himself true in this regiment. He who has performed his year of service may decide to remain or return to his calling. Likewise it is possible to work his way up into the main offices of the S.A. headquarters or to enter the administrative service; the decisive factors for that, frankly, are the capabilities of the candidate and the possibilities for their use in the political life of the people.

In six great camps, which lie scattered in the whole Reich, a valuable work of education is consummated for many hundreds of apt persons. The political value of this work cannot be grasped by bare numbers and dry statistics. These are not decisive factors; it seems to us to be much more essential and for the justification of this information of political soldiery, that out of the training of the Feldherrnhalle Regiment, National Socialists go forth who shall do their part to assure the continuation of that work begun by Adolf Hitler. For this reason there belongs in the Feldherrnhalle regiment the concepts of discipline, voluntary subordination, and leading a soldierly life as first prerequisites and basic conditions for the acceptance of future members.

Out of the apparent forms of political life developed by the present emulating in their behavior the proven example of the old S.A., the Feldherrnhalle regiment professes itself to the concept of a soldierly life. It unites in its ranks young, consciously political individuals who voluntarily wish to live their lives in hardiness and soldierly strictness.

The Reichsfuehrer School

Selection of officers and planned education of officers was the innovation drawn into the circle of political work of the Party after the seizure of power. An effective instrument for such officer training is the Reichsfuehrer School in Munich created in 1931 by the Fuehrer. Many thousands of S.A. officers are oriented here in accordance with the perceptions of the fighting period in their new form and have been trained and then, supplied with knowledge and ideological learning, have gone out into their units where they impart to those whom they have to lead, the Front of the political struggle of the present and their experiences and recently gained insights.

The work of the Reichsfuehrer School today is set aside to bring the synthesis of body and mind very near to the ideal form. All technical means are employed to do that. In a nine months course of study the future S.A. officers are introduced into all spheres of political life. The Reichsfuehrer School desires to stimulate self-created labor, to teach meditation, and to shape the young S.A. officer into a consciously strong charactered, political personality. Body, mind, soul--one cannot be thought of without the other. A hardy physical training, strict measures about health and racial values and continued supervision of the life being led are valuable, but are also indispensable expedients for strict and serious work.

A second task has been given to the Reichsfuehrer School with the comprehensive two weeks labor conference which takes place yearly in the time after the Reich Party Day, and is for the older unit officers from regimental commanders up to, and including, staff divisions. At these labor conferences the political balance sheet of the year is reckoned. Consequently, the Reichsfuehrer School has an outstanding part in the political training work of the Party. The success of the education of future officers will perhaps become apparent only in later decades, but even today the goal stands out in a clearly recognizable fashion: the individual German trained in National Socialism, hardened in mind and strength, and firm in character.

The Reichsfuehrer School of the S.A. in Dresden is guided according to similar directions. For special training of particular units there is at the disposal of the S.A. the Reich Sanitation School in Tuebingen and the Reich Cavalry School in Zehlendorf.

III. PROSPECTUS

The Law of Willingness to Volunteer.

In the beginning of the fight there was the Party and the S.A. The goal, tasks and changing requirements of the fight have led to the establishment of the branches of the Party out of the great collecting basin of the S.A. The strong impulses which emanated from the S.A. have been carried over into the labor of all branches of the Party. All branches fulfill their work at present according to their own laws and responsibilities. Most of their officers, however, and many of the men have marched in the ranks of the Storm Troops, and, thus at present there lives and works in these branches the further quality which we call the S.A. spirit.

“The fight continues”--that was from the start the password of the S.A. and will continue to be for all time. Never has the S.A. man fought just to be fighting, and never to be destructive, but he has fought only to be constructive. And only for that reason can the Fuehrer extend tasks to the S.A. in the new State, which have a decisive significance.

Our comrades in the past years in Austria have demonstrated with what spirit the S.A. is blessed. They were unshaken in avowal to the Fuehrer, in belief in the strength of blood, and in fidelity to their native place. They have fixed for themselves a monument to the S.A. spirit which will always renew itself. Their sacrifice was a cornerstone of liberty. They were proud to be permitted to suffer for Germany. Fate has let these men and their families go along a path whose milestones were need, hate, suffering, terror, and pursuit. Many have sacrificed their lives, and for many, who sat behind dungeon and prison walls, the hope of liberty had sunk away to nothing, and, yet not one word of bitterness came past their lips. He who fought thus is worthy of being called a German and an S.A. man.

A few months ago the S.A. men of Austria still stood in the midst of bloody fighting, and yet now they work in peaceful construction. Thus the S.A. in German Austria became the peace army of the people in the National Socialist State. The S.A. was only able to master this task because the goal always remained the same and they marched along all paths which the Fuehrer commanded, and because the voluntary will to serve is the supreme law of National Socialism.

Today the S.A. stands before the great task of being guardian and fashioner of the armed desire and armed strength of the German people. Its devotion, its preparedness to sacrifice, its belief in the idea, and its soldierly, combatant attitude will create and preserve in the German people that physical fitness and armed preparedness which the Fuehrer and the Reich need and without which a people cannot live.

Great achievements are only produced with unheard of personal application based upon voluntary will. And this law of voluntary service is the key to preparedness and successful labor of the S.A. Not spectator, but active participant is the password of the S.A. in all things it takes hold of.

The Storm Troops have made their way through most difficult trials. They have withstood them because this nucleus troop bears in it unshakeably the spirit of unconditional fidelity and unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer. The S.A. exists today stronger and firmer now and forever. It knows that the Fuehrer will also assign to it in the future new work spheres. The Storm Troops are ready to fulfil the commands of the Fuehrer and his charges with complete application because they desire in all things to be nothing other than the bearers of the Idea, the strong arm of the Movement, the secure support of the people and the German people’s infantry, prepared to sacrifice and happy to attack.

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SS Garrison-doctor Hmb. Neuengamme
Kl. Hmb.-Neuengamme 29 March 1945
_Az.: 14 h (Kl) 3.45/Tr./Um._--

Subject: Quarterly Sickreport on Internees of Concentration Camp
Hmb.-Neuengamme

Re: Circular from there dated 27-12-1944 No. 242/Az.:14 h
(Kl.)
Attachments: 2 Diagrams
Date: 1-4-1945

To the Head of the Medical-Service at SS Chief office of Economic Administration [Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt] and Chief of Bureau D III

Oranienburg

I. Concentration Camp

1. The average number of internees in the Concentration Camp Hmb.-Neuengamme during the quarter of the year reported on amounted to _40,393_ (including the affiliated working camps).

In addition there is an average of 11,768 female internees.

2. There were _6,224_ death cases during the quarter of the year reported on (from 26-12-1944 to 25-3-1945), among them _95_ female internees. Of this number the following deaths have occurred in the affiliated camps:

Base-Camp Hamburg 944 deaths
” Bremen 515 ”
” Druette 102 ”
” Watenstedt 298 ”
” Reimstedt 9 ”
” Porta 89 ”
” Hannover 453 ”
” Braunschweig 198 ”
Affiliated Camp Meppen-Versen 379 ”
” Woebbelin 53 ”
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Total 3,040 deaths
at concentration camp
Hmb.-Neuengamme 3,089 ”
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Total deaths 6,129
In addition of the female internees: 95 deaths
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3. The average number of internees in the hospital buildings I, II, III, IV, and V during the quarter of the year reported on amounted to _1711_ daily.

4. During the period of time reported on _815_ internees daily were treated without being hospitalized.

SS Garrison doctor Kl. Hmb.-Neuengamme
SS Captain

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Report B-2833

THE NUMERICAL EXPANSION OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP BUCHENWALD DURING THE
YEARS 1937-1945

(Based on the complete records of the competent service units)