Page "Schutzstaffel" Paragraph 109

The SS is closely associated with Nazi Germany's concentration camp system.

After 1934, the running of Germany's concentration camps was placed under the total authority of the SS and an SS formation known as the SS-Totenkopfverbände ( SS-TV ), under the command of Theodor Eicke.

Known as the " Death's Head Units ", the SS-TV was first organized as several battalions, each based at one of Germany's major concentration camps, the oldest of which was at Dachau.

In 1939, the Totenkopfverbände expanded into a military division with the establishment of the Totenkopf division, which in 1940 would become a full division within the Waffen-SS.