Over the next year, Himmler grew the SS from a force of about 290 men to about 3, 000.

Later under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler between 1929 and 1945, the SS was renamed the " Schutz-Staffel " and grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the Third Reich.

Initially a small branch of the Sturmabteilung ( the " Brownshirts " or Stormtroopers, abbreviated in German as SA ), the SS grew in size and power due to its exclusive loyalty to Adolf Hitler, as opposed to the SA, which was seen as semi-independent and a threat to Adolf Hitler's hegemony over the party.

A political struggle within the party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including Prussian premier Hermann Göring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and SS Chief Heinrich Himmler positioning themselves against Röhm.

This unit grew into the Schutzstaffel ( SS ), which continued to use the Totenkopf as insignia throughout its history.

* Schutzstaffel ( abbreviated SS — or Runic "↯↯" ) – " Protection Squadron "; a major Nazi organization that grew from a small paramilitary unit that served as Hitler's personal body guard into militarily what was in practical terms the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht.

* Schutzstaffel ( SS ) – " Protection Squadron ", a major Nazi organization that grew from a small paramilitary unit that served as Hitler's personal body guard into militarily what was in practical terms the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht.

In the beginning the Nazi Party's " Brown Shirt " bully-boys and street brawlers which grew by 1934 into a paramilitary force of nearly a half-million men ; after the purge of its leadership by the Schutzstaffel ( SS ) and Gestapo during the Night of the Long Knives rapidly decreased in numbers and influence.

In particular, he grew increasingly hostile toward the SS, which he saw as a rival to the Army.

As the SS grew even further, Himmler on 29 January 1930 announced to SA leader Ernst Röhm, that:

As World War II progressed, however, the manpower needs of the Waffen-SS grew to such a level that SS officer candidates would undergo no more than 6 months training by 1945 and, in some cases, were directly commissioned in the field without ever having attended a Junkerschule.

At any rate, the substance of Eichmann's testimony was that all his actions flowed from his membership in the party and the SS, and though the Prosecutor did his utmost to prove actual personal hatred of Jews, his success on this score was doubtful and the anti-Semitic lesson weakened to that extent.

Up until the 1950s, Abensberg and the surrounding villages contained a number of graves of victims of a Death March in the Spring of 1945 from the Hersbruck sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp, who were either murdered by the SS or died of exhaustion.

Puttenham, in the time of Elizabeth I of England, wished to start from Elissabet Anglorum Regina ( Elizabeth Queen of the English ), to obtain Multa regnabis ense gloria ( By thy sword shalt thou reign in great renown ); he explains carefully that H is " a note of aspiration only and no letter ", and that Z in Greek or Hebrew is a mere SS.

A. S. Roma was founded in the summer of 1927 when a secretary of the National Fascist Party, Italo Foschi, initiated the merger of three older Italian Football Championship clubs from the city of Rome ; Roman FC, SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS.

The Orioles experienced their greatest success from 1964 – 1983, as well as 1996-1997, winning eight Division Championships ( 1969 – 1971, 1973 – 1974, 1979, 1983, 1997 ), six pennants ( 1966, 1969 – 1971, 1979, 1983 ), three World Series Championships ( 1966, 1970, 1983 ), one wild card berth ( 1996 ), and five Most Valuable Player awards ( 3B Brooks Robinson 1964, OF Frank Robinson 1966, 1B Boog Powell 1970 and SS Cal Ripken Jr. 1983 & 1991 ).

Books of homilies were compiled from the writings of SS.

Other artists usually considered part of this movement include Hellhammer and Celtic Frost ( from Switzerland ), Kreator, Sodom and Destruction ( from Germany ), Bulldozer and Death SS ( from Italy ), whose vocalist Steve Sylvester was a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis.

* SS Belgian, a cargo ship in service with F Leyland & Co Ltd from 1919 to 1934

* SS Belgia, a passenger ship in service with the Gotha Line from 1930 to 1941

* SS City of Columbus, a passenger steamer that sailed from Boston to Savannah and sank off Martha's Vineyard

The first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206 when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.

The first concentration camps were under the direct command of SS – Polizei-führer Globocnik, and operated by SS Police battalions and Trawnikis — volunteers from Eastern Europe ; whereas the SS-Totenkopfverbände managed the Nazi Concentration Camps such as Dachau and Ravensbrück.

The wreck of the American Star ( SS America ) seen in July 2004 from land side.

Personnel assigned to these auxiliary duties were often removed from the Gestapo chain of command and fell under the authority of branches of the SS.

Himmler's first leadership position in the SS was that of SS-Gauführer ( district leader ) in Lower Bavaria from 1926.

Applicants were vetted for Nordic qualities — in Himmler's words, " like a nursery gardener trying to reproduce a good old strain which has been adulterated and debased ; we started from the principles of plant selection and then proceeded quite unashamedly to weed out the men whom we did not think we could use for the build-up of the SS.

In 1933, they began to remove the SS from SA control.

With the SA thus neutralised, the SS became an independent organisation from 20 July 1934, responsible only to Hitler, and Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS became the highest formal SS rank.

The stylised lightning bolt " SS " runes were derived from the Armanen runes of Guido von List, which he had loosely based on the indigenous runic alphabets of the Germanic peoples.

* 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The one incident that resulted in the death of Gibraltarians occurred on 31 January 1938 when the insurgent submarine General Sanjurjo sank the SS Endymion, a small Gibraltar-registered freighter taking a cargo of coal to Cartagena, which was chartered by the Republican government.

These events led to Owain being proclaimed Prince of Wales on 16 September 1400, by a small band of followers which included his eldest son, his brothers-in-law, and the Dean of St Asaph in the town of Corwen, possibly in the church of SS Mael & Sulien.

The SS began as a small permanent guard unit made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for Nazi Party meetings in Munich.

Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered merely a small Gruppe of the SA and numbered no more than 1000 personnel ; by 1929 that number was down to 280.

Because the female prisoner population at Buchenwald was comparatively small, the SS only trained female overseers at the camp and " assigned " them to one of the female subcamps.

It is renowned for its small but outstanding Norman ( Romanesque ) church, SS Mary and David's, but also has the earthworks of a Norman motte and bailey castle, no longer standing.

For very small transports of Jews and Gypsies over a short distance, a minimized version of the gas van technology was used in Bełżec: T-4 man and first operator of the gas chambers, SS Hauptscharführer Lorenz Hackenholt, rebuilt an Opel-Blitz post office vehicle with the help of a local craftsman into a small gas van.

Only a small number of SS men and women, including the camp commandant Kramer, remained to " uphold order inside the camp ".

Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Spindler — commander of the 9th SS Armoured Artillery Regiment — quickly organised a small battlegroup ( Kampfgruppe Spindler was initially only 120 men but would incorporate 16 separate units over the course of the battle ).

In 1837 the Great Western Steam Company was experiencing many problems forging the paddle shaft of the SS Great Britain ; when even the largest hammer was tilted to its full height its range was so small that if a really large piece of work were placed on the anvil, the hammer had no room to fall, and in 1838 the company's engineer wrote to Nasmyth:

The camp was evacuated and sent on a " Death march " on early September 1944 with only a small SS unit keeping the camp's operations, and on November 23, 1944, discovered and liberated by American Allies as the first concentration camp in Western Europe.

Since the female prisoner population in the camp was small, only seven SS women served in Natzweiler Struthof camp ( compared to more than 600 SS men ), and 15 in the Natzweiler complex of subcamps.

The town's inhabitants embark in small boats to meet the passage of the SS Rex, the regime ’ s proudest technological achievement.

This small yacht was intended for inter-island transportation in the West Indies and was rechristened the SS Antonio Maceo.

An SS sentry post and a small circular location ( Rondell ) were placed next to the guardhouse, as was a no longer extant SS staff building ( SS-Stabsgebäude ).

The AK had between 12, 000 and 20, 000 armed soldiers, most with only small arms, against a well-equipped German Army of 20, 000 SS and regular Army units.

The sub-camps were divided into several categories, depending on their main function: Produktionslager for factory workers, Baulager for construction, Aufräumlager for cleaning the rubble in Allied-bombed towns, and Kleinlager ( small camps ) where the inmates were working specifically for the SS.

Continuing the attack on 29 – 30 April against an enemy entrenched in elaborately prepared dugouts and behind the thick walls of the SS Training Center and an Anti-tank School which were defended by small arms, machine guns, hundreds of panzerfausts and twelve 88 mm guns, our troops killed 700 SS Troops, who fought stubbornly and fanatically.