The Waffen-SS (German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs]; lit. 'Armed SS') was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "High Command The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), under then SS-Obergruppenführer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich The Inspectorate of Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), under then SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, which commanded the Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer regiments. The latter was recruited in Austria after the Anschluss and was not yet combat-ready. The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, under SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke, which fielded four infantry and one cavalry Death's Head Standarten, comprising camp guards of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV). These troops wore the SS-TV skull and crossbones rather than the SS-VT "SS" runes. Police units of Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Kurt Daluege's Ordnungspolizei, which reported to Himmler… The Waffen-SS expanded further in 1943: in February the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and its sister division, the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, were formed in France. They were followed in July by the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland created from Norwegian and Danish volunteers. September saw the formation of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend using volunteers from the Hitler Youth. Himmler and Berger successfully appealed to Hitler to form a Bosnian Muslim division, and the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian), the first non-Germanic division, was formed, to fight Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav Partisans. This was followed by the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) formed from volunteers from Galicia in western Ukraine. The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of The Waffen-SS (German: [ˈvafn̩ʔɛsˌʔɛs]; lit. 'Armed SS') was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (lit. 'Command Staff Reich Leader-SS') directly under Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945. Hausser became the Inspector of the SS-VT in 1936. In this role, Hausser was in charge of the troops' military and ideological training but did not have command authority. The decision on deployment of the troops remained in Himmler's hands. This aligned with Hitler's intentions to maintain these troops exclusively at his disposal, "neither [a part] of the army, nor of the police", according to Hitler's order of 17 August 1938. On 17 August 1938, Hitler declared that the SS-VT would have a role in domestic as well as foreign affairs, which transformed this growing armed force into the rival that the army had feared. Hitler resisted integrating the Waffen-SS into the army, as it was intended to remain the armed wing of the party and to become an elite police force once the war was won. During the invasion, numerous war crimes were committed against the Polish people. The Leibstandarte became notorious for torching villages without military justification. Members of the Leibstandarte also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine gunned in Złoczew. Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec, Torzeniec, Goworowo, Mława, and Włocławek. Eicke's SS-TV field forces were not military. By the end of the year, the Waffen-SS had increased in size from eight divisions and some brigades to 16 divisions. By 1943 the Waffen-SS could no longer claim to be an "elite" fighting force. Recruitment and conscription based on "numerical over qualitative expansion" took place, with many of the "foreign" units being good for only rear-guard duty. ==== Kharkov ==== On the Eastern Front, the Germans suffered a devastating defeat when the 6th Army was destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad. Hitler ordered the SS Panzer Corps back to the Eastern Front for a counter-attack with the city of Kharkov as its objective. Without any further reinforcements in men or materiel, the Waffen-SS divisions could not stop the Allied advance. Both the 1st SS and 2nd SS Panzer Divisions took part in the failed Operation Lüttich in early August. The end came in mid August when the German Army was encircled and trapped in the Falaise pocket, including the 1st SS, 10th SS, 12th SS, and 17th SS Divisions, while the 2nd SS and 9th SS Panzer Divisions were ordered to attack Hill 262 from the outside in order to keep the gap open. By 22 August, the Falaise pocket had been closed, and all German forces west of the Allied lines were either dead or in captivity. He was the first divisional commander of the Waffen-SS when the SS-VT was formed into a division for the Battle of France. He went on to command the II SS Panzer Corps and the 7th Army. == Casualties == Military historian Rüdiger Overmans estimates that the Waffen-SS suffered 314,000 dead. Casualty rates were not significantly higher than in the Wehrmacht overall and were comparable to those among the armoured divisions of the army and the Luftwaffe paratroop formations. == Criminality == The Allgemeine SS was responsible for the administration of both the concentration and extermination camps. According to The Times of Israel, "The benefits come through the Federal Pension Act, which was passed in 1950 to support war victims, whether civilians or veterans of the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS."