Changes

===SS finances===

===SS finances===

Himmler created a powerful "state within a state" as the the SS acquired more than forty businesses with some 150 plants and factories. Together with money and valuables seized from Jews they paid for the Holocaust and financed the training and equipping of 38 SS divisions.

Himmler created a powerful "state within a state" as the SS acquired more than forty businesses with some 150 plants and factories. Together with money and valuables seized from Jews they paid for the Holocaust and financed the training and equipping of 38 SS divisions.

At first Himmler's SS was underfunded because his enemies in the party controlled the money. As late as 1938, only 3,500 of 14,000 SS officers received monthly pay; the rest were volunteers. Himmler turned to the concentration camps—not yet killing camps—to raise money. Prisoners could be ransomed for a large sum; others had to pay for their keep. Factories were set up in the camps as the prisoners became slave laborers for commercial enterprises owned by the SS.  For example the Gesellschaft fur Textil- und Lederverwertung GmbH (Society for Textile and Leather Work, Ltd.), in Ravensbruck, the women's concentration camp, produced uniforms.<ref>Goldin (1998)</ref> The possessions were salvaged and resold from the Jews who were killed in the gas chambers.  SS officials took bribes from Jews and employers of Jews.

At first Himmler's SS was underfunded because his enemies in the party controlled the money. As late as 1938, only 3,500 of 14,000 SS officers received monthly pay; the rest were volunteers. Himmler turned to the concentration camps—not yet killing camps—to raise money. Prisoners could be ransomed for a large sum; others had to pay for their keep. Factories were set up in the camps as the prisoners became slave laborers for commercial enterprises owned by the SS.  For example, the Gesellschaft fur Textil- und Lederverwertung GmbH (Society for Textile and Leather Work, Ltd.), in Ravensbruck, the women's concentration camp, produced uniforms.<ref>Goldin (1998)</ref> The possessions were salvaged and resold from the Jews who were killed in the gas chambers.  SS officials took bribes from Jews and employers of Jews.

==War years==

==War years==

===Holocaust===

===Holocaust===

On January 20, 1942, [[Reinhard Heydrich]], Himmler's second-in-command, chaired the [[Wannsee Conference]] to plan the systematic roundup and execution of all Jews the Nazis could reach. The Conference ensured inter-agency co-operation and set strategy and financing. Among Heydrich's directives, [[Adolf Eichmann]], chief of Gestapo sub-section IVB4, the SS's Jewish office, was charged with arranging deportation financing. Eichmann forced Jews into paying for their own deportation.  In February 1942 Himmler and another aide Oswald Pohl reorganized SS administrative and economic offices to form the SS Wirtschaft-und Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administrative Head Office, or WVHA). The office of Inspectorate of Concentration Camp became part of the WVHA, and Himmler promoted Pohl to Obergruppenfuhrer und General der Waffen-SS, making him the third highest-ranking officer in the SS. Eighteen weeks after Wannsee, a Czechoslovak commando team with British support assassinated Heydrich, advancing Pohl to the second slot under Himmler. Meanwhile Himmler had special powers in Poland, where he feuded with the official supposedly in charge Hans Frank.<ref>Burleigh (2000), pp. 454, 646-51</ref>

On January 20, 1942, [[Reinhard Heydrich]], Himmler's second-in-command, chaired the [[Wannsee Conference]] to plan the systematic roundup and execution of all Jews the Nazis could reach. The Conference ensured inter-agency co-operation and set strategy and financing. Among Heydrich's directives, [[Adolf Eichmann]], chief of Gestapo sub-section IVB4, the SS's Jewish office, was charged with arranging deportation financing. Eichmann forced Jews into paying for their own deportation.  In February 1942 Himmler and another aide Oswald Pohl reorganized SS administrative and economic offices to form the SS Wirtschaft-und Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administrative Head Office, or WVHA). The office of Inspectorate of Concentration Camp became part of the WVHA, and Himmler promoted Pohl to Obergruppenfuhrer und General der Waffen-SS, making him the third highest-ranking officer in the SS. Eighteen weeks after Wannsee, a Czechoslovak commando team with British support assassinated Heydrich, advancing Pohl to the second slot under Himmler. Meanwhile, Himmler had special powers in Poland, where he feuded with the official supposedly in charge Hans Frank.<ref>Burleigh (2000), pp. 454, 646-51</ref>

===Waffen-SS in combat===

===Waffen-SS in combat===