RuSHA

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RuSHA Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt-SS
The RuSHA was under the administration of the SS.
SS christening of a child born through the RuSHA's Lebensborn program in 1936.
Agency overview
Formed	c.1931
Dissolved	May 8, 1945
Jurisdiction	Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	SS-Hauptamt, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.3825°E / 52.50722; 13.3825
Employees	1,500 c.1942
Minister responsible	Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, (1931-1945)
Agency executives	SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré, Chef fur Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt-SS, (1931-1938)   SS-Gruppenführer Günther Pancke, Chef fur Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt-SS, (1938-1940)   SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann, Chef fur Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt-SS, (1940 - 1943)   SA-Gruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt, Chef fur Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt-SS, (1943 -1945)
Parent agency	Allgemeine-SS

The Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt-SS (English: SS Race and Settlement Office), (RuSHA), was the organization responsible for "safeguarding the racial 'purity' of the SS" within Nazi Germany.^[1]

One of its duties was to oversee the marriages of SS personnel in accordance with the Aryan ideology of the Nazi party. RuSha would only issue a permit to marry once detailed background investigations into the racial fitness of both prospective parents had been completed.

RuSHA was also responsible for the Lebensborn program, the Nazi plan to create a race of Ayran super-humans through selective parenting.

[edit] Formation

Babies born during the SS Lebensborn program in 1943.

The RuSHA was founded in 1931 by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré as an SS office. Four years later it was upgraded to an SS Main Office in 1935. Under its first director, Darré, it propagated the Nazi ideology of "Blood and Soil". Darré was dismissed by Himmler in 1938 and was succeeded by SS-Gruppenführer Günther Pancke, SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann in 1940, and SA-Gruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt in 1943.

RuSHA was created to monitor Himmler's 1931 order that the marital decisions of unmarried SS men should be supervised by the Nazi state. SS men would thereafter have to apply for a marriage permit three months before getting married so that the parents of the fiancée could be investigated to ensure her racial purity. With time, the marriage laws became less strict^[2], but RuSHA's power progressively grew in scope and other organizations came under its umbrella, such as the Ahnenerbe.

In December 1935 Himmler ordered RuSHA to establish the Lebensborn network of maternity homes, whose purpose was "to accommodate and look after racially and genetically valuable expectant mothers."

[edit] Organization

In 1935 the RuSHA consisted of seven departments (German: Ämter or Amtsgruppe):

• Amt Organisation und Verwaltungsamt (English: Organisation and Administration)
• Amt Rassenamt (English: Race)
• Amt Schulungsamt (English: Education)
• Amt Sippen und Heiratsamt (English: Family and Marriage)
• Amt Siedlingsamt (English: Settlement)
• Amt fur Archiv und Zeitungswesen (English: Records and Press)
• Amt fur Bevolkerungspolitik (English: Population Policy)

In 1940 the RuSHA was reorganized to create four main departments:

• Amt Verwaltungsamt (English: Administration Office).
• Amt Rassenamt (English: Racial Office), it selected future SS personnel and conducted racial selections.
• Amt Heiratsamt (English: Marriage Office) it controlled the selection of suitable wives by SS men.
• Amt Siedlungsamt (English: Settlement Office), it dealt with the settlement of discharged SS men, especially in the annexed eastern areas.

The Race and Settlement Departments were further divided into the Hauptabteilungen (English: Main Branches). One of these managed welfare and pensions in cooperation with the SS-Hauptfürsorge- und- Versorgungsamt (English: SS Main Welfare and Pension Department) at the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

[edit] Racial policies

Some of the 14 defendants in the RuSHA Trial at Nuremberg read the indictments against them in July 1947.

By 1937 more than 300 SS men had been expelled from the Schutzstaffel for contravening Nazi race laws, although an order later stated that they could remain if they were already married and could satisfy racial criteria. In November 1940, Himmler reinstated all SS personnel expelled under the marriage laws, provided they met racial requirements of the NSDAP.

Following the invasion of Soviet Russia in 1941, RuSHA worked in partnership with VOMI in the "Germanization" of the captured territory, monitored the welfare of the settlers, and transplanted ethnic Germans to areas designated for settlement by the SS.

RuSHA was also an advisory and executive office for all questions of racial selection. Racial examinations were performed by Rasse und Siedlungs (RUS) leaders or their racial examiners (German: Eignungspruefer) in connection with:

• Cases where sexual intercourse had occurred between Eastern European POWs or workers and Germans
• Children born to Eastern European workers
• Classification of people of German descent
• Selection of enemy nationals, particularly Poles and Slovakians, for slave labour and Germanization
• Kidnapping of children suitable for Germanization
• Population transfers
• The persecution and liquidation of Jews

The RuSHA also employed Josef Mengele for a short time from November 1940 to early 1941, in Department II of its Family Office, where he was responsible for "care of genetic health" and "genetic health tests".^[3]

[edit] Postwar

In July 1947, 14 officials from the organization were indicted in the RuSHA Trial and tried by the Allied powers at Nuremberg. All were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership of a criminal organization (the SS). All but one (who was acquitted on the two more serious charges) were found guilty and sentenced to between three and 25 years imprisonment.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals: United Nations War Crimes Commission. Wm. S. Hein Publishing. 1997. p. 5. ISBN 1575884038. 

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