Erbprinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont:
1. Overall seniority no: 10.
2. Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Holder of the Golden Party Badge, 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class, Cross of Honour 1914â1918, First World War state combat awards, 1918 Wound Badge in Black, 1939 Bar to the 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class, and Second World War combat awards. Member of Parliament.
3. Holder of the SS Sword of Honour and the SS deathâs head ring.
4. Commander of Oberabschnitt Fulda-Werra and Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer in that Region. General of the Waffen-SS. General of the Police.
5. NSDAP membership no: 160,025.
6. SS membership no: 2,139.
7. Date of birth: 13 May 1896.
8. Appointed to present position: 30 January 1936.
In April 1945, the SS made concerted attempts to destroy all existing copies of the Dienstaltersliste , but a few volumes fell into Allied hands and these proved invaluable reference material during the postwar de-Nazification process. Many prominent Germans who were by then vigorously denying all associations with the NSDAP and its affiliated organisations were suddenly confronted with their names appearing on the Dienstaltersliste and were forced to admit their intimate involvement in the Nazi régime. One of those was none other than the aforementioned Prince Josias, the only member of a German royal house to be tried for war crimes. As commander of the Oberabschnitt in which Buchenwald concentration camp was situated, he was held to be directly responsible for the conditions which prevailed there and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Such accountability for their actions was something totally alien to the SS. One of the most important factors to be taken into account when considering the swingeing powers and activities of the various SS and police forces in their role as supreme guardians of law and order during the Third Reich is that they were themselves placed outside and above the normal German legal system. With the foundation of the SS- und Polizeigerichtsbarkeit (Special Jurisdiction of the SS and Police) during 1939â40, SS men were made responsible only to SS disciplinary officers and SS courts for all crimes and offences committed both inside and outside Germany. The very nature of their work meant that SS members frequently had to infringe the common law in the execution of their duties, and so to achieve its ends the SS hierarchy demanded and ultimately achieved the legal independence necessary to ensure that SS men should not be answerable to the civil courts for unlawful acts committed in the line of duty. The significance of this position cannot be overemphasised, as it guaranteed the whole SS organisation immunity from normal prosecution and hence the legal right, according to its own code, to arrest, imprison, ill-treat and ultimately exterminate its political and racial opponents. This was the basis for the often repeated argument after the war that SS men had âonly been obeying ordersâ. Not only were they simply obeying orders, but they had also been given the legal right to kill, endorsed by the highest courts in the Reich. It was the refusal to obey such orders which was illegal and punishable.
The original decrees and regulations establishing the Special Jurisdiction of the SS and Police continued to be enlarged and supplemented in the years after 1940. On 1 September 1943, the final and definitive SS Disciplinary and Penal Code (Disziplinarstraf- und Beschwerdeordnung der SS, or DBO) came into effect. It was valid for every member of the SS without exception. All SS officers, NCOs and other ranks, male and female, whether Allgemeine-SS, Waffen-SS, full-time, part-time, trainee, auxiliary, inactive or honorary in status, were liable to trial and punishment only by SS courts for all disciplinary and criminal offences they might commit. Where the offences were military ones, they were tried according to military procedures. In the case of criminal
1. Overall seniority no: 10.
2. Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Holder of the Golden Party Badge, 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class, Cross of Honour 1914â1918, First World War state combat awards, 1918 Wound Badge in Black, 1939 Bar to the 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class, and Second World War combat awards. Member of Parliament.
3. Holder of the SS Sword of Honour and the SS deathâs head ring.
4. Commander of Oberabschnitt Fulda-Werra and Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer in that Region. General of the Waffen-SS. General of the Police.
5. NSDAP membership no: 160,025.
6. SS membership no: 2,139.
7. Date of birth: 13 May 1896.
8. Appointed to present position: 30 January 1936.
In April 1945, the SS made concerted attempts to destroy all existing copies of the Dienstaltersliste , but a few volumes fell into Allied hands and these proved invaluable reference material during the postwar de-Nazification process. Many prominent Germans who were by then vigorously denying all associations with the NSDAP and its affiliated organisations were suddenly confronted with their names appearing on the Dienstaltersliste and were forced to admit their intimate involvement in the Nazi régime. One of those was none other than the aforementioned Prince Josias, the only member of a German royal house to be tried for war crimes. As commander of the Oberabschnitt in which Buchenwald concentration camp was situated, he was held to be directly responsible for the conditions which prevailed there and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Such accountability for their actions was something totally alien to the SS. One of the most important factors to be taken into account when considering the swingeing powers and activities of the various SS and police forces in their role as supreme guardians of law and order during the Third Reich is that they were themselves placed outside and above the normal German legal system. With the foundation of the SS- und Polizeigerichtsbarkeit (Special Jurisdiction of the SS and Police) during 1939â40, SS men were made responsible only to SS disciplinary officers and SS courts for all crimes and offences committed both inside and outside Germany. The very nature of their work meant that SS members frequently had to infringe the common law in the execution of their duties, and so to achieve its ends the SS hierarchy demanded and ultimately achieved the legal independence necessary to ensure that SS men should not be answerable to the civil courts for unlawful acts committed in the line of duty. The significance of this position cannot be overemphasised, as it guaranteed the whole SS organisation immunity from normal prosecution and hence the legal right, according to its own code, to arrest, imprison, ill-treat and ultimately exterminate its political and racial opponents. This was the basis for the often repeated argument after the war that SS men had âonly been obeying ordersâ. Not only were they simply obeying orders, but they had also been given the legal right to kill, endorsed by the highest courts in the Reich. It was the refusal to obey such orders which was illegal and punishable.
The original decrees and regulations establishing the Special Jurisdiction of the SS and Police continued to be enlarged and supplemented in the years after 1940. On 1 September 1943, the final and definitive SS Disciplinary and Penal Code (Disziplinarstraf- und Beschwerdeordnung der SS, or DBO) came into effect. It was valid for every member of the SS without exception. All SS officers, NCOs and other ranks, male and female, whether Allgemeine-SS, Waffen-SS, full-time, part-time, trainee, auxiliary, inactive or honorary in status, were liable to trial and punishment only by SS courts for all disciplinary and criminal offences they might commit. Where the offences were military ones, they were tried according to military procedures. In the case of criminal
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