What does SS stand for?

Answer 1

The abbreviation "SS"

• S.S. in front of the name of a ship stands for Steamship.

• SS is often used in the US as an abbreviation for social security.

• SS in the context of the Holocaust and World War 2 stands for Schutzstaffel which, translated literally, means Protective Squad. (Orginally, it provided bodyguards for leading Nazis). As the literal translation conveys just about nothing to people who don't already know what it was, it is common to refer to it in English simply as the SS. It was the SS that was in charge of the Holocaust.

  The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, the Party's "praetorian guard", with all SS personnel selected (in principle, anyway) on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to Führer and the Nazi Party.

  The SS military branch, the Waffen-SS, evolved into a second German army in addition to the regular German army, the Wehrmacht.

Answer 2

Schutzstaffel