Editing Allgemeine SS (section)

==Formation and service==
After the ''[[Machtergreifung]]'' (seizure of power) by the NSDAP in January 1933, the SS began to expand into a massive organization. By the end of 1932 it included over 52,000 members.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=16}} By December 1933 the SS increased to 204,000 members and Himmler ordered a temporary freeze on recruitment.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=16}}

On 20 April 1934, [[Hermann Göring|Göring]] and Himmler agreed to put aside their differences, largely because of their mutual hatred of the SA. Göring transferred control of the [[Gestapo]] to Himmler, who was also named chief of all German police forces outside [[Prussia]]. Two days later Himmler named [[Reinhard Heydrich]] the head of the Gestapo.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=61}} The SS was further cemented when both it and the Gestapo participated in the destruction of the SA leadership during the [[Night of the Long Knives]] from 30 June to 2 July 1934. They either killed or arrested every major SA leader, above all [[Ernst Röhm]].{{sfn|Hildebrand|1984|pp=13–14}}

Himmler was later named the chief of all German police in June 1936,{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}} and the Gestapo was incorporated with the [[Kriminalpolizei (Nazi Germany)|Kripo]] (Criminal Police) into sub-branches of the [[Sicherheitspolizei|SiPo]]. Heydrich was made head of the SiPo and continued as chief of the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=201, 469, 470}}

In August 1934, Himmler received permission from Hitler to form a new organisation from the ''SS Sonderkommandos'' and the ''Politischen Bereitschaften'', the ''[[SS-Verfügungstruppe]]'' (SS-VT). This was a paramilitary force, which in war was to be subordinate to the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' ("Armed Forces"), but remained under Himmler's control in times of peace and under Hitler's personal control regardless. According to this restructure, the SS now housed three different subordinate commands:

# ''Allgemeine SS''
# ''SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (SS-VT){{sfn|Stein|1984|p=23}}
# ''SS-Wachverbände'', known as the SS-''Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV) from 29 March 1936, forward{{sfn|Padfield|2001|p=129}}{{sfn|Buchheim|1968|p=258}}

Himmler further conducted additional purges of the SS to exclude those deemed to be opportunists, [[Alcoholism|alcoholics]], [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], or of uncertain racial status. This "house cleaning" removed some 60,000 SS members by December 1935. By 1939, the SS had risen again and reached its peak with an estimated 240,000 members.{{sfn|Snyder|1994|p=330}}

By the outbreak of [[World War II]] in Europe, the SS had solidified into its final form. Correspondingly, the term "SS" could be applied to three separate organizations, mainly the ''Allgemeine SS'', ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' and the Waffen-SS, which until July 1940 was officially known as the SS-VT.{{sfn|Stein|1984|p=23}}{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=156}} When the war first began, the vast majority of SS members belonged to the ''Allgemeine SS'', but this statistic changed during the later stages of the war when the Waffen-SS opened up membership for non-Germans.{{sfn|Koehl|2004|pp=212–213}}{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=458}} Further, with Himmler as Chief of the German Police, the SS also controlled the uniformed ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' (Order Police).{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}}