SA (Sturmabteilung, “Stormtroops”): Paramilitary units of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) who played a major role during the rise to power of the Party and just after the Seizure of Power in January 1933. In June 1934, with the support of the SS and the Wehrmacht, Hitler liquidated the leaders of the SA, including its chief, Ernst Röhm. The SA continued to exist until the fall of the regime, but no longer played any political role.

SD (Hauptamt Sicherheitsdienst, “Main Office of the Security Service”): SS structure created in the autumn of 1931 under command of Reinhard Heydrich. See also RSHA.

SP (Hauptamt Sicherheitspolizei, “Main Office of the Security Police”): Sometimes called Sipo. See also RSHA.

SPIESS: Familiar term designating the noncom in charge of a company, usually a Hauptfeldwebel (Sergeant-Major).

SS (Schutzstaffel, “Protection Detachment”): The first SS units were formed within the National Socialist Party in the summer of 1925, initially as bodyguards for the Führer, Adolf Hitler, who was already seeking to create a counterweight to the SA. Heinrich Himmler was appointed Reichsführer-SS, “Supreme Leader of the SS,” on January 6, 1929. The SS became completely independent of the SA in the fall of 1930 and played a major role in the elimination of its leaders in June 1934.

STO (Service du travail obligatoire): Program instituted in France by the German occupants to send forcibly recruited workers to Germany.

VOLKSDEUTSCHEN: Unlike Reichsdeutschen, these were Germans who had been living for several generations abroad, most of them in homogeneous communities.

WVHA (Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, “Economy and Administration Main Office”): This SS structure was created in the beginning of 1942 to regroup the administrative-economic branch of the SS, the branches in charge of matters of construction and supplies, the economic enterprises of the SS, and the Inspectorate for Concentration Camps (IKL). Headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, Himmler’s economic éminence grise, the WVHA included five Amtsgruppe, or “groups of offices”: Amtsgruppe A, Truppenverwaltung (“Troop Administration”), and Amtsgruppe B, Truppenwirtschaft (“Troop Finance”), managing all questions of administration and supply for the Waffen-SS (the fighting units of the SS) as well as the concentration camp guards; Amtsgruppe C, Bauweisen (“Construction”), including all technical services of the SS linked to building; the Amtsgruppe D was the rebaptized IKL; as for the Amtsgruppe W, Wirtschaftliche Unternehmungen (“Economic Enterprises”), it covered the immense SS economic empire, which included firms in sectors as diverse as construction, armaments, mineral water, textiles, and publishing.

TABLE OF GERMAN RANKS WITH APPROXIMATE AMERICAN EQUIVALENTS

SS * Wehrmacht * Police * American Army

Reichsführer-SS * — * — * —

— * Generalfeldmarschall * — * General of the Armies

SS-Oberstgruppenführer * Generaloberst * Generaloberst der Polizei * General

SS-Obergruppenführer * General. * General der.Polizei * Lieutenant General

SS-Gruppenführer * Generalleutnant * Generalleutnant d.P. * —

SS-Brigadeführer * Generalmajor * Generalmajor d.P. * Brigadier General

SS-Oberführer * — * — * —

SS-Standartenführer * Oberst * Oberst d.P. * Colonel

SS-Obersturmbannführer * Oberstleutnant * Oberstleutnant d.P. * Lieutenant-Colonel

SS-Sturmbannführer * Major * Major d.P. * Major

SS-Hauptsturmführer * Hauptmann * Hauptmann d.P. * Captain

SS-Obersturmführer * Oberleutnant * Oberleutnant d.P. * Lieutenant

S-Untersturmführer * Leutnant * Leutnant d.P. * Second Lieutenant

S-Sturmscharführer * Hauptfeldwebel * Meister * Sergeant-Major

SS-Stabsscharführer * Stabsfeldwebel * — * Master Sergeant

SS-Hauptscharführer * Oberfeldwebel * — * Sergeant First Class

S-Obersharführer * SS-Obersharführer * — * Staff Sergeant

SS-Scharführer * Unterfeldwebel * Hauptwachtmeister * Sergeant

SS-Unterscharführer * Unteroffizier * Rev. O. Wachtmeister * Corporal

SS-Rottenführer * Stabsgefreiter * Oberwachtmeister * Specialist

* Obergefreiter * * —

* Gefreiter * Wachtmeister * —

SS-Sturmmann * Oberschütze * Rottwachtmeister * Private First Class

SS-Oberschütze * Schütze * Unterwachtmeister * Private

SS-Schütze * Gemeiner, Landser * Anwärter * Private Recruit

About the Author and the Translator

JONATHAN LITTELL was born in 1967 in New York of American parents but was raised and educated mostly in France. Previously he worked for the humanitarian agency Action contre la Faim, mainly in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He now lives in Spain.

CHARLOTTE MANDELL has translated fiction, poetry, and philosophy from the French, including works by Proust, Flaubert, Genet, Maupassant, Blanchot, and other distinguished authors. Her translation of The Kindly Ones is the sole English-language version.

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