SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt

The SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt or WVHA (also SS-WVHA) was the Economics and Administrative Department of the SS. It was formed in March 1942 under the command of Oswald Pohl and evolved to five main divisions (German: Ämter or Amtsgruppe):

*Amt A, Finance, Law and Administration
*Amt B, Supply, Administration and Equipment
*Amt C, Buildings and Works
*Amt D, Concentration Camps-SS Gruppenfuhrer Richard Gluecks
*Amt W, Economics

The main purpose of the WVHA was to manage the finances and maintain the supply system for the Allgemeine-SS. The WVHA was also put in charge for the management of numerous commercial ventures in which the SS has been increasingly engaging since the mid-1930s.

Some English texts refer to the WVHA as "Department W" when translating.

Amtsgruppe W

The "Amt W" was the WVHA's largest and most valuable division. Thriving on seemingly imminent supply of slave labor provided by the SS-operated concentration camps, the "Amt W" was in a position of producing and delivering products to the market cheaply, quickly and in large quantities. Considering the scale of its commercial operations and the growing influence on economic life of the country, the fact that the WVHA became a valuable cash cow for the Himmler's organization was nevertheless difficult to hide and was constantly causing outrage among many senior officers of the Nazi party. In an effort to curb the SS economic expansion, the German government even introduced restrictions on the ownership of businesses. This move had only a marginal effect on the operations of the SS, which in many cases controlled the entire product cycle—from extraction of raw materials to manufacture and distribution—either directly or through a complex network of shell companies set up by Pohl as privately owned businesses. By 1945, the WVHA controlled over 500 businesses throughout Germany, with some products dominating the entire industries as with the Apollinaris mineral water, Allach porcelain or DEST (building material and armament). After the invasion of the Soviet Union, the SS also gained operational control of the majority of the Soviet manufacturing and mining assets on occupied territories. Additionally, the SS was producing on a contract basis some military clothing and accessories for the Wehrmacht and provided slave labor for private companies, including Heinkel, I.G. Farben, Junkers, Krupp, Messerschmitt, Salzgitter, and Siemens-Schuckertwerke. At locations like St. Georgen and Gusen Pohl managed successfully to make leading armament producers like Messerschmitt GmbH or Steyr-Daimler-Puch fully dependable on deliveries by companies of Amtsgruppe W.

"Department W", as it was called in the film Schindler's List, is mentioned in the movie when Oskar Schindler tells the SS guards in his home town that "under Department W provisions it is unlawful to kill a worker without just cause" and that an SS soldier could be arrested and sued for summary executions. This was actually true, but not for any concern over Jewish life on the part of the SS, but rather to protect German industrialists who employed Jewish skilled labor and could not afford to have SS guards randomly killing their workers.

Himmler's commercial empire

Some commercial ventures and assets owned or operated by the SS through its WVHA units:
* Land and forests
* Brick factories
* Stone quarries
* Fine porcelain and pottery factories
* Building materials factories
* Cement factory
* Mineral water extraction and bottling
* Meat processing
* Bakeries
* Small arms manufacturing and repair
* Wooden furniture design and production
* Military clothing and accessories
* Herbal medicine
* Fish processing
* Publishing of books and magazines on Germanic culture and history
* Art acquisition and restoration
* Production of Damascus blades

External links

* The [http://www.rgolz.de/d-wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt.html Building today (former WVHA] (at Berlin Lichterfelde) and Informationsdesks (1999; R. Golz)