member_of erich kempka
The ___MASK61___ ( SS ; also stylized as with Armanen runes literally " Protection Squadron ") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers ' Party ( NSDAP ; Nazi Party ) in Nazi Germany . It began with a small guard unit known as the " Saal - Schutz " ( Hall - Protection ) made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich . In 1925 , Heinrich Himmler joined the unit , which had by then been reformed and given its final name . Under his direction ( 1929  45 ), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany . From 1929 until the regime ' s collapse in 1945 , the SS was the foremost agency of surveillance and terror within Germany and German - occupied Europe . World War II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' ___MASK71___ nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing military alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history . The Holocaust ( from the Greek ': " hólos ", " whole " and " kaustós ", " burnt "), also referred to as the Shoah "' ( Hebrew : , " HaShoah ", " the catastrophe "), was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler ' ___MASK71___ Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million Jews . The victims included 1 . 5 million children and represented about two - thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe . Some definitions of the Holocaust include the additional five million non - Jewish victims of Nazi mass murders , bringing the total to about 11 million . Killings took place throughout Nazi Germany , German - occupied territories , and territories held by allies of Nazi Germany . The Waffen - SS ( Armed SS ) was the armed wing of the Nazi Party ' ___MASK71___ SS organisation . Its formations included men from Nazi Germany , along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un - occupied lands . The SS Main Office ( SS - HA ) was the central command office of the " ___MASK61___ " ( SS ) in Nazi Germany until 1940 . The " Führer " Headquarters (" Führerhauptquartiere " in German ), abbreviated FHQ , is a common name for a number of official headquarters used by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and various German commanders and officials throughout ___MASK48___ during the Second World War . Perhaps the most widely known headquarters was the " Führerbunker " in Berlin , Germany , where Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945 . Other notable headquarters are the " Wolfsschanze " ( Wolf ' ___MASK71___ Lair ) in East Prussia , where Claus von Stauffenberg in league with other conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944 , and Hitler ' ___MASK71___ private home , the " Berghof ", at Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden , where he frequently met with prominent foreign and domestic officials . ___MASK26___ Socialist German Workers ' Party ( abbreviated NSDAP ), commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party , was a political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945 and practised the ideology of Nazism . Its precursor , the German Workers ' Party (" Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; DAP ), existed from 1919 to 1920 . SS - Obersturmbannführer ( Lieutenant colonel ) Erich Kempka ( 16 September 1910 -- 24 January 1975 ) served as Adolf Hitler ' ___MASK71___ chauffeur from 1934 to April , 1945 . He was present in the area of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945 , when Hitler shot himself in the Führerbunker . Kempka delivered the gasoline to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned . He was SS member # 2 , 803 and served in the Allgemeine SS . Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwi ( 13 June 1775  7 April 1833 ) was a Polish and Prussian noble , aristocrat , musician and politician . Initially a hereditary Duke of Niewie and Oyka , as a scion of the Radziwi ___MASK31___ he also held the honorific title of a " Reichsfürst " of the Holy Roman Empire . Between 1815 and 1831 he acted as " Duke - Governor " of the Grand Duchy of Posen , an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Prussia created out of Greater Polish lands annexed in the Partitions of Poland . Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in central - western ___MASK48___ . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous member state of the ___MASK41___ . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . Germany ' ___MASK71___ capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . Munich ( also in British English ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria , on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps . Munich is the third largest city in Germany , after Berlin and Hamburg , and the 12th biggest city of the ___MASK41___ , with a population of above 1 . 5 million . The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5 . 8 million people . A paramilitary is a semi - militarized force whose organizational structure , tactics , training , subculture , and ( often ) function are similar to those of a professional military , but which is not included as part of a state ' ___MASK71___ formal armed forces . Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states . With a population of approximately ___MASK79___ . 5 million people , Berlin is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the ___MASK41___ . Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of rivers Spree and Havel , it is the centre of the Berlin - Brandenburg Metropolitan Region , which has about 6 million residents from more than 180 nations . Due to its location in the European Plain , Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate . Around one - third of the city ' ___MASK71___ area is composed of forests , parks , gardens , rivers and lakes . Adolf Hitler ( 20 April 1889  30 April 1945 ) was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party (" Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; NSDAP ), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 , and Führer (" Leader ") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945 . As dictator of the German Reich , he initiated World War II in ___MASK48___ with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust . The ___MASK67___ ( lit . " defence force ") was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946 . It consisted of the " Heer " ( army ), the " Kriegsmarine " ( navy ) and the " Luftwaffe " ( air force ). The designation " ___MASK67___ " for Nazi Germany ' ___MASK71___ military replaced the previously used term , " Reichswehr " ( 1919  35 ), and was the manifestation of Nazi Germany ' ___MASK71___ efforts to rearm the nation to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted . Luxury vehicle is a marketing term for a vehicle that provides luxury  pleasant or desirable features ___MASK73___ strict necessity  at increased expense ( see luxury goods ). Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945 , when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' ___MASK71___ rule , Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from 1933 to 1943 and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from 1943 to 1945 . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945 , ending World War II in Europe . Eva Anna Paula Hitler (" née " Braun ; 6 February 1912  30 April 1945 ) was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and , for less than 40 hours , his wife . Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was 17 years old , while she was working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer , and began seeing him often about two years later . She attempted suicide ___MASK7___ during their early relationship . By 1936 , she was a part of his household at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and lived a sheltered life throughout World War II . Braun was a photographer , and many of the surviving colour photographs and films of Hitler were taken by her . She was a key figure within Hitler ' ___MASK71___ inner social circle , but did not attend public events with him until mid - 1944 , when her sister Gretl married Hermann Fegelein , the SS liaison officer on his staff . Deutsches Reich was the official name for the German nation state from 1871 to 1943 in the German language . It translates literally to " German Empire ", with a context approximating that of " German Realm ". From 1943 to 1945 , the official name was  but not formally proclaimed  Großdeutsches Reich (" Great German Reich ") on account of the new territories annexed into the state ' ___MASK71___ administration during the Second World War . World War I ( WWI or WW1 ), also known as the First World War , or the Great War , was a global war originating in ___MASK48___ that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 . More than 70 million military personnel , including 60 million Europeans , were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history . Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war ( including the victims of a number of genocides ), a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents ' technological and industrial sophistication , and the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare . It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , and paved the way for major political changes , including revolutions in many of the nations involved . Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations , such as the SA , SS , NSKK and the NSFK . First founded as a title in 1925 , in 1928 the rank became one of the first commissioned Nazi ranks and was bestowed upon those SA and SS officers who commanded units known as " Standarten " which were regiment - sized formations of between three hundred and five hundred ___MASK91___ . SS - Totenkopfverbände ( SS - TV ), rendered in English as ___MASK97___ ' ___MASK71___ Head Units , was the SS organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps for the Third Reich , among similar duties . While the " Totenkopf " ( skull ) was the universal cap badge of the SS , the SS - TV also wore the ___MASK97___ ' ___MASK71___ Head insignia on the right collar when needed ; to distinguish itself from other Nazi " ___MASK61___ " ( SS ) formations . Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps ( KZ or KL ) throughout the territories it controlled before and during the Second World War . The first Nazi camps were erected in Germany in March 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor and his Nazi Party was given control over ___MASK99___ through Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick and Prussian Acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring . Used to hold and torture political opponents and union organizers , the camps initially held around 45 , 000 prisoners . A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle , especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine . A woman employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle is a chauffeuse . Hans Otto Georg Hermann Fegelein ( 30 October 1906  28 April 1945 ) was a high - ranking commander in the Waffen - SS of Nazi Germany . He was a member of Adolf Hitler ' ___MASK71___ entourage and brother - in - law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister , Gretl . The Invasion of Poland , also known as the September Campaign , or the 1939 Defensive War in Poland ( or " Wojna obronna 1939 roku "), and alternatively the Poland Campaign or " Fall Weiss " in Germany ( Case White ), was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany , the Free City of Danzig , the ___MASK93___ , and a small Slovak contingent , that marked the beginning of World War II in ___MASK48___ . The German invasion began on 1 September 1939 , one week after the signing of the Molotov  Ribbentrop Pact , while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov - Tg agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September . The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the ___MASK93___ dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German - Soviet Frontier Treaty . The Allgemeine SS ( General SS ) was the most numerous branch of the " ___MASK61___ " ( SS ) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany , and it was managed by the SS Main Office (" SS - Hauptamt "). The " Allgemeine SS " was officially established in the autumn of 1934 to distinguish its members from the " SS - Verfügungstruppe " ( SS Dispositional Troops or SS - VT ) which later became the Waffen - SS , and the " SS - Totenkopfverbände " ( SS Death ' s Head Units or SS - TV ) which managed the Nazi concentration camps . The Führerbunker was an air - raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin , Germany . It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases which were completed in 1936 and 1944 . It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (" Führerhauptquartiere ") used by Adolf Hitler during World War II . Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS . It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional rank above " Sturmbannführer " as the SA expanded . It became an SS rank at the same time . Translated as " senior assault ( or storm ) unit leader ", " Obersturmbannführer " was junior to " Standartenführer " and was the equivalent to " Oberstleutnant " ( lieutenant colonel ) in the German Army . The insignia for " Obersturmbannführer " was four silver pips and a stripe , centered on the left collar of an SS / SA uniform . The rank also displayed the shoulder boards of a ___MASK67___ " Oberstleutnant " and was the highest SS / SA rank to display unit insignia on the opposite collar . The Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany ( then called " Reichskanzler ") in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945 . The Chancellery ' ___MASK71___ seat from 1875 was the former city palace of Prince Antoni Radziwi ( 1775  1833 ) on Wilhelmstraße in Berlin . Both the palace and a new Reich Chancellery building ( completed in early 1939 ) were seriously damaged during World War II and subsequently demolished .