S.A.: Sturmabteilung (“assault section”). Private militia made up of N.S.D.A.P. thugs in brown uniforms. At first the S.S. was merely a branch of it. The S.A., led by Ernst Röhm, operated in almost all the concentration camps after Hitler took power. On the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) Röhm and his main henchmen were murdered and Himmler’s S.S. replaced the S.A., in particular in the K.L.

SAW: Wehrmacht Angeböriger. Nazi cateory of classification in the camps: Wehrmacht draft-dodger.

SCHUTZHAFT: The decree “For the defence of the people and the State” issued on 28 February 1933 created the procedure of Schutzhaft (“protective custody”), which allowed the Nazi régime to put all political opponents in concentration camps, where they wore a red triangle. From April 1934, opponents could also be imprisoned in places under the official control of the justice ministry.

SCT: Service du Contrôle Technique (“Technical Control Department”). Vichy’s mail censorship and wiretapping department, which intercepted thousands of letters a week throughout France and used them to mine information about topics that the government considered the most important and sensitive areas of political and public opinion. Most of the letters were sent on to their addresees as though they had not been opened. The department’s reports and conclusions were sent to the prefect and the interior minister. The system turned into a political surveillance operation that was increasingly put under Vichy’s direct control.

SD: abbreviation for Sicherheitsdienst, the Nazi Party security service.

SELECTION RAMP: At Auschwitz, deportee conveys arrived directly inside the camp near the dormitory blocks of Auschwitz-I. In 1942 another access ramp was built (Judenrampe) for convoys of Jewish deportees. In May 1944 a new ramp was built to bring the convoys into the heart of Birkenau. SS men on the ramp selected Jews as they got out of the train cars, sending some to the gas chambers and others to the concentration camp.

SIPO-SD: abbreviation for the Reichsicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) police services.

SMO: Service militaire obligatoire (“compulsory military service”). In 1942 it was imposed on the countries Germany had annexed.

SNM: Service national du maquis (“national maquis service”). The MUR set up this organisation in April 1943 to promote and coordinate the creation of the maquis as a form of resistance separate from the AS. Its leader was Michel Brault.

SOE: Special Operations Executive. British secret organisation created to wage the war against Germany in occupied Europe. Section F headed by Major (later Colonel) Maurice Buckmaster was the main corps. It sent British agents to France, who set up approximately 100 independent networks by recruiting French Resistance members. Another section, RF, was less important but also operated in France with French agents and cooperated more closely with the Gaullist BCRA.

SONDERKOMMANDO: “special commando” of deportees in charge of carrying and cremating bodies and pulling out gold teeth. The members were executed on a regular basis and replaced by other deportees.

SS: Schutzstaffeln (protection section). At first, the SS, which Heinrich Himmler organized in 1923, were Hitler’s personal bodyguard, recognisable by their black shirts. The SS had 280 members by 1929 and 50,000 on the eve of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor on 30 January 1933. It grew more powerful from one year to the next. After the liquidation of the S.A., Himmler and his S.S. took over all the police forces and concentration camps. In 1936 the S.S. had 210,000 men and the “Totenkopf” (“death’s heads”) were put in charge of running the camps. The Waffen-S.S. did not appear until after the Second World War broke out. It had up to 40 divisions in charge of the most criminal tasks, including several armoured divisions in France that were the most ruthless in the struggle against the maquis. The Nuremberg court denounced the S.S. as a criminal organisation.

S.S. (ranks):

• S.S. Reichsführer Himmler was at the top;
• Obersführer, Obergruppenführer, Brigadeführer (generals);
• Standartentührer (colonel) ;
• Obrsturmbann-führer (lieutenant-colonel) ;
• Sturmbannfuhrer (major);
• Hauptsturmführer (captain) ;
• Obersturmführer (lieutenant) ;
• Untersturmführer (second Iieutenant) ;
• Sturmschartührer (warrant officer class I) ;
• Hauptscharführer (warrant officer class II) ;
• Oberschartührer (caporal-chef);
• Rottenführer (corporal).

S.S. (functions):
Rank must not be confused with function.

Lagerkommandant, Lagerführer, Rapportführer, Blockführer, Kommandoführer,     Arbeitsdiensfführer, Arbeitsführer, etc., were functions performed by S.S. of all ranks.

SSR: Service de Santé de la Résistance (“Resistance Health Service”). Formed at the national and local level of the MUR starting in 1943.

STO: Service du Travail Obligatoire (“Compulsory Labour Service”). Succeeded the prisoner-for-worker exchange programme. Labour service, intended to fill Sauckel’s labour requirements in Germany, was instituted on 6 February 1943 and compulsory for nearly all Frenchmen between the ages of 20 and 23. It was later complicated by a number of changes, extensions and exemptions, yet Sauckel demanded more and more workers. There was an interruption of departures for Germany during the last months of 1943 and Laval suspended the entire process on 23 June 1944. The retreating Nazis had stopped insisting on its application. They had set up conscripted labour programmes in other occupied countries as well.

STUCKEN: German word for “pieces”. The SS deliberately used this scornful term to mean deportees in order to show that they no longer belonged to the human race.

SV: Sicherheitsverwahrungshäftling. Nazi category of classification in the camps: common-law repeat offender.