| Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS | |
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 SS christening of a child born through the RuSHA'sLebensborn program in 1936 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | c. 1931 |
| Dissolved | 8 May 1945 |
| Jurisdiction |  GermanyGerman-occupied Europe |
| Headquarters | SS Main Office,Prinz-Albrecht-Straße,Berlin |
| Employees | 1,500 (c. 1942) |
| Minister responsible |
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| Agency executives |
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| Parent agency |  Allgemeine SS |
TheSS Race and Settlement Main Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS,RuSHA) was the organization responsible for "safeguarding the racial purity of the SS" withinNazi Germany.[1]
One of its duties was to oversee the marriages ofSS personnel in accordance with theracial policy of Nazi Germany. AfterHeinrich Himmler introduced the "marriage order" on 31 December 1931, the RuSHA would only issue a permit to marry once detailed background investigations into the racial fitness of both prospective parents had been completed and proved both of them to be of Aryan descent back to 1800.[2][3]
The RuSHA was founded in 1931 byReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler andRichard Walther Darré, who later rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer. In 1935, it was upgraded to an SS Main Office. Under its first director, Darré, it propagated the Nazi ideology ofblood and soil. Darré was dismissed by Himmler in 1938 and was succeeded by SS-GruppenführerGünther Pancke, SS-GruppenführerOtto Hofmann in 1940, and then SS-ObergruppenführerRichard Hildebrandt in 1943.[4][5]
The RuSHA was created in part to monitorHimmler's 1931 order that the marital decisions of unmarriedSS men should be supervised by theNazi state. SS men would thereafter have to apply for a marriage permit three months before getting married so that the parents of the fiancée could be investigated to ensure her racial purity. With time, the marriage laws became less strict.[6] Thereafter, in December 1935 Himmler ordered the RuSHA to establish theLebensborn network of maternity homes, whose purpose was "to accommodate and look after racially and genetically valuable expectant mothers." The RuSHA increasingly focused on processing SS marriage applications, genealogy, "racial-biological" investigations and the social welfare services of SS members.[7]
In 1935 the RuSHA consisted of seven departments (German:Ämter or Amtsgruppen):
In 1940 it was reorganized to create four main departments:
The Race and Settlement Departments were further divided into theHauptabteilungen (Main Branches). One of these managed welfare and pensions in cooperation with theSS-Hauptfürsorge- und Versorgungsamt (SS Main Welfare and Pension Department) at theReich Ministry of the Interior.
| No. | Portrait | Chief of RuSHA | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Darré, RichardSS-Gruppenführer Richard Walther Darré (1895–1953) | 1 January 1932 | 12 September 1938 | 6 years, 254 days |
| 2 | .jpg) | Pancke, GüntherSS-Brigadeführer Günther Pancke (1899–1973) | 12 September 1938 | 9 July 1940 | 1 year, 301 days |
| 3 |  | Hofmann, OttoSS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann (1896–1982) | 9 July 1940 | 20 April 1943 | 2 years, 285 days |
| 4 |  | Hildebrandt, RichardSS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt (1897–1951) | 20 April 1943 | 8 May 1945 | 2 years, 18 days |
By 1937 more than 300 men had been expelled from the SS for violating Nazi race laws (Rassenschande), although an order later stated that they could remain if they were already married and could satisfy racial criteria. In November 1940, Himmler reinstated all SS personnel expelled under the marriage laws, provided they met racial requirements of theNazi Party.
Following theinvasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the RuSHA worked in partnership withVOMI in theGermanization of captured territory, monitoring of settler welfare, and theplantation ofethnic Germans in areas designated for settlement by the SS, particularly in occupied Ukraine. This involved, in part, the settling of Germans in the Nazi-occupied Eastern territories and ejecting the native families from those lands.
The RuSHA was also an advisory and executive office for all questions of racial selection. Racial examinations were performed byRasse und Siedlungs (RUS) leaders or their racial examiners (Eignungsprüfer) in connection with:
The RuSHA also employedJosef Mengele for a short time from November 1940 to early 1941, in Department II of its Family Office, where he was responsible for "care of genetic health" and "genetic health tests".[8] He went on to become one of the team of doctors responsible for the selection of victims to be killed in thegas chambers and for performing deadlyhuman experiments on prisoners atAuschwitz concentration camp.[9]
In July 1947, 14 officials from the organization were indicted in theRuSHA Trial and tried by theAllied powers atNuremberg. All were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in a criminal organization (the SS). All but one (who was acquitted on the two more serious charges) were found guilty and sentenced to between three and 25 years imprisonment. Hildebrandt was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. He was then extradited to Poland and tried for his criminal actions there. He was convicted of war crimes and executed.[10]
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