1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into an elite divisional-sized unit. The term Leibstandarte was derived partly from Leibgarde "Life Guard" – a somewhat archaic German expression for the personal bodyguard of a military leader - and Standarte: the Schutzstaffel (SS) or Sturmabteilung (SA) term for a regiment-sized unit.
The LSSAH independently participated in combat during the invasion of Poland, and was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and the combat units of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By the end of World War II it had been increased in size from a regiment to a Panzer division. The Leibstandarte division's symbol was a skeleton key, in honour of its first commander, Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (Dietrich is German for skeleton key or lock pick), and it was retained and modified to later serve as the symbol for I SS Panzer Corps. The elite division, a component of the Waffen-SS, was found guilty of war crimes in the Nuremberg Trials. Members of the LSSAH participated in numerous atrocities. They murdered at least an estimated 5,000 prisoners of war in the period 1940–1945, mostly on the Eastern Front.
Read more about 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler: Early History (1923–1933), Expansion, Invasion of Poland, Invasion of France, Brigade Status—Balkans, Operation Barbarossa, Kursk, Italy, Eastern Front, Western Front Normandy, Ardennes Offensive, Eastern Front 1945, Lineage of The Unit
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“This war no longer bears the characteristics of former inter-European conflicts. It is one of those elemental conflicts which usher in a new millennium and which shake the world once in a thousand years.”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
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List to the heavy part the music bears,
“Woe weeps out her division when she sings.”
Droop herbs and flowers;
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—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism.”
—Frank Buchman (1878–1961)
“What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)