Leibstandarte

…in 1932 evolved into the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler (LAH), which served as Hitler’s personal army and later became a division in the Waffen-SS. As a reward for the role played by the LAH in the violent purge of Ernst Röhm and other high-ranking SA officers in June 1934, Dietrich was…

…up of three subgroups: the Leibstandarte, Hitler’s personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death’s-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps and a vast empire of slave labor drawn from the Jews and the populations of the occupied territories; and the Verfügungstruppen (Disposition Troops), which swelled to 39 divisions in World War II