Like no other organization, the SS represented the structure and the criminal character of National Socialism. This book brings together numerous new facets of the history of the SS based on the current state of research for the first time. Concentrated like in a magnifying glass, significant developments of the SS since 1933 manifested in the Westphalian Wewelsburg near Paderborn. Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer-SS, had the local Renaissance castle expanded into a center for his organization. Here, in the heart of the German Reich, a meeting place and a site of self-affirmation for the SS leadership, the SS group leaders, were to be established. Himmler developed gigantic plans for this purpose. In 1934, their implementation began. Specifically for this purpose, he had the Niederhagen concentration camp built in Wewelsburg.