Obersturmbannführer

An SS-Obersturmbannführer wearing the uniform of the Waffen-SS

Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time.^[1] Translated as "senior assault (or storm) unit leader",^[2] Obersturmbannführer was junior to Standartenführer and was the equivalent to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) in the German Army.^[3] The insignia for Obersturmbannführer was four silver pips and a stripe, centered on the left collar of an SS/SA uniform.^[4] The rank also displayed the shoulder boards of a Wehrmacht Oberstleutnant and was the highest SS/SA rank to display unit insignia on the opposite collar.^[5]

Adolf Eichmann

The rank was held by Adolf Eichman, shown on trial in 1961

Adolf Eichmann was one promoted to Obersturmbannführer in 1940 and was listed as such in the minutes of the Wannsee Conference. During the Eichmann trial for crimes against humanity in 1962, chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner drew attention to the significance and responsibility of Eichmann's Obersturmbannführer rank when, in response to Eichmann's claim that he was merely a clerk obeying orders, Hausner asked him, “Were you an Obersturmbannführer or an office girl?”

In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt disputes the notion that Obersturmbannführer was a rank of significance, pointing out that Eichmann spent the war "dreaming" about promotion to Standartenführer. Arendt also points out that "... people like Eichmann, who had risen from the ranks, were never permitted to advance beyond a lieutenant colonel [i.e., the rank of Obersturmbannführer] except at the front."^[6]

Insignia

• 

  Shoulder mark

• 

  Gorget patches

• 

  Military camouflage

Junior Rank Sturmbannführer

SS rank and SA rank Obersturmbannführer

Senior Rank Standartenführer

See also

• Table of ranks and insignia of the Waffen-SS

Notes

1. McNab 2009, pp. 29, 30.
2. McNab (II) 2009, p. 15.
3. Yerger 1997, p. 236.
4. Flaherty 2004, p. 148.
5. Stein 1984, p. 300 chart.
6. Arendt 2006, p. 147.

Bibliography

• Arendt, Hannah (2006). Eichmann in Jerusalem. Penguin Classics.
• Flaherty, T. H. (2004) [1988]. The Third Reich: The SS. Time-Life Books, Inc. ISBN 1 84447 073 3.
• McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
• McNab (II), Chris (2009). The Third Reich. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-51-8.
• Stein, George (1984) [1966]. The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9275-0.
• Toland, John (1999). Battle: The Story of the Bulge. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-9437-9.
• Yerger, Mark C. (1997). Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7643-0145-4.