SS Main Economic and Administrative Office

The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office , abbreviated SS-WVHA, was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects for the Allgemeine-SS. It also ran the concentration camps and was instrumental in the implementation of the Final Solution through such subsidiary offices as the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and SS camp guards.

In June 1939 SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl became chief of both the Verwaltung und Wirtschaft Hauptamt and the Hauptamt Haushalt und Bauten . He oversaw all SS "construction projects and building enterprises" through these offices. Pohl also worked with Walther Funk, Reich Minister of Economics , to oversee financial aspects of the Final Solution, the most deadly phase of the Holocaust. Valuables such as gold watches, rings, even tooth fillings, glasses, and currency were taken from the inmates on arrival at the death camps. These items were then sent back to Berlin in WVHA-marked crates for processing at the Reichsbank, under its director Emil Puhl.

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