During World War II, Nazi Germany fielded nearly 40 divisions of the so-called Waffen (or armed) SS, creating a private army for SS leader Heinrich Himmler. These divisions fought on every front of the war in Europe, often committing war crimes and atrocities. After the war, the Nuremburg Tribunal declared the SS a criminal organization. However, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists glorified the Waffen SS and eventually began to use the various divisional insignia of these military formations as hate symbols. They even introduced their own variants, taking the outline shapes used in these symbols and inserting other hate symbols or graphics within them.
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