Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt/Definition

The major department of the SS that had responsibilities for economic affairs. Since concentration camps were considered slave labor resources as well as potential sources of confiscated goods, the actual operation of the camps, as opposed to sending people to them, was under the WVHA. While security organizations such as the RSHA and Gestapo operated in the camps, they did not control them, just as the actual guards were from yet another SS organization, a division of the Waffen-SS.