The SS command of Auschwitz concentration camp refers to those units, commands, and agencies of the German SS which operated and administered the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Due to its large size and key role in the Nazi genocide program, the Auschwitz Concentration Camp encompassed personnel from several different branches of the SS, some of which held overlapping and shared areas of responsibility. There were over 7,000 SS personnel who served at Auschwitz from the time of the camp's construction in 1940 to the camp's liberation by the Red Army in January 1945. Fewer than 800 were ever tried for war crimes, the most notable of which were the trials of camp commanders Rudolf Höss and Robert Mulka, as well as several others tried between 1946 and 1948 Senior chain of command The commander of the SS, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, was the highest SS official with knowledge of Auschwitz and the function which the camp served. Himmler was known to issue direct orders to the camp commander, bypassing all other chain of command, in response to his own directives. Himmler would also occasionally receive broad instructions from Adolf Hitler, which he would then interpret as he saw fit and transmit to the Auschwitz Camp Commander. Below Himmler, the most senior operational SS commander involved with Auschwitz was SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, who served as head of the SS-Economics Main Office, known as the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt or SS-WVHA. Pohl's subordinate, SS-Gruppenführer Richard Glücks, served as the Amtschef (Department Chief) of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate which was known as "Department D" within the WVHA. It was Glücks who may be seen as the direct superior to the camp commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss. In addition to this direct chain of command, the geographical location of Auschwitz placed some of its supply and wartime functions under the authority of Regional SS and Nazi Party leaders. When the camp was first constructed, Auschwitz was located within the borders of the newly established General Government, under the control of Reichsleiter Hans Frank. Before Auschwitz was a death camp, Frank left the running of the camp mostly to the SS, although he did know of the camp's existence since the early Auschwitz fell under his geographical authority. Simultaneously, all SS activities at Auschwitz were under the authority of the Higher SS and Police Leader "Ost" (east) who, during most of Auschwitz's existence, was Friedrich-Wilhelm