Adolf Hitler--------- Nazi German 2
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In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts.[218] In his "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939, he called for an economic offensive to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such as high-grade iron needed for military weapons.[218] Dell XPS 15-L501X Battery
On 15 March 1939, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets,[219] Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Prague, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.[220Dell XPS 15Z Battery
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Start of World War II
In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude to that goal. The eastern flank would be secured and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.[221Dell XPS 17 Battery
Dell XPS 17-L701X Battery ] Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink".[222] In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence, which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy.[2Dell Inspiron N4020 battery
22] Poland was to either become a German satellite state or be neutralised to secure the Reich's eastern flank and to prevent a possible British blockade.[223] Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939.[224] Dell Inspiron N4030 battery
Dell Inspiron 13R battery On 3 April, Hitler ordered the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"), the plan for invading Poland on 25 August.[2Dell Inspiron N7010R battery
Dell Inspiron N4110 battery24] In a Reichstag speech on 28 April, he renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact. In August, Hitler told his generals that his original plan for 1939 was to "... establish an acceptable relationship with Poland in order to fight against the West".[225Dell Inspiron N5110 battery
Dell Inspiron N5010 battery] Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg, and Ian Kershaw have argued that one reason for Hitler's rush to war was his fear of an early death.[226][227] Dell Inspiron N5010R battery
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Hitler portrayed on a 42 pfennig stamp from 1944. The term Grossdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich) was first used in 1943 for the expanded Germany under his rule.
Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain.[223][229Dell Inspiron N3010R battery
Dell Inspiron 15R battery] Hitler's foreign minister and former Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, assured him that neither Britain nor France would honour their commitments to Poland.[230][231] Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.[232] Dell Inspiron N3010 battery
This plan required tacit Soviet support,[233] and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret agreement to partition Poland between the two countries.[2Dell Inspiron N4010 battery
Dell Inspiron N7010 battery34] Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.[2Dell Inspiron N4010D battery
Dell Inspiron N4010R battery35] Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British and Polish inaction.[236][237HP 634139-031 Keyboard
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Despite his concerns over a British intervention, Hitler continued to pursue the planned invasion of Poland.[238] On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been denied claims to the Free City of Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads across the Polish Corridor, which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty.[23HP 640436-031 Keyboard
9] In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting him to angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?"[240] France and Britain did not act on their declarations immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.[241] HP 634139-001 Keyboard
Poland never will rise again in the form of the Versailles treaty. That is guaranteed not only by Germany, but also ... Russia.[242]
— Adolf Hitler, public speech in Danzig at the end of September 1939
Hitler reviews troops on the march during the campaign against Poland. September 1939
The fall of Poland was followed by what contemporary journalists dubbed the "Phoney War" or Sitzkrieg ("sitting war"). Hitler instructed the two newly appointed Gauleiters of north-western Poland, HP 644356-031 Keyboard
HP 666391-001 Fan Albert Forster of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland, to "Germanise" their areas, with "no questions asked" about how this was accomplished.[243] Whereas Polish citizens in Forster's area merely had to sign forms stating that they had German blood,[244] Greiser carried out a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on the Polish population in his purview.[243HP 640426-001 Fan
] Greiser complained that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be accepted as "racial" Germans and thus endangered German "racial purity". Hitler refrained from getting involved.[243] This inaction has been advanced as an example of the theory of "working towards the Führer":HP 640903-001 Fan
HP 665309-001 Fan Hitler issued vague instructions and expected his subordinates to work out policies on their own.
Another dispute pitched one side represented by Himmler and Greiser, who championed ethnic cleansing in Poland, against another represented by Göring and Hans Frank, Governor-General of the General Government territory of occupied Poland,
HP 653627-001 Fanwho called for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich.[245] On 12 February 1940, the dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended the economically disruptive mass expulsions.[245HP 641477-001 Fan
HP 650848-001 Fan] On 15 May 1940, Himmler issued a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", calling for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and reducing the Polish population to a "leaderless class of labourers".[24HP G72-100 Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B20SA Keyboard5] Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct",[245] and, ignoring Göring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.
Hitler visits Paris with architect Albert Speer (left) and sculptor Arno Breker (right), 23 June 1940
Hitler began a military build-up on Germany's western border, and in April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. On 9 April, Hitler proclaimed the birth of the "Greater Germanic Reich", his vision of a united empire of the Germanic nations of Europe, where the Dutch, HP G72-101SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B15SA KeyboardFlemish, and Scandinavians were joined into a "racially pure" polity under German leadership.[246] In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These victories prompted Mussolini to have Italy join forces with Hitler on 10 June. France surrendered on 22 June.[24HP G72-102SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B02SA Keyboard7] Kershaw notes that Hitler's popularity within Germany—and support for the war— reached its peak when he returned to Berlin on 6 July from his tour of Paris.[248]
Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate France by sea from Dunkirk,[249] continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in South-East England. HP G72-130SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B01SA Keyboard The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain.[250] By the end of October, Hitler realised that air superiority for the invasion of Britain—in Operation Sea Lion—could not be achieved, and he ordered nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.[251]
On 27 September 1940, HP G72-a20SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B01EA Keyboardthe Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Saburō Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Italian foreign minister Ciano,[252] and later expanded to include Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, thus yielding the Axis powers. HP G72-a30SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-A40SA KeyboardHitler's attempt to integrate the Soviet Union into the anti-British bloc failed after inconclusive talks between Hitler and Molotov in Berlin in November, and he ordered preparations for a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union.[253]
In the Spring of 1941, German forces were deployed to North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. In February, German forces arrived in Libya to bolster the Italian presence. In April, Hitler launched the invasion of Yugoslavia, quickly followed by the invasion of Greece.[254] HP G72-b01EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-A30SA Keyboard In May, German forces were sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete.[255]
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On 22 June 1941, contravening the Hitler–Stalin non-aggression pact of 1939, 5.5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. This large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers.[256][25HP G72-b02SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-105SA Keyboard7] The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily diverted its Panzer groups north and south to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[25HP G72-b15SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-102SA Keyboard8] His generals disagreed with this change of targets, and his decision caused a major crisis among the military leadership.[259][260] The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilize fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed only in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.[258] HP G72 Keyboard
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Hitler during his speech to the Reichstag attacking American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 11 December 1941
On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Hitler formally declared war against the United States.[261]
On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").[2HP G72 PC Series Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-130SA Keyboard62] Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.[262] HP G72T-200 CTO Keyboard
In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein,[263] thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning with damaging consequences.[26HP G72t Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-110SA Keyboard4] In February 1943, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 were taken prisoner, only 6,000 of whom returned to Germany after the war.[265HP 640426-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 384622-001 CPU fan with heatsink] Thereafter came a decisive defeat at the Battle of Kursk.[266] Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated along with Hitler's health. Kershaw and others believe that Hitler may have suffered from Parkinson's disease.[267]
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The destroyed map room at the 'Wolf's Lair' after the 20 July plot
Following the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by the Grand Council. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies.[268] Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. HP 641477-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 650797-001 CPU fan with heatsinkOn 6 June 1944 the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in what was one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord.[269] As a result of these significant setbacks for the German army, HP 650848-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 650057-001 CPU fan with heatsinkmany of its officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that Hitler's misjudgement or denial would drag out the war and result in the complete destruction of the country.[270]
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Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees.[271] The most well known came from within Germany and was at least partly driven by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war.[2HP 653627-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 665309-001 CPU fan with heatsink72] In July 1944, in the 20 July plot, part of Operation Valkyrie, Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in one of Hitler's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg. Hitler narrowly survived because someone had unknowingly pushed the briefcase that contained the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table. HP 535439-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 602472-001 CPU fan with heatsinkWhen the bomb exploded, the table deflected much of the blast away from Hitler. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals, resulting in the execution of more than 4,900 people.[273] HP 535766-001 CPU fan with heatsink
Defeat and death
Main article: Death of Adolf Hitler
By late 1944, both the Red Army and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Recognising the strength and determination of the Red Army, Hitler decided to use his remaining mobile reserves against the American and British troops, which he perceived as far weaker.[274] On 16 December, he launched an offensive in the Ardennes to incite disunity among the Western Allies and perhaps convince them to join his fight against the Soviets. HP 580718-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 579158-001 CPU fan with heatsink [275] The offensive failed. Hitler's last hope to negotiate peace with the United States and Britain was buoyed by the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his expectations, this caused no immediate rift among the Allies.[276][275]
HP 576837-001 CPU fan with heatsinkActing on his view that Germany's military failures had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands.[277] Arms minister Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth plan, but he quietly disobeyed the order.[277][278]
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Front page of the U.S. Armed Forces newspaper, Stars and Stripes, 2 May 1945, announcing Hitler's death
On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker ("Führer's shelter") to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.[279] HP 582140-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 534684-001 CPU fan with heatsink By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defences of German General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights and advanced into the outskirts of Berlin.[280HP 582141-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 534676-001 CPU fan with heatsink] In denial about the dire situation, Hitler placed his hopes on the units commanded by Waffen SS General Felix Steiner, the Armeeabteilung Steiner ("Army Detachment Steiner"). Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the salient and the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack northward in a pincer attack.[281] HP 431311-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler asked about Steiner's offensive. He was told that the attack had never been launched and that the Russians had broken through into Berlin. This prompted Hitler to ask everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room.[282] HP 431312-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 532617-001 CPU fan with heatsinkHitler then launched a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that the war was lost. Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[283]
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By 23 April the Red Army had completely surrounded Berlin,[284] and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[282] That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, he, Göring, should assume leadership of Germany. HP 443917-001 CPU fan with heatsink
Göring set a deadline after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[285] Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his will, written on 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.[286][287HP 456605-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 532141-001 CPU fan with heatsink] On 28 April Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April,[288] was trying to discuss surrender terms with the Western Allies.[289] He ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.[290]
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After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in a map room within the Führerbunker. After a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife, he then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament.[291] HP 487436-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 498480-001 CPU fan with heatsink [b] The event was witnessed and documents signed by Hans Krebs, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann.[292] Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed of the assassination of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, which presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.[293] HP 603690-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and Braun committed suicide; Braun bit into a cyanide capsule[HP 603691-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 535441-001 CPU fan with heatsink294] and Hitler shot himself.[295] Both their bodies were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the bombed-out garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater[296] and doused with petrol. The corpses were set on fire[2HP 604787-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 533736-001 CPU fan with heatsink97] as the Red Army shelling continued.[298]
Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives—obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union—showed that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs, were repeatedly buried and exhumed. HP 606574-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 480481-001 CPU fan with heatsink [299] On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the nearby Elbe.[300]
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The Holocaust
Main article: Holocaust
If the international Jewish financiers outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe![301]
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— Adolf Hitler addressing the German Reichstag, 30 January 1939
The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for the expansion of Germany. HP 606729-001 CPU fan with heatsink
He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and on removing or killing the Jews and Slavs.[302] The Generalplan Ost ("General Plan for the East") called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered;[3HP 606731-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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HP 642731-001 CPU fan with heatsink03] the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[304] The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward.[303][305] By January 1942, it had been decided to kill the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable.[306][ HP 608095-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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A wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium in the liberated Buchenwald concentration camp (April 1945)
The Holocaust (the "Endlösung der Judenfrage" or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") was ordered by Hitler and organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference—held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, HP 608229-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 637607-001 CPU fan with heatsink with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating—provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".[307] Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[308]
HP 631742-001 CPU fan with heatsink his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[309][310] He approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[31HP 608378-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 622028-001 CPU fan with heatsink1]—and he was well informed about their activities.[309][312] By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was rapidly expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement.[31HP 643258-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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3] Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[314]
Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel (SS), assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million people,[315][3HP 657942-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 576838-001 CPU fan with heatsink03] including 5.5 to six million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe),[316][317] and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people.[318][317] Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, whereas others died of starvation or disease while working as slave labourers.[319HP 646578-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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Hitler's policies also resulted in the killing of nearly two million Poles,[320] over 3 million Soviet prisoners of war,[321] communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled,[322][323] HP 606609-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 431448-001 CPU fan with heatsink Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler never appeared to have visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the killings.[324]
Another Nazi concept was the notion of racial hygiene. On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans, HP 612354-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 450864-001 CPU fan with heatsink and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. The laws deprived so-called "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.[325] Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action Brandt, and later authorized a euthanasia programme for adults with serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Action T4.[326HP 612355-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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Leadership style
Hitler ruled the NSDAP autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle"). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader.[327] HP 606014-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped with those of others, in order to have "the stronger one [do] the job".[328] In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates in order to consolidate and maximise his own power. His cabinet never met after 1938, and he discouraged his ministers from meeting independently.[329HP 610774-001 CPU fan with heatsink
][330] Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead he communicated them verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann.[33HP 610773-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 622033-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 493001-001 CPU fan with heatsink1] He entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[332]
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Hitler personally made all major military decisions. Historians who have assessed his performance agree that after a strong start, he became so inflexible after 1941 that he squandered the military strengths Germany possessed. Historian Antony Beevor argues that at the start of the war, "Hitler was a fairly inspired leader, because his genius lay in assessing the weaknesses of others and exploiting those weaknesses".HP 610777-001 CPU fan with heatsink
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HP 491572-001 CPU fan with heatsink From 1941 onward, "he became completely sclerotic. He would not allow any form of retreat or flexibility among his field commanders, and that of course was catastrophic".[333]
Legacy
Further information: Consequences of Nazism and Neo-Nazism
Outside the building in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Hitler was born, is a memorial stone placed as a reminder of the horrors of World War II. The inscription translates as:
For peace, freedom HP 631743-001 CPU fan with heatsink
and democracy
never again fascism
millions of dead remind [us]
Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.[334][335] Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Ian Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.[ HP 622029-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 486799-001 CPU fan with heatsink336] According to historian John Toland National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.[337]
Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral;[338] according to historian Ian Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man".[339HP 532613-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 448016-001 CPU fan with heatsink] Hitler's political programme had brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as "Zero Hour".[340] Hitler's policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[ HP 582321-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 535438-001 CPU fan with heatsink341] according to R.J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[315] In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II,[315HP 532614-001 CPU fan with heatsink
HP 587244-001 CPU fan with heatsink] and Hitler's role has been described as "... the main author of a war leaving over 50 million dead and millions more grieving their lost ones ...".[339] Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime.[342] Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.[3Compaq Presario CQ62-215SA keyboard
43]
Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life".[344] English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as "among the 'terrible simplifiers' of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruellest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known".[3Compaq Presario CQ62-220SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62Z-200 CTO keyboard45] For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany.[346] In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATO nations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union.[347]
Religious views
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Main article: Religious views of Adolf Hitler
Born to a practicing Catholic mother and an anticlerical father, after leaving home, Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[348][349][350] Speer states that Hitler made harsh pronouncements against the church to his political associates and though he never officially left it, he had no attachment to it.[35Compaq Presario CQ62-229SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62-A10EA keyboard1] He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of the church the faithful would turn to mysticism, which he considered a step backwards.[351] Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches.[352] According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest".[353] Compaq Presario CQ62-230SA keyboard
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Hitler viewed Protestant clergy as insignificant and submissive.[354] While hostile to its teachings, he had admiration for the power of the Roman Church.[355] He favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology in his politics.[356] Compaq Presario CQ62-235SA keyboard
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Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society,[357] and he adopted a strategic relationship with it "that suited his immediate political purposes".[352Compaq Presario CQ62-A10SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62Z keyboard] In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan" Jesus—one who fought against the Jews.[358] Any pro-Christian public rhetoric was at variance with his personal beliefs, which described Christianity as "absurdity"[359] Compaq Presario CQ62-A20SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62-A65SA keyboard and humbug founded on lies[360] with which he could "never come personally to terms".[361] He considered Christianity a religion fit only for slaves.[355]
According to a US Office of Strategic Services report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich.[362][363] His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity.[36Compaq Presario CQ62-A25SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62-A50SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ62-A55SA keyboard4] This goal informed Hitler's movement very early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to express this extreme position publicly.[365] According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.[355] Compaq Presario CQ62Z-200 keyboard
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Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.[366][367]
Health
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Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis,[368] Parkinson's disease,[267][369] syphilis,[369] and tinnitus.[370
Compaq Presario CQ60-430SA keyboard] In a report prepared for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, Walter C. Langer of Harvard University described Hitler as a "neurotic psychopath".[371] Theories about Hitler's medical condition are difficult to prove, Compaq Presario CQ60-114EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ60-420SA keyboard and according them too much weight may have the effect of attributing many of the events and consequences of the Third Reich to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual.[37Compaq Presario CQ60-212EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ60-410SA keyboard2] Kershaw feels that it is better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces led to the Third Reich and its policies rather than to pursue narrow explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.[373] Compaq Presario CQ60-218EA keyboard
Hitler followed a vegetarian diet.[374] At social events he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his dinner guests shun meat.[375] An antivivisectionist, Hitler may have followed his selective diet out of a profound concern for animals.[3Compaq Presario CQ60-219EA keyboard
76] Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war. Hitler despised alcohol[377] and was a non-smoker. He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to any who were able to break the habit.[378Compaq Presario CQ60-305EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ60-409SA keyboard] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to the drug in the fall of 1942.[379] Albert Speer linked this use of amphetamines to Hitler's increasingly inflexible decision making (for example, never to allow military retreats).[380] Compaq Presario CQ60-305SA keyboard
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Prescribed ninety different medications during the war years, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments.[381] He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, Compaq Presario CQ60-307SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ60-320SA keyboardand two hundred wood splinters had to be removed from his legs.[382] Newsreel footage of Hitler shows tremors of his hand and a shuffling walk, which began before the war and worsened towards the end of his life. Hitler's personal physician, Theodor Morell,
Compaq Presario CQ60-311EA keyboard treated Hitler with a drug that was commonly prescribed in 1945 for Parkinson's disease. Ernst-Günther Schenck and several other doctors who met Hitler in the last weeks of his life also formed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.[381][383] Compaq Presario CQ60-307EA keyboard
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Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are common names for Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when its government was controlled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party.
Compaq Presario CQ56-107SA keyboard Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the state. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated the Wehrmacht in May 1945, Compaq Presario CQ60Z keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-105SA keyboardthus ending World War II in Europe.
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate their power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, Compaq Presario CQ56-252SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-104SA keyboard and Hitler became dictator of Germany when the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency were merged. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's hands, Compaq Presario CQ56-254SA keyboard
and his word was above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and gain Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression,
Compaq Presario CQ56-103SA keyboardthe Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahns (high speed highways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Compaq Presario CQ56-100EA keyboard
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Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples—also referred to as the Nordic race—were considered to be the purest representation of Aryanism, and therefore the master race. Compaq Presario CQ56-250SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-102SA keyboardJews and others deemed undesirable were persecuted or murdered, and opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, Compaq Presario CQ56-251SA keyboard
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Compaq Presario CQ56-113SA keyboardor forced into exile. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, Compaq Presario CQ56-258SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-112SA keyboardand the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and discouraging or banning others.
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Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. Austria and Czechoslovakia were seized in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, Compaq Presario CQ56-115SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-109SA keyboard launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and other Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and threatened Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in Poland.
Compaq Presario CQ56-108SA keyboard Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned in concentration camps. The implementation of the regime's racial policies culminated in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941,
Compaq Presario CQ56-206SA keyboard the tide turned against the Third Reich, and major military defeats were suffered in 1943. Large-scale bombing of German cities, rail lines, and oil plants escalated in 1944. Germany was overrun in 1945 by the Soviets from the east and the other Allies from the west. Compaq Presario CQ56-156SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-204SA keyboardHitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and unnecessary loss of life in the closing months of the war. The victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. Compaq Presario CQ56-111EA keyboard
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The official name of the state was the Deutsches Reich (German Reich) from 1933 to 1943, and the Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich) from 1943 to 1945. The name Deutsches Reich is usually translated into English as "German Empire" or "German Reich".[2] Compaq Presario CQ56-155EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-317EA keyboard
Common English terms are "Nazi Germany" and "Third Reich." The latter, adopted by the Nazis, was first used in a 1923 novel by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck. The book counted the medieval Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) as the first Reich and the German Empire (1871–1918) as the second.[3]
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Compaq Presario CQ71 keyboard Modern Germans refer to the period as Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (National Socialist period) or Nationalsozialistische Gewaltherrschaft (National Socialist tyranny).
History[edit source | editbeta]
Compaq Presario CQ56-250EA keyboard
See also: History of Germany
Background[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Adolf Hitler's rise to power
The German economy suffered severe setbacks after the end of World War I, partly because of reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. The government printed money to make the payments and to repay the country's war debt; the resulting hyperinflation led to inflated prices for consumer goods, Compaq Presario CQ56-261EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ56-102EA keyboard
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Compaq Presario CQ71-402SA keyboard economic chaos, and food riots.[4] When the government failed to make the reparations payments in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr. Widespread civil unrest was the result.[5]
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP;[d] Nazi Party) was the renamed successor of the German Workers' Party founded in 1919, one of several far-right political parties active in Germany at the time.[6] The party platform included removal of the Weimar Republic, rejection of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, radical antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. Compaq Presario CQ56-106EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-401SA keyboard [7] They promised a strong central government, increased Lebensraum (living space) for Germanic peoples, formation of a national community based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and civil rights.[8] The Nazis proposed national and cultural renewal based upon the Völkisch movement.[9] Compaq Presario CQ56-106SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-135SA keyboard
When the stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929, the impact in Germany was dire. Millions were thrown out of work, and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to strengthen the economy and provide jobs.[1Compaq Presario CQ71-130SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-320SA keyboard0] Many voters decided the NSDAP was capable of restoring order, quelling civil unrest, and improving Germany's international reputation. After the federal election of 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag, holding 230 seats with 37.4 per cent of the popular vote.[11] Compaq Presario CQ71-140EA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-140SA keyboard
Nazi seizure of power[edit source | editbeta]
Although the Nazis won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they did not have a majority, so Hitler led a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP and the German National People's Party.[12Compaq Presario CQ71-210SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-314SA keyboard] Under pressure from politicians, industrialists, and the business community, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. This event is known as the Machtergreifung (seizure of power).[13] In the following months, the NSDAP used a process termed Gleichschaltung (coordination) to rapidly bring all aspects of life under control of the party.[14]
Compaq Presario CQ71-312SA keyboard All civilian organisations, including agricultural groups, volunteer organisations, and sports clubs, had their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathisers or party members. By June 1933, virtually the only organisations not in the control of the NSDAP were the army and the churches.[15] Compaq Presario CQ71-230SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-305SA keyboard
Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany, January 1933
On the night of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set afire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was found guilty of starting the blaze. Hitler proclaimed that the arson marked the start of a communist uprising. Compaq Presario CQ71-235SA keyboard
Compaq Presario CQ71-300 keyboard Violent suppression of communists by the Sturmabteilung (SA) was undertaken all over the country, and four thousand Communist Party of Germany members were arrested. The Reichstag Fire Decree, imposed on 28 February 1933, rescinded most German civil liberties, including rights of assembly and freedom of the press. Sony PCG-41111M Keyboard
Sony PCG-81412M KeyboardThe decree also allowed the police to detain people indefinitely without charges or a court order. The legislation was accompanied by a propaganda blitz that led to public support for the measure.[16] Sony PCG-41112M Keyboard
In March 1933, the Enabling Act, an amendment to the Weimar Constitution, passed in the Reichstag by a vote of 444 to 94.[17] This amendment allowed Hitler and his cabinet to pass laws—even laws that violated the constitution—without the consent of the president or the Reichstag.[18]
Sony PCG-81411M Keyboard As the bill required a two-thirds majority to pass, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to keep several Social Democratic deputies from attending; the Communists had already been banned.[19][20] On 10 May the government seized the assets of the Social Democrats; they were banned in June.[21Sony PCG-81111M Keyboard
Sony PCG-81311M Keyboard] The remaining political parties were dissolved, and on 14 July 1933, Germany became a de facto single-party state when the founding of new parties was made illegal.[22] Further elections in November 1933, Sony PCG-81112M Keyboard
Sony PCG-81313M Keyboard1936, and 1938 were entirely Nazi-controlled and saw only the Nazis and a small number of independents elected.[23] The regional state parliaments and the Reichsrat (federal upper house) were abolished in January 1934.[24] Sony PCG-81212M Keyboard
The Nazi regime abolished the symbols of the Weimar Republic, including the black, red, and gold tricolor flag, and adopted reworked imperial symbolism. The previous imperial black, white, and red tricolor was restored as one of Germany's two official flags; the second was the swastika flag of the NSDAP, which became the sole national flag in 1935. Sony PCG-21313M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3C2M Keyboard The NSDAP anthem "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song") became a second national anthem.[25]
In this period, Germany was still in a dire economic situation; millions were unemployed and the balance of trade deficit was daunting.[26] Hitler knew that reviving the economy was vital. In 1934, using deficit spending, Sony PCG-31311M Keyboard
Sony PCG-5N2M Keyboard public works projects were undertaken. A total of 1.7 million Germans were put to work on the projects in 1934 alone.[26] Average wages both per hour and per week began to rise.[27] Sony PCG-51512M Keyboard
On 2 August 1934, President von Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor.[28]
Sony PCG-7171M KeyboardHitler thus became head of state as well as head of government. He was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). Germany was now a totalitarian state with Hitler at its head.[29] Sony PCG-51212M Keyboard
Sony PCG-5S1M Keyboard As head of state, Hitler became Supreme Commander of the armed forces. The new law altered the traditional loyalty oath of servicemen so that they affirmed loyalty to Hitler personally rather than the office of supreme commander or the state.[30] On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 per cent of the electorate in a plebiscite.[31] Sony PCG-51111M Keyboard
Most German people were relieved that the conflicts and street fighting of the Weimar era had ended. They were deluged with propaganda orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, who promised peace and plenty for all in a united, Marxist-free country without the constraints of the Versailles Treaty.[3Sony PCG-51112M Keyboard
Sony PCG-51211M Keyboard2] The first Nazi concentration camp, initially for political prisoners, was opened at Dachau in 1933.[33] Hundreds of camps of varying size and function were created by the end of the war.[34] Sony PCG-7195M Keyboard
Militaristic foreign policy[edit source | editbeta]
See also: Remilitarization of the Rhineland and German involvement in the Spanish Civil War
As early as February 1933, Sony PCG-7196M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3G2M KeyboardHitler announced that rearmament must be undertaken, albeit clandestinely at first, as to do so was in violation of the Versailles Treaty. A year later he told his military leaders that 1942 was the target date for going to war in the east.[35] He pulled Germany out of the League of Nations in 1933, Sony PCG-7192M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3E1M Keyboard claiming its disarmament clauses were unfair, as they applied only to Germany.[36] The Saarland, which had been placed under League of Nations supervision for 15 years at the end of World War I, voted in January 1935 to become part of Germany.[37] In March 1935 Hitler announced that the Reichswehr would be increased to 550,000 men and that he was creating an air force.[3Sony PCG-7194M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3C1M Keyboard8] Britain agreed that the Germans would be allowed to build a naval fleet with the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement on 18 June 1935.[39]
When the Italian invasion of Ethiopia led to only mild protests by the British and French governments, Sony PCG-7144M Keyboard
on 7 March 1936 Hitler ordered the Reichswehr to march 3,000 troops into the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty; an additional 30,000 troops were on standby.
Sony PCG-3J1M KeyboardAs the territory was part of Germany, the British and French governments did not feel that attempting to enforce the treaty was worth the risk of war.[40] In the single-party election held on 29 March, Sony PCG-7141M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7151M Keyboard
the NSDAP received 98.9 per cent support.[40] In 1936 Hitler signed an Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and a non-aggression agreement with the Fascist Italy of Benito Mussolini, who was soon referring to a "Rome-Berlin Axis".[41] Sony PCG-7153M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3H1M Keyboard
Hitler sent air and armored units to assist General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in July 1936. The Soviet Union sent a smaller force to assist the Republican government. Franco's Nationalists were victorious in 1939 and became an informal ally of Nazi Germany.[42] Sony PCG-7154M Keyboard
Sony PCG-3F1M Keyboard
Austria and Czechoslovakia[edit source | editbeta]
Main articles: Anschluss and German occupation of Czechoslovakia
Further information: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Ethnic Germans in Saaz Czechoslovakia, greet German soldiers with the Nazi salute, 1938
In February 1938, Hitler emphasised to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg the need for Germany to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence for 13 March, Sony PCG-7162M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7186M Keyboardbut Hitler demanded that it be cancelled. On 11 March, Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian NSDAP or face an invasion. The Wehrmacht entered Austria the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace.[43]
Sony PCG-7181M Keyboard
The Republic of Czechoslovakia was home to a substantial minority of Germans, who lived mostly in the Sudetenland. Under pressure from separatist groups within the Sudeten German Party, the Czech government offered economic concessions to the region.[44] Hitler decided to incorporate not just the Sudetenland but the whole of Czechoslovakia into the Reich.[45] Sony PCG-7143M Keyboard
The Nazis undertook a propaganda campaign to try to drum up support for an invasion.[46] Top leaders of the armed forces were not in favour of the plan, as Germany was not yet ready for war.[4Sony PCG-7151M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7161M Keyboard7] The crisis led to war preparations by the British, the Czechs, and France (Czechoslovakia's ally). Attempting to avoid war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arranged a series of meetings, the result of which was the Munich Agreement, signed on 29 September 1938. Sony PCG-61211M Keyboard
The Czechoslovak government was forced to accept the Sudetenland's annexation into Germany. Chamberlain was greeted with cheers when he landed in London bringing, he said, "peace for our time."[48] The agreement lasted six months before Hitler seized the rest of Czech territory in March 1939.[49] A puppet state was created in Slovakia.[50] Sony PCG-71211M Keyboard
Austrian and Czech foreign exchange reserves were soon seized by the Nazis, as were stockpiles of raw materials such as metals and completed goods such as weaponry and aircraft, which were shipped back to Germany. The Reichswerke Hermann Göring industrial conglomerate took control of steel and coal production facilities in both countries. Sony PCG-71213M Keyboard
Poland[edit source | editbeta]
In March 1939, Hitler demanded the return of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, a strip of land that separated Prussia from the rest of Germany. The British announced they would come to the aid of Poland if it was attacked. Hitler, believing the British would not actually take action, ordered an invasion plan should be readied for a target date of September 1939.[52] Sony PCG-71212M Keyboard
On 23 May he described to his generals his overall plan of not only seizing the Polish Corridor but greatly expanding German territory eastward at the expense of Poland. He expected this time they would be met by force.[53] Sony PCG-71312M Keyboard
Sony PCG-71311M Keyboard
The Germans reaffirmed their alliance with Italy and signed non-aggression pacts with Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. Trade links were formalised with Romania, Norway, and Sweden.[54] Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, arranged in negotiations with the Soviet Union a non-aggression pact, Sony PCG-71313M Keyboard
the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which was signed in August 1939.[55] The treaty also contained secret protocols dividing Poland and the Baltic states into German and Soviet spheres of influence.[56][57] Sony PCG-61212M Keyboard
World War II[edit source | editbeta]
Foreign policy[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Diplomatic history of World War II#Germany
Germany's foreign policy during the war involved the creation of allied governments under direct or indirect control from Berlin. Sony PCG-71511M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7183M KeyboardA main goal was obtaining soldiers from the senior allies, such as Italy and Hungary, and millions of workers and ample food supplies from subservient allies such as Vichy France.[58] By the fall of 1942, there were 24 divisions from Romania on the Eastern Front, 10 from Italy, and 10 from Hungary.[ Sony PCG-71D14M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7182M Keyboard59] When a country was no longer dependable, Germany assumed full control, as it did with France in 1942, Italy in 1943, and Hungary in 1944. Although Japan was an official powerful ally, the relationship was distant and there was little coordination or cooperation. For example, Germany refused to share their formula for synthetic oil from coal until late in the war.[60]
Outbreak of war[edit source | editbeta]
Animated map showing German and Axis allies' conquests in Europe throughout World War II. (Click through to the full-size image to view the animated version.)
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. World War II was under way.[ Sony PCG-61511M Keyboard
61] Poland fell quickly, as the Soviets attacked from the east on 17 September.[62] Reinhard Heydrich, then head of the Gestapo, ordered on 21 September that Jews should be rounded up and concentrated into cities with good rail links. Initially the intention was to deport the Jews to points further east, or possibly to Madagascar.[63] Sony PCG-71811M Keyboard
Sony PCG-5T2M Keyboard Using lists prepared ahead of time, some 65,000 Polish intelligentsia, noblemen, clergy, and teachers were killed by the end of 1939 in an attempt to destroy Poland's identity as a nation.[64][ Sony PCG-71911M Keyboard
Sony PCG-5T1M Keyboard] The Soviets continued to attack, advancing into Finland in the Winter War, and German forces were involved in action at sea. But little other activity occurred until May, so the period became known as the "Phoney War".[66] Sony PCG-5P2m Keyboard
From the start of the war, a British blockade on shipments to Germany had an impact on the Reich economy. The Germans were particularly dependent on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain.[67Sony PCG-5R1M Keyboard
Sony PCG-5R2M Keyboard] To safeguard Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany, Hitler ordered an attack on Norway, which took place on 9 April 1940. Much of the country was occupied by German troops by the end of April. Also on 9 April, the Germans invaded and occupied Denmark.[68][69] Sony VPCCA Battery
Conquest of Europe[edit source | editbeta]
Against the judgement of many of his senior military officers, Hitler ordered an attack on France and the Low Countries, which began in May 1940.[70] They quickly conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and France surrendered on 22 June.[7Sony VPCCA1C5E Battery
Sony VPCCB4X1E Battery1] In spite of the provisions of the Hague Convention, industrial firms in the Netherlands, France, and Belgium were put to work producing war materiel for the occupying German military. Officials viewed this option as being preferable to their citizens being deported to the Reich as forced labour.[72] Sony VPCCA2 Battery
The Nazis seized from the French thousands of locomotives and rolling stock, stockpiles of weapons, and raw materials such as copper, tin, oil, and nickel.[73] Financial demands were levied on the governments of the occupied countries as well; payments for occupation costs were received from France, Belgium, and Norway.[7Sony VPCCA2S0E Battery
Sony VPCCB3PQE Battery4] Barriers to trade led to hoarding, black markets, and uncertainty about the future.[75] Food supplies were precarious; production dropped in most areas of Europe, but not as much as during World War I.[76] Greece experienced famine in the first year of occupation and the Netherlands in the last year of the war.[76] Sony VPCCA2Z0E Battery
Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations. However, the German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain.[77Sony VPCCA3E1E Battery
Sony VPCCB2S1E Battery] By the end of October, Hitler realised the necessary air superiority for his planned invasion of Britain could not be achieved, and he ordered nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.[78Sony VPCCA3S1E Battery
In February 1941, the German Afrika Korps arrived in Libya to aid the Italians in the North African Campaign and attempt to contain Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt.[79] On 6 April, Germany launched the invasion of Yugoslavia and the battle of Greece.[
Sony VPCCB2 Battery80] German efforts to secure oil included negotiating a supply from their new ally, Romania, who signed the Tripartite Pact in November 1940.[81][82]
German soldiers march near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 14 June 1940
On 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 5.5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union. In addition to Hitler's stated purpose of acquiring Lebensraum, this large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers. Sony SVE1511F1E Keyboard
[83] The reaction among the German people was one of surprise and trepidation. Many were concerned about how much longer the war would drag on or suspected that Germany could not win a war fought on two fronts.[84Sony SVE1511L1E Keyboard
]
The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[85Sony SVE1511P1E Keyboard
] This pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves. The Moscow offensive, which resumed in October 1941, ended disastrously in December.[85] On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States.[86] Sony SVE1511Q1E Keyboard
Food was in short supply in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union and Poland, with rations inadequate to meet nutritional needs. The retreating armies had burned the crops, and much of the remainder was sent back to the Reich.[ Sony SVE1511W1E Keyboard
Sony SVE1513H1E Keyboard87] In Germany itself, food rations had to be cut in 1942. In his role as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, Hermann Göring demanded increased shipments of grain from France and fish from Norway. The 1942 harvest was a good one, and food supplies remained adequate in Western Europe.[88] Sony SVE1512B1E Keyboard
Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce was an organisation set up to loot artwork and cultural material from Jewish collections, libraries, and museums throughout Europe. Some 26,000 railroad cars full of art treasures, furniture, Sony SVE1512J1E Keyboard
Sony SVE1513E9E Keyboardand other looted items were sent back to Germany from France alone.[89] In addition, soldiers looted or purchased goods such as produce and clothing—items which were becoming harder to obtain in Germany—for shipment back home.[90] Sony SVE1512K1E Keyboard
Turning point and collapse[edit source | editbeta]
Battle of Stalingrad, August 1942
Germany, and Europe as a whole, was almost totally dependent on foreign oil imports.[91] In an attempt to resolve the persistent shortage, Germany launched Fall Blau (Case Blue), an offensive against the Caucasian oilfields, in June 1942.[ Sony SVE1512M1E Keyboard
92] The Soviets launched a counter-offensive on 19 November and encircled the German armies, who were trapped in Stalingrad on 23 November.[93] Göring assured Hitler that the 6th Army could be supplied by air, but this turned out not to be possible.[9Sony SVE1513C4E Keyboard
Sony SVE1513C5E Keyboard4] Hitler's refusal to allow a retreat led to the deaths of 200,000 German and Romanian soldiers; of those who surrendered on 31 January 1943, only 6,000 survivors returned to Germany after the war. Sony SVE1513Q1E Keyboard
[95] Soviet forces continued to push the invaders westward after the failed the German offensive at the Battle of Kursk, and by the end of 1943 the Germans had lost most of their territorial gains in the east.[96] Sony SVE1711R1E Keyboard
In Egypt, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were defeated by British forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in October 1942.[97] Allied forces landed in Sicily in July 1943 and in Italy in September.[98] Sony SVE1712Q1E Keyboard
Sony SVE17 batteryKeyboardMeanwhile, American and British bomber fleets, based in Britain, began operations against Germany. In an effort to destroy German morale, many sorties were intentionally given civilian targets.[99] Sony SVE1712Z1E Keyboard
Soon German aircraft production could not keep pace with losses, and without air cover, the Allied bombing campaign became even more devastating. By targeting oil refineries and factories, they crippled the German war effort by late 1944.[100] Sony SVE1713S1E Keyboard
On 6 June 1944, American, British, and Canadian forces established a western front with the D-Day landings in Normandy.[101] On 20 July 1944, Hitler narrowly survived a bomb attack.[102] He ordered savage reprisals, resulting in 7,000 arrests and the execution of more than 4,900 people.[
Sony SVE1513V1E Keyboard103] The failed Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German campaign of the war. Soviet forces entered Germany on 27 January.[104Sony SVE14A1S1EB Keyboard
Sony SVE1513M1E Keyboard] Hitler's refusal to admit defeat and his repeated insistence that the war be fought to the last man led to unnecessary death and destruction in the closing months of the war.[105] Through his Justice Minister, Otto Georg Thierack, he ordered that anyone who was not prepared to fight should be summarily court-martialed. Thousands of people were put to death.[1Sony SVE14A1S1EP Keyboard
06] In many areas, people looked for ways to surrender to the approaching Allies, in spite of exhortations of local leaders to continue the struggle. Hitler also ordered the intentional destruction of transport, bridges, industries, and other infrastructure—a scorched earth decree—but Armaments Minister Albert Speer was able to keep this order from being fully carried out.[105] Sony SVE1511Q1EB Keyboard
US Air Force film of the destruction in central Berlin in July 1945
During the Battle of Berlin (16 April 1945 – 2 May 1945), Hitler and his staff lived in the underground Führerbunker, while the Red Army approached.[107] On 30 April, when Soviet troops were one or two blocks away from the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker.[108Sony SVE1511R9ESI Keyboard
Sony SVE1513B1E Keyboard] On 2 May General Helmuth Weidling unconditionally surrendered Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov.[109] Hitler was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reich President and Goebbels as Reich Chancellor.[11Sony SVE1511V1EW Keyboard
Sony SVE1513A4E Keyboard0] Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide the next day, after murdering their six children.[111] On 4–8 May 1945 most of the remaining German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. The German Instrument of Surrender was signed 7 May, marking the end of World War II in Europe.[112] Sony SVE1511W1ESI Keyboard
Main article: Mass suicides in 1945 Nazi Germany
Suicide rates increased in Germany increased as the war drew to a close, particularly in areas where the Red Army was advancing. More than a thousand people (out of a population of around 16,000)
Sony SVE1512X9E Keyboardcommitted suicide in Demmin on and around 1 May 1945 as the 65th Army of 2nd Belorussian Front first broke into a distillery and then rampaged through the town, committing mass rapes, arbitrarily executing civilians, and setting fire to buildings.[11Sony SVE14A1S1E Keyboard
Sony SVE1511R9E Keyboard3] High numbers of suicides took place in many other locations, including Neubrandenburg (600 dead),[113] Słupsk (1,000 dead),[113] and Berlin, where at least 7,057 people committed suicide in 1945.[114] Sony SVE14A3C5E Keyboard
German casualties[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: World War II casualties and German casualties in World War II
German refugees in Bedburg, near Kleve. 19 February 1945
Estimates of the total German war dead range from 5.5 to 6.9 million persons.[115] A study by German historian Rüdiger Overmans puts the number of German military dead and missing at 5.3 million, including 900,000 men conscripted from outside of Germany's 1937 borders, in Austria, and in east-central Europe.[116] Sony SVE15 Keyboard
Sony SVE1511A1E Keyboard Civilian deaths due to Allied strategic bombing within the 1942 borders were 437,000. An additional 20,000 died in the land campaign.[117][118] Some 22,000 citizens died during the Battle of Berlin.[119HP 592871-031 Keyboard
HP 487136-031 Keyboard ] Other civilian deaths include 300,000 Germans (including Jews) who were victims of Nazi political, racial, and religious persecution,[120] and 200,000 who were murdered in the Nazi euthanasia program.[12HP 504611-031 Keyboard
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1] Political courts called Sondergerichte sentenced some 12,000 members of the German resistance to death, and civil courts sentenced an additional 40,000 Germans.[122] Mass rapes of German women also took place.[123] HP 578364-B31 Keyboard
HP 468817-031 Keyboard
At the end of the war, Europe had more than 40 million refugees,[124] its economy had collapsed, and 70 per cent of its industrial infrastructure was destroyed.[125] Between twelve and fourteen million ethnic Germans fled or were expelled from east-central Europe to Germany.[1HP 482280-031 Keyboard
HP 496121-041 Keyboard 26] During the Cold War, the West German government estimated a death toll of 2.2 million civilians due to the flight and expulsion of Germans and through forced labour in the Soviet Union.[127]
HP 496121-031 Keyboard This figure remained unchallenged until the 1990s, when some historians put the death toll at 500,000–600,000 confirmed deaths.[128][129][130] In 2006 the German government reaffirmed its position that 2.0–2.5 million deaths occurred.[e]
Geography[edit source | editbeta] HP 486279-031 Keyboard
HP 496120-031 Keyboard
Territorial changes[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Territorial evolution of Germany
Territorial expansion of Germany from 1933 to 1943. Red: 1933; pink: 1939; orange: 1943
As a result of their defeat in World War I and the resulting Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine, Northern Schleswig, and Memel. HP 456587-031 Keyboard
HP 613332-B31 Keyboard The Saarland temporarily became a protectorate of France, under the condition that its residents would later decide by referendum which country to join. Poland became a separate nation and was given access to the sea by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which separated Prussia from the rest of Germany. Danzig was made a free city.[131] HP 613386-031 Keyboard
HP 613384-031 Keyboard
Germany regained control of the Saarland via a referendum held in 1935 and annexed Austria in the Anschluss of 1938.[132] The Munich Agreement of 1938 gave Germany control of the Sudetenland, and they seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia six months later.[48] Under threat of invasion by sea, Lithuania surrendered the Memel district to the Nazis in March 1939.[133] HP 613385-031 Keyboard
HP 613332-031 Keyboard
Between 1939 and 1941 the Third Reich invaded Poland, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Soviet Union.[71] Trieste, South Tyrol, and Istria were ceded to Germany by Mussolini in 1943.[1HP 537954-031 Keyboard
HP 539682-031 Keyboard 34] Two puppet districts were set up in the area, the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral and the Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills.[135]
Occupied territories[edit source | editbeta]
Under the cover of anti-partisan operations, the Germans murdered civilians in 5,295 different localities in occupied Soviet Belarus.[136]
Some of the conquered territories were immediately incorporated into Germany as part of Hitler's long-term goal of creating a Greater Germanic Reich. Several areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, were placed under the authority of an adjacent Gau HP 537953-031 Keyboard
HP 608222-031 Keyboard
(regional district). Beyond the territories incorporated into Germany were the Reichskommissariate (Reich Commissariats), quasi-colonial regimes established in a number of occupied countries. Areas placed under German administration included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, HP 494002-031 Keyboard
HP 491274-031 Keyboard Reichskommissariat Ostland (encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus), and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Conquered areas of Belgium and France were placed under control of the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France.[137] Part of Poland was immediately incorporated into the Reich, and the General Government was established in occupied central Poland.[138HP 633183-031 Keyboard
HP 646568-031 Keyboard ] Hitler intended to eventually incorporate many of these areas into the Reich.[139]
The governments of Denmark, Norway (Reichskommissariat Norwegen), and the Netherlands (Reichskommissariat Niederlande) were placed under civilian administrations staffed largely by natives.[137][f]
HP 633736-031 Keyboard
Post-war changes[edit source | editbeta]
With the issuance of the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 and later creation of the Allied Control Council, the four Allied powers temporarily assumed governance of Germany.[140] At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, HP 496771-031 Keyboard
HP 633183-031 Keyboard the Allies arranged for the Allied occupation and denazification of the country. Germany was split into four zones, each occupied by one of the Allied powers, who drew reparations from their zone. Since most of the industrial areas were in the western zones, the Soviet Union was transferred additional reparations.[141] HP 606743-031 Keyboard
HP 643263-031 Keyboard The Allied Control Council disestablished Prussia on 20 May 1947.[142] Aid to Germany began arriving from the United States under the Marshall Plan in 1948.[14HP 432976-031 Keyboard
HP 4593298-031 Keyboard 3] The occupation lasted until 1949, when the countries of East Germany and West Germany were created. Germany finalised her border with Poland by signing the Treaty of Warsaw (1970).[1
HP 431414-031 Keyboard 44] Germany remained divided until 1990, when the Allies renounced all claims to German territory with the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, under which Germany also renounced claims to territories lost during World War II.[145]
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Politics[edit source | editbeta]
Ideology[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Nazism
Heinrich Himmler, Hitler, and Viktor Lutze perform the Nazi salute at the Nuremberg Rally, September 1934
The NSDAP was a far-right political party which came into its own during the social and financial upheavals that occurred with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.[146] While in prison after the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which laid out his plan for transforming German society into one based on race.[147HP 441541-031 Keyboard
HP 452636-031 Keyboard ] The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygeine, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum for the Germanic people.[148HP 456624-031 Keyboard
HP 665917-031 Keyboard
HP 584161-031 Keyboard ] The regime attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race and part of a Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy.[149][15
HP 646300-031 Keyboard 0] Others deemed unworthy of life by the Nazis included the mentally and physically disabled, Romani people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and social misfits.[151][152]
Influenced by the Völkisch movement, the regime was against cultural modernism and supported the development of an extensive military at the expense of intellectualism.[9][ HP 605814-031 Keyboard
HP 536537-031 Keyboard
HP 608375-031 Keyboard 153] Creativity and art were stifled, except where they could serve as propaganda media.[154] The party used symbols such as the Blood Flag and rituals such as the Nazi party rallies to foster unity and bolster the regime's popularity.[155]
Government[edit source | editbeta] HP 452229-031 Keyboard
HP 535798-031 Keyboard
See also: Organization of the Third Reich
A law promulgated 30 January 1934 abolished the existing Länder (constituent states) of Germany and replaced them with new administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, the Gaue, headed by NSDAP leaders (Gauleiters), HP 486279-031 Keyboard
who effectively became the governor of their region.[156] The change was never fully implemented, as the Länder were still used as administrative divisions for some government departments such as education. This led to a bureaucratic tangle of overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities typical of the administrative style of the Nazi regime.[157] HP 613385-031 Keyboard
HP 536410-031 Keyboard
Administrative regions of the Greater Germanic Reich in 1944
Jewish civil servants lost their jobs in 1933, except for those who had seen military service in World War I. Members of the NSDAP or party supporters were appointed in their place.[158] As part of the process of Gleichschaltung, the Reich Local Government Law of 1935 abolished local elections. From that point forward, mayors were appointed by the Ministry of the Interior.[159
HP Pavilion DV6-6000EA Keyboard
]
Hitler ruled Germany autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip (leader principle), which called for absolute obedience of all subordinates. He viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. HP Pavilion DV6-6052SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C77SA Keyboard
Rank in the party was not determined by elections; positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank.[160] The party used propaganda to develop a cult of personality around Hitler.[161] Historians such as Kershaw emphasize the psychological impact of Hitler's skill as an orator.[1HP Pavilion DV6-6B07EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C75SA Keyboard
62] Kressel writes, "Overwhelmingly ... Germans speak with mystification of Hitler's 'hypnotic' appeal".[163]
Top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy.[16HP Pavilion DV6-6B50EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6B51EA Keyboard
4] Officials were expected to "work towards the Führer" – to take the initiative in promoting policies and actions in line with his wishes and the goals of the NSDAP, without Hitler having to be involved in the day-to-day running of the country.[1HP Pavilion DV6-6B55EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C56SA Keyboard
65] The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a disorganised collection of factions led by members of the party elite who struggled to amass power and gain the Führer's favour.[166] Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them in positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped.[167HP Pavilion DV6-6B59EA Keyboard
] In this way he fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates in order to consolidate and maximise his own power.[168]
Law[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Law of Germany
On 20 August 1934, civil servants were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler; a similar oath had been required of members of the military several weeks prior. This law became the basis of the Führerprinzip, the concept that Hitler's word overrode all existing laws.[1HP Pavilion DV6-6B60EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C51SA Keyboard
69] Any acts that were sanctioned by Hitler—even murder—thus became legal.[170] All legislation proposed by cabinet ministers had to be approved by the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, who also had a veto over top civil service appointments.[171] HP Pavilion DV6-6C01EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C41SA Keyboard
Most of the judicial system and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in use during and after the Third Reich to deal with non-political crimes.[172] The courts issued and carried out far more death sentences than before the Nazis took power.[17HP Pavilion DV6-6C01SA Keyboard
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2] People who were convicted of three or more offences—even petty ones—could be deemed habitual offenders and jailed indefinitely.[173] People such as prostitutes and pickpockets were judged to be inherently criminal and a threat to the racial community. Thousands were arrested and confined indefinitely without trial.[174] HP Pavilion DV6-6C04SA Keyboard
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Although the regular courts handled political cases and even issued death sentences for these cases, a new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court), was established in 1934 to deal with politically important matters.[175HP Pavilion DV6-6C04EA Keyboard
] This court handed out over 5,000 death sentences until its dissolution in 1945.[176] The death penalty could be issued for offences such as being a communist, printing seditious leaflets, or even making jokes about Hitler or other top party officials.[17HP Pavilion DV6-6C05SA Keyboard
7] The Gestapo was in charge of investigative policing to enforce National Socialist ideology. They located and confined political offenders, Jews, and others deemed undesirable.[178] Political offenders who were released from prison were often immediately re-arrested by the Gestapo and confined in a concentration camp.[179] HP Pavilion DV6-6C05EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6C11SA Keyboard
In September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. These laws prohibited marriages between Jews and people of Germanic extraction, extramarital relations between Jews and Germans, and the employment of Jewish women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in German households.[180] HP Pavilion DV6-6001SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6157EA Keyboard
The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of Germanic or related blood were defined as citizens. Thus Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship. The wording of the law also potentially allowed the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone who was not supportive enough of the regime.[1HP Pavilion DV6-6005EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6006EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6156EA Keyboard
81] A supplementary decree issued in November defined as Jewish anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two grandparents if the Jewish faith was followed.[182]
Military and paramilitary[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: German Army (1935–1945) HP Pavilion DV6-6051EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6155EA Keyboard
Wehrmacht[edit source | editbeta]
A column of tanks and other armoured vehicles of the Panzerwaffe near Stalingrad, 1942
The unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945 were called the Wehrmacht. This included the Heer (army), Kriegsmarine (navy), HP Pavilion DV6-6053EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6055EA Keyboard
and the Luftwaffe (air force). From 2 August 1934, members of the armed forces were required to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler personally. In contrast to the previous oath, which required allegiance to the constitution of the country and its lawful establishments, this new oath required members of the military to obey Hitler even if they were being ordered to do something illegal.[18HP Pavilion DV6-6060SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6154EA Keyboard
3] Hitler decreed that the army would have to tolerate and even offer logistical support to the Einsatzgruppen—the mobile death squads responsible for millions of deaths in Eastern Europe—when it was tactically possible to do so. HP Pavilion DV6-6077SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6153EA Keyboard
[184] Members of the Wehrmacht also participated directly in the Holocaust by shooting civilians or undertaking genocide under the guise of anti-partisan operations.[185]
In spite of efforts to prepare the country militarily, the economy could not sustain a lengthy war of attrition such as had occurred in World War I. A strategy was developed based on the tactic of Blitzkrieg (lightning war), HP Pavilion DV6-6102SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6152EA Keyboard
which involved using quick coordinated assaults that avoided enemy strong points. Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure any ground that had been taken.[186] Victories continued through mid-1940, HP Pavilion DV6-6103SA Keyboard
but the failure to defeat Britain was the first major turning point in the war. The decision to attack the Soviet Union and the decisive defeat at Stalingrad led to the retreat of the German armies and the eventual loss of the war.[187] HP Pavilion DV6-6104EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV6-6107SA Keyboard
The total number of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1945 was around 18.2 million, of whom 5.3 million died.[116]
The SA and SS[edit source | editbeta]
The Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Detachment; Brownshirts), founded in 1921, was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies.[188] They also took part in street battles against the forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews and others.[189] By 1934, TOSHIBA Satellite L770 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L770D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L585 Keyboard
under Ernst Röhm's leadership, the SA had grown to over half a million members—4.5 million including reserves—at a time when the regular army was still limited to 100,000 men by the Versailles Treaty.[190] TOSHIBA Satellite L775D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L775 Keyboard
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Röhm hoped to assume command of the army and absorb it into the ranks of the SA.[191] Hindenburg and Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg threatened to impose martial law if the alarming activities of the SA were not curtailed.[192TOSHIBA Satellite L750D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L510 Keyboard ] Hitler also suspected that Röhm was plotting to depose him, so he ordered the deaths of Röhm and other political enemies. Up to 200 people were killed from 30 June to 2 July 1934 in an event that became known as the Night of the Long Knives.[193] After this purge the SA was no longer a major force.[194]
TOSHIBA Satellite L775D Keyboard
Members of the SA enforce the boycott of Jewish stores. 1 April 1933
Initially a force of a dozen men under the auspices of the SA, the Schutzstaffel (SS) grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany.[195] Led by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler from 1929, TOSHIBA Satellite L775 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite M352 Keyboard the SS had over a quarter million members by 1938 and continued to grow.[196] Himmler envisioned the SS as being an elite group of guards, Hitler's last line of defence.[197] The Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, became a de facto fourth branch of the Wehrmacht.[198] TOSHIBA Satellite L735 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L745D Keyboard
In 1931 Himmler organised an SS intelligence service which became known as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) under his deputy, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.[199] This organisation was tasked with locating and arresting communists and other political opponents. TOSHIBA Satellite L735D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite M336 Keyboard Himmler hoped it would eventually totally replace the existing police system.[200][201] Himmler also established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.[202][203] TOSHIBA Satellite L740 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L515 Keyboard
From 1935 forward the SS was heavily involved in the persecution of Jews, who were rounded up into ghettos and concentration camps.[204] With the outbreak of World War II, SS units called Einsatzgruppen followed the army into Poland and the Soviet Union, where from 1941 and 1945 they killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews.[205][206TOSHIBA Satellite L745 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L550 Keyboard ] The SS-Totenkopfverbände (death's head units) were in charge of the concentration camps and extermination camps, where millions more were killed.[207][208]
Economy[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Economy of Nazi Germany
Reich economics[edit source | editbeta]
The most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 per cent national unemployment rate.[209]
TOSHIBA Satellite L555D Keyboard Economist Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created in May 1933 a scheme for deficit financing. Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, TOSHIBA Satellite L730 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L555 Keyboard the Reichsbank printed money to do so. While the national debt soared, Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the debt.[210] Schacht's administration achieved a rapid decline in the unemployment rate, the largest of any country during the Great Depression.[209] TOSHIBA Satellite C675D Keyboard
On 17 October 1933, aviation pioneer Hugo Junkers, owner of the Junkers Aircraft Works, was arrested. Within a few days his company was expropriated by the regime. In concert with other aircraft manufacturers and under the direction of Aviation Minister Göring, production was immediately ramped up industry-wide. TOSHIBA Satellite C675 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite C655 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite C600 Keyboard From a workforce of 3,200 people producing 100 units per year in 1932, the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10,000 technically advanced aircraft per year less than ten years later.[211]
TOSHIBA Satellite L675 Keyboard
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IG Farben synthetic oil plant under construction at Buna Werke (1941). This plant was part of the complex at Auschwitz concentration camp.
An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate German imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles.[212TOSHIBA Satellite C650D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite C655D Keyboard
] As the market was experiencing a glut and prices for petroleum were low, in 1933 the Nazi government made a profit-sharing agreement with IG Farben, guaranteeing them a 5 per cent return on capital invested in their synthetic oil plant at Leuna. TOSHIBA Satellite L650 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L640 Keyboard Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By 1936, Farben regretted making the deal, as the excess profits by then being generated had to be given to the government.[213] TOSHIBA Satellite L650D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L655 Keyboard
Major public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of Autobahns and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements.[2TOSHIBA Satellite L655D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L635 Keyboard 14] To stimulate the construction industry, credit was offered to private businesses and subsidies were made available for home purchases and repairs.[215] On the condition that the wife would leave the workforce, a loan of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks could be accessed by young couples of Aryan descent who intended to marry. TOSHIBA Satellite L670D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L630 Keyboard The amount that had to be repaid was reduced by 25 per cent for each child born.[216] The caveat that the woman had to remain unemployed was dropped by 1937 due to a shortage of skilled labourers.[217]
TOSHIBA Satellite L670 Keyboard
Autobahn, late 1930s
Hitler envisioned widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany. He arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the KdF-wagen (Strength Through Joy car), intended to be an automobile that every German citizen could afford. A prototype was displayed at the International Motor Show in Berlin on 17 February 1939. TOSHIBA Satellite L675D Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite L600D Keyboard With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. No production models were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen (people's car).[218] TOSHIBA Satellite C640 Keyboard
TOSHIBA Satellite C650 Keyboard
Six million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in 1933, and by 1937 there were fewer than a million.[219] This was in part due to the removal of women from the workforce.[220] Real wages dropped by 25 per cent between 1933 and 1938.[20Sony VPCS13L9E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCS11X9E Keyboard9] Trade unions were abolished in May 1933 with the seizure of the funds and arrest of the leadership of the Social Democratic trade unions. A new organisation, the German Labour Front, was created and placed under NSDAP functionary Robert Ley.[221] The average German worked 43 hours a week in 1933, and by 1939 this increased to 47 hours a week.[222] Sony VPCS12V9E/B Keyboard
By early 1934 the focus shifted away from funding work creation schemes and toward rearmament. By 1935, military expenditures accounted for 73 per cent of the government's purchases of goods and services.[2Sony VPCS12L9E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCS11H7E Keyboard23] On 18 October 1936 Hitler named Göring as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, intended to speed up the rearmament programme.[224] In addition to calling for the rapid construction of steel mills, synthetic rubber plants, and other factories, Göring instituted wage and price controls and restricted the issuance of stock dividends.[2Sony VPCS11B7E Keyboard
Sony VPCS13V9E/B Keyboard09] Large expenditures were made on rearmament, in spite of growing deficits.[225] With the introduction of compulsory military service in 1935, the Reichswehr, which had been limited to 100,000 by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, expanded to 750,000 on active service at the start of World War II, with a million more in the reserve.[2Sony VPCS11C5E Keyboard
Sony VPCS13S9E/B Keyboard26] By January 1939, unemployment was down to 301,800, and it dropped to only 77,500 by September.[227]
Wartime economy and forced labor[edit source | editbeta]
Woman with OST-Arbeiter badge at the IG Farben plant in Auschwitz concentration camp
The Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning; historian Richard Overy described it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States.[228] Sony VPCS11D7E Keyboard
In 1942, after the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement.[229] Speer improved production via streamlined organisation, the use of single-purpose machines operated by unskilled workers, rationalisation of production methods, and better coordination between the many different firms that made tens of thousands of components. Sony VPCS11G7E Keyboard
Sony VPCS12E7E Keyboard Factories were relocated away from rail yards, which were bombing targets.[230][231] By 1944, the war was consuming 75 per cent of Germany's gross domestic product, compared to 60 per cent in the Soviet Union and 55 per cent in Britain.[232]
The wartime economy relied heavily upon the large-scale employment of forced labourers. Germany imported and enslaved some 12 million people from 20 European countries to work in factories and on farms; approximately 75 per cent were Eastern European.[2Sony VPCS11M1E/W Keyboard
33] Many were casualties of Allied bombing, as they received poor air raid protection. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity.[234]
Women played an increasingly large role. By 1944 over a half million served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces, especially in anti-aircraft units of the Luftwaffe; a half million worked in civil aerial defense; and 400,000 were volunteer nurses. They also replaced men in the wartime economy, especially on farms and in small family-owned shops.[235] Sony VPCS11V9E/B Keyboard
Very heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals.[236] The armaments industry began to break down by September 1944. Sony VPCS12A7E Keyboard
Sony VPCS12A7R Keyboard By November fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations, and the production of new armaments was no longer possible.[237] Overy argues that the bombing strained the German war economy and forced it to divert up to one-fourth of its manpower and industry into anti-aircraft resources, which very likely shortened the war.[238] Sony VPCEB1B4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2F4E KeyboardRacial policy[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Racial policy of Nazi Germany
Persecution of Jews[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Nazism and race
Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the NSDAP and the Nazi regime.[239] Discrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power; following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses, synagogues, and members of the legal profession, on 1 April 1933 Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses.[240Sony VPCEB1C5E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2E4E Keyboard] The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April, excluded most Jews from the legal profession and civil service. Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of their right to practise. Sony VPCEB1E0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2E1R Keyboard On 11 April a decree was promulgated that stated anyone who had even one Jewish parent or grandparent was considered non-Aryan. As part of the drive to remove Jewish influence from cultural life, members of the National Socialist Student League removed from libraries any books considered un-German, and a nation-wide book burning was held on 10 May.[241] Sony VPCEB1E9E Keyboard
Violence and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country.[242] Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of access to government contracts. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks.[243] Many towns posted signs forbidding entry to Jews.[244]
Damage caused during Kristallnacht. 9 November 1938
In November 1938, a young Jewish man requested an interview with the German ambassador in Paris. He met with a legation secretary, whom he shot and killed to protest his family's treatment in German
Sony VPCEB2C4E Keyboard This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the NSDAP incited against the Jews on 9 November 1938. Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. At least 91 German Jews were killed during this pogrom, later called Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.[245][2 y. Sony VPCEB1J8E Keyboard
46] Further restrictions were imposed on Jews in the coming months – they were forbidden to own businesses or work in retail shops, drive cars, go to the cinema, visit the library, or own weapons. Jewish pupils were removed from schools. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by Kristallnacht and told that any money received via insurance claims would be confiscated.[247Sony VPCEB1M1R Keyboard
] By 1939 around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews emigrated to the United States, Argentina, Great Britain, Palestine, and other countries.[248][2Sony VPCEB1S0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2B4E Keyboard49] Many chose to stay in continental Europe. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government.[249] Sony VPCEB1S1R Keyboard
The Holocaust[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: The Holocaust
Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. He focused on Eastern Europe, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and remove or kill the resident Jews and Slavs.[149][150Sony VPCEB1S8E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2A4E Keyboard] At the outset of World War II, the German authority in the General Government in occupied Poland ordered that all Jews face compulsory labour and that those who were physically incapable of work were to be confined to ghettos.[2Sony VPCEB1Z0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1Z1E Keyboard50] In 1941 Hitler decided to destroy the Polish nation completely. He planned that within 10 to 20 years the section of Poland under German occupation would be cleared of ethnic Poles and resettled by German colonists.[251] About 3.8 to 4 million Poles would remain as slaves,[252] part of a slave labour force of 14 million the Nazis intended to create using citizens of conquered nations in the East.[150][253] Sony VPCEB2G4E Keyboard
Crematorium at Auschwitz I
The Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered.[254] To determine who should be killed, Himmler created the Volksliste, a system of classification of people deemed to be of German blood.[255Sony VPCEB2M0E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X201 Keyboard] He ordered that those of Germanic descent who refused to be classified as ethnic Germans should be deported to concentration camps, have their children taken away, or be assigned to forced labour.[256][ Sony VPCEB2S1R Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X200 Keyboard257] The plan also included the kidnapping of children deemed to have Aryan traits.[258] The goal was to implement Generalplan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when the invasion failed, Hitler had to consider other options.[254][259] One suggestion was a mass forced deportation of Jews to Poland, Palestine, or Madagascar.[250Sony VPCEB3A4R Keyboard
]
Somewhere around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December 1941, Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately.[260] Plans for the total eradication of the Jewish population of Europe—eleven million peopleSony VPCEB3B4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL300 Keyboard —were formalised at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be killed in the implementation of Die Endlösung der Judenfrage (the Final Solution of the Jewish question).[261] Initially the victims were killed with gas vans or by Einsatzgruppen firing squads, but these methods proved impracticable for an operation of this scale.[2Sony VPCEB3C4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL400 Keyboard62] By 1941, killing centres at Auschwitz concentration camp, Sobibor, Treblinka, and other Nazi extermination camps replaced Einsatzgruppen as the primary method of mass killing.[263] The total number of Jews murdered during the war is estimated at 5.5 to six million people,[208] including over a million children.[264] Twelve million people were put into forced labour.[233] Sony VPCEB3D4E Keyboard
A Jewish woman protects a child with her body as Einsatzgruppen soldiers take aim, Ukraine, 1942
German citizens had access to information about what was happening, as soldiers returning from the occupied territories would report on what they had seen and done.[265] Most German citizens disapproved of the genocide.[266Sony VPCEB3D4R Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL510 Keyboard] Some Polish citizens tried to rescue or hide the remaining Jews, and members of the Polish underground got word to their government in exile in London as to what was happening.[267] Sony VPCEB3E4R Keyboard
In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis also planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists.[268] Sony VPCEB3F4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E220 Keyboard Together, the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union.[269] These partially fulfilled plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[270] Sony VPCEB3H4E Keyboard
Persecution of other groups[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Nazi eugenics
Under the provisions of a law promulgated 14 July 1933, the Nazi regime carried out the compulsory sterilization of over 400,000 individuals labelled as having hereditary defects.[271] More than half the people sterilised were those considered mentally deficient, which included not only people who scored poorly on intelligence tests, Sony VPCEB3S1R Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E120 Keyboardbut those who deviated from expected standards of behaviour regarding thrift, sexual behaviour, and cleanliness. Mentally and physically ill people were also targeted. The majority of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals.[272] Sony VPCEB4A4E Keyboard
See also: Porajmos and Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
Naked Soviet prisoners of war in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Like the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. As a non-Aryan race, they were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. Romani were shipped to concentration camps starting in 1935 and were killed in large numbers.[151][15Sony VPCEB4D4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E420 Keyboard2] Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that mainly took place from 1939 to 1941 but continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others, but gas chambers were used by the end of 1941. Sony VPCEB4E0E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E425 Keyboard [273] Between June 1941 and January 1942, the Nazis killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet prisoners of war.[274] Many starved to death while being held in open-air pens at Auschwitz and elsewhere.[275] The Soviet Union lost 27 million people during the war; less than nine million of these were combat deaths.[276Sony VPCEB4B4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E520 Keyboard] One in four Soviets were killed or wounded.[277] In Poland, in addition to the loss of 3.3 million Jewish citizens, 1.8 to 1.9 million non-Jewish civilians were killed.[278] Other groups persecuted and killed included Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, social misfits, and members of the political and religious opposition.[152][279] Sony VPCEB1A4E Keyboard
Society[edit source | editbeta]
Education[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: University education in Nazi Germany
Antisemitic legislation passed in 1933 led to the removal all of Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. Sony VPCEB2H4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E525 KeyboardMost teachers were required to belong to the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (National Socialist Teachers League; NSLB), and university professors were required to join the National Socialist Association of University Lecturers.[280][2Sony PCG-71211L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71318L Keyboard 81] Teachers had to take an oath of loyalty and obedience to Hitler, and those who failed to show sufficient conformity to party ideals were often reported by students or fellow teachers and dismissed.[282][283Sony PCG-71212L Keyboard
] Lack of funding for salaries led to many teachers leaving the profession. The average class size increased from 37 in 1927 to 43 in 1938 due to the resulting teacher shortage.[284]
The Nazi salute in school (1934). Children were indoctrinated at an early age.
Frequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reichserziehungsministerium (Ministry of Education), Sony PCG-71213L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71316L Keyboard and various other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools.[285] Books deemed unacceptable to the regime were removed from school libraries.[286] Indoctrination in National Socialist thought was made compulsory in January 1934.[ Sony PCG-71311L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71315L Keyboard 286] Students selected as future members of the party elite were indoctrinated from the age of 12 at Adolf Hitler Schools for primary education and National Political Institutes of Education for secondary education. Detailed National Socialist indoctrination of future holders elite military rank was undertaken at Order Castles.[287] Sony PCG-71312L Keyboard
Primary and secondary education focused on racial biology, population policy, culture, geography, and especially physical fitness.[288] The curriculum in most subjects, including biology, geography, and even arithmetic, was altered to change the focus to race.[2Sony PCG-71313L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71314L Keyboard 89] Military education became the central component of physical education, and education in physics was oriented toward subjects with military applications, such as ballistics and aerodynamics.[290][291] Students were required to watch all films prepared by the school division of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.[28
6]
At universities, appointments to top posts were the subject of power struggles between the education ministry, the university boards, and the National Socialist German Students' League.[29Sony PCG-51311L Keyboard
2] In spite of pressure from the League and various government ministries, most university professors did not make changes to their lectures or syllabus during the Nazi period.[293] This was especially true of universities located in predominately Catholic regions.[29Sony PCG-51312L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61315L Keyboard4] Enrolment at German universities declined from 104,000 students in 1931 to 41,000 in 1939. But enrolment in medical schools rose sharply; Jewish doctors had been forced to leave the profession, so medical graduates had good job prospects.[295Sony PCG-51411L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71317L Keyboard] From 1934, university students were required to attend frequent and time-consuming military training sessions run by the SA.[296] First-year students also had to serve six months in a labour camp for the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labour Service); an additional ten weeks service were required of second-year students.[297] Sony PCG-51412L Keyboard
Oppression of Christian religions[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Religion in Nazi Germany
About 65 per cent of the population of Germany was Protestant when the Nazis seized power in 1933.[29Sony PCG-51111L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61313L Keyboard 8] As part of his plan to bring all organisations in Germany under the regime's control, Hitler created what he hoped would become a single state church, the Protestant Reich Church, and made efforts to disband or nazify the 28 existing Protestant churches. The German Christians, a pro-Nazi pressure group, gained control of the new church. They called for the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible, Sony PCG-51113L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61312L Keyboard claiming it was Jewish in origin, and demanded that Jews who had converted to Protestantism be barred from church attendance. Opposition groups and a rival church called the Confessing Church were formed by 1934. Some 700 pastors who refused to support the Nazis were jailed or placed in concentration camps. When the Confessing Church became popular, Sony PCG-51211L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61311L Keyboard especially in rural areas, Hitler abandoned his plan to amalgamate all the Protestant churches, but the oppression of the Confessing Church continued.[299]
Most Catholic Germans had voted for the Centre Party, which self-dissolved in summer 1933. The Reichskonkordat (the Concordat), Sony PCG-51513L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61211L Keyboard treaty was signed in July and ratified in September 1933. This treaty between the German state and the Holy See called for the regime to honour and uphold the independence of Catholic institutions, Sony PCG-81113L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61511L Keyboard in return for a promise that the clergy would not get involved in politics. Catholic lay persons were free to engage in politics outside church activities. But within a month, the political police were already forbidding the activities of Catholic lay organisations and banning Catholic periodicals.[3Sony PCG-81114L Keyboard
00] While Protestant youth organisations had been disbanded and their members enrolled in the Hitler Youth, most Catholic youth groups refused to dissolve themselves. Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach encouraged its members to attack Catholic boys in the streets.[3
Sony PCG-61611L Keyboard 01] Participation in the girls' wing—the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls)—was low among Catholics, in part because priests in some areas refused to grant absolution to girls who joined.[302] Sony PCG-81115L Keyboard
By 1935 until the end of the war oppressive measures against Catholics included propaganda campaigns claiming the church was corrupt, restrictions on public meetings, and censorship of Catholic publications. Catholic schools were required to reduce the amount of religious instruction and crucifixes were removed from all state buildings.[3Sony PCG-81214L Keyboard
03] Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, repeatedly protested these violations of the Concordat. On 21 March 1937, his "Mit brennender Sorge" ("With Burning Concern"), a statement of protest against the oppression, was read aloud in every Catholic church in Germany.[30Sony PCG-81311L Keyboard
Sony PCG-81312L Keyboard 4] In response, propaganda minister Goebbels announced further crackdowns and launched a media campaign denouncing alleged homosexual activity within the church. The campaign resulted in a sharp drop in enrolment in denominational schools, and by 1939 all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities.[30Acer Aspire 7745Z Keyboard
Acer Aspire 5755T Keyboard 5] About 30 per cent of Catholic priests were disciplined at the hands of the police during the Nazi era; many were jailed or placed in concentration camps.[306][307]
Health[edit source | editbeta]
Statues representing the ideal body were erected in the streets of Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Nazi Germany had a strong anti-tobacco movement. Pioneering research by Franz H. Müller in 1939 demonstrated a causal link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer.[308] The Reich Health Office took measures to try to limit smoking, including producing lectures and pamphlets.[309] Smoking was banned in many workplaces, on trains, and among on-duty members of the military.[310] Acer Aspire 7741G Keyboard
Acer Aspire 7520G Keyboard
Acer Aspire 7720 Keyboard Government agencies also worked to control other carcinogenic substances such as asbestos and pesticides.[311] As part of a general public health campaign, water supplies were cleaned up, lead and mercury were removed from consumer products, and women were urged to undergo regular screenings for breast cancer.[312][313] Acer Aspire 7540G Keyboard
Government-run health care insurance plans were available, but Jews were denied coverage starting in 1933. That same year, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat government-insured patients. In 1937 Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients, and in 1938 their right to practice medicine was removed entirely.[314] Acer Aspire 7750Z Keyboard
Acer Aspire 7740 Keyboard
Medical experiments, many of them unscientific, were performed on concentration camp inmates beginning in 1941.[315] The most notorious doctor to perform medical experiments was SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr Josef Mengele, camp doctor at Auschwitz.[3Acer Aspire 7745 Keyboard
Acer Aspire 7736 Keyboard16] Many of his victims died or were intentionally killed.[317] Concentration camp inmates were made available for purchase by pharmaceutical companies for drug testing and other experiments.[318] Acer Aspire 7750G Keyboard
Role of women and family[edit source | editbeta]
Further information: Women in Nazi Germany
Women were a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, and instead advocated a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home."[220] Acer Aspire 7750 Keyboard
Acer Aspire 7735 KeyboardSoon after the seizure of power, feminist groups were shut down or incorporated into the National Socialist Women's League. This organisation coordinated groups throughout the country to promote motherhood and household activities. Courses were offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking.[3Sony PCG-7191L Keyboard
19] The League published the NS-Frauen-Warte, the only NSDAP-approved women's magazine in Nazi Germany.[320] Despite some propaganda aspects, it was predominantly an ordinary woman's magazine.[321] Sony PCG-7173L Keyboard
Women were encouraged to leave the workforce, and the creation of large families by racially suitable women was promoted through a propaganda campaign. Women received a bronze award—known as the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter (Cross of Honour of the German Mother)—for giving birth to four children, silver for six, and gold for eight or more.[3Sony PCG-7172L Keyboard
19] Large families received subsidies to help with their utilities, school fees, and household expenses. Though the measures led to increases in the birth rate, the number of families having four or more children declined by five per cent between 1935 and 1940.[322] Sony PCG-7174L Keyboard
Removing women from the workforce did not have the intended effect of freeing up jobs for men. Women were for the most part employed as domestic servants, weavers, or in the food and drink industries—jobs that were not of interest to men.[323] Nazi philosophy prevented large numbers of women from being hired to work in munitions factories in the build-up to the war, so foreign labourers were brought in. After the war started, Sony PCG-7182L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7133L Keyboard slave labourers were extensively used.[324] In January 1943 Hitler signed a decree requiring all women under the age of fifty to report for work assignments to help the war effort.[325] Thereafter, women were funnelled into agricultural and industrial jobs. By September 1944, 14.9 million women were working in munitions production.[326]
Young women of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) practising gymnastics in 1941
The Nazi regime discouraged women from seeking higher education. The number of women allowed to enrol in universities dropped drastically, as a law passed in April 1933 limited the number of females admitted to university to ten per cent of the number of male attendees.[327]
Sony PCG-7131L Keyboard Female enrolment in secondary schools dropped from 437,000 in 1926 to 205,000 in 1937. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary schools dropped from 128,000 in 1933 to 51,000 in 1938. However, with the requirement that men be enlisted into the armed forces during the war, women comprised half of the enrolment in the post-secondary system by 1944.[328] Sony PCG-7184L Keyboard
Women were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital.[329] The sturdy peasant woman who worked the land and bore strong children was considered ideal, and athletic women were praised for being tanned from working outdoors.[ Sony PCG-7185L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7112L Keyboard 330] Organisations were created for the indoctrination of Nazi values. From 25 March 1939, membership in the Hitler Youth became compulsory for all children over the age of ten.[331] The Jungmädelbund (Young Girls League) section of the Hitler Youth was for girls age 10 to 14, and the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM; Sony PCG-7171L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7111L Keyboard League of German Girls) was for young women age 14 to 18. The BDM's activities focused on physical education, with activities such as running, long jumping, somersaulting, tightrope walking, marching, and swimming.[332] Sony PCG-7152L Keyboard
The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct regarding sexual matters, and was sympathetic to women who bore children out of wedlock.[33Sony PCG-7153L Keyboard
3] Promiscuity increased as the war progressed, with unmarried soldiers often intimately involved with several women simultaneously. The same was the case for married women, who liaised with soldiers, civilians, or slave labourers. Sex was sometimes used as a commodity to obtain, for example, better work from a foreign labourer.[3Sony PCG-7154L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7161L Keyboard 33] Pamphlets enjoined German women to avoid sexual intercourse with foreign workers as a danger to their blood.[334]
With Hitler's approval, Himmler intended that the new society of the Nazi regime should de-stigmatise illegitimate births, particularly of children fathered by members of the SS, who were vetted for racial purity.[33Sony 148781111 Keyboard
5] His hope was that each SS family would have between four and six children.[335] The Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) association, founded by Himmler in 1935, created a series of maternity homes where single mothers could be accommodated during their pregnancies.[336] Both parents were examined for racial suitability before acceptance. Sony 148792611 Keyboard
Sony 148793411 keyboard [336] The resulting children were often adopted into SS families.[336] The homes were also made available to the wives of SS and NSDAP members, who quickly filled over half the available spots.[337] Sony 148088721 Keyboard
Existing laws banning abortion except for medical reasons were strictly enforced by the Nazi regime. The number of abortions declined from 35,000 per year at the start of the 1930s to fewer than 2,000 per year at the end of the decade. In 1935 a law was passed allowing abortions for eugenics reasons.[338] Sony 141780221 Keyboard
Environmentalism[edit source | editbeta]
Main article: Animal welfare in Nazi Germany
Hermann Göring was an animal lover and conservationist.
Nazi society had elements supportive of animal rights, and many people were fond of zoos and wildlife.[339] The government took several measures to ensure the protection of animals and the environment. In 1933 the Nazis enacted a stringent animal-protection law that had an impact on what was allowed for medical research.[340] Sony 148084521 Keyboard
Sony 148768711 keyboardBut the law was only loosely enforced. In spite of a ban on vivisection, the Ministry of the Interior readily handed out permits for experiments on animals.[341]
The Reich Forestry Office, under Göring, enforced regulations that required foresters to plant a wide variety of trees to ensure suitable habitat for wildlife. A new Reich Animal Protection Act became law in 1933.[342]
Sony 148968911 KeyboardThe regime enacted the Reich Nature Protection Act in 1935 to protect the natural landscape from excessive economic development. The act allowed for the expropriation of privately owned land to create nature preserves and aided in long-range planning.[343] Perfunctory efforts were made to curb air pollution, but little enforcement of existing legislation was undertaken once the war began.[344] Sony 148084721 Keyboard
Culture[edit source | editbeta]
The regime promoted the concept of Volksgemeinschaft, a national German ethnic community. The goal was to build a classless society based on racial purity and the perceived need to prepare for warfare, conquest, and a struggle against Marxism.[345Sony 148084811 Keyboard
Sony 148084212 Keyboard
Sony 148969411 Keyboard][346] The German Labour Front founded the Kraft durch Freude (KdF; Strength Through Joy) organisation in 1933. In addition to taking control of tens of thousands of previously privately run recreational clubs, it offered highly regimented holidays and entertainment experiences such as cruises, vacation destinations, and concerts.[347][348] Sony 148088811 keyboard
The Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture) was organised under the control of the Propaganda Ministry in September 1933. Sub-chambers were set up to control various aspects of cultural life, such as films, radio, newspapers, fine arts, music, theatre, and literature. All members of these professions were required to join their respective organisation. Sony 148088721 keyboard
Sony 148927111 KeyboardJews and people considered politically unreliable were prevented from working in the arts, and many emigrated. Books and scripts had to be approved by the Propaganda Ministry prior to publication. Standards deteriorated as the regime sought to use cultural outlets exclusively as propaganda media.[349]
Radio became very popular in Germany during the 1930s, with over 70 per cent of households owning a receiver by 1939, more than any other country. Radio station staffs were purged of leftists and others deemed undesirable by July 1933.[ Sony 148738011 keyboard
Sony 148793161 Keyboard350] Propaganda and speeches were typical radio fare immediately after the seizure of power, but as time went on Goebbels insisted that more music be played so that people would not turn to foreign broadcasters for entertainment.[351] Sony 141780221 keyboard
See also: List of authors banned during the Third Reich
Plans for Berlin called for the Volkshalle (People's Hall) and a triumphal arch to be built at either end of a wide boulevard.
As with other media, newspapers were controlled by the state, with the Reich Press Chamber shutting down or buying newspapers and publishing houses. By 1939 over two-thirds of the newspapers and magazines were directly owned by the Propaganda Ministry.[35Sony 148778711 keyboard
2] The NSDAP daily newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter (Ethnic Observer), was edited by Alfred Rosenberg, author of The Myth of the Twentieth Century, a book of racial theories espousing Nordic superiority.[353]
Sony 148793011 Keyboard Although Goebbels insisted that all newspapers in Germany should publish content uniformly favourable to the regime, publishers still managed to include veiled criticism, for example by editorialising about dictatorships in ancient Rome or Greece. Newspaper readership plummeted, partly because of the decreased quality of the content, and partly because of the surge in popularity of radio.[3Sony 148792811 Keyboard
Sony A1766433A Keyboard54] Authors of books left the country in droves, and some wrote material highly critical of the regime while in exile.[355] Goebbels recommended that the remaining authors should concentrate on books themed on Germanic myths and the concept of blood and soil.[356] By the end of 1933 over a thousand books, most of them by Jewish authors or featuring Jewish characters, had been banned by the Nazi regime.[357] Sony nsk-s8101 keyboard
Main article: Nazi architecture
Hitler took a personal interest in architecture, and worked closely with state architects Paul Troost and Albert Speer to create public buildings in a neoclassical style based on Roman architecture.[358] Sony 148084811 keyboard
[359] Speer constructed imposing structures such as the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg and a new Reich Chancellery building in Berlin.[360] Hitler's plans for rebuilding Berlin included a gigantic dome based on the Pantheon in Rome and a triumphal arch more than double the height of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Neither of these structures were ever built.[361]
Main article: Art of the Third Reich Sony 148084521 keyboard
Hitler felt that abstract, Dadaist, expressionist, and modern art were decadent, an opinion that became the basis for policy.[362] Many art museum directors lost their posts in 1933 and were replaced by party members.[363] Sony 148090112 Keyboard
Sony 148763111 Keyboard Some 6,500 modern works of art were removed from museums and replaced with works chosen by a Nazi jury.[364] Exhibitions of the rejected pieces, under titles such as "Decadence in Art", were launched in sixteen different cities by 1935. Sony 148090122 Keyboard
The Degenerate Art Exhibition, organised by Goebbels, ran in Munich from July to November 1937. The exhibition proved wildly popular, attracting over two million visitors.[365]
Composer Richard Strauss was appointed president of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) on its founding in November 1933.[366] As was the case with other art forms, the Nazis ostracised musicians who were not deemed racially acceptable, and for the most part did not approve of music that was too modern or atonal.[3Sony 148090152 Keyboard
Sony 148738411 Keyboard67] Jazz music was singled out as being especially inappropriate, and foreign musicians of this genre left the country or were expelled.[368] Hitler favoured the music of Richard Wagner, especially pieces based on Germanic myths and heroic stories, and attended the Bayreuth Festival each year from 1933.[367] Sony A1562160BKeyboard
Main article: Nazism and cinema
Leni Riefenstahl (behind cameraman) at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Movies were popular in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, with admissions of over a billion people in 1942, 1943, and 1944.[369][370] By 1934 German regulations restricting currency exports made it impossible for American film makers to take their profits back to America, so the major film studios closed their German branchesSony148088721 Keyboard
Sony 148738251Keyboard. Exports of German films plummeted, as their heavily antisemitic content made them impossible to show in other countries. The two largest film companies, Universum Film AG and Tobis, were purchased by the Propaganda Ministry, which by 1939 was producing most German films.
Sony 148738211 KeyboardThe productions were not always overtly propagandistic, but generally had a political subtext and followed party lines regarding themes and content. Scripts were pre-censored.[371]
Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia (1938), covering the 1936 Summer Olympics, pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that influenced later films. Sony 148088811 Keyboard
New techniques such as telephoto lenses and cameras mounted on tracks were employed. Both films remain controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of national socialist ideals.[372][373]
Legacy[edit source | editbeta] Sony 148090111 Keyboard
Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg Trials
The Allied powers organised war crimes trials, beginning with the Nuremberg Trials, held from November 1945 to October 1946, of 23 top Nazi officials. They were charged with four counts—conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—in violation of international laws governing warfare.[37Sony 148779011 Keyboard
4] All but three of the defendants were found guilty; twelve were sentenced to death.[375] The victorious Allies outlawed the NSDAP and its subsidiary organisations. The display or use of Nazi symbolism such as flags, swastikas, or greetings, is illegal in Germany and Austria.[376][37Sony 148905811 Keyboard
Nazi ideology and the actions taken by the regime are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral.[378] Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust have become symbols of evil in the modern world.[379
Sony 148779041 Keyboard] Interest in Nazi Germany continues in the media and the academic world. Historian Sir Richard J. Evans remarks that the era "exerts an almost universal appeal because its murderous racism stands as a warning to the whole of humanity."[380] Sony148779411 Keyboard
The Nazi era continues to inform how Germans view themselves and their country. Virtually every family suffered losses during the war or has a story to tell. For many years Germans kept quiet about their experiences and felt a sense of communal guilt, even if they were not directly involved in war crimes.
Sony 148778451 Keyboard Once study of Nazi Germany was introduced into the school curriculum starting in the 1970s, people began researching the experiences of their family members. Study of the era and a willingness to critically examine its mistakes has led to the development of a strong democracy in today's Germany, but with lingering undercurrents of antisemitism and neo-Nazi thought.[381] Sony 148778631 Keyboard
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