Unit 5: Hitler and the Nazi’s in Power

1. Unit 5: Hitler and the Nazi’s in Power

2. I. The Final Fall of the Weimar Republic A. Hitler becomes Chancellor • Jan 30, 1933 • Sworn in, promising to defend the German Constitution…even though many Germany leaders had made that same oath..willfully lying. • Cabinet – 2 other Nazi’s (Goering) out of 11 spots • The Idea was that Hitler would be controlled. Many thought that after 2 months Hitler would be under the control of those who mattered.

3. 5. Big bankers and Industrialists threw money around supporting Hitler. They also schemed behind the scenes in favor of Hitler • Hitler was good for business because he would end labor disputes and communism. 6. Military was a strong supporter of Hitler..and had been for a while. • Most of these people backed Hitler because they thought, in the end, that they could control Hitler. That was their fatal mistake.

4. B. Nazi Party Celebrates Hitler 1. S.A. and S.S. showed up in full uniform carrying torches and singing the Horst Wessel Song. 2. Thousands showed up at the Brandenburg Gate and along the Wilhelmstrasse in route to the Presidential Palace where Hitler waited to be officially recognized. 3. With the crowd were Nazi’s rhythmically pounding their drums and blaring military music.

5. Horst Wessel Song Flag high, ranks closed,The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.Comrades shot by the red front and reactionmarch in spirit with us in our ranks. The street free for the brown battalions,The street free for the Storm Troopers.Millions, full of hope, look up at the swastika;The day breaks for freedom and for bread. For the last time the call will now be blown;For the struggle now we all stand ready.Soon will fly Hitler-flags over every street;Slavery will last only a short time longer. Flag high, ranks closed,The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.Comrades shot by the red front and reactionmarch in spirit with us in our ranks. http://www.worldmilitaria.com/newsite/Media/HorstWesselLied.mp3

6. C. Goebbels Sets the Scene 1. A sea of hand held torches carried by S.A. and S.S. troops. 2. Red and gold Nazi banners illuminated by the torches. 3. Men, Women, and Children in attendance all waiting in much anticipation of Hitler’s appearance. 4. Millions around Germany were waiting in front of their radios. 5. Hitler finally emerges as if he was a rock star • Met by cries of Heil! Seig Heil! (Hail! Hail Victory!)

7. D. Ominous Warning from General Luddendorf 1. “this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe on our people”. 2. “Future generations will curse you for this action” • Referring to Hindenburg’s appointing of Hitler to Chancellor in a telegram.

8. E. Dominoes were now in order 1. Within weeks Hitler would become absolute Dictator of Germany. 2. Once Dictator, Hitler would set into motion a chain of events that would send 50 million to war and deliberate extermination.

9. F. The Beginning of the end..for Germany Feb 1933 – Hitler and the Nazi’s hatched a plan to burn down the Reichstag and blame it on the Jews and Communists..

10. II. The Reichstag Burning Plan begins A. Hitler seizes more power. • Reichstag dissolved = New elections immediately • Told the Army he would re-arm Germany to regain it’s place of power in the world. • Assured the Army that the S.A. would not replace them.

11. 4. State police were replaced with Nazi officials loyal to Hitler and under the command of Hermann Goring. • ordered to not interfere with S.A. or S.S. activities. • Victims of the Nazi’s had nobody to turn to for help.

12. Police was ordered to give no mercy to enemies of the state…essentially giving the police the authority to kill. • 50,000 S.A. and S.S. men were given auxiliary police status.

13. B. Reichstag Plot Goes Well for Hitler • Goring and Hitler devised a plan to burn the Reichstag and blame it on the Communists. • The Reichstag was burned in Feb 1933. Reichstag Fire Clip (:34)

14. 3. A communist arsonist was rumored to be used by the Nazi’s to start the blaze. 4. Hindenburg and Hitler met at the site of the blaze • Hitler and Goring used the opportunity to accuse the Communists and Jews as guilty, to make threats, and spread false accusations.

15. C. Attacks on the Communists Begin • An emergency decree was issued by Hindenburg, at the urging of Hitler. "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.“

16. 2. Truckloads of S.A. and S.S. roared into known Communist hangouts and private homes and placing them into “protective custody” where they were often beaten and tortured. "I don't have to worry about justice; my mission is only to destroy and exterminate, nothing more!" - Hermann Göring, March 3, 1933. 3. 51 Anti-Nazi’s were murdered, Nazi’s suppressed all political activity, meetings, and publications of non-Nazi parties. The very act of campaigning against the Nazi’s was made illegal.

17. The very act of campaigning against the Nazi’s was made illegal. • The goal was to slowly remove any threat to Hitler’s power..elected or otherwise.

18. Nazi newspapers continued to print false stories about the Communists claiming that only Hitler and the Nazi’s could suppress them. • Goebbels had control of the state run radio and broadcast Nazi propaganda and Hitler speeches daily.

19. III. Last Democratic Election in Germany • A. March 5, 1933 • Nazi’s campaigned relentlessly to try to gain the required 2/3 majority to have control of the Reichstag. • Had 3 million marks to pay for it all…gladly supplied by German industrialists. • Even though all other party campaigns were pretty much illegal…the Nazi’s only won 44% of the votes and had failed to reach the 2/3 needed. • They were now very close…

20. IV. Nazi Harassment Intensifies • Systematic takeover of state level governments 1. Nazi’s took over local government offices and their legally elected officials and replaced them with Nazi’s. 2. Thousands of political enemies were arrested and put into harsh camps where they were beaten, tortured, and often killed…these were the beginnings of the first concentration camps.

21. Enabling Act – a legislative act conferring certain specified powers on a person or organization. • In Germany it meant…

22. Although Hitler won the office of German chancellor in legal fashion (the Nazis, after all, were the largest group in the Reichstag or lower house of parliament)), he was, of course, determined to rule Germany without the restraint of a democratically elected parliament. For this to happen he had to set aside the guarantees of civil rights and democratic procedures established by the Weimar Constitution, a tactic that required the approval of two-thirds of sitting representatives. This was achieved by calling a new election (which increased the Nazi vote) and using force and intimidation against the existing parties, especially those of the Socialists and Communists, many of whose elected representatives were jailed as political enemies or forced to flee the country. Once assured of the votes of the Catholic Center party, the two-thirds majority was assured. Thus, over the unavailing opposition of Socialist deputies, the March 24 session gave Hitler approval of legislation enabling him to exercise dictatorial rule for four years, leaving the Nazis free to suborn Germany's hitherto free institutions and subordinate both state and people to the ideological demands of the new regime. Of course the compliant Reichsrat (upper house) followed suit. Inevitably, the Act was renewed in 1937 and persisted until the collapse of Germany in 1945. The official name of the Enabling legislation was "Law for the Removal of the Distress of People and Reich."

23. The Reichstag [the lower house of parliament] has passed the following law, which is, with the approval of the Reichsrat [the upper house], herewith promulgated, after it has been established that it satisfies the requirements for legislation altering the Constitution. • ARTICLE 1. In addition to the procedure for the passage of legislation outlined in the Constitution, the Reich Cabinet is also authorized to enact Laws. . . . • ARTICLE 2. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution provided they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The powers of the President remain unaffected. • ARTICLE 3. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet shall be prepared by the Chancellor and published in the official gazette. They come into effect, unless otherwise specified, upon the day following their publication . . . • ARTICLE 4. Treaties of the Reich with foreign states which concern matters of domestic legislation do not require the consent of the bodies participating in legislation. The Reich Cabinet is empowered to issue the necessary provisions for the implementing of these treaties. • ARTICLE 5. This law comes into effect on the day of its publication. It ceases to be valid on 1 April 1937: . . .

24. Nazi’s Boycott Jewish Shops • 1 week after Enabling Act passed. • As a reaction to unflattering news reports in U.K. and U.S. • Press was either Jews or sympathetic to Jews. “International Jewry” or “atrocity propaganda”. • Punishment for German Jews because they could not control all Jews. • Boycott began April 1, 1933..and only lasted a day because it was ignored by the people who wanted bargains etc.. AND it was on a Sat (Jewish Sabbath) and most Jewish owned shops were already closed.

25. Masterminded by Goebbels • 2nd only to Hitler when it came to anti-Jewish propaganda • “propaganda has nothing to do with truth” • Not effective…but the beginning of a downward spiral for German Jews. • “Law of the Restoration of the Civil Service” – Aryanism was a requirement to hold government jobs. • Similar decrees were created to cut Jews out from normal lives in Germany. • Germany was rapidly becoming a police state.

26. Gestapo is Born – April 1933 • Founded by Hermann Goring in 1933 • Gestapo – Geheime Staats Polizei – Secret State Police – These were S.A. and S.S. officers who had power to arrest and confine in the earliest concentration camps. • Used to silence Hitler’s political opponents. • Acquired tons of secret intel on high ranking Nazi figures that Goring used to secure his power. • Goring eventually left control of the Gestapo to his rival, Heinrich Himmler

27. Himmler Instills Fear among the Population • Turned it into an efficient spy agency to keep tabs on everyone. • “Gestapo Law” – Gestapo files were not allowed to be reviewed by any court….Gestapo was now above the law. • Common practice was to arrest those suspected of speaking out against Nazi’s..and to beat, torture, and then send to death camps. • Nobody knew who was a Gestapo agent until they came for you or ordered you to report for “questioning”.

28. Gestapo Tactics • Near drownings in ice water filled tubs • Electric shocks to “private areas” • Crushing men’s genitals with a vice. • Handcuffing arms behind the back and then hanging them by their cuffs. • Beatings and burnings with soldering iron. • If you lived…off to the new prison camps in Germany

29. The ever present threat of arrest and indefinite confinement in camps robbed Germans of their personal freedoms and left them as inhibited, obedient subjects. • The Gestapo followed the German Army into every newly conquered area..and quickly began their tactics there intimidating all.

30. Burning of Books - May 1933 • Students from German Universities..once regarded among the finest in Europe..gathered to burn books with “unGerman Ideas”. • 20,000 volumes of works of famous authors such as Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway, Karl Marx, Margaret Sanger etc.. • Joseph Goebbels – “The era of extreme Jewish Intellectualism is now at an end” • Germany was now led by a self educated high school drop-out..who was strongly anti-intellectual.

31. All Jews had been removed from teaching positions throughout German lands. • Schools now had National Socialist teachers will questionable ability molding young lives into the lies of the Nazi Propaganda. • Soon the greatest scientific minds in Germany were either gone..or in prison camps • Germany’s real youth education was through the Hitler Youth…and a generation of uneducated Germans..who were completely loyal to Hitler was formed.

32. Weakness must be hammered away. In my Ordensburgen [special Nazi colleges] a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes...That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication...That is how I will create the New Order." Hitler

33. Dachau Opens – Spring 1933 • “Work will Set you Free” • Disguised as a work camp for enemies of Hitler. • Prisoners were subjected to horrible living conditions, military style drills, and random beatings. • Prisoners would/could be killed for any number of offenses considered crimes against the Reich.

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36. Night of the Long Knives 6-30-34 • Ernst Rohm and the S.A. were becoming a pain for Hitler in his dealings with the Army and Industrialists • Rohm viewed his S.A. as a revolutionary army • S.A. was not much more than a bunch of thugs who randomly attacked enemies and innocents alike. • Hitler gave Rohm many chances to clean up his act..and get the S.A. back with the program.

37. Himmler and Goring had begun spreading false rumors about an impending S.A. revolution and feeding Hitler lies about Rohm’s intentions. • Hitler finally decided it best to deal with Rohm and put off any impending issues with the S.A.

38. Goring and Himmler had created a list of S.A. and other important enemies to get rid of. • The S.S. raided the hotel were many S.A. were shacked up..immediately placing many of the them under arrest at the order of the Fuhrer. • Several S.A. leaders were found in bed with young men…which would later be offered by the Nazi’s as an excuse for their execution.

39. List of Prominent Enemies • Gregor Strasser, a founder of the Nazi Party and formerly next in importance to Hitler, who had broken with Hitler over political disagreements. Taken to Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, he was shot in the back and mortally wounded. • Kurt von Schleicher, former Chancellor of Germany and one-time master of political intrigue, who had helped topple democracy in Germany and put Hitler in power. He was attempting a political comeback, possibly at Hitler's expense. He was gunned down in his home along with his recently-wed wife. • 73-year-old old Gustav von Kahr, the now-retired government official who had dared to oppose Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch back in 1923. He was found hacked to death in a swamp near Dachau. • Father Bernhard Stempfle, a priest who had helped edit Hitler's book Mein Kampf and who knew too much about Hitler's tragic relationship with Geli Raubal. He wound up in the same swamp. • Berlin's SA leader, Karl Ernst, was shot along with three other SA men involved in torching the Reichstag building back in February 1933. • Erich Klausener, a conservative Catholic activist who had prepared Papen's Marburg speech, was shot along with Edgar Jung, Papen's private secretary, who also worked on the speech. Papen himself was spared due to his close relationship with President Hindenburg.

40. 77 In All were killed… • Adolph Hitler addressed the nation saying… • "If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people!"

41. "It was no secret that this time the revolution would have to be bloody; when we spoke of it we called it the 'Night of the Long Knives.' Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot!" • Hitler had not only rid himself of a problem in the S.A. but he had also declared himself “supreme judge of the German people” thus placing himself above the law.

42. By the summer of 1934 there was only one man standing in Hitler’s way…Paul von Hindenburg • August 2, 1934 Hindenburg dies…and within hours the Nazi Reichstag announced the following…

43. The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated. Section 1. The office of Reich President will be combined with that of Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. He will select his deputy. Section 2. This law is effective as of the time of the death of Reich President von Hindenburg.

44. Civil Service/Public Officials Oath • "I swear: I shall be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, respect the laws, and fulfill my official duties conscientiously, so help me God." • Hitler was now ABOVE the law..

45. Officers Oath "I swear by God this sacred oath: I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath."

46. Nuremburg rally of 1934 became the epicenter of the Nazi movement. • Nuremburg became the Nazi’s “Jerusalem”. • Hitler told the German people that the German Reich would live for 1000 years.

48. Triumph of the Will • Before the rally, Hitler had summoned an up-and-coming movie director named Leni Riefenstahl and asked her to film the entire week-long event. • “Triumph of the Will” became one of the most powerful propaganda films every created..even winning film awards.

49. Became a sold out attraction at German movie theatres. • Most dramatic scene probably was the scene of Hitler, Himmler, and Lutze (Rohm’s replacement) walking down the aisle of thousands of S.A., S.S. and regular Army soldiers

50. For many Germans a trip to the Nuremburg rally had become like a religious pilgrimmage.