CHAPTER 17

1. CHAPTER 17 Between the Two World Wars

2. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) • An unruly but intelligent youth, he became an ardent socialist and served as editor of the party newspaper, Avanti! (1912–14). When he reversed his opposition to World War I, he was ousted by the party. • He founded the pro-war Il Popolo d'Italia, served with the Italian army (1915–17), then returned to his editorship. • Advocating government by dictatorship, he formed a political group in 1919 that marked the beginning of fascism. • A dynamic and captivating orator at rallies, he organized the March on Rome (1922) to prevent a socialist-led general strike.

3. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Biography of Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini Video of Benito Mussolini

4. Fascism • A totalitarian form of government that glorifies the state, it also glorifies the military. • By 1921 it was a major player in Italian politics.

5. “Blackshirts” • Followers of Mussolini, who were members of the Fascist Party in Italy. • They used verbal and physical violence to achieve their goals.

6. Mussolini’s March to Leadership • In October 1922 the Fascists threatened to riot in Rome. • Martial law was not declared by King Victor Emmanuel III so the Italian cabinet resigned, thus the monarch named Benito Mussolini prime minister. • Mussolini was loved by the Italian people. • By building up the military he solved the unemployment problem and brought nationalism and patriotism back to Italian life.

7. Mussolini’s March to Leadership(Continued) • In 1921 Mussolini tries to smooth things over with the socialists, and as the leader of the newly founded Fascist movement he signs The Pact of Pacification with the socialists. • This upsets the leaders of the local squadristi, and the Leadership of Mussolini is questioned. He can stay in power bybacking down from the pact. • Throughout 1921 the Fascist Movement becomes a Political party, formally established in Oct 1921 as Partito Nazionale Fascista. • This transformation from a revolutionary movement to an established political party wanting to have seats in the parliament is important since it leaves Mussolini with an unsolved dilemma; How should he stay in power within the fascist party meanwhile attracting the more conservative voter? • The answer? Family Values! Mussolini tries to win over the Church by posing as a Family party, opposing to sinful living and divorces. • Simultaneously the violence from the squadristi continued. This however was beneficiary to Mussolini since he could show that HE had tried to stop the violence, but elements within his movement opposed, if other politicians tried to stop Mussolini the violence would only get worst. • Throughout the summer and autumn of 1922 local squadristi had taken control of almost all local governments or organized strikes and acts of violence in the areas that meant that the government could not function any longer.

8. Mussolini’s March to Leadership(Continued) • The Liberal government in Rome had two options either cooperate with the fascists or strike down on them with military. • Military option not available. • On October 24 1922 Mussolini threatens toMarch to Rome and seize power. • He politically blackmailed the government – either the let the fascists into government or he would let loose a revolution leading to a fascist government. • Mussolini goes to Milan and starts his march towards Rome. • On October 28 5 am the Prime Minister Facta after having checked for loyalty among the military he decides to meet Mussolini with force. • This decision has to be signed by the King, and he refuses, Facta resigns as Prime Minister. Now the King has to appoint a new one. • Mussolini is appointed Prime Minister on October 31 1922. BUT in a coalition government. • This turns out to be a brilliant move, since he shows his critics within the party that he is a man of action and at the same time he forces the government to cooperate with him and he gets closer to his goal as ruler of Italy. • As with Hitler the conservative elements in government seeks to cooperate with Mussolini. As with Hitler it fails.

9. Weimar Republic • A democratic republic that was in Germany 1919-1933. • It elected delegates to a national assembly and they wrote a constitution.

10. Weimar Republic • The Weimar Republic, proclaimed on November 9, 1918, was born in the throes of military defeat and social revolution. In January 1919, a National Assembly was elected to draft a constitution. The government, composed of members from the assembly, came to be called the Weimar coalition and included the SPD; the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei--DDP), a descendant of the Progressive Party of the prewar period; and the Center Party. The percentage of the vote gained by this coalition of parties in favor of the republic (76.2 percent, with 38 percent for the SPD alone) suggested broad popular support for the republic. The antirepublican, conservative German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei--DNVP) and the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei--DVP) received a combined total of 10.3 percent of the vote. The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had split from the SPD during the war, won 8 percent of the vote. In February the assembly elected Friedrich Ebert as the republic's first president. • In mid-1919 the assembly ratified the constitution of the new Weimar Republic, so named because its constitution was drafted in the small city where the poets Goethe and Schiller had lived. The constitution established a federal republic consisting of nineteen states. The republic's government was a mixed strong president and parliamentary system, with the president seen by many as a sort of substitute Kaiser. The president was elected by popular direct ballot to a seven-year term and could be reelected. He appointed the chancellor and, pursuant to the chancellor's nominations, also appointed the cabinet ministers. However, the cabinet had to reflect the party composition of the Reichstag and was also responsible to this body. Election to the Reichstag was by secret ballot and popular vote. Suffrage was universal. Thus, Germany had a truly democratic parliamentary system. However, the president had the right to dismiss the cabinet, dissolve the Reichstag, and veto legislation. The legislative powers of the Reichstag were further weakened by the provision for presidential recourse to popular plebiscite. Article 48, the so-called emergency clause, accorded the president the right to allow the cabinet to govern without the consent of parliament whenever it was deemed essential to maintaining public order.

11. National Socialist Workers’ Party (NAZI) • The new political party in Germany that rose up in the 1930’s.

12. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) • He was born in Austria. • He was an artillery gunman during World War I and he would later lead Germany through the Nazi Party. Adolf Hitler

13. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) • Video of Adolf Hitler • Biography of Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler

14. “Brownshirts” • Private group of people who carried out and supported Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920’s and 30’s. • Hitler's Brown Shirts terrorized political opponents on the streets, which discouraged political competition.

15. Beer Hall Riot (Putsch) • Took place on November 8, 1923. • During the economic crisis of 1923 Adolf Hitler entered a Munich pub and announced “The revolution has begun!” • Hitler attempted to overthrow the local Bavarian government in Munich. • Hitler was imprisoned after the revolt was put down by Munich police.

16. Beer Hall Riot (Putsch) • By 1921 Hitler had secured virtually total control of the Nazi Party. During that time Hitler also plotted to overthrow the German Weimar Republic by force. On November 8, 1923, he led an attempt to take over the local Bavarian government in Munich, in an action that became known as the "Beer Hall Putsch." • The coup was ended after a brief gunfight with Munich police. Himmler, Goering and Hess also participated in the putsch. Hitler was arrested and charged with treason. He successfully used the subsequent trial to gain publicity for himself and his ideas. Following his trial, he was sentenced to five years in Landsberg prison, but served only six months. • During his prison term, Hitler began to dictate his thoughts and philosophy to co-conspirator and cellmate Rudolf Hess, which became the book Mein Kampf (My Struggle). It became the blueprint for Hitler's political plans. In Mein Kampf, he contended that Germans should expand east, liquidate the Jews and turn the Slavs into slave labor. Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany's political and economic problems. • While in jail, Hitler realized he would have to take control of Germany by legal means, not through revolution. He increased the size of the Nazi Party, even though the government had banned it. Hitler's Brown Shirts terrorized political opponents on the streets, which discouraged political competition. During that period, Hitler also created the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS), which was initially intended to be Hitler's bodyguard under the leadership of Himmler.

17. Mein Kampf • Translates as “My Struggle.” • Book written by Adolf Hitler during his short (served 6 months of 5 year sentence) imprisonment after the Beer Hall Putsch. • Hitler’s writing style was poor and is difficult to follow. • It blames the Jews and the Communists for Germany’s economic collapse.

18. Mein Kampf(continued) • Hitler expressed his views of the Aryian race being superior to all others. • Hitler claimed Germans were part of the “master” race and thus should rule the world. • Hitler also contended that Germans should expand east, liquidate the Jews, and turn the Slavs into slave labor.

19. Reichstag • The Reichstag was the German parliament. • Due to the economic decline in Germany the Nazi party gained momentum starting on October 29, 1929, with the stock market crash. • In 1932 the Nazi’s won 229 seats in the Reichstag and thus become the largest party in its body.

20. Hitler’s Rise to Power • On January 30, 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg asked Hitler to become Chancellor. • The Nazi’s were now in high power by perfectly legal means.

21. Hitler’s Rise to Power • The collapse of the American Wall St. stock exchange in October 1929 lent fuel to a worldwide depression, which had hit Germany especially hard. All loans to Germany from foreign countries dried up, German industrial production slumped, and millions became unemployed. Unemployment in Germany had reached 43 percent by the end of 1932. • Those conditions were fertile ground for Hitler and his Nazi campaign. The Nazis became the second largest party in Germany. Hitler also began to win over the support of both the army and the big industrialists, the latter contributing substantially to Nazi Party finances. Both groups hoped Hitler would return Germany to its former pre-World War I status and glory. He assured top army leaders that the Nazis would reject the punitive Versailles Treaty and rearm Germany. • In February 1932 Hitler decided to run against President Paul von Hindenburg. No one won a required majority on March 13, 1932, so a required second election gave Hindenburg 53 percent and Hitler 36.8 percent (one other candidate ran). Thus Hindenburg was re-elected and Hitler was forced to wait for another opportunity to win power. • In the July 1932 elections, the Nazi Party won 13,745,000 votes, which gave them 230 out of the 608 seats in the Reichstag. Although the Nazis were the largest party, they were still short of a majority. Hitler, however, demanded of Hindenburg that he (Hitler) be made chancellor, but was offered only the position of vice-chancellor in a coalition government — which he refused. Hindenburg feared Hitler's potential for dictatorship. • Hitler's Third Reich began as he consolidated power. Through deft political manipulations by Hitler and his Nazi Party, President Hindenburg was forced to appoint Hitler as chancellor with Franz von Papen as vice-chancellor, on January 30, 1933.

22. Hitler in Power • Adolf Hitler’s primary goal was the creation of a totalitarian state. • Even though the Nazi’s controlled the most seats by any one party in the Reichstag, they were still not a majority only a plurality. • Hitler thus decided to hold new elections, but a week before the election was to be held the Reichstag building mysteriously caught fire and was destroyed.

23. Hitler in Power • Hitler blamed the blaze at the Reichstag on the Communists. • The Nazi’s thus won the “new elections.” • The “newly elected” members of the Reichstag voted for Adolf Hitler to have “emergency powers” to take care of the “communist threat.” • Hitler used this new power to consolidate his rule. All political parties were banned except the Nazi Party in Germany.

24. Enabling Act (1933) • Passed on March 23, 1933 by the German Reichstag. • This German law gave the German government the power to ignore the constitution for four years while it issued laws to deal with the country’s problems.

25. Hitler in Power • After the elections of March 5, 1933, the Nazis began a systematic takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a centuries old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and SS thugs barged into local government offices using the state of emergency decree as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders and replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners. • Political enemies were arrested by the thousands and put in hastily constructed holding pens. Old army barracks and abandoned factories were used as prisons. Once inside, prisoners were subjected to military style drills and harsh discipline. They were often beaten and sometimes even tortured to death. This was the very beginning of the Nazi concentration camp system. • At this time, these early concentration camps were loosely organized under the control of the SA and the rival SS. Many were little more than barbed wire stockades know as 'wild' concentration camps, set up by local Gauleiters and SA leaders. • For Adolf Hitler, the goal of a legally established dictatorship was now within reach. On March 15, 1933, a cabinet meeting was held during which Hitler and Göring discussed how to obstruct what was left of the democratic process to get an Enabling Act passed by the Reichstag. This law would hand over the constitutional functions of the Reichstag to Hitler, including the power to make laws, control the budget and approve treaties with foreign governments. • The emergency decree signed by Hindenburg on February 28, after the Reichstag fire, made it easy for them to interfere with non-Nazi elected representatives of the people by simply arresting them. • As Hitler plotted to bring democracy to an end in Germany, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels put together a brilliant public relations display at the official opening of the newly elected Reichstag. • On March 21, in the Garrison Church at Potsdam, the burial place of Frederick the Great, an elaborate ceremony took place designed to ease public concern over Hitler and his gangster-like new regime. • It was attended by President Hindenburg, foreign diplomats, the General Staff and all the old guard going back to the days of the Kaiser. Dressed in their handsome uniforms sprinkled with medals, they watched a most reverent Adolf Hitler give a speech paying respect to Hindenburg and celebrating the union of old Prussian military traditions and the new Nazi Reich. As a symbol of this, the old Imperial flags would soon add swastikas. • Finishing his speech, Hitler walked over to Hindenburg and respectfully bowed before him while taking hold of the old man's hand. The scene was recorded on film and by press photographers from around the world. This was precisely the impression Hitler and Goebbels wanted to give to the world, all the while plotting to toss aside Hindenburg and the elected Reichstag. • Later that same day, Hindenburg signed two decrees put before him by Hitler. The first offered full pardons to all Nazis currently in prison. The prison doors sprang open and out came an assortment of Nazi thugs and murderers. • The second decree signed by the befuddled old man allowed for the arrest of anyone suspected of maliciously criticizing the government and the Nazi party. • A third decree signed only by Hitler and Papen allowed for the establishment of special courts to try political offenders. These courts were conducted in the military style of a court-martial without a jury and usually with no counsel for the defense.

26. Hitler in Power(Continued) • On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the "Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich." If passed, it would in effect vote democracy out of existence in Germany and establish the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. • Brown-shirted Nazi storm troopers swarmed over the fancy old building in a show of force and as a visible threat. They stood outside, in the hallways and even lined the aisles inside, glaring ominously at anyone who might oppose Hitler's will. • Before the vote, Hitler made a speech in which he pledged to use restraint. • "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one,"Hitler told the Reichstag. • He also promised an end to unemployment and pledged to promote peace with France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But in order to do all this, Hitler said, he first needed the Enabling Act. A two-thirds majority was needed, since the law would actually alter the constitution. Hitler needed 31 non-Nazi votes to pass it. He got those votes from the Catholic Center Party after making a false promise to restore some basic rights already taken away by decree. • Meanwhile, Nazi storm troopers chanted outside:"Full powers - or else! We want the bill - or fire and murder!!" • But one man arose amid the overwhelming might. Otto Wells, leader of the Social Democrats stood up and spoke quietly to Hitler. • "We German Social Democrats pledge ourselves solemnly in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible." • Hitler was enraged and jumped up to respond. • "You are no longer needed! - The star of Germany will rise and yours will sink! Your death knell has sounded!" • The vote was taken - 441 for, and only 84, the Social Democrats, against. The Nazis leapt to their feet clapping, stamping and shouting, then broke into the Nazi anthem, the Hörst Wessel song. • Democracy was ended. They had brought down the German Democratic Republic legally. From this day onward, the Reichstag would be just a sounding board, a cheering section for Hitler's pronouncements. • Interestingly, the Nazi party was now flooded with applications for membership. These latecomers were cynically labeled by old time Nazis as 'March Violets.' In May, the Nazi Party froze membership. Many of those kept out applied to the SA and the SS which were still accepting. However, in early 1934, Heinrich Himmler would throw out 50,000 of those 'March Violets' from the SS. • The Nazi Gleichschaltung now began, a massive coordination of all aspects of life under the swastika and the absolute leadership of Adolf Hitler. • Under Hitler, the State, not the individual, was supreme. • From the moment of birth one existed to serve the State and obey the dictates of the Führer. Those who disagreed were disposed of. • Many agreed. Bureaucrats, industrialists, even intellectual and literary figures, including Gerhart Hauptmann, world renowned dramatist, were coming out in open support of Hitler. • Many disagreed and left the country. A flood of the finest minds, including over two thousand writers, scientists, and people in the arts poured out of Germany and enriched other lands, mostly the United States. Among them - writer Thomas Mann, director Fritz Lang, actress Marlene Dietrich, architect Walter Gropius, musicians Otto Klemperer, Kurt Weill, Richard Tauber, psychologist Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein, who was visiting California when Hitler came to power and never returned to Germany. • In Germany, there were now constant Nazi rallies, parades, marches and meetings amid the relentless propaganda of Goebbels and the omnipresent swastika. For those who remained there was an odd mixture of fear and optimism in the air. • Now, for the first time as dictator, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the driving force which had propelled him into politics in the first place, his hatred of the Jews. It began with a simple boycott on April 1, 1933, and would end years later in the greatest tragedy in all of human history.

27. Burning of Reichstag • Adolf Hitler, the new Chancellor of Germany, had no intention of abiding by the rules of democracy. He intended only to use those rules to legally establish himself as dictator as quickly as possible then begin the Nazi revolution. • Even before he was sworn in, he was at work to accomplish that goal by demanding new elections. While Hindenburg waited impatiently in another room, Hitler argued with conservative leader Hugenberg, who vehemently opposed the idea. Hitler's plan was to establish a majority of elected Nazis in the Reichstag which would become a rubber stamp, passing whatever laws he desired while making it all perfectly legal. • On his first day as chancellor, Hitler manipulated Hindenburg into dissolving the Reichstag and calling for the new elections he had wanted - to be held on March 5, 1933. • That evening, Hitler attended a dinner with the German General Staff and told them Germany would re-arm as a first step toward regaining its former position in the world. He also gave them a strong hint of things to come by telling them there would be conquest of the lands to the east and ruthless Germanization of conquered territories. • Hitler also reassured the generals there would be no attempt to replace the regular army with an army of SA storm troopers. For years this had been a big concern of the generals who wanted to preserve their own positions of power and keep the traditional military intact. • Hitler's storm troopers were about to reach new heights of power of their own and begin a reign of terror that would last as long as the Reich. • President Hindenburg had fallen under Hitler's spell and was signing just about anything put in front of him. He signed an emergency decree that put the German state of Prussia into the hands of Hitler confidant, Vice Chancellor Papen. Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia took control of the police. Prussia was Germany's biggest and most important state and included the capital of Berlin. • Göring immediately replaced hundreds of police officials loyal to the republic with Nazi officials loyal to Hitler. He also ordered the police not to interfere with the SA and SS under any circumstances. This meant that anybody being harassed, beaten, or even murdered by Nazis, had nobody to turn to for help. • Göring then ordered the police to show no mercy to those deemed hostile to the State, meaning those hostile to Hitler, especially Communists. • "Police officers who use weapons in carrying out their duties will be covered by me. Whoever misguidedly fails in this duty can expect disciplinary action." - Order of Hermann Göring to Prussian Police, February 1933. • On February 22, Göring set up an auxiliary police force of 50,000 men, composed mostly of members of the SA and SS. The vulgar, brawling, murderous Nazi storm troopers now had the power of police. • Two days later, they raided Communist headquarters in Berlin. Göring falsely claimed he had uncovered plans for a Communist uprising in the raid. But he actually uncovered the membership list of the Communist party and intended to arrest every one of the four thousand members. • Göring and Goebbels, with Hitler's approval, then hatched a plan to cause panic by burning the Reichstag building and blaming the Communists. The Reichstag was the building in Berlin where the elected members of the republic met to conduct the daily business of government. • By a weird coincidence, there was also in Berlin a deranged Communist conducting a one-man uprising. An arsonist named Marinus van der Lubbe, 24, from Holland, had been wandering around Berlin for a week attempting to burn government buildings to protest capitalism and start a revolt. On February 27, he decided to burn the Reichstag building. • Carrying incendiary devices, he spent all day lurking around the building, before breaking in around 9 p.m. He took off his shirt, lit it on fire, then went to work using it as his torch. • The exact sequence of events will never be known, but Nazi storm troopers under the direction of Göring were also involved in torching the place. They had befriended the arsonist and may have known or even encouraged him to burn the Reichstag that night. The storm troopers, led by SA leader Karl Ernst, used the underground tunnel that connected Göring's residence with the cellar in the Reichstag. They entered the building, scattered gasoline and incendiaries, then hurried back through the tunnel. • The deep red glow of the burning Reichstag caught the eye of President Hindenburg and Vice-Chancellor Papen who were dining at a club facing the building. Papen put the elderly Hindenburg in his own car and took him to the scene. • Hitler was at Goebbels' apartment having dinner. They rushed to the scene where they met Göring who was already screaming false charges and making threats against the Communists.

28. Burning of Reichstag(Continued) • At first glance, Hitler described the fire as a beacon from heaven. • "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history...This fire is the beginning," Hitler told a news reporter at the scene. • After viewing the damage, an emergency meeting of government leaders was held. When told of the arrest of the Communist arsonist, Van der Lubbe, Hitler became deliberately enraged. • "The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official must be shot. All Communist deputies must be hanged this very night. All friends of the Communists must be locked up. And that goes for the Social Democrats and the Reichsbanner as well!" • Hitler left the fire scene and went straight to the offices of his newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter,to oversee its coverage of the fire. He stayed up all night with Goebbels putting together a paper full of tales of a Communist plot to violently seize power in Berlin. • At a cabinet meeting held later in the morning, February 28, Chancellor Hitler demanded an emergency decree to overcome the crisis. He met little resistance from his largely non-Nazi cabinet. That evening, Hitler and Papen went to Hindenburg and the befuddled old man signed the decree "for the Protection of the people and the State." • The Emergency Decree stated: "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." • Immediately, there followed the first big Nazi roundup as truckloads of SA and SS roared through the streets bursting in on known Communist hangouts and barging into private homes. Thousands of Communists as well as Social Democrats and liberals were taken away into 'protective custody' to SA barracks where they were 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. • Fifty one anti-Nazis were murdered. The Nazis suppressed all political activity, meetings and publications of non-Nazi parties. The very act of campaigning against the Nazis was in effect made illegal. • "Every bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is my bullet. If one calls this murder, then I have murdered. I ordered this. I back it up. I assume the responsibility, and I am not afraid to do so." - Hermann Göring. • Nazi newspapers continued to print false evidence of Communist conspiracies, claiming that only Hitler and the Nazis could prevent a Communist takeover. Joseph Goebbels now had control of the State-run radio and broadcast Nazi propaganda and Hitler's speeches all across the nation. • The Nazis now turned their attention to election day, March 5. • All of the resources of the government necessary for a big win were placed at the disposal of Joseph Goebbels. The big industrialists who had helped Hitler into power gladly coughed up three million marks. Representatives from Krupp munitions and I. G. Farben were among those reaching into their pockets at Göring's insistence. • "The sacrifice we ask is easier to bear if you realize that the elections will certainly be the last for the next ten years, probably for the next hundred years,"Göring told them. • With no money problems and the power of the State behind them, the Nazis campaigned furiously to get Hitler the majority he wanted. • On March 5, the last free elections were held. But the people denied Hitler his majority, giving the Nazis only 44 per cent of the total vote, 17, 277,180. Despite massive propaganda and the brutal crackdown, the other parties held their own. The Center Party got over four million and the Social Democrats over seven million. The Communists lost votes but still got over four million. • The goal of a legally established dictatorship was now within reach. But the lack of the necessary two thirds majority in the Reichstag was an obstacle. For Hitler and his ruthless inner circle, it was obstacle that was soon to be overcome. • As for Van der Lubbe, the Communist arsonist, he was tried and convicted, then beheaded.

29. Nuremberg Laws (1935) • Laws passed by the Nazi’s at the annual Nazi Party meeting in Nuremberg on September 15, 1935. • They stripped Jews of their citizenship, right to hold public office, and right to attend schools. • They also forbade marriages between Jews and German citizens, required Jews to wear yellow identification badges (Stars of David), and carry identification cards.

30. Nuremberg Laws Nuremberg Laws (1935) • The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans or to employ young Aryan women as household help. (An Aryan being a person with blond hair and blue eyes of Germanic heritage.) • The first two laws comprising the Nuremberg Race Laws were: "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" (regarding Jewish marriage) and "The Reich Citizenship Law" (designating Jews as subjects). • Those laws were soon followed by "The Law for the Protection of the Genetic Health of the German People," which required all persons wanting to marry to submit to a medical examination, after which a "Certificate of Fitness to Marry" would be issued if they were found to be disease free. The certificate was required in order to get a marriage license. • The Nuremberg Laws had the unexpected result of causing confusion and heated debate over who was a "full Jew." The Nazis then issued instructional charts such as the one shown below to help distinguish Jews from Mischlinge (Germans of mixed race) and Aryans. The white figures represent Aryans; the black figures represent Jews; and the shaded figures represent Mischlinge. • The Nazis settled on defining a "full Jew" as a person with three Jewish grandparents. Those with less were designated as Mischlinge of two degrees: first degree - two Jewish grandparents; second degree - one Jewish grandparent. • After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dozen supplemental Nazi decrees were issued that eventually outlawed the Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as human beings.

31. More Information on Kristallnacht Kristallnacht • “Night of the Broken Glass.” • Took place on the night of November 9, 1938 and early morning of November 10, 1938. • Terror attacks carried out by the Nazi’ s in Germany and occupied Austria against synagogues and Jewish businesses. • 7,000 businesses were destroyed, at least 100 Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

32. Kristallnacht • A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass. • The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. • On October 27, Grynszpan's family and over 15,000 other Jews, originally from Poland, had been expelled from Germany without any warning. They were forcibly transported by train in boxcars then dumped at the Polish border. • For Adolf Hitler and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the shooting in Paris provided an opportunity to incite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews." • Read orders to the Gestapo regarding Kristallnacht • On November 9, mob violence broke out as the regular German police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children. • All over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas, Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents destroyed. Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings. • About 25,000 Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps where they were often brutalized by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen to be beaten to death. • The reaction outside Germany to Kristallnacht was shock and outrage, creating a storm of negative publicity in newspapers and among radio commentators that served to isolate Hitler's Germany from the civilized nations and weaken any pro-Nazi sentiments in those countries. Shortly after Kristallnacht, the United States recalled its ambassador permanently. • In Germany, on November 12, top Nazis, including Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, held a meeting concerning the economic impact of the damage and to discuss further measures to be taken against the Jews. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed. • Heydrich requested new decrees barring Jews from any contact with Germans by excluding them from public transportation, schools, even hospitals, essentially forcing them into ghettos or out of the country. Goebbels said the Jews would be made to clean out the debris from burned out synagogues which would then be turned into parking lots. • At this meeting it was decided to eliminate Jews entirely from economic life in the Reich by transferring all Jewish property and enterprises to 'Aryans,' with minor compensation given to the Jews in the form of bonds. • Regarding the economic impact of the damage from Kristallnacht and the resulting massive insurance claims, Hermann Göring stated the Jews themselves would be billed for the damage and that any insurance money due to them would be confiscated by the State. • "I shall close the meeting with these words," said Göring, "German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, have to make a contribution for one billion marks. That will work. The swine won't commit another murder. Incidentally, I would like to say that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany."

33. Gestapo • The political police of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo ruthlessly eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories and was responsible for the roundup of Jews throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps. • When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hermann Göring, then Prussian minister of the interior, detached the political and espionage units from the regular Prussian police, filled their ranks with thousands of Nazis, and, on April 26, 1933, reorganized them under his personal command as the Gestapo. Simultaneously,Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary corps, together with his aide Reinhard Heydrich, similarly reorganized the police of Bavaria and the remaining German states. Himmler was given command over Göring's Gestapo in April 1934 and on June 17, 1936, was made German chief of police with the title of Reichsführer. Nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, Germany's police forces now were unified under Himmler as head of both the SS and the Gestapo. • In 1936 the Gestapo—led by Himmler's subordinate,Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller—was joined with the Kriminalpolizei (German: “Criminal Police”) under the umbrella of a new organization, the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; “Security Police”). Under a 1939 SS reorganization, the Sipo was joined with the Sicherheitsdienst (“Security Service”), an SS intelligence department, to form the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (“Reich Security Central Office”) under Heydrich. In this bureaucratic maze, the functions of the Gestapo often overlapped with those of other security departments, with which the Gestapo had both to cooperate and compete. • The Gestapo operated without civil restraints. It had the authority of “preventative arrest,” and its actions were not subject to judicial appeal. Thousands of leftists, intellectuals, Jews, trade unionists, political clergy, and homosexuals simply disappeared into concentration camps after being arrested by the Gestapo. The political section could order prisoners to be murdered, tortured, or released. Together with the SS, the Gestapo managed the treatment of “inferior races,” such as Jews and Roma (Gypsies). During World War II the Gestapo suppressed partisan activities in the occupied territories and carried out reprisals against civilians. Gestapo members were included in the Einsatzgruppen (“deployment groups”), which were mobile death squads that followed the German regular army into Poland and Russia to kill Jews and other “undesirables.” Bureau IV B4 of the Gestapo, under Adolf Eichmann, organized the deportation of millions of Jews from other occupied countries to the extermination camps in Poland.

34. Gestapo • The German secret police. • Its task was to suppress opposition to the Nazi regime inside Germany and later in the occupied territories.

35. Concentration Camps Concentration Camps • Places of detention for civilians considered political enemies. • The first German concentration camp was opened near Munich in 1933 at Dachau.

36. Concentration Camps • On 27th February, 1933, someone set fire to the Reichstag. Several people were arrested including a leading, Georgi Dimitrov, general secretary of the Comintern, the international communist organization. Dimitrov was eventually acquitted but a young man from the Netherlands, Marianus van der Lubbe, was eventually executed for the crime. As a teenager Lubbe had been a communist and Hermann Goering used this information to claim that the Reichstag Fire was part of a KPD plot to overthrow the government. • Adolf Hitler gave orders that all leaders of the German Communist Party should "be hanged that very night." Paul von Hindenburg vetoed this decision but did agree that Hitler should take "dictatorial powers". KPD candidates in the election were arrested and Goering announced that the Nazi Party planned "to exterminate" German communists. • Thousands of members of the Social Democrat Party and Communist Party were arrested and sent to Germany's first concentration camp at Dachau, a village a few miles from Munich. Theodor Eicke was placed in charge of the first camp and eventually took overall control of the system. • Originally called re-education centres the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) soon began describing them as concentration camps. They were called this because they were "concentrating" the enemy into a restricted area. Hitler argued that the camps were modeled on those used by the British during the Boer War. • After the 1933 General Election Hitler passed an Enabling Bill that gave him dictatorial powers. His first move was to take over the trade unions. Its leaders were sent to concentration camps and the organization was put under the control of the Nazi Party. The trade union movement now became known as the Labour Front. • Soon afterwards the Communist Party and the Social Democrat Party were banned. Party activists still in the country were arrested and by the end of 1933 over 150,000 political prisoners were in concentration camps. Hitler was aware that people have a great fear of the unknown, and if prisoners were released, they were warned that if they told anyone of their experiences they would be sent back to the camp. • It was not only left-wing politicians and trade union activists who were sent to concentration camps. The Gestapo also began arresting beggars, prostitutes, homosexuals, alcoholics and anyone who was incapable of working. Although some inmates were tortured, the only people killed during this period were prisoners who tried to escape and those classed as "incurably insane". • Inmates wore serial numbers and coloured patches to identify their categories: red for political prisoners, blue for those who were foreigners, violet for religious fundamentalists, green for criminals, black for those considered to be anti-social and pink for homosexuals. • As well as the one built at Dachau concentration camps were also built at Belsen and Buchenwald (Germany), Mauthausen (Austria),Theresienstadt (Czechoslovakia) and Auschwitz (Poland). Each camp was commanded by a senior Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and staffed by members of the SS Death's Head units. The camp was divided into blocks and each one was under the charge of a senior prisoner. • As well as using members of the SS the camp commander often recruited Baltic or Ukrainian Germans to control inmates. As they had previously been minorities of repressed communities, they were particularly good at dealing harshly with Russians, Poles and Jews. • By 1944 there were 13 main concentration camps and over 500 satellite camps. In an attempt to increase war-production, inmates were used as cheap-labour. The Schutzstaffel (SS) charged industrial companies around 6 marks for each prisoner working a twelve-hour day. • At the Wannsee Conference held in January 1942 it was decided to make the extermination of the Jews a systematically organized operation. After this date extermination camps were established in the east that had the capacity to kill large numbers including Belzec (15,000 a day), Sobibor (20,000), Treblinka (25,000) and Majdanek (25,000). • It has been estimated that between 1933 and 1945 a total of 1,600,000 were sent to concentration work camps. Of these, over a million died of a variety of different causes. During this period around 18 million were sent to extermination camps. Of these, historians have estimated that between five and eleven million were killed.

37. No Stopping Adolf Hitler • Through the use of absolute power Adolf Hitler was now in complete control. • He took the title of Der Führer (“The Leader”) and called his government the Third Reich. • He started building the economy by building the German war machine, even though this violated the Treaty of Versailles.

38. No Stopping Adolf Hitler • Hitler's last step in achieving total control of Germany is eased by his willing accomplices, the senior army commanders. Indifferent to the naked evidence of criminality in the government, they welcome the taming of the SA. And when Hindenburg dies, on August 2, they immediately agree that Hitler will now combine the roles of president, chancellor and supreme commander of the armed forces. • Moreover the allegiance of the army is now to be personal. On the very day of Hindenburg's death, each officer and man in the German army swears by God to 'render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and People, Adolf Hitler' and to 'be ready, as a brave soldier, to stake my life at any time for this oath'.  • On August 19 a plebiscite is put to the German people, asking whether Hitler shall now become head of state as Führer (leader) and Reich Chancellor. More than 38 million voters say yes (and more than 4 million have the courage to say no). At the party rally in Nuremberg in September Hitler declares that the Nazi revolution is now complete; and 'in the next thousand years there will be no other revolution in Germany'. • Thus begins the heady concept of the Third Reich, the Thousand-Year Reich, completing the trio of the First Reich (the Holy Roman Empire) and the Second Reich (achieved by Bismarck for the Hohenzollern dynasty). In the event it will be the shortest of the three, lasting eleven years rather than a thousand.

39. Vladimir Lenin • He was leader of the “reds” in the Russian Civil War. • In 1921, he took control of the Russian government and moved its government into communism.

40. Vladimir Lenin • Born April 22, 1870, Simbirsk, Russia—died Jan. 21, 1924, Gorki, near Moscow. Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and architect and builder of the Soviet state. Born to a middle-class family, he was strongly influenced by his eldest brother, Aleksandr, who was hanged in 1887 for conspiring to assassinate the tsar. He studied law and became a Marxist in 1889 while practicing law. He was arrested as a subversive in 1895 and exiled to Siberia, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. They lived in western Europe after 1900. At the 1903 meeting in London of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, he emerged as the leader of the Bolshevik faction. In several revolutionary newspapers that he founded and edited, he put forth his theory of the party as the vanguard of the proletariat, a centralized body organized around a core of professional revolutionaries; his ideas, later known as Leninism, would be joined with Karl Marx's theories to form Marxism-Leninism, which became the communist worldview. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, he returned to Russia, but he resumed his exile in 1907 and continued his energetic agitation for the next 10 years. He saw World War I as an opportunity to turn a war of nations into a war of classes, and he returned to Russia with the Russian Revolution of 1917 to lead the Bolshevik coup that overthrew the provisional government of Aleksandr Kerensky. As revolutionary leader of the Soviet state, he signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany (1918) and repulsed counterrevolutionary threats in the Russian Civil War. He founded the Comintern in 1919. His policy of War Communism prevailed until 1921, and to forestall economic disaster he launched the New Economic Policy. In ill health from 1922, he died of a stroke in 1924.

41. Nationalization • To convert an industry from private ownership to government ownership. • This included all major industries in Russia during this time.

42. Lenin in Power • Using the principle those who will eat must work, the Russian government required everyone male or female between the ages of 16-50 to hold a job.

43. New Economic Policy (NEP) • Started in 1921 in Russia by Lenin. • Major industries like steel and railroads were still owned by the government, but it permitted small manufacturers and farmers to own their own businesses and to make a profit.

44. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) • In 1922 the official name of Russia was changed to the USSR by the communist.

45. Dictatorship of the Proletariat • Control of the state by the working class in the USSR, but in truth the leadership of the Communist party controlled the workers. • The USSR acted like a pyramid with the party boss at the top and the poor peasants at the bottom. • Lenin did not break up the USSR into independent states, but into republics with Moscow still calling the shots.

46. Lenin’s Death • In 1922 he suffered two strokes that left him permanently paralyzed and disabled. • He died at the age of 53 on January 21, 1924. How Lenin's Body is Perserved Today

47. Leon Trotsky • He was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on November 7, 1879. • He played a key role in the Bolshevik Revolution, and was responsible for building the powerful Red Army. Leon Trotsky More Info on Trotsky

48. Joseph Stalin • He was born Joseph VissarionovichDjugashvili on December 21, 1879. • He was a skilled administrator who in 1922 became Secretary General of the Communist Party. • He was able to out politic Trotsky in the Communist Party. • Eventually Stalin gained power of the party and took control. Joseph Stalin More Info on Joseph Stalin

49. Assassination of Leon Trotsky More on Trotsky Assassination • In 1928 Stalin sent Trotsky into exile in Siberia and in 1929 banished him from the Soviet Union. • Trotsky then lived in Turkey (1929-1933), France (1933-1935), Norway (1935-1936), and Mexico (1936-1940). • On May 24, 1940, Soviet agents machine-gunned Trotsky's house in the early morning. Although Trotsky and his family were home, all survived the attack. • On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was not again so lucky. As he was sitting at his desk in his study, Ramon Mercader punctured Trotsky's skull with a mountaineering ice pick. Trotsky died of his injuries a day later, at age 60.

50. Five Year Plan • Stalin wanted to make the Soviet Union into an industrial leader. • In 1928 Stalin announced the first of his Five Year Plans • He demanded large sacrifices from Soviet citizens and he concentrated on building heavy industry. • The Plan also brought all industrial and agricultural manufacturing under the government's control.