Transcript Unit 5 power point

Unit 5: Hitler and the Nazi’s in
Power
I. The Final Fall of the Weimar
Republic
A. Hitler becomes Chancellor
1. Jan 30, 1933
2. Sworn in, promising to defend the German
Constitution…even though many Germany
leaders had made that same oath..willfully lying.
3. Cabinet – 2 other Nazi’s (Goering) out of 11
spots
4. The Idea was that Hitler would be controlled.
Many thought that after 2 months Hitler would be
under the control of those who mattered.
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.
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.
Horst Wessel Song
Flag high, ranks closed,
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
march 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 reaction
march in spirit with us in our ranks.
http://www.worldmilitaria.com/newsite/Media/HorstWesselLied.mp3
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!)
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.
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.
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..
II. The Reichstag Burning Plan
begins
A. Hitler seizes more power.
1.
Reichstag dissolved =
New elections
immediately
2.
Told the Army he would
re-arm Germany to
regain it’s place of
power in the world.
3.
Assured the Army that
the S.A. would not
replace them.
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.
5. Police was ordered to
give no mercy to
enemies of the
state…essentially
giving the police the
authority to kill.
6. 50,000 S.A. and S.S.
men were given
auxiliary police
status.
B. Reichstag Plot Goes Well for
Hitler
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•
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)
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.
C. Attacks on the Communists
Begin
1. 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.“
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.
• 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.
4. Nazi newspapers continued to print false stories
about the Communists claiming that only Hitler
and the Nazi’s could suppress them.
5. Goebbels had control of the state run radio and
broadcast Nazi propaganda and Hitler speeches
daily.
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…
IV. Nazi Harassment Intensifies
A.
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.
• Enabling Act – a legislative act conferring
certain specified powers on a person or
organization.
• In Germany it meant…
• 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."
•
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: . . .
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.
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.
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
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”.
Gestapo Tactics
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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
• 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.
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 antiintellectual.
• 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.
• 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
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.
`
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.
• 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.
• 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.
List of Prominent Enemies
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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.
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!"
• "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.
• 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…
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.
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..
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."
• 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.
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.
• 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
• For many Germans a trip to the
Nuremburg rally had become like a
religious pilgrimmage.
The Nuremburg Laws
• Enacted September 15, 1934 in Nuremburg, Germany.
• Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
• I. 1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the
protective union of the German Reich, and who therefore
has particular obligations towards the Reich. 2. The
status of subject is acquired in accordance with the
provisions of the Reich and State Law of Citizenship.
• II. 1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of
German or kindred blood and who, through his conduct,
shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the
German people and Reich faithfully.
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Law for the Protection of German Blood
and German Honor, September 15, 1935
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence
of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to
safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted
the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
I. 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of
evading this law, they were concluded abroad.
2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.
II. Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German of
kindred blood are forbidden.
III. Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood
under 45 years of age as domestic servants.
IV. 1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors.
2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of
this right is protected by the State.
V. 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section I will be punished with
hard labor.
2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section II will be punished with
imprisonment or with hard labor.
3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections III or IV will be punished
with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.
VI. The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Führer and the
Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required
for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.
VII. The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section III,
however, not until January 1, 1936
Nazi’s March Into the Rhineland