Hitler and the N.S.D.A.P. (Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or “Nazi” Party) emerged in early 1920s. Then the Nazis tested their power by attempting to take over the government of the state of Bavaria in the “Beer Hall Putsch.”Hitler was arrested and served time in Landsberg prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf. The Party gradually gained strength in late 1920s and early thirties through the use of the Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers or S.A. known as the brownshirts from their uniforms), which whipped up enthusiasm for the Nazis and intimidated other political groups.
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1933: When the Nazis grew too strong to be ignored, having become the second largest party in Germany, Hitler was invited to become Chancellor in a coalition government. Soon thereafter the Reichstag fire was used to expel the Communists from the Reichstag (Parliament.) Hitler used Article 48 to get the legislative process suspended and from then on he ruled by decree. Hitler then combined the offices of President and Chancellor, abandoned both and began calling himself “The Leader” (Der Fuerher.) Then he forced all Army officers to swear an oath of personal allegiance to himself. The Nazi takeover was swift and thorough: Freedom of the press ended—Nazi organs carried news and propaganda. In the last free election in Germany in March, 1933, the Nazis got 44% of the vote. |
Hitler then used the Schuetzstaffel, the S.S., a special body guard within the S.A. to eliminate his political enemies. The S.S. eventually grew to over one million men and reached into every facet of German public life with political significance through direct controls, infiltration or informants. High school and university professors were purged unless they followed the party line. History was rewritten, extolling the virtues of ancient Germans such as “Karl der Grosse” (Charles the Great, otherwise known as Charlemagne.) The Secret State Police (Gestapo) were a sub-unit of the S.S. that dominated all German police forces down to the local level. Germans became enamored with Hitler, but many were frightened of what Germany had become, a totalitarian state: Dissent was not tolerated; the S.S. became the guardian of the Aryan purity, a state within a state.
Note: Avoid seeing SS as super-efficient, well-oiled machine. There was much incompetence, petty bickering, waste, foolishness, backbiting. Reinhard Heydrich, Gestapo Chief, was keeping a dossier on the whole menage; he was finally assassinated in Lidice, Czechoslovakia, by Czech commandos, and everyone in the town was executed in retaliation.
Significant Events:
1934. Germany begins the rearmament process. Hitler renounced the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty. The German army, which had been limited to a strength of 100, 000, was rapidly expanded, using the existing Army as a cadre from which to build a much larger force compatible with Hitler's designs. Hitler used political machinations to get the army behind him, removing top generals who were unsympathetic to the Nazi goals and replacing them with more pliable officers. Using the Hitler youth (Hitler Jugend)—a kind of Nazi boy scout organization—as a means of preparing German boys to enter military service, and using the Nazified education system both in schools and universities to educate young men with the proper Nazi spirit, junior enlisted men and officers were also indoctrinated in Hitler's goals. Even though many of the top German officers disapproved of Hitler and his methods, the rapid expansion of the Army and the need to develop contingency plans kept high-ranking staff officers busy so that they would not have time to be overly concerned about politics. In 1935 Hitler resumed the draft, raising the army to 500,000 for “defense.” The limit of 100,000 imposed by Versailles was set aside, and the army was streamlined and condensed; every officer and NCO was ready to assume higher rank and responsibility.
“Night of the Long Knives.” To purge the Nazi party of men whom Hitler saw as too ambitious for his good, if not for their own, employed the S.S. to go out and ruthlessly assassinate hundreds of party leaders during a single night, leaving a residue of those whose loyalty he could trust. This organized murder campaign operated outside the law, for the simple reason that Hitler's S.S., led by Heinrich Himmler, and its subordinate unit, the Gestapo (Secret State Police), had spread its tentacles into the entire German legal and law enforcement system. The Nazi party was rapidly becoming the law, designed but with one purpose, which was to do Hitler's will.
1935. Nuremberg Laws. In September 1935 the Reichstag began passage of a series of laws that stripped Jewish people of their citizenship and basic human rights. From that time on, Jews would be unable to escape intensified persecution. Marriage between Jews and non-Jewish Germans was prohibited as were extramarital relations between Jews and gentiles. Jews were not allowed to fly the German flag or to display Reich colors. Citizenship become limited to “only that subject of German or kindred blood who proves by his conduct that he is willing and suited loyally to serve the German people and the Reich.” A November 1935 law declared that “A Jew cannot be a Reich citizen. He is not entitled to the right to vote on political matters; he cannot hold public office.”
By 1936 Hitler had gained complete control over German foreign policy. His goals included the readjustment of eastern boundaries and the restoration of Germany to Great Power status. He repudiated the Locarno Treaty and ordered the army to reoccupy the Rhineland in violation of Versailles Treaty. The General Staff was reluctant to carry out the order, arguing that the army was not yet prepared for a confrontation with the French. Hitler ridiculed his officers to their faces, declaring them cowardly and announcing that the French and British would do nothing, and that his officer corps needed to take on his fearless demeanor. The Rhineland was reoccupied, the French and British did nothing, and the League of Nations denounced Hitler’s action but also took no action.
1937. In 1937 Hitler began his campaign of purging Germany of what he saw as the poisonous influence of the Jews. Again using the S.S., cooperating police forces now under the heel of the S.S. and hired thugs, the S.S. carried out what became known as Kristallnacht—the “Night of Broken Glass.” Windows of Jewish businesses were smashed, Jews were dragged out of their homes and beaten, arrested, hauled away and otherwise terrorized. The world was beginning to see Nazism for what it really was.
1938 In March Hitler completed the annexation (Anschluss) of Austria. He announced as one of his major goals the unification of all German speaking peoples under a common flag. Following an intensive propaganda campaign in Austria, supported by Austrian officials who were sympathetic to the Nazi movement, the German army, again over the protests of the General staff who declared they were not yet ready for action, moved into Austria. But instead of being greeted with animosity, Hitler rode through the streets of Vienna in an open car, returning the Sieg Heil salute given along the way and waving to thousands of Austrians, who waved Nazi flags and cheered Hitler as he rode by triumphantly. (Hitler had been born in Austria and was returning “home.”)
1938 September. The next crisis in European affairs focused on Germany's neighbor, Czechoslovakia. In the Czech Sudetenland lived 3.5 million German-speaking people, the Sudeten Germans. Hitler's threats to take over the Sudetenland caused British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to travel to Germany to meet with Hitler in an attempt to resolve the crisis, telling Hitler his proposals were not acceptable. When Hitler refused to back down, Italian Premier Benito Mussolini suggested that Hitler hold a four-power conference of Germany, Britain, France and Italy in Munich. On September 29, 1938, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier capitulated to Hitler's demand for the Sudetenland. In return, Hitler promised not to make any further territorial demands in Europe. Chamberlain returned to Great Britain claiming “Peace in our Time.” It was to be short lived. Within a few months Hitler swallowed the rest of Czechoslovakia, and at this point France and Great Britain decided that Hitler had gone too far. Neville Chamberlain |
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1939. In August 1939 German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop engineered a Non-aggression Pact with The Soviet Union's Josef Stalin, clearing the way for German invasion of Poland. The S.S. concocted a phony incident along the German-Polish border, and again, having mounted a lengthy anti-Polish propaganda campaign, full of virulent anti-Polish ethnic degradation, the German Wehrmacht rolled across the border on September 1, demonstrating to the world for the first time the tactics that would become known as Blitzkrieg. On September 3 France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. The campaign in was over in a matter of weeks, long before France and Great Britain were capable of any kind of military action. While the Russians were taking advantage of their pact with Hitler to invade Finland, which held out until March 1940, the rest of the war came to a halt. During the winter of 1939-1940 the war was called a phony war or “Sitzkrieg” as nothing of any significance happened aside from the SS beginning its ethnic cleansing of Warsaw and the rest of Poland.
The failure of Appeasement: How did Hitler succeed?
In 1940 Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway,
then swept through Belgium, and his army, having flanked the French Maginot Line, reached Paris in six weeks. While that was going on, Hitler's ally Italy declared war on France, causing President Roosevelt to declare that, “the hand that held the dagger has stuck it into the back of its neighbor.” An invasion of
England was planned but air control over the Channel was necessary, and Hitler ordered Goring's Luftwaffe to prepare the way. The air war known as the Battle of Britain followed. The R.A.F. defeated Hitler’s Luftwaffe, about which Winston Churchill said, “Never have so many owed so much to so few.” In frustration Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to carry out air attacks against British cities, commencing what was known as the London Blitz.
1941. In June Hitler turned his back on Russia and attacked his former partner, Stalin, a fatal mistake. Early German successes could not hide the fact that Hitler had bitten off more than he could chew. The Russian Army, the Russian winter and the courageous Russian people spelled doom for Hitler’s armies. In 1942-43 The Germans lost an army of 600,000 at Stalingrad, the great turning point of the European war.
December 11, 1941. After Pearl Harbor Hitler declared war on the U.S., which along with Stalingrad sealed Germany's fate.
Back to History 122 Part 2 | Updated September 27, 2006