Download Hitler`s Rise to Power File

The Question:
Why do people abuse
their power over others?
Apocalypse:
The Rise of Hitler
Hitler Speaks about the
Jews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0V
_xf3OQgM
Totalitarianism Refresher

The party-state
determines what
people should believe.

An inerrant (incapable
of being wrong)
leader.

No room for the
individual.


A “religion”.
A heroic fight against
evil (the devil =
Capitalist, Democratic
West + Jews).
The Strange + Interesting

Hitler never allowed
anyone to see him while
he was naked or bathing.

Hitler had a personal
photographer: Heinrich
Hoffmann.

He loved the music of the
famous opera composer
Richard Wagner.

In 1923, Nazi press
secretary Dr. Sedgwick
tried to convince Hitler to
get rid of his trademark
moustache or grow it
normally.

To excite the masses at
Nazi rallies he used
American College footballstyle music during his
speeches.
More Strange

Hitler parents were first
cousins – an interbred
union.

Hitler had a portrait of
his mother in his bunker.

He dated and lived with
his niece-girlfriend
(Gillie) who said “My
uncle is a monster”.

He became a vegetarian
after attending the autopsy
of a girlfriend (his niece)
who committed suicide
because of Hitler – he
threatened to kill himself.

Began to date his
photographer’s secretary,
Eva Braun, who would
commit suicide with him in
1945.
More Interesting

Hitler’s designed all the
Nazi flags, symbols,
uniforms, pins, medals etc.

Hitler’s SAs/Brownshirts
were comprised of killers
and fanatics.

The Nazi Party uniforms
(black uniforms of SS +
Hitler Youth) were created
by Hugo Boss = was a Nazi
Party member.

Lufthansa Airlines ran ads
for Hitler and took him on
speaking tours = “Fuhrer
Over Germany”; “Supreme
Saviour”.
More Interesting

Heil Hitler = Long Live
Hitler; Nazi Salute goes
back to ancient Rome.

Hitler created architectural
designs/sketches for the
new Berlin he wanted to
build - massive
structures/flaws in design

Henry Ford (yes the creator
the of Model-T Ford,
assembly line, and the
Ford Motor Company) was
an anti-Semite/Nazi Party
supporter – he became the
first foreigner celebrated;
received the Order of
Germany.

Hitler had a picture of Ford
on his desk.
More Strange + Interesting

One of his favourite targets for
practical jokes was his foreign
minister.

He was a collector of fine art
(painting, sculpture)

Hitler was very proud of his
German Shepherd named
Blondi.
Time: Man of the Year, 1938
Origins of the Name

The origin of the name Hitler is either "one
who lives in a hut" (Standard German Hütte),
"shepherd" (Standard German hüten "to
guard", English heed), or is from the Slavic
word Hidlar and Hidlarcek.
Backgrounder:
Ancestry

Hitler's father = Alois Hitler.

Alois' ancestry subject of much controversy =
unknown identity of Hitler’s father’s father.

Jewish great-grandfather??? = unable to prove
the opposite.
Hitler’s Early Years

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was born in Linz,
Austria (1 of 6 children).

Loved to play “Cowboys and Indians”; fixated
on war; read Karl May’s books about Indians.

Hitler was close to his mother, but had a
troubled relationship with his authoritarian
father = Alois wanted his son to follow in his
footsteps as an Austrian customs official.
Teenage Rebellion

Wanted to go to classical high school and
become an artist.

For young Hitler, German Nationalism quickly
became an obsession and a way to rebel.

Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany.
Early Adulthood

1905 - Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna.

He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
(1907–1908).

Sold his paintings/postcards to merchants and tourists.

Strongly influenced by Social Darwinism.

In 1909, he lived in a shelter for the homeless.
Anti-Semitism

Hitler said he first became an anti-Semite in
Vienna, a hotbed of traditional religious
prejudice and 19th century racism.

Anti-Semitism = prejudice/hatred towards
Jews = Hitler claimed Jews were enemies of
the Aryan Race (original, pure, Nordic,
Caucasian master race); blames for
everything, even WW1.
WWI

Hitler served (volunteered) in the 16th
Bavarian Reserve Regiment; Austria found
him unfit (he became a German citizen in
1932); he was 25 year old at the start of
WW1.

He participated in a number of major battles
on the Western Front = Battle of Ypres, the
Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras and
the Battle of Passchendaele.
Hitler in War

Twice decorated for bravery (Iron Cross, 1st
and 2nd Class).

He also drew cartoons and instructional
drawings for an army newspaper.

On 15 October 1918, Hitler was admitted to a
field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard
gas attack.
“Save Germany”

During this hospital experience he became
convinced the purpose of his life was to "save
Germany" and began thinking of writing “Mein
Kampf.”

The shock/biterness of Germany’s defeat intensified
his commitment (obsession) to racial nationalism.
 Racial Nationalism = form of nationalism
wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of
ethnicity = desires total victory over its supposed
racial enemies.
Freikorps
= Free Corps

Term was used for the paramilitary
organizations that sprang up around
Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from
WW1.

They were the key Weimar paramilitary groups
active during that time.

They formed the vanguard of the Nazi
movement.
Freikorps

Many German veterans felt disconnected
from civilian life, and joined a Freikorps in
search of stability within a military structure.

Others, angry at their sudden, apparently
inexplicable defeat, joined up in an effort to
put down Communist uprisings or exact
some form of revenge.
The German
Workers Party

In 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers
Party (DAP) and anti-Weimar group.

Later renamed the Nationalist Socialist
Workers’ Party (NSDAP) =
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
from which we get NAZI aka the Nazi Party.

He became the leader of NSDAP in 1921 =
Führer.
Attracting Followers

Hitler was a highly effective public speaker.

Like Mussolini, Hitler incorporated military
attitudes and techniques into politics.

His followers believed that he could restore
Germany’s strength and pride under the ideology
of National Socialism (Nazism) = a unique
variety of fascism that incorporates biological
racism and anti-Semitism.
Opposition to the
Weimar Republic

There were two attempted revolutions against
the Weimar Republic via putsch
(coup/overthrow government or state):

Opposition came from = left (communists) +
right (monarchists and army).
The Two Putsches

1) The Kapp Putsch (1920).
 Led by reactionaries within the army.
 Aimed at overthrowing the Weimar
Republic.
 Seized Berlin and placed Wolfgang Kapp
in the chancellors position.
 This “government” was soon brought down
by a general strike of the workers.
The Two Putsches

2) The Beer Hall Putsch/Munich Putsch
(1923) = aka “March on Berlin.”
 Like Mussolini’s March on Rome.
 Poorly planned, leaders quickly arrested.
 Hitler was imprisoned for nine months =
Ironically, his trial and imprisonment gave
Hitler more attention and prestige and his
cell was like a hotel room.
Mein Kampf

While in prison he wrote Mein Kampf (My
Struggle) which explained his world-view.

Originally called: Four and a Half Years of Struggle
against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.

Elements of autobiography+ Hitler’s political
ideology: National Socialism.

Volume 1 (1925) and Volume 2 (1926).
The Nazi Party Beginnings

When Hitler left prison in 1924, he tightened
his hold on the Nazi party.

In times of prosperity, the Nazis gained little
support.
The Nazi and the
Great Depression

Their ideas were more suited to a populace
that was dissatisfied.

The Great Depression was perfect for Hitler
and the Nazis: occupation of the Ruhr,
inflation, unemployment, Versailles Diktat.

Hitler would have been considered a nutcase if
the Great Depression did not happen – Nazi’s
would have been a fanatical fringe party.
Key Ideas of the Nazis

The key ideas of the Nazi Party would remain
the following:

Ultra-Nationalism/Anti-Semitism

Repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles

Fanatical Opposition to Communism
The Swastika

The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit
word swastika meaning any lucky or auspicious
object, and in particular a mark made on
persons and things to denote good luck =
widely used in Indian religions such as
Hinduism and Buddism.
Nazi use of
the Swastika

When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party,
he sought to incorporate both the swastika and
"those revered colors expressive of our
homage to the glorious past and which once
brought so much honor to the German nation."
(Red, white, and black were the colors of the
flag of the old German Empire.)
Nazi use of
the Swastika

He also stated:

"As National Socialists, we see our program
in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of
the movement; in white, the nationalistic
idea; in the swastika, the mission of the
struggle for the victory of the Aryan man,
and, by the same token, the victory of the
idea of creative work”.
Swastika = Hate

Though once commonly used all over much of
the world without stigma, because of its iconic
usage in Nazi Germany the symbol has
become stigmatized in the Western world,
notably even outlawed in Germany.
Nazi Eagle
The Nazi Eagle
= Party and Country

The Nazi Party used a rather aggressively
styled black eagle above a highly stylised oak
wreath, with a swastika at its centre.

When the eagle was looking to its left
shoulder, it symbolised the Nazi party.

When the eagle was looking to the right, it
symbolised the country (Reich).
Hitler’s World-view:
Racial Nationalism

Superior and inferior races = struggle for
survival.

Aryan Race = The Germans + other Nordic
people were descendants of the ancient and
possessed superior racial characteristics = the
German people were the purest example.
Hitler’s World-view:
Racial Nationalism

Aryan Myth = constructed to argue that modern
Europeans (pure Germans) were the direct
descendants of the ancient Greeks, making it
therefore possible to exclude the contributions of
other peoples.

Aryan = derived from the Sanskrit “noble” +
original Aryans was used to describe peoples of
Indo-European Eurasian heritage.
Superior vs. Inferior Races

Conquer and subjugate other races.

Lebensraum (living space) = by expanding
eastward at the expense of the racially inferior
Slavs = build a great army like Napoleon’s and
take Moscow.

Destroy the Jews = threatened to
contaminate the pure German blood-line.
The Resistible Rise of the
Nazi Party

The Great Depression of 1930:

Created the unrest needed for people
(particularly the middle class) to increasingly
turn to Hitler’s radicalism.
What the Germans
Wanted

In despair, the German public wanted:
 An end to the weak Weimer Republic.
 A revival of the economy.
 Protection against the Communist threat.
 Revenge for the Treaty of Versailles.
The Nazi Party: Elections

In the first election of 1932 the Nazi party won
37.3 percent of the vote (230 seats) but not a
majority.

Aging President Paul von Hindenburg (18471934) refused to give Hitler the chancellorship.
The Nazi Party: Elections

In the second 1932 election Hitler’s strength fell
to 198 seats.

Franz Von Papen (former chancellor) and Paul
Von Hindenburg now thought it was safe to
appoint Hitler the chancellorship so they could
use him as a tool against the communists.
Moves Toward
Dictatorship

Hitler took office at the beginning of 1933 and
quickly moved to assume dictatorial powers
and announce his Thousand-Year-Reich.

Cheers greet Hitler as democracy dies.

Will gain absolute power in stages.
Paul Von Hindenburg
anointing Hitler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9
HoGUe1T4
Hitler becomes
Dictator

The Nazi party created the S.A.
(Sturmabteilung) or the Brownshirts = to
protect people from communists; appearance of
legality.

A “communist” set fire to the Reichstag
(Reichstag Fire) in February 1933 – Dutch
communist killed + communist rounded up.
The Reichstag

Reichstag = parliament of the German Empire
(1894).
Hitler Enabled

Hitler convinced Hindenburg to sign an
emergency decree: The Enabling Act.

The Enabling Act:
 Emergency powers and suspending civil
rights.
 Emergency powers used to arrest members
of political parties that opposed him.
Further Steps Toward
Dictatorship

March 1933 elections = able to gain a majority
of support.

Passed the Enabling Act of 1933 ("Day of
Potsdam") = unlimited dictatorial authority.
Further Steps Toward
Dictatorship

March 1933 = broke union powers and
replaced them with the German Labour Front.

July 1933 = all other political parties were
outlawed = only the Third Reich (Nazi State)
could exist.
Anti –Hitler

When Hitler came to power there were antiHitler demonstrations throughout the world
and a boycott of German products; many in
Germany blind to implications.

Stalin refused to an alliance with Hitler =
outlawed Social Democratic Party and unions
in Germany.
Solidifying Power:
The Night of
Long Knives

The Night of Long Knives = June 30, 1934:

Murdered (via the Shutzstaffel (S.S.)) some
internal challengers/opponents of Hitler and
the Nazi Party = aka the “Blood Purge”.
Solidifying Power:
Murdered “Opponents”

Ernst Rohm: leader of the Brownshirts (the S.A.)
= “a Bolshevik in disguise”; apparently planned a
coup against Hitler; had delusions of grandeur.

Kurt von Scheicher: a previous plotter against
Hitler; former chancellor of Germany.

Strasser: who represented the socialist wing of
the party; rival to Hitler.
Solidifying Power

No one resisted and
Hindenburg congratulated him
on his achievement = names
him Chancellor on Jan. 30,
1933.

Hindenburg died (August
1934) which removed the last
barrier to Hitler's power within
Germany – power was
absolute.
Speech as Chancellor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP
ew-SvfgSs&bpctr=1362852897
Key Nazis under Hitler



Heinrich
Himmler
Joseph
Goebbels
Hermann
Goering

Amon Goeth

Adolf Eichmann

Rudolf Hoess

Hans Frank
Himmler: Policing

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7
October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was
Reichsführer of the SS, a military
commander, and a leading member
of the Nazi Party = a powerful man.

Chief of the German Police +
Minister of the Interior = oversaw all
internal and external police and
security forces, including the
Gestapo.
Himmler

One of the persons most directly responsible for
the Holocaust – came up with the idea of the
concentration camps.

After capture, Himmler was scheduled to stand
trial as a war criminal at Nuremberg, but on 23
May, 1945 he committed suicide by means of a
potassium cyanide capsule before interrogation
could begin.
Himmler
The Nuremberg Laws,
1933-1939

Package of anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic, Nazi
laws:
 Register and wear the Star of David.
 Forfeit their careers and property.
 Restrictions on marriage and mingling.
 Loss of citizenship.

Harbinger of evil.
“Othering”

German if all four of their grandparents were of
"German or kindred blood.”

Jewish if descended from three or four Jewish
grandparents.

Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood“ (plural:
Mischlinge) = A person with one or two Jewish
grandparents.
Nazi Germany:
The Leader-State

The Third Reich was organized as a leaderstate:

The Fuhrer (leader) = centralized all power
in Hitler’s hands.

The Nazi Party = only party allowed in
Germany = totalitarian state.

Freedoms were eliminated.
Perversion of
Education

Education was completely perverted in order
to serve the interests of the Nazi party =
burned books in Universities, teachers trained
students in weaponry.

Nazi Youth organizations – Hitler Youth,
Hitler-Jugend (HJ), being the most popular was
founded in 1926.
 Compulsory for youths.
 Based on a military model.
Hitler Youth

A separate girls organization was added in 1929:
= Schwesternschaft der Hitler-Jugend.
 Renamed Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM) in
1930.
 A section for younger females, the
Jungmädelgruppe, was added in 1931.
Indoctrination

By 1939, Hitler Youth membership
comprised 90 percent of the country’s
youth.
Brainwashing

These youth organizations taught “genetic
soundness” + how to be good wives and
soldiers.
Goebbels: Propaganda

Joseph Goebbels, (29
October 1897 – 1 May
1945) Minister of
Propaganda and
National Enlightenment.

He was the sharp tongued,
suffered a limp from polio,
and was short statured –
nickname: The Poison
Dwarf.
Goebbels

As one of Adolf Hitler's
closest associates and
most devout followers, he
was known for his
zealous orations and deep
and virulent anti-Semitism,
which led him to support
the extermination of the
Jews and to be one of the
mentors of the Final
Solution.
Goebbels

He remained loyal to
Hitler until the end:

Committed suicide with
his wife, Magda = Killed
their 6 children because
none of them could live
in a world without
National Socialism.
The Secret Police:
The Gestapo

An elite secret police was formed in 1929.

Called the Geheimes Staatspolizei, or
Gestapo for short, led by Heinrich Himmler.

Were notorious throughout Europe for their
ruthless efficiency and inhuman cruelty.

SS bolts = Runic letters; Germanic traditions.
The S.S.

The Shutzstaffel (S.S.) formed by Himmler in
1929.

They were an elite elective squadron.
 Were the cream of society = educated
men; would carry out executions/final
solution.

Note: After the Night of Long Knives the S.S.
would replace the S.A.
Black cap with a Totenkopf (skull
of a dead man) of the SS
Luftwaffe

The German Air force, Luftwaffe, led by
Herman Goering, Minister for Air.

Derived from the words:
 "Luft"= air.
 "Waffe"=weapon.
Goering:
Control of the Skies

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering ) (12
January 1893–15 October 1946) was a leading
member of the Nazi Party and Commander-inChief of the Luftwaffe, a position he was to hold
until the final days of WWII.

He was a veteran of the WWI as an ace fighter
pilot.

He was also the first organizer of the Gestapo.
Goering

Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated
successor.

Göring surrendered to U.S. soldiers on 9 May
1945 in Bavaria = put on trial in Nuremberg for
war crimes = he was sentenced to death but
committed suicide.
Goering
Hitler and the Churches

The Nazis rejected Christianity.

Preached a type of neo-paganism that
glorified war and conquest.

Church officials who preached against the
Nazis were sent to concentration camps.
Hitler + the
Jewish People

Pathological hatred of Jews.

Anti-Semitism was not a new concept.

Jews = successful in business and the
professions = jealousy by less successful Aryan
competitors.
Scapegoating the Jews:
An“Inferior” People

The Jews became a convenient scapegoat:


Someone accepting or being blamed for
others shortcomings/problems) for all of
Germany’s troubles.
Nazi doctrine of racial purity = the Jews were
strictly segregated (Jewish Ghettos, began
in 1939) and treated as inferior peoples.
Protest:
A Tiny Flicker of Hope

Only one record of public protest ever
being made in Germany against Hitler’s
treatment of the Jews.

Berlin (1943).
Kristallnacht
(Crystal Night or
Krystal Night)

Kristallnacht = November 9-10, 1938.

Coordinated attack on Jews = Jewish
shops, synagogues and homes which were
ransacked and many Jews imprisoned and
murdered.

Hitler Youth, the Gestapo, and the SS.
Only the Beginning

“Triggered” by the
assassination in Paris of
German diplomat Ernst von
Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a
German-born Polish Jew.

This was the beginning of the
Final Solution, leading towards
the genocide of the Holocaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=hkClcMHP2fM
Einsatzgruppen:
Death Squads

Einsatzgruppen = action group, aka “death
squads”.

Formed in 1939.

Systematically murdered 1,500,000 people
across Eastern Europe = predecessors of the
Concentration/Death Camps.
Einsatzgruppen:
4 Squads, One Bullet

4 groups of Einsatzgruppen = 900 personnel
each including local police and Nazi soldiers +
officers.

Committed in your face killings in
towns/communities; killing one person at a
time; kept detailed statistics (public, personal,
waste of bullets).
Einsatzgruppen:
To Obliterate

Obliterated Jewish communities (4,000
murdered in 2 days); Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania
etc. = a routine operation.

Rounded up all the Jews in the town and
brought them to the outskirts/edge of the
community = farm fields, forest clearings, and
cleared land on the side of roads became
killing fields.
Einsatzgruppen:
Disposal

2-4 Einsatzgruppen would shoot the people so
they had no individual responsibility; this was a
trivial matter.

The Einsatzgruppen were the reasons for the
creation of Death Camps = hard to shoot one
person at a time and the disposal of bodies
became a problem – put them in mass pits
filled to capacity (Himmler horrified).
Adolf Eichmann:
The Organizer

Otto Adolf (9 March
1906 – 31 May 1962)
was a German Nazi SSObersturmbannführer
(lieutenant colonel) and
one of the major
organizers of the
Holocaust.
Adolf Eichmann

Because of his organizational talents
and ideological reliability, Eichmann
was charged with the task of
facilitating and managing the logistics
of mass deportation of Jews to
ghettos and extermination camps in
German-occupied Eastern Europe.
Adolf Eichmann

After World War II, he fled to
Argentina using a fraudulently
obtained laissez-passer issued by the
International Red Cross.

He lived in Argentina under a false
identity, working a succession of
different jobs until 1960.
Adolf Eichmann

He was captured by Mossad
(intelligence agency of Israel)
operatives in Argentina and taken to
Israel to face trial in an Israeli court on
15 criminal charges, including crimes
against humanity and war crimes.
Adolf Eichmann

He was found guilty and executed by
hanging in 1962.

He is the only person to have been
executed in Israel on conviction by a
civilian court.
Amon Goeth

Amon Leopold Goeth (11
December 1908 – 13
September 1946) was an
Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer
(captain) and the
commandant of the KrakówPłaszów concentration camp
in Płaszów in Germanoccupied Poland during World
War II.
Amon Goeth

He was tried as a war criminal after the war
by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland
at Kraków and was found guilty of personally
ordering the imprisonment, torture, and
extermination of individuals and groups of
people.

He was executed by hanging not far from the
former site of the Płaszów camp.
Rudolf Hoess

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess (25
November 1900 – 16 April 1947) was an SSObersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel),
and from 4 May 1940 to November 1943 was
the commandant of Auschwitz concentration
camp, where it is estimated that more than a
million people were murdered.
Rudolf Hoess

Hoess joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the
SS in 1934.

He was hanged in 1947 following a trial in
Warsaw.
Hoess
Hans Frank

Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16
October 1946) was a German lawyer who
worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s
and 1930s.

After Hitler's ascension to power in 1933,
Frank became Nazi Germany's chief jurist
and Governor-General of occupied Poland's
'General Government' territory.
Hans Frank

During his tenure (1939–1945), he instituted
a reign of terror against the civilian
population, systematic plunder and brutal
economic exploitation and became directly
involved in the mass murder of Polish citizens
of both Jewish and non-Jewish background.

At the Nuremberg trials, he was found guilty
of war crimes and crimes against humanity
and was executed.
Frank
Hitler &
Prosperity

1936 = eliminated
unemployment.

Created the autobahn.

Rebuilding Germany’s
power in international
affairs = League of
Nations admitted in
1926 - in 1936 kicked
out.
The Berlin Olympics, 1936

In 1936, Adolf Hitler’s fascist regime
camouflaged its racism and militarism to hold
the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Goebbels convinced Hitler that the Olympics
were an opportunity to gain international
approval for the Nazi government.
Exclusion of Jews

April 1, 1933 – Nazis boycott Jewish businesses.

April 7, 1933 – government creates the Laws of
Restoration for the Professional Service.

April 25, 1933 – Nazi Sport Office = “Aryans Only”
policy.

Fall of 1935 – Nazi government implements the
Nuremburg Laws.
International Pressure

International Olympic Committee and the
USA started a boycott, to treat Jews fairly
and allow German Jews to compete in the
Games.

Nazis allowed two “half-Jewish” Germans –
hockey player Rudi Ball and fencer Helene
Mayer – to participate on the German Olympic
Team.
Gretel Bergmann (left
Germany for the USA)
Rudi Ball
Helene Mayer
Johann Trollmann
Jesse Owens, USA
Canada:
Women’s Basketball
Sammy Luftspring
(boycotted Olympics)
Phil Edwards
Eva Dawes (boycotted
Olympics)
The Nazi Olympics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN
KlxcqLKcM
Inside Germany:
Death Threats

The Jewish athletes attested that they and
their families were threatened with their lives if
they did not participate in the Games.
Inside Germany:
Firsts

The first torch relay was inaugurated at the
1936 Games.

First to be broadcasted live on radio and TV.

First time that an Olympic cultural program
(the Cultural Olympiad) took centre stage
along with athletic events.
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!
(One People,One Empire, One Leader!)
The Question:
Why do people abuse
their power over others?