Download The Nazi Party was dominated by Hitler but he

The Nazi Party was dominated by Hitler but he was surrounded by skilled and committed ‘henchmen’. The five below went on to play a prominent part in the Nazi´s
rise to power.
Rudolf Hess (1894-1987)
Josef Goebbels (1897-1945)
Hermann Goering (1893-1946)
The ‘intellectual’ of the Nazi Party,
Goebbels was the son of an office worker
in a factory. He had not been able to fight
in the 1st WW because he had a crippled
foot which caused him to limp. Although
small and physically weak he was very
intelligent, well educated and a brilliant
public speaker.
He joined the party in 1922. To start with
he opposed Hitler’s leadership, but then
changed his mind and became one of
Hitler´s most influential supporters and
perhaps the most loyal of his followers. He
was appointed propaganda chief in the
Nazi Party. He was the master of modern
political propaganda, adapting American
advertising techniques he had studied.
He spent the last days with Hitler in his
bunker in Berlin. After Hitler’s suicide
Goebbels had his six children killed by a
lethal injection and then a member of the
SS shot him and his wife in the back of
the neck on 1 May 1945.
The ‘extrovert’ of the Nazi Party,
Goering came from a middle-class
background. He fought in the air force
in the First World War, shooting down
twenty-two enemy aircraft and winning
the highest medal for bravery under
fire.
He was a loud, swaggering character
who was intelligent, witty and
charming, but also vain and greedy.
He joined the Nazi Party in 1922, and
a year later was put in charge of the
SA. He was severely wounded during
the Munich Putsch and became
addicted to morphine.
In 1933 he established the Gestapo
and the first concentration camps.
Goering was the most popular Nazi
after Hitler.
After Germany’s defeat he was put on
trial at Nuremberg. Sentenced to
death, he committed suicide by taking
poison, two hours before he was due to
be hanged on 15 Oct. 1946.
Born in Egypt and the son of a
German importer, Hess served in
the same regiment as Hitler
during the 1WW and afterwards
joined the Freikorps.
He joined the Nazi Party in 1920.
He was a soft, sensitive and
humourless man. Hess was not
ambitious and did not crave
power in the same way as other
Nazis did. He worshipped Hitler.
In the early days he was
Hitler’s private secretary and
was later responsible for matters
of the party administration.
After the Munich Putsch he was
imprisoned with Hitler, who
dictated his Mein Kampf to him.
In 1941 he made an
extraordinary decision to fly
single-handedly to Scotland,
apparently to negotiate peace. He
was imprisoned.
He was tried at Nuremberg and
sentenced to life imprisonment.
He supposedly committed suicide
in prison at the age of 93.
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)
Ernst Röhm (1887-1934)
The ‘sadist’ of the Nazi Party, Himmler was
born in Munich and was the son of a
secondary school teacher.
Himmler fought briefly in the 1st WW, and
before the war had been an agricultural
student. As a youth he was frail, timid and
clumsy with short-cropped hair and an
expressionless face. But he was
hardworking and very precise. He even
recorded in his diary each time he shaved
or had a haircut.
Born in Munich and the son of a civil servant,
Röhm had wanted since childhood to be a
soldier. He was a captain in the German army
during the 1st WW. This was a great
achievement for a working-class boy –most
officers were from the upper classes. He was a
tough, brutal, but efficient leader. He had a very
violent temper and detested bourgeoisie and
junkers. After the war he joined the Freikorps
and helped crush the Spartacist rising.
He joined the party in 1923 and was
named head of the SS (Hitler’s personal
bodyguard) in 1929. He made it into an
élite force, with its black uniform. The SS
rose from 300 members in 1929 to 50,000
by 1933. He played a leading part in
murdering SA leaders on the Night of the
Long Knives.
He was also responsible for running the
concentration camps and
masterminded the Final Solution. It was
his job to devise methods of mass murder.
Himmler believed passionately in the
racial doctrine of the Party. His gentle and
harmless appearance concealed his
sadism and craving for power. Despite
this, he was unable to witness murder
himself.
He was arrested by British troops in May
1945 but committed suicide before trial.
He was a founder member of the German
Worker’s Party in 1919. He supported Hitler
when he took over as Nazi leader in 1920 and
became a close friend. In 1930 he was put in
charge of the SA which expanded to over 2
million members by the end of 1933.
In 1933 he talked of the need of a ‘second
revolution’, which would destroy the power of
the upper classes and adopt socialist measures.
He was executed on the Night of the Long
Knives.
 TASK:
Compare the
backgrounds of these
senior Nazis and note
down any similarities.
For each one
summarise the
important information
under the following
headings:
- Place and date of
birth
- Family background
- Experience of war
- character
- work for the Nazis.
- Experiences after
the war
.
Reynhard Heydrich (1904-1942)
Born in Saxony and the son of a middle-class musician who could well have been
Jewish (a claim Heydrich fiercely denied), Heydrich was too young to fight in the 1WW
but joined the navy in 1922. He joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1931 after
involvement with the Freikorps. He became Himmler’s deputy in 1933 and in 1939
was appointed head of the Reich Central office for Jewish Emigration. In 1941 he was
given responsibility for the mass murder of Jews. He was assassinated by a member of
the Czech resistance in 1942.