Obeying Father: Germany During World War II

Victoria CirritoHonors Sociology Project

German Perspective

• SA, SS, police, and civilians’ roles in Nazi Germany

• Reasoning behind their actions• Hitler’s campaign

SA, SS, POLICE, AND CIVILIANSThe Work of Individuals

SA: Their Formation

Hitler’s special force

Their purpose

Violently disrupt party

opposition

Protect Nazi officials

Their traits

Most revolutionary

segment in NSDAP

Visible agitation seen in Germany

(1922-1934)

SA Violence (1921-1932)• Task was to bring attention to

NSDAP by spreading militant propaganda and violence

• Violent street outbursts: random beatings, book burnings, censorship, street riots, killings

• Targeted Jews under the direction of Herman Goring in 1923

SA street fighters salute Hitler

Skirmishes with Opposition

Continually clashed with members of the SPD and KPD

• Violent street brawls

Reason for the violence

• Captured publicity• Most effective recruitment bait for rightist party members

SA Violence (1933)• Hitler gave SA greater jurisdiction

•Subversives were arrested, tortured in “wild concentration camps”, and assassinated

•Usurped or destroyed Jewish possessions

•Provided a reason for the Jewish boycott in April 1933

SA carrying out Jewish boycott

SA’s Disassembly • Disassembled in 1934

• Occasionally used them in “spontaneous manifestations of popular anger against the Jews

• Foundation for establishing the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 and pogrom

• Replaced by the SS: branch of the SA

The Death’s Head of the Nazi’s

Hitler’s SS

SS: Their Formation

Distrusted old forces

Independent, SA

Regular army

SS: Task•Main order- operating the concentration camps

•Four units of the SS: Armed SS, Death’s Heads, Security Service, General SS

•Assigned to Death’s Head Formation- created from necessity

•Prisons were overflowing; word of SA “wild camps” were leaking out to the police and civilians

Concentration Camps

• First official concentration camp: an abandoned factory in Dachau

• In 1936, they established giant camps in Germany and the Czech frontier

• Purpose: contain the overwhelming number of prisoners and provide labor

Eastman Barracks in Dachau Camp

NAZI SECRET POLICE: THE GESTAPOThe Police

Police’s Reorganization

Before SS Takeover

German Police Force

Schupo

Kripo

Stapo

After SS Takeover (1936)

Stapo

Kripo

Gestapo

Police’s New Command

Gestapo

SD

Other Forces

RSHA

Gestapo's New Order•Task was to tighten Nazi control by arresting opposition

•Granted unlimited power to arrest

•Arrested leftist party members and communists, seized and deported Jews, and enforced the Nuremberg Laws

THE EYES AND EARS OF THE NSDAPThe Citizens

Citizen’s Role• Gestapo’s main task was to

monitor the people

• They had a lack of men and excess of work

• Forced to rely on informers: German citizen

• Citizens only reported a few cases out of party zeal or spite

SA, SS, POLICE, AND CIVILIANSReasoning behind their actions

SA: BackgroundsHad few ties &

lead unsubstantial lives

Unemployed& unmarried

Between 18 to 30 years

old

No political past & little,

if any, military

experience

•The first group to zealously embrace Hitler’s fledgling party

•Joined, partly to give meaning and effectiveness to their lives

SA: Broad Motivations

Men OrganizationDisgusted with the state of post-war Germany

Believed Hitler offered hope for their torn country

Disgusted with the increasing socialist and communist policies

Longed for the conservative policies expounded by Hitler

Fascinated with Hitler’s personality Few joined out of revengeful hatred

Caught by the abundant propaganda Publications and speeches that made the party and its aims well-known

Enamored with the movement Taken by the glory of a violent, masculine, and socially dominating organization

SS: Backgrounds• Specifically chosen men

with certain backgrounds and qualities

• After 1933, 50% of the general officers and 30% of the Death’s Heads had college degrees

• Most were upper-middle class

SS: Indoctrination•Belief in the Judeo Christian God was denounced, and the men were given a new set of orders

•They were given excessive military training, imbedded with psychological conditioning

•Every training element was designed to create “officers of the Fuhrer”

•Only criteria for advancement : extreme physical daring

•They eventually obeyed out of National Socialist Obedience

Gestapo: Nazi Takeover

SS removed non-conformists

• Created a homogenous organization• Could be run with limited number of officials

Gestapo officials were given one option

• Join the SS or be replaced by an SS officer

Gestapo leader Herman Goring

Fascination with the Movement•Nazi doctrine was highly alluring

•Gestapo and Kripo would be part of the power shaping the Third Reich

•Office and duty was elevated to a glory, non-existent in pre-Nazi Germany

People: Fear of the Gestapo

• Gestapo relied on terror to control the people

• Few reported out of party zeal or malevolence

• They dreaded Gestapo punishment

HITLER’S CAMPAIGNThe State of Post-Nazi Germany

State of Pre-Nazi GermanyProblems in 1930

Political

Contentions in the Reichstag

Between socialist & conservative parties

Destroying the Reichstag and democracy

Economic

Drained by Treaty of Versailles

Solutions to the Problems

Re-instill traditional values & religion

Save the country from communist takeover

Return Germany to its former glory

Conclusion

• SA, SS, police, and civilians’ roles

• Their motives

• Conditions that prompted Nazi takeover