Adolph Hitler s three goals Rule the world

Adolph Hitler’s three goals: • Rule the world • Make all conquered peoples the slaves of the German “Master Race. ” • Make the world `Judenrein’ or Jew Free.

NAZI • acronym • National Sozialist German Worker’s Party

Fascism "A governmental system with strong centralized power, permitting no opposition or criticism, controlling all affairs of the nation (industrial, commercial, etc. )" (American College Dictionary)

Nation comes first – Constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia – Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays

Enemies of the State – Human rights are ignored – People tend to 'look the other way‘ – Some even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. in order to protect the state

Identification of Enemies & Scapegoats – Perceived common threat becomes a unifying cause – Patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate the enemy: racial, ethnic or religious minorities, liberals, communists, terrorists

Under a Fascist government • The military and soldiers are glamorized • Obsessed with national security • Intertwine government and religion • Control the Mass media

Under a Fascist government • Extreme contempt for Intellectuals and education, the arts • Fraudulent Elections • Cronyism • Corruption

Totalitarian State • Individuals did not • The Nazis were count. absolute masters over 66 million people • Without warrant or trial, homes were • Citizens had no searched, phones rights, no freedom, no were tapped, mail was choice, no privacy opened • Only the good of the • Thousands were state mattered imprisoned and executed

Rule by force and fear • Prison and hard labor awaited anyone who spoke out against the regime or its policies • Not even a harmless remark about a Nazi official was tolerated.

Remember The Nazis did not come to power because Fascism was so strong. They came to power because Germany’s Democracy was weak.

“Terror is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death. ” ~Adolph Hitler

Gestapo • • • Geheime Staatspolizei Secret State Police Plainclothes watchdogs of the Reich Employed an army of spies to inform on people Unlimited powers to arrest, to jail, or to kill Operated without any restrictions by civil authority • Elitist Group: members knew that whatever actions they took, no consequences would arise • Unconditional authority

Torture • Common • Techniques tested on inmates at Dachau • Used to make prisoners reveal secret information • The instrument in this photograph was used to break the finger joints of the victims

SS • Hitler’s personal body guards • “the Blackshirts” • “Hitler’s Butchers” • It was planned that the SS would be the elite under lords to help him rule the masses • They and their brides were to be the parents of the “pure-blooded” master race of super people • By 1933, SS membership was 30, 000

SS Officers • Had to prove German • He also had to be tall, heritage and that his blonde, blue-eyed, “blood was pure” by and athletic submitting a family tree • Prospective SS brides dating back to 1750 had to submit the • Medical records had to same records before be closely examined to marriages were prove he had no permitted history of hereditary disease

How did Hitler keep control of Germany? Rule by Force and Fear Propaganda Gestapo (Secret police) would spy on and arrest enemies of the state Mass Rallies, Posters and Propaganda films Totalitarian State SS Controlled and censored the radio & newspapers ran the concentration camps Everyone was scared of being arrested by the Gestapo and being put in a concentration camp Popularity Children were indoctrinated with Nazi ideas at school Ripped up the Treaty of Versailles Hitler Youth & the Young Maidens Created Jobs

HOW DID THE HITLER GET EVERYDAY PEOPLE TO COOPERATE?

Propaganda • Used to control or alter people's attitudes • deliberate • produces predictable behavior • does not depend on violence or bribery

In Mein Kampf Hitler states that “effective propaganda is …” • aimed at the masses • aimed at emotions, not intellect • designed so that the bigger the audience, the lower its intellectual level

Research into persuasion Suggests that people whose self -esteem is low are more readily persuaded than others.

Treaty of Versailles • Considered by most to be the cause of Germany’s problems • Germany’s problems were not her fault!

Treaty of Versailles • War Guilt Clause …Germany had to accept responsibility for causing the war • Pay heavy reparations to France and Britain (100 tons of Gold or $64 Billion) • Made to disarm

Also… • Forced to give up (13%) of her territory • Germany also lost all her overseas colonies • A large percentage of her raw materials (65% of iron ore reserves, 45% of her coal, 72% of her zinc) and 10% of her factories overtaken by the French

Hitler was a demagogue. Demagogues play on peoples’ fears.

• War Vets—Hated Government for Losing the War • Middle Class—Ruined by Inflation, Depression • Workers—Unemployed • Industrialists—Hated Socialism and Labor Struggles… Terrified of Communism

Hitler promised Germans: • • Stability Jobs To be Proud Again To Reverse the Versailles Treaty To End “Weak” Democracy To “Get Rid of” the Jews Lebensraum— “Living Space”

Enemies of the State • • Communists Social Democrats Jews Trade Unionists. Work Shy Homosexuals Gypsies • Germans who bought from Jews • Pacifists • Radical Christian Organization • Anyone who criticised Hitler or the Nazi Party

Scare Tactic • Example: A list of German women who were still purchasing goods from Jewish shops • Printed to scare other people into not buying from the Jews

Anti-Semitic Examples The Eternal Jew This was issued after regulations were introduced requiring all Jews still in Germany to wear a visible yellow star. The caption says: "He who wears this symbol is an enemy of our people. "

Promotion of Nazi Ideology Examples This poster advertises a Nazi charity The text translates: "Health, child protection, fighting poverty, aiding travelers, community, helping mothers: These are the tasks of the National Socialist People's Charity. Become a member!"

Examples cont. This poster from the mid-1930's. The caption: "Hitler is building. Help him. Buy German goods. "

Examples cont. The text of this 1940 poster reads: "Youth Serves the Führer. All 10 -yearolds into the Hitler Youth. "

Examples cont. This 1938 poster was issued shortly after the Annexation of Austria. The caption: "One People, One Reich, One Führer. "

German Life • No phase of German life in the Third Reich escaped tight control • Citizens soon learned that as long as they didn’t question and did exactly what they were told, life was not really that unpleasant.

Culture • Hitler ordered Nazification - the imposition of Nazi values - on all aspects of German life • The Nazis dictated what people were allowed to do in their social and private lives

All art had to portray. . . • • Racial purity Militarism Obedience Volk (folk) at work in the fields Love of homeland Manly virtues Womanly virtues

• Artists had to produce acceptable paintings and sculptures that portrayed Nazi values Die Partei, Arno Breker's statue representing the spirit of the Nazi Party

German Life Culture • Books written by Jews were publicly burned • Any un-German literature

Prophecy? “Where one burns books, in the end one will burn human beings. ” ~Heinrich Heine 19 th-century German poet

Jazz music • First censored but later banned • Why? Jews allowed into their social clubs • Propaganda …combine black music with Jews and you get… • “Musical race defilement”

Gramophone Records would be obtained illegally from record stores or on the docks from sailors smuggling them from England

Short Wave Radios • Pick up BBC • Illegal • Played the newest swing hits before they were smuggled into the country • News from outside world

Olympic Games of 1936 • Huge Nazi propaganda success • Only members of the "Aryan race" were allowed to compete promoting German ideological belief of racial supremacy • Germany won 33 Gold medals

Jesse Owens • When Jesse Owens won the 100 meter race Hitler was so infuriated he stormed out of the stadium • Owens won 4 gold medals

The Depression • Vanished as Germany became a war machine • Unemployment lines disappeared • German men and women either were: – in the military – Worked in war production factories – Or worked building the autobahns

Nazi Labor Front • Replaced all labor unions • Strikes forbidden • Hours were long; wages were low – Take home pay in 1936 was less than $7. 00 a week

• Workers had no choice of jobs – drafted and assigned a job whether he liked it or not – Tabs were kept on performance – Fines and prison were punishment • With the depression fresh in their minds, most accepted the regimentation

Control of the Churches • Hitler and his SS officers were fascinated by the occult, Nordic mythology and Aryan superiority • The reigning god in their pagan system was the Fuehrer himself, the "Savior" of Germany • Hitler pretended to be a Christian, his hatred for the Bible would soon shake the church

This poster makes the most direct Christological comparison with Hitler. A dove descended on Christ when he was baptized by John the Baptist An eagle hovers against the light of heaven over an idealized Hitler. The text: "Long live Germany!. "

Churches • Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered by the Nazis • Most entered into arrangements with the Nazi regime to protect themselves

1933 Concordat • Treaty between Hitler and the Vatican • Supposed to protected Catholic clergy, congregations, and schools in Nazi Germany • 800 priests and nuns were put in concentration camps

Protestant Churches • The Protestant Churches were cautious-- avoided public confrontation • Negotiated privately with Nazi authorities -- hoping to ensure protection from direct Nazi control

Dissident Churchmen • Rebellious churchmen very harshly punished • Catholic priests and Protestant ministers who opposed the Nazis were imprisoned in concentration camps

Dietrich Bonhoeffer • Lutheran pastor • organized resistance • Caught and hanged “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. ”

Martin Niemöller • Lutheran pastor • openly preached against the Nazis • imprisoned from 1937 -1945 • Finally freed by the Allies

Education • Non-Nazi teachers and university professors were dismissed • Teachers had to join the National Socialist Teachers' League • Textbooks were re-written to include Nazi political and racial ideas • History was taught to glorify Germany • There was a concentration on physical fitness

Indoctrination • The Hitler Youth was compulsory; it prepared boys for war • The Nazi Girls' youth organization - the BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel ) was also compulsory; it prepared girls for Kinder, Küche, Kirche – (children, kitchen, church) • All other youth groups were outlawed

Questions that appeared in two math textbooks used in German schools during the Nazi era: • 1. The construction of a lunatic asylum costs 6 million RM. How many houses at 15, 000 RM each could have been built for that amount? • 2. To keep a mentally ill person costs approx. 4 RM per day, a cripple 5. 50 RM, a criminal 3. 50 RM. Many civil servants receive only 4 RM per day, white collar employees barely 3. 50 RM, unskilled workers not even 2 RM per head for their families. (a) Illustrate these figures with a diagram. According to conservative estimates there are 300, 000 mentally ill, epileptics, etc. in care. (b) How much do these people cost to keep in total, at a cost of 4 RM per head? (c) How many marriage loans at 1000 RM each … could be granted from this money? * Quoted in Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919 -1945, ed. by J. Noakes and G. Pridham. Vol. 1. Schocken Books, 1983, p. 439

Indoctrination • The Hitler Youth was compulsory; it prepared boys for war • The Nazi Girls' youth organization - the BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel ) was also compulsory; it prepared girls for Kinder, Küche, Kirche children, kitchen, church

Hitler Youth "Youth Serves the Führer. All 10 -year-olds into the Hitler Youth. " "Every girl belongs to us"

Hitler's belief • The future of Nazi Germany was its children • Organized like an army • Strict and severe discipline • Considered more important than school • At its peak 90% of German youth involved

Teachers complained that students were so tired from attending activities that they could barely stay awake the next day at school

“The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp’s steel. ” ~Adolph Hitler

Opposition Youth Groups Swingjugen • Swing dance movement • Direct insult to Nazi ideals • Defiant • Their dress, music and dancing was considered “overtly sexual” and “immoral” • Underground dance clubs were often raided • Kids arrested and put in hard labor camps

The White Rose • Group of students at Munich University • Printed pamphlets about Nazi crimes • Arrested and executed

Edelweiss Pirates • Kids who didn’t want to conform • Helped army deserters and refugees • Stole armaments • Attacked the Gestapo • 12 of the leaders were publicly hanged

How do you get from a civilized society to the mass murder of millions?

Steps to Organized Genocide

Why Study the Holocaust? “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ” -George Santayana