Germany (1871) 1919-1939
Weimar Republic- replaced WW1 imperial government in Germany(19191939), when Kaiser fled to Holland after WW1
•The Allies force Germany to become a democracy against their will.
•Germans liked having one strong leader, like the Kaiser, and this may have
helped lead to Hitler’s rise (dictator)
Kaiser and flag of
Holland
•Created a republic under a
president, chancellor, and the
Reichstag (legislature)
•Signed the unpopular Treaty
of Versailles (Germany takes
total guilt for WW1) which
made the Weimar government
even less popular
•Allies should have forced
Kaiser to sign treaty instead
Flags of Weimer Republic
German Reichstag, 1926
Spartacist Revolt in Berlin:
• Attempted communist takeover Jan. 1919
•Communists revolt and declare Soviet Republic of Bavaria in April of 1919
•Defeated in May by the Frei Korps (Free Corps)- Anti-communist, ex-soldiers,
and socialist ringleaders, that were killed while “trying to escape”
•Frei Korps took over Berlin briefly in March 1920 (Kapp Putsch- during
German Revolution right wing monarchists tried to overthrow Weimar
government)
•Frei Korps disbanded in1921
Nazi party badge featuring
the swastika
Spartacists in revolt and a Frei Korps soldier
Nazi (National Socialist German
Worker’s Party) (NSDAP) formed 1920Adopted swastika as symbol of the party,
displayed on Nazi party badges (reversed
its direction to work black magic)
The Nazi party purchased the
Volkischer Beobachter (People’s
Observer) as official party paper in 1920
The Nazi’s were led by Adolph Hitler
from 1921, sent to spy on them then asked
to join (he became member #55)
Volkischer Beobachter
newspaper copy
In 1920 SA, Sturm Abteilung,
Storm Troopers, Brownshirts,
fought communists in the streets,
paramilitary organization
Leader of SA, Ernst
Roehm
Brown shirt
uniform
The Horst Wessel song, or Die Fahne hoch (Raise
High the Flag) was named for its author Horst Wessel,
an SA man who was supposedly killed by communists
in a fight in his room in Berlin
Glorified as a martyr to the Nazi cause, and his song
became the official Nazi anthem
He joined the Nazi party in 1926
It became Nazi Germany’s co-National Anthem
Horst Wessel (1907-1930)
Horst Wessel
Adolf HitlerAustria’s flag
Adolf Hitler
Iron Cross
Was an Austrian born frustrated art
student – he was denied entry into an
art school in Vienna
 Enlisted in German Army, served
during WW1, wounded in leg in
1916, gassed 1918, awarded Iron
Cross by a Jewish 1st Lt. for bravery,
but never promoted
Hitler develops loud oratory style
from addressing noisy beer halls
The Horst Wessel Lied (Song)
Flag high, ranks closed
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
march in spirit with us in our ranks.
The street free for the brown battalions,
The Street free for the Storm Troopers.
Millions, full of hope, look up at the swastika;
the day breaks for freedom and for bread.
For the last time the call will now be blown;
for the struggle now we all stand ready.
Soon will fly Hitler-flags over every street;
Slavery will last only a short time longer.
Flag high, ranks closed
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
march in spirit with us in our ranks.
Post WW1 Germany- Seeds of
Germany was winning the war but that the army
Discontent
“Stab in the Back Theory”—belief that
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
was betrayed by traitorous non-Germans (i. e.
Jews) at home
War reparations (money paid for damages from
WWI) totaling 132 billion gold marks were forced
on Germany by The Treaty of Versailles
1923, France and Belgium invade the Ruhr when
coal reparations not sent
Germany prints more money to pay reparations,
causes inflation of 300 million %
4 marks = $1 in 1919, 4.2 trillion marks = $1 in
early, 1923
People hoarded intrinsically valuable coins
Der Dolchstoss (Stab in the Back)
Ran out of paper so printed more 0’s on old bills,
did the same with postage stamps
Egg = 1 million marks, cold beer = 3 million
marks, newspaper = 100 billion marks, money
cheaper to burn than firewood
People went shopping with wheelbarrows, paid
several times a day to buy merchandise which
would hold its value during the work day
Nazis blamed inflation on Jewish sabotage
U.S. loans improve economy from 1924-1929
(Depression)
A wheel barrow of inflated currency
Beer Hall Putsch November 8-9, 1923
• A failed attempt by Hitler and
the Nazis to try and overthrow
the Bavarian government and
take over all of Germany
• Hitler joined by respectable
Erich von Ludendorff
• Plot fails and Hitler jailed,
sentenced to 5 years, only
Some of Hitler’s storm troopers mingle outside the
served 9 months
beer hall (Nov. 9, 1923) & Hitler at the time of the
• 16 Martyrs
Putsch
Hofbrauhaus the famous beer
hall; where Hitler makes his
first public speech and became
leader of the NAZI Party
Enrich Ludendorff
Hitler in the crowd (Left) celebrating the outbreak of war
in the Odeonsplatz, in front of the Feldherrenhalle war
memorial. It was in this same square that the Beer Hall
Putsch ended in a bloody melee in November 1923.
(Right) Hitler was standing roughly on the circular
decoration in the square, in front of the stone lion which
forms part of the front of the Feldherrenhalle.
Defendants in the Beer Hall Putsch trial.
Ludendorff is fifth from the left, with Hitler to
the right. Ernst Röhm is to the right and in
front of Hitler. Note that only two of the
defendants, Hitler and Frick, were dressed in
civilian clothing.
The Blutfahne (Blood flag)• SA flag stained with blood of martyrs used to
consecrate subsequent flags
• One guy died on top of the flag and bled all over
it when shot by Munich police
•Nazi party outlawed
•Fellow prisoners tired of Hitler’s speeches, so
they convince him to write his memoirs
Hitler with Blutfahne flag
Nov. 9, 1935: the 16 NSDAP members killed
during the Beer Hall Putsch brought from their
graves and buried at the Ehrentempel
Hitler in prison following the Beer Hall
Putsch
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
July 18, 1925 Hitler’s book
Hitler’s Cell and Postcard
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest for humans
Lebensraum (living space to the East and South of Germany ie. Poland, Czec, Austria)
Hitler wants to expand to east and conquer inferior peoples like U.S. did in the West Concentration camps based on Indian Reservations
Aryans, master race (blond, blue eyed) Germans.
Children taught these characteristics in school, had been corrupted by interbreeding, Hitler
wanted to take control of evolution and create a master race
(Believed there was an underground race of supermen “The Old Ones” who periodically
surfaced to interbreed with humans, he wanted his race to be chosen.)
Blamed Jews for loss of WWI, reparations, post war inflation, depression, communism
The Big Lie (propaganda technique)- easier to believe a big lie that a little lie
Later required in every household to get a marriage certificate
Wrote an untitled sequel in 1928 which was never published which dealt with the
inevitable war with America, which predicted a final war between Greater Germany and
Britain v. the U.S. in 1980
Believed that War should be soon because America was attracting the best, bravest
Germans as immigrants, Americans praised for eugenics and racial segregation, but Hitler
felt we were ruled by Jews which made us dangerous
Hitler released from prison in1925, convinced Bavaria to legalize Nazis by saying he
would try to get elected instead of overthrowing the government
Bavaria’s flag
ss
• In 1925 Hitler creates SS,
Schutzstaffel, (Protective
Squad) as his personal
bodyguards, led by former
chicken farmer Heinrich
Himmler (ideolized
Teutonic rural life), into the
occult, runes (magical
symbols and spells)
• Based on Teutonic Knights
(100 B.C), which used to
protect Germany from
enemies to the east
Teutonic
Knights
SS logo
Hitler after his release from
Landsberg
SS ring
Heinrich
Himmler
SS Facts
Continued:
Teutonic Knights
•Members must prove no Jewish
ancestors back to 1750, too difficult
so exceptions made for WWI veterans
•Later ran concentration camps
•Later divided into 3 branches:
Allgemeine SS, general
administrative, Waffen SS (armed SS,
fought as part of armed forces(elite),
Totenkopfverbande (Death’s Head
Organization) Started as concentration
camp guards, later made military,
replaced by Allgemeine SS
Far left to Right:
Allegemeine SS, Waffen
SS,Totenkopfverbande
• In 1928, Joseph Goebbels
becomes the Minister of Public
Enlightenment and Propaganda,
5’, 100 lbs, club foot or other
deformity of his right foot
• Propaganda everywhere,
weather reports call good
weather “Hitler Weather”
• Wife Magda’s stepfather was
Jewish, presumably died in
concentration camp
• Nazi torchlight rallies
Above: Joseph Goebbels
Left: Nazi torch rallies
Hitler copies many poses and gestures from a famous German hypnotist from
1920’s
Nazi salute- Sieg Heil “Hail Victory”, “Heil Hitler” - becomes standard
greeting
“They Salute with Both Hands Now” by
David Low, 1934
•Archeological evidence sought of
Aryans, evidence planted by Ahnenerbe
(Ancestor Inheritance)
•Ahnenerbe also looted 140,000 books
on witchcraft from all over Europe
•Nazis collected religious artifacts
including the Spear of Destiny,
reputedly the spear Longinus used to
pierce Jesus’ side, in Museum in
Austria, supposedly made owner
invincible
•Hitler used astrology to guide his
important decisions
Spear of Destiny
Ahnenerbe
SS
The obese Herman
Goering
The Blue Max
Herman GoeringWWI flying ace, 22 kills, earned Pour le Merite
(Blue Max), in charge of the Luftwaffe (German
Air Force), wounded in Beer Hall Putsch becomes
addicted to morphine
Luftvaffe decal on helmet
Rise of the Nazi Party
•1929 Stock Market crash ends U.S. loans, German economy tanks, Nazis promise
to end Depression woes
•By 1930, Nazis were second largest party in the Reichstag (2nd to Social
Democrats)
•25 February 1932 Hitler becomes a German citizen
•Feb 1932 Hitler lost presidency to WWI hero Paul von Hindenburg,
Depression toppled his government
•January 30, 1933 German politicians made Hitler chancellor thinking they could
control him, had power to dismiss him until Hindenburg died
von Hindenburg
swearing Hitler
into
chancellor’s
office
von Hindenburg and Hitler
Ceremony celebrating Hitler as the new Chancellor of Germany in 1933 (Photo
credits: USHMM Photo Archives and he History Place) Adolf Hitler and Hermann
Göring greet the participants in the parade as they pass beneath the window of
Hitler's new office. Below -- A view of the parade passing
Reichstag Fire
• February 27, 1933
• Possibly set by Nazis,
blamed on Dutch
communist Marinus van
der Lubbe, who was
beheaded by guillotine
• Nazis claimed it was part
of communist takeover
plot, used as excuse to end
civil liberties, 4000
communists arrested,
communists expelled from
Reichstag, freedoms of
speech, press and
assembly ended,
government can open mail
and search homes
Marinus van der
Lubbe
Plenary Hall- after the fire
Dachau
•Becomes first concentration
camp March 20, 1933
•Started as political enemies,
later Jews, gypsies, habitual
criminals, prostitutes,
Freemasons (Hitler said this
secret fraternal organization
served the Jews, said all men are
equal, Nazis blamed them for
helping lose WWI), Jehovah’s
Witnesses (refused Nazi salute,
would not vote or serve in army),
homosexuals, crippled and
handicapped
Sign means “Work brings freedom”
• Each prisoner at the concentration camp got a cloth insignia, Jews-yellow
star of David marked “Jude”, male homosexuals and pedophiles- pink
triangle, Jehovah’s Witnesses-purple triangle, political prisoners
(anarchists, freemasons) -red triangle, asocial (alcoholic, mentally retarded,
prostitute, chronically lazy)-black triangle, Gypsie – first black, then
brown, repeat offending criminals-green, race defiler – yellow over a black
triangle
“Jew”
Gestapo
•
•
•
•
26 April 1933 Goering creates Gestapo, secret police under
Reinhard Heydrich, later joined to SS, not responsible to law or
courts
People’s Court tries political criminals, only appeal of verdict
was to Hitler
April 1, 1933 Boycott of Jewish goods
Enabling Act May 2, 1933 Hitler voted unlimited power to deal
with threat, dictatorship
Reinhard Heydrich and the
Gestapo Flag
German Labor
Front
GLF badge
• May 2, 1933 labor unions replaced by Nazi equivalent, the German Labor
Front (wages set)
• Vacations given cheaply to workers, Kraft durch freude “Strength through
Joy” program, mandatory payroll deductions
• Public works programs end unemployment, 6 million in 1933, Zero in 1939
• 18 year-old males required to serve for 6 months, marches to work, lived in
barracks, physical labor prepares them for military service
• Autobahn, military route of invasion, built without machinery, needed more
labor
• Rearmament declared March 16, 1935, 2 years compulsory service for all
young men, full employment by 1937. Confiscation of Jewish property
makes economy seem healthier
Volkswagen, Ferdinand Porsche,
People’s car, prepaid, money used to
rearm, cars not produced until 1946,
factories produced military vehicles
instead
Ferdinand Porsche aided in the construction of this early
VW Beetle prototype
This poster links the German
Labor Front (the DAF) to World
War I soldiers. Just as soldiers
were comrades regardless of their
standing in civil life so too all
German workers are comrades in
the DAF, regardless of whether
they were white or blue collar.
Hitler orders manufacturing of People’s Radio to
insure access to propaganda
The Volksempfaenger, or
People’s Radio
Television was operational in Nazi
Germany since before the 1936 Berlin
Olympics
The text translates: "All Germany
hears the Führer on the People's
Receiver." The Nazis, eager to
encourage radio listenership,
developed an inexpensive radio
receiver to make it possible for as
many as possible to hear Nazi
propaganda.
Book Burning
•
May 10, 1933 University book burning, Jews -- Einstein, Freud, Marx,
Bible; Disabled --Helen Keller; Socialists -- Jack London, Ernest
Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, H. G. Wells
• Only Germans were allowed to publish in German, Jews only in Hebrew
• Erich Maria Remarque’s sister, Elfriede, was beheaded with an axe for
being his sister 1943. He was the author of All Quiet on the Western Front
• Nazis released rats into theaters when movie based on his book showed in
Germany in 1930
Book Burning
Joseph Goebbels, German propaganda
minister speaking at book burning
Nazi students and SA unloading "un-German" books as fuel for a book burning on May 10, 1933 in
Berlin, Germany. The SA (Sturmabteilung or "Stormtroopers") was the Nazi paramilitary
organization under Ernst Röhm. The banner on the back of the truck states, "German students march
against the un-German spirit."
Held in Berlin on May 10, 1933, 1000’s of titles were burned on a large
pyre. These volumes were collected, stacked and lit a fire by the Nationalist
German Students Organization.
Site of Nazi Book Burning; May 10, 1933 Bebelplatz
The book burning memorial, in the center of Bebelplatz (a
'platz' in Berlin is like a Square in NYC). It's in front of
Humboldt University, the distinguished school that
produced Einstein, whose thousands of books were burned
by the Nazis. The memorial is simply an empty bookshelf,
underground, with an inscription that warns,
approximately, "What starts with burning books always
ends with burning people."
Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath
Sculpture of German writers in the platz today Justifies Germany’s Withdrawal from the League
of Nations in Front of the International Press
Timeline of Event s:
(October 16, 1933)
•June 1933 suppressed monarchist
•June-July 1933 outlawed all political parties except Nazis,
•Only remaining opposition to Hitler is within his own party,
•Freedom of the press ended, labor unions illegal
•October 1933 Germany withdraws from League of Nations
•1933-37 Sterilization of 200,000 young people with genetic
diseases, mixed African-Germans
Euthanasia (mercy killing) of
90,000 mentally and chronically
ill “useless eaters”
• 30 centers built across
Germany, gas chambers
disguised as showers for 1st
time, lethal injection,
technology later used in
concentration camps
• Bodies of victims cremated and
sent home, claimed deaths were
due to natural causes
• Catholic bishop gave a speech
against the program in August
1941, Nazis beheaded three
priests who distributed the
sermon but stopped program
three weeks later
"This person
suffering
from
hereditary
defects costs
the
community
60,000
Reichsmark
during his
lifetime.
Fellow
German, that
is your
money, too."
Night of the Long Knives
•June 30, 1934
• Purge of SA (represents lower classes), resented
Hitler’s contacts with military and business
•SA reaches 3 million members, Roehm has been
saying he will replace the army, revolution must
continue, made the wealthy classes and the army
nervous
•Roehm found in bed with his chauffer by the SS,
SA leaders purged to make way for more middle
class support for the Nazis
•Hitler no longer needed the SA after he was in
power
“Will the
audience
kindly keep
their seats”
•August 2, 1934 Hindenburg dies, Chancellor and President combined into
“Der Fuehrer” the leader (HITLER)
•Third Reich proclaimed, Holy Roman 1st, 1870-1918 2nd
•Hitler wants to create a German nation, supposed to last 1000 years
State Funeral of Paul von
Hindenburg Tannenberg War
Memorial; August 7, 1933
Reich President Paul von
Hindenburg lying in state
on Schloß Neudeck
NAZI EDUCATION
•Picture of Hitler in every classroom, non-Nazis removed
from teaching positions
•Education focuses on physical fitness, boxing required
for boys
•Rewrote history, Jews and communists blamed for loss
of WWI, Jews blamed for inflation, Hitler credited with
rebuilding Germany
•Biology taught racism, geography taught about land
taken from Germany in 1919, need for lebensraum
“living space”, science taught shooting, aviation, bridge
building, math story problems often used Nazi
propaganda about bombing Jews in Warsaw or how
much it cost to care for the mentally ill
• 3 special schools built for ardent Nazi children
(Ordensburg) where boys participated in war games with
live ammunition
(Ordensburg were originally castles build by crusading
German knights)
Ordensburg Castle
Education Continued..
• Girls and boys segregated
• University degrees offered in
racial science
• Religious schools banned 1936,
religious courses became optional
in 1937
• 1937 Teachers required to defend
Nazi doctrine
• Children’s literature Der Giftpilz,
1938 (the Poison Mushroom) The
Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pinscher,
anti-mixing of races, Don’t Trust
a Fox in a Green Meadow or the
Word of a Jew
• Motherhood: should be the goal
of all women according to the
Third Reich
• Mutterkreuz (Mother’s Cross)
medal to encourage Aryan
population growth , Bronze 5
kids, Silver 7+, Gold 9+, awarded
on Hitler’s Mother’s birthday in
August and on Mothering Sunday
in May
• Married couples get interest free
loans, ¼ paid off for each kid,
payments triple if woman takes a
job
Mother’s
Cross
A
lebensborn
home
• Lebensborn, 1935, later spread to
occupied territories, homes
available to mothers of racially fit
children, run by SS
• Abortion illegal among Aryans
• Infertile wives can be divorced,
women with infertile husbands can
have other’s children
Hanna Reitsch, note the pilot’s wings
Hanna Reitsch, fanatical Nazi test pilot, an exception to the
rule
Nuremberg Laws – Anti-Semitic laws
•First issued September 15, 1935 and amended from time
to time
•“Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor”
•Jews excluded from public office, citizenship revoked,
cannot attend German schools, no marriage or procreation
with Aryans, Jews had to register with the state, If names
are not on list of approved Jewish names -- Jewish men
must add “Israel” to names; Woman add “Sara”, Jews had
to sell their businesses, Jews had to wear Yellow stars of
David marked “Jude”(German for Jew)
•Jews cannot have phones, ride public transportation,
employ German servants, wear medals or other
decorations, or fly the German flag (but can fly the Jewish
flag)
•Jews banned from public schools, theaters, cinemas,
resorts and other public places (seats reserved for Jews
painted yellow)
•The next steps were to send Jews to live in ghettos, then
to the concentration camps
Hitler during the
session of the
Reichstag, when the
“Nuremberg Laws”
were adopted
Der Völkische Beobachter
heralds the Nuremberg Laws,
September 1935
"I am the greatest pig in town - I have affairs with
Jews only." This scene, organized for the press in
Hamburg in 1935, appeared in all German
newspapers. The man's sign says: "I only take
German girls to my room." The Nuremberg laws of
1935 criminalized sexual relations between Jews and
"Aryans."
Berlin Memorial Laws:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jewish judges placed on permanent
"leave". 3/13/33
Jewish lawyers/notaries can no longer
practice in Berlin. 3/18/33
Jewish doctors not to be reimbursed for
treating patients. 3/31/33
Jewish teachers to be discharged. 4/1/33
Jewish civil servants discharged from
their jobs. 4/7/33
Jews expelled from sports clubs. 4/25/33
A film is German only if made by
citizens of German heritage. 6/28/33
Jews expelled from German Chess
Union. 7/19/33
Jews expelled from choir clubs. 8/16/33
Jews not allowed to use the beach in
Wannsee (Wannsee: lake in Berlin
suburb). 8/22/33
All schools to teach racial science.
9/13/33
Jews cannot belong to German
Automobile Club. 10/1/33
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jewish actors and actresses prohibited from
performing. 3/5/34
Jewish art dealers must close shop. 1935
Jewish writers no longer allowed to write.
March 1935
Jewish musicians prohibited from
performing. 3/31/35
Hiking of Jewish youth groups consisting of
more than twenty persons prohibited. 7/10/35
Marriages between citizens of German blood
and Jews punished with prison. Marriages
contracted despite this are void. 9/15/35
Anti-Jewish signs removed in Berlin during
Olympics. 1936
To prevent creating a bad impression on
foreign visitors, signs with extreme antiJewish contents are to be removed. Signs
with "Jews not wanted here" are sufficient.
1/29/36
The conversion from Judaism to Christianity
has no bearing on race--based on birth one
was still considered a Jew. 4/10/36
Journalists to prove Aryan ancestry going
back to 1800. 4/15/36
Jews were not allowed to graduate. 4/15/37
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Postal clerks married to Jewish women
must leave job. 6/18/37
Aryan and non-Aryan children can't play
together. 1938
Jews can no longer be members of
German Red Cross. 1/1/38
Night of Shattered Glass" (Kristallnacht).
Thousands of Jews rounded up and taken
to concentration camps. 1938
Only racial comrades may engage in
gardening. 3/22/38
Jews to declare all assets. 4/26/38
Jewish doctors can no longer practice.
7/25/38
Streets with Jewish names to be renamed.
7/27/38
Jews to add middle name of "Sarah" or
"Israel". 8/17/38
Passports of Jews to be stamped with a
"J". 10/5/38
Jews cannot be self employed in any
trade. 11/12/38
Jews not allowed to be tradesmen.
11/12/38
Jews not allowed to go to movies, operas
and concerts. 11/12/38
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jewish employees may be discharged
without notice or benefits. 11/12/38
Jewish children no longer allowed to
attend public schools. 11/15/38
Jews not allowed to use swimming pools.
12/3/38
Jews to hand in drivers licenses. 12/3/38
Jewish women cannot become midwives.
12/21/38
Certain parts of Berlin off-limits to Jews.
12/31/38
Jewish publishers and Jewish book dealers
to close by end of 1938.
In Bavarian Square Jews only allowed to
sit on benches marked with yellow color.
1939
Jews not allowed to take jewelry or other
valuables when emigrating. 1/16/39
Dentists, dental technicians, pharmacists,
nurses can no longer practice their
professions. 1/17/39
Jewish veterinarians prohibited from
practicing. 1/17/39
Jews to turn in gold, silver, platinum,
pearls. 2/21/39
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jewish organizations responsible for
cleaning debris of synagogues. They are
not to be rebuilt. 3/24/39
Jews can be thrown out of their homes
without notice and without compensation
and placed in appointed "Jew homes".
4/30/39
Jew's last will and testaments are no
longer valid. 7/27/39
Jews not allowed to leave their home after
8:00 pm; 9:00 pm in summer. 9/1/39
Jews to turn in radios. 9/23/39
Jews not eligible for clothing rations.
January 1940
Jews allowed to shop for food between 4
pm and 5 pm only. 7/4/40
Jews no longer allowed to request
telephone hookup. 7/29/40
All Jews to perform forced labor. 3/4/41
Jews not to obtain soap or shaving cream
with ration cards. 6/26/41
Jews not allowed to use public libraries.
8/2/41
Jews over six years of age to wear yellow
star with word "Jew". 9/1/41
Jews may use public transport only to go
to work. 9/13/41
Jews need police approval to leave the
neighborhoods in which they reside.
9/18/41
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jews not allowed to use public
transportation, if crowded. They are only
permitted to sit down when none of the
other passengers are standing. 9/18/41
First mass deportation of Berlin Jews.
10/18/41
Jews no longer allowed emigrating.
10/23/41
Jews not allowed to use public telephone.
12/21/41
Compelled to turn in wool and furs.
January 1942
Bakeries and candy stores off-limits to
Jews. 2/14/42
Jews not allowed to purchase newspapers
or magazines. 2/17/42
Jewish children to make use of public
transportation only where school is more
than 5 km from home. 3/24/42
Jews allowed to use public transportation
only when job is more than 7 km from
home. 3/24/42
Jewish home must display "Jewish Star".
3/26/42
Jews not allowed to have pets. 5/15/42
Jews not allowed to use ration cards to
obtain cigarettes or cigars. 6/11/42
Jews have to turn in electrical appliances,
bicycles, typewriters, and records.
6/12/42
And Finally Some More Laws…
• Jews not allowed to go to school. 6/20/42
• Jews not to obtain eggs with their ration cards. 6/22/42
• Jews not allowed to make use of ticket dispensers for public
transportation. 6/26/42
• No milk. 7/10/42
• First direct deportation to Auschwitz. 7/11/42
• Jews cannot testify in court against Germans. 8/7/42
• Supplying Jews with meat, meat products prohibited. 9/18/42
• Jews not allowed to buy books. 10/9/42
• Organized arrests of Jews in workplaces for deportation. 3/26/43
• Official acts documenting anti-Jewish actions are to be destroyed.
2/16/45
1936 Berlin Olympics
• Soviets do not attend
• Reich Sports Office applies Nazi policy to athletics, Jews
excluded from professional and amateur sports
• Reich Sports Office organizes Berlin Olympics
• Hindenburg zeppelin painted with swastikas on tail, and
Olympic Rings
Nazi Art
•Reich Culture Chambers (7) Press, Fine Arts,
Music, Theater, Film, Literature, Radio
•Bauhaus architecture school closed in 1933
(modernist, utilitarian), many artists fled to
U.S.
•Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect, built on huge
scale, wanted to replace Berlin with
‘Germania’, the capital of the world
Architect’s impression of Germania; the
dome is so large it would create its own
weather and could rain indoors
Albert Speer, in charge of Germania
Exhibition of Degenerate Art
opened 19 July 1937
(Bolshevik or Jewish Art)
Top Right – an example of National
Socialist Realism
Bottom – an example from the Nazi
Degenerate art show superimposing
modern art and photos of handicapped
people
Modern art = Jewish plot to demoralize Gentiles
• Art work displayed next to pictures of deformed and
retarded persons
• Last show before destruction or sale for Reich
• Similar show held for Degenerate Music 1938
• Works of Jewish composer Mendelssohn banned
• National Socialist Realism is accepted German art
• Backlash against excesses in Berlin, homosexuality, drug
use, jazz (Duke Ellington’s” Chocolate Kiddies” musical),
nude stage shows like Josephine Baker, November gruppe
(radicals who wanted to use art to cause revolution),
Dadaism, anti-capitalist modern art
• Literature controlled, All Quiet on the Western Front
banned
• 1934 Fraktur chosen as official German typeface, cursive
banned 1941 as being of Jewish origin
•
•
•
Propaganda Film Triumph of the Will, directed by
Leni Riefenstahl
Triumph of the Will was commissioned by Hitler
in 1934 and directed by Leni Riefenstahl, and
covers the events of the Sixth Nuremberg Party
Congress. The original intention was to document
the early days of the NSDAP, so future
generations could look back and see how the
Third Reich began.
In reality, Triumph of the Will shows historians
how the Nazi state drew in the masses through
propaganda and also how Adolf Hitler had a
unique and terrifying ability to entice crowds to
his beliefs by the very power of his words
Scenes from the film
Propaganda Films
1934 Nuremburg Rally
and scene from the film
Poster for The Eternal Jew
•Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), 1940
portrayed Jews as rats in this propaganda film
•Nazis set up a service to distribute films in rural
areas where no theaters existed
•1937 Nazi agents tried to pressure Marlene Dietrich
to return to Germany, she refuses
•Der Grosse Konig, 1942 about Frederick the Great
who defeated 3 world powers (Austria, Russia, and
France)
•Kolberg, 1945, city sacrifices itself to avoid being
taken by invaders
1937 film, Angel
• February 1938 Hitler purges military of those opposed to invasion of
Czechoslovakia, Werner von Blomberg unknowingly married to exprostitute and nude model, Werner von Fritsch falsely accused of
homosexuality, control is complete
• Goering engineers coup hoping to take over
• Anschluss- March 14, 1938 Austria joined to Germany
• Austria is shown as Ostmark after the Anschluss
1938, Hitler parades in Vienna
Czech Partition (October 1938)
• Hitler demanded the Sudetenland (which contained 3 million
ethnic Germans)
• Czechs allied to USSR and France, war seemed imminent
• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, negotiates with
Hitler in Munich September 29,1938
Sudetenland- white area
Chamberlain arrives in Munich for conference (left) &
Chamberlain arrives back in England and claims “Peace
in Our Times” (pictures above)
MUNICH CONFERENCE
Lunch with Hitler
Mussolini, Hitler, Goering at Munich
conference
(left to right) the British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard
Neurath, Premier Daladier, Prime Minister
Chamberlain, Ambassador François-Poncet and Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Italian Foreign
Minister Galeazzo Ciano
Weizsäcker at the Munich Conference
Appeasement = give a bully what he wants so he will leave
you alone
•Chamberlain went home and declared “Peace in Our Time”
•Czechs and their allies the Soviets were not consulted as British
agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland
•Hitler pledges he will be satisfied with this, pledges he will never
ask for anything else
Hitler Signs the Munich Agreement (September 30,
1938) and then shakes on it
Hitler during a triumphal tour of the
Sudetenland following the Munich
agreement of September 1938. The
agreement ceded the largely Germanspeaking Sudeten region of
Czechoslovakia to Germany. Eger,
Czechoslovakia, October 3, 1938.
Hitler enters the Sudetenland
•September 1938 1ST of 17
assassination attempts planned
against Hitler, foiled when
Chamberlain handed over
Czechoslovakia
•Assassination plotters feared British
and French would not stand for it
and go to war with Germany, but
they were wrong
•11 November 1938 Weapons law
excludes Jews, Gypsies, and Nazi
opponents from owning guns, later
extended the ban to knives and clubs
•The Weimar government had made
all gun owners register their
weapons with the government
•The Nazis used the list to disarm
their opponents
•Once their opponents were
defenseless, the serious violence
against the Jews was under way
Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken
Glass”
•November 10, 1938, Reinhard Heydrich
organized program (riot against Jews)
•Vandalism of almost 1000 synagogues and
Jewish businesses, Jews harassed, beaten and
91 killed
•Broken glass from windows looks like
crystal; Jews do not get money from
insurance
•German Jews required to pay $1 billion
marks to repair the damages
•Storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses
damaged during the Kristallnacht
The windows of a Jewish owned shop are
destroyed during the Night of Broken Glass
During Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken
Glass, a synagogue burns in Siegen, Germany.
November 10, 1938
1938 Hitler named Time
Magazine Man of the Year
Jewish Cemetery destroyed by
Nazis
Invasion of Czechoslovakia (March 1939)
• Mountainous Sudetenland was
only natural defense, people
there are slavs, and Hitler was
looking for lebensraum (living
space)
Non-Aggression Pact August 23, 1939
Germany and USSR agree not to go to
war for ten years, decide to split Poland
Stalin and Hitler
German occupation troops march through the
streets of Prague. Czechoslovakia, March 15,
1939
(1) Vyacheslav Molotov signs the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany
and the Soviet Union while Joachim von Ribbentrop and Joseph Stalin look on
(2) Molotov and Hitler (3) Stalin and Ribbentrop
Soviet and German generals waving at parade
during the official transfer of Brest to Soviet
control, September 23, 1939
German and Soviet soldiers during the official
transfer of Brest to Soviet control in front of
picture of Stalin
German and Soviet soldiers at the "Border of Peace"
established by the pact
Germany invades Poland on September 1, 1939 & WWII begins
In this file photo taken in Sept.
1939, Nazi Germany, foreground
left, and Soviet Red Army,
foreground right, officers salute
the Nazi swastika flag during
their joint parade in BrestLitovsk celebrating a border
demarcation in Poland following
Hitler's invasion of Poland
German soldiers break down the road
barrier. The march into Poland began.
German tanks
cross into Poland
The German
capture of
Warsaw,
Poland, seen
here with its
buildings
burning on the
horizon
German forces in the outskirts of Warsaw.
In the background of the photograph, the
city burns as a result of the German military
assault. Warsaw, Poland, September 1939.
From Left to Right:
1. Junkers Ju-87 (Stukas)
vital to success of
Blitzkrieg
2. The Stuka dive bomber
was the symbol of the
Blitzkrieg in Poland in
1939. This terrifying
aircraft swept all before
it in the first year of the
war
3. Messerschmitt fighter
bombers crucial to
Blitzkrieg
4. German attack leaves
Warsaw in ruins
Jews forced to dig their own graves
Nazi soldiers round up Polish Jews
Victory parade in Warsaw
Hitler views the victory parade in Warsaw after
the German invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland:
•Germany demands highway to connect
Germany to East Prussia
• Poland refuses Germans blow up their
own radio station, blame on Poles
•Germany invades Poland from three
directions, USSR follows
•GB and France declare war September 3,
1939
Religion, Holy Days, and the Occult
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Positive Christianity was Nazis version of Christianity in 1920, thought traditional
Christianity was too passive
Nazis suspicious of Christianity, too Jewish
1939 Christian symbols banned, “Christ”, angels, shepherds banned in kids’ books,
replaced by “emissaries of nature”, “power of the sun”
New holy day was the winter and summer solstice; on June 21-22 (Spring and Fall
Equinoxes were to be added after destruction of Christianity)
30 January Day Hitler seized power, celebrated as beginning of the Third Reich
20 April Hitler’s birthday
1 May, May Day or Beltane, a fertility festival
Second Sunday in May, Muttertag (Mother’s Day)
9 November Blutzeuge (Blood Witness of Nazi Movement, anniversary of Beer Hall
Putsch) – martyrs, like a Nazi Good Friday where the savior is rejected, then raised to
power
Hitler’s Half Birthday, 6 months from his birthday
Christmas replaced by “Festival of Lights”
Some Nazis believed in the hollow earth theory, which the interior of the earth was
heated by a sun and we were on the inside
Astrologist Karl Krafft twists Nostradamus’ predictions to describe a Nazi victory,
became popular when he apparently predicted the November 1939 assassination attempt
on Hitler, later died in a concentration camp after he predicted Goebbels’ propaganda
offices in Berlin would soon be bombed (they were)
Weird Hitler Facts
• Hitler had only one testicle – apparently lost one at the battle of the Somme
• Hitler had an enormous collection of pornography
• Hitler idolized Henry Ford, also an anti-Semite (Ford wrote book The
International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem), and gave him
Germany’s highest award for foreigners, Grand Cross of the Supreme
Order of the German Eagle, they had photos of each other on their desks
Hitler’s Girlfriends:
Winifred Wagner, widow of
Richard Wagner’s son,
English father, passed away
in 1980
Hitler’s Girlfriends
•
•
•
•
1926 Maria “Mitzi” Reiter, 16, (he was 37)
attempted to hang herself when Hitler began seeing
Geli, she was discovered after losing consciousness
Adolf Hitler with his niece Geli Raubal (he drew
pictures of her nude
Hitler apparently had a sexual relationship with his
17-year-old half niece Geli Raubal who apparently
shot herself through the heart in his apartment in
September 1931, Hitler gave up eating meat after
her death, and claimed meat reminded him of Geli’s
corpse
Hitler apparently enjoyed having Geli defecate and
urinate on his face
Maria Reiter
Hitler lived here
together with his
niece Geli Raubal.
The appartment of
Hitler is on the
second floor
Geli
• Unity Mitford, English art student,
shot herself in the head when Britain
declared war on Germany (she
survived)
More Ladies…
Unity Mitford
The Mitford Sisters, Unity and Diana: "So Very
Nice, and So Very Nazi" Unity Mitford (left) and
Lady Diana Mosley (nee Mitford, right), with SS
troops at the September 1937 Nuremberg Nazi
Party rally. Adolf Hitler called the tall beautiful
enthusiastic fascist blonde Diana "the perfect
Aryan woman".
Hitler and Unity Mitford
Eva Braun, began dating her at age 19
•Unsuccessfully attempted suicide twice (shot herself in the neck 1932, took
sleeping pills 1935) before succeeding with Hitler in killing themselves in a
Bunker in 1945
Braun
and
Hitler
at
Eagle’s
Nest
• After dinner and discussion of Gestapo torture techniques, Actress Renate
Mueller and Hitler undresses and lay on the floor, he asked her to hit and
kick him, verbally abuse him, and hit him with his own dog whip
• Committed suicide October 1937, either jumped from window or was
pushed after being accused of having a Jewish lover