early nazi leaders
TRANSCRIPT
HITLER AND HIS HENCHMEN
The Early Nazi Leaders
Josef Goebbels
• Did not fight in the WW I due to crippled foot• Intelligent, well educated and a brilliant public
speaker• Joined the Nazis in 1922• Editor of the Nazi newspaper Volkische
Freiheit (People’s Freedom)
Hermann Goering
• Fought in the airforce in the WW I• Won the highest medal for bravery under fire• Loud, swaggering character. Intelligent, witty and
charming but also vain and greedy• Joined the Nazis in 1922• In charge of the SA
Rudolf Hess
• Soldier and a pilot in the WW I• Joined the Nazis in 1920• Worshipped Hitler.• Not ambitious• Initially Hitler’s private secretary and later
responsible for party administration
Heinrich Himmler
• Brief stint into the WW I• Frail and timid youth but hard-working and
precise.• Joined the Nazis in 1923• Early post- Gauleiter (regional party chief)
Ernst Rohm
• Captain in the Germany army during the WW I• Tough, brutal and efficient leader with a violent
temper• Joined the Freikorps and helped in crushing the
Sparticist Rising• Founder member of the German Worker’s Party in
1919• Supported Hitler and ran the SA for Hitler in
1921