Hitler

And His

Henchmen

Der Fuhrer1889-1945

• In 1921, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party voted Hitler as leader

• The party attracted laborers, former soldiers and misfits

• They were violently nationalistic, Anti-Semitic and against democratic government

• The party organized a paramilitary group called the Sturm Abteilung, (SA) or Storm Troops

The Beer Hall Putsch• In 1923, the Nazis attempted to seize the state

government of Bavaria • They also planned to march on Berlin• The plan failed and Hitler was arrested and

charged with high treason• He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but

only spent 8 months in jail• Hitler’s trial pushed him into the national

spotlight

Mein Kampf• While in prison, Hitler writes his first

book called Mein Kampf or My Struggle• Hitler will introduce his idea of the Aryan

Race • He believed the Aryan race should not

mix blood with lesser races (Jews)• Mein Kampf also showed Hitler’s

ambition to absorb other Aryan people into Germany

Lebensraum• Hitler’s ultimate goal was the conquest of

Lebensraum (living space) for the German people in the Soviet Union

• Hitler had his eye on the Ukraine because of its agricultural land and natural resources

Hitler’s Henchmen

Joseph Goebbels1897-1945

Minister of Propaganda

-walked with a limp – deformed foot

- considered entering the priesthood

- Ph.D from Heidelberg University

- master of persuasion and mass media

- thought most people had low intellect

Hermann Goering1893-1946

• Flying ace who shot down 22 allied planes during WWI

• Goering was head of Hitler’s SA until he was severely wounded during the Beer Hall Putsch

• He will eventually become second only to Hitler in the Nazi leadership

• Goering will also lead the German air force or Luftwaffe

Hermann Goering1893-1946

• God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he [Hitler] was sent to us by God to save Germany.

Heinrich Himmler1900-1945

• In 1929, Himmler takes command of the Schutz Staffel or SS

• The SS will be responsible for guarding Hitler during his rise to power

• Himmler was ruthless and very dedicated to the party and Hitler

Heinrich Himmler1900-1945

• A man often seen as the very personification of evil. Heinrich Himmler was not only head of Hitler's SS police, but was also in charge of the death camps in the East.

• Although Adolf Hitler held the ultimate responsibility for what became the Holocaust, it was Heinrich Himmler who essentially laid the plans and devised the schemes that led to the killings of six million Jews.

Heinrich Himmler1900-1945

• He organized the first concentration camp at Dachau and began to organize the Nazi political police throughout Germany

Himmler Speech to SS Officers, 1943

• "Our principle must be absolute for the SS man: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to no-one else. What happens to the Russians, what happens to the Czechs, is a matter of utter indifference to me. Such good blood of our own kind as there may be among the nations we shall acquire for ourselves, if necessary by taking away the children and bringing them up among us. Whether the other people live in comfort or perish of hunger interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our culture. Whether or not 10,000 Russian women collapse from exhaustion while digging a trench interests me only in so far as the tank ditch is completed for Germany."

The Nazis: Mengele

• Dr. Mengele was the best-known of the Nazi doctors.

• Known as “The Angel of Death,” Mengele made selections at Auschwitz.

• In addition, he conducted experiments on twins intended to improve the Aryan race.

Who were the victims?

• In addition to the Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped were major targets for Nazi anger. They were seen as a seriousbiological threat to the purity of the Aryan race and therefore had to be exterminated.

• The greatest number were from Poland.

The Victims

• Millions more, including Soviet prisoners of war, political dissidents, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, suffered repression and death at the hands of the Nazis.

Why did the Germans target others?

• The Nazis believed that the Germans were “racially superior” to these enemies.

• In addition to their “racial inferiority,” the Jews were blamed for Germany’s defeat in World War I, for its economic problems, and for the spread of Communism in Europe.

Why the Gypsies and Handicapped?

• According to the Nazis, Gypsies and the handicapped shared the Jews’ racial inferiority.

• The best way to deal with such “inferior races”? Exterminate them.

• The plan for this extermination was called the Final Solution.

Why the others?

• Poles and other Slavic peoples were also considered inferior and were destined to serve as slave labor for their German masters.

• Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and Free Masons were imprisoned and often killed on political and behavioral grounds.

Albert Speer1905-1981

• Speer joins the Nazi party in 1932 and also becomes a member of the SS

• Hitler asks Speer to organize the Nuremberg Rally of 1934

• Speer then becomes Minister of Armaments in 1942

• He is best known as the “Nazi Architect”

Rudolph Hess 1894-1987

• Appointed Deputy Fuhrer and became the number 3 man in Hitler’s Germany

• Joined the Nazi Party in 1920 and was well known as a brawler

• Hess will rise through the Nazi party and be completely loyal to Hitler’s ideals

• Heydrich was the principle figure in the development of the “final solution”

• Nicknames – The Blonde Beast, and Hangman Heydrich

• Joins the Nazi Party in 1931• Heydrich proceeded to create the intelligence

gathering organization known as the SD (Sicherheitsdienst), or SS Security Service

1904- 1942Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

• Reinhard Heydrich was one of Hitler's most ruthless Nazis and second in importance only to Heinrich Himmler in the Nazi SS organization and the principle planner of the Final Solution. There was even talk of his one day succeeding Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Eichmann1906-1962

• Headed Gestapo Department IV B4 for Jewish Affairs

• Served as a self proclaimed 'Jewish specialist' • He was the man responsible for keeping the

trains rolling from all over Europe to death camps during the Final Solution.

• He was caught on May 11, 1960 • Found guilty on all counts, sentenced to death

and hanged at Ramleh Prison, May 31, 1962.

Ernst Rohm1887-1934

• Rohm participated in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch

• Rohm took the SA and began to organize and train them in a strict military fashion.

• Rohm was shot in his prison cell after he refused to commit suicide.

• Hitler later said that he was sorry that he had to destroy Rohm.