THE THIRD REICH

A unit of the DAF (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, or German Labor Service) marches with shovels on the Zeppelinfeld

during a rally at the 1937 Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) in Nuremberg. USHMM

Burning of Jewish religious books and books by Jewish authors, as well as books about Jews were burned in public bonfiresalong with other books by writers the Nazis said were “un-German”. Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933.

USHMM

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The Third Reich

The Holocaust took place across Europe but emanated originally from Nazi Germany. To understandhow it began, we need to discover what life was like under the Nazis for Germans who were not Jews,Roma, left wing, homosexuals or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Was it a reign of terror with everyone toofrightened to stand up for what was right? Was Nazi propaganda so persuasive that there was nodissent? We need to begin by analysing what the Nazis offered the German people, and ask whetherantisemitism was core to their appeal, or incidental. How much did people know about the T4Euthanasia Programme? What was the impact of the Nuremberg laws of 1935 on the generalpopulation? How did Germans react to Kristallnacht in November 1938?

Rise of the NazisIn the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I, the harshterms imposed upon Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, and thesubsequent failure of the Weimar Republic, the ground wasprepared for nurturing conservative, right wing political ideologies.For the German people, the psychological effect of defeat, coupledwith a collapsing economy and huge unemployment, allcontributed to the appeal of the Nazi party, which was promisingstability and a return to ‘German values’. Hitler’s call for “onepeople, one empire, one leader” rallied the people to his side.

• Germany defeated in World War I

• Treaty of Versailles

• Imposition of liberal democracy

• Weimar Republic

• Economic crises across capitalist world

• Political crises in German government

Christopher R Browning (The Origins of the Final Solution) explains that the succession of traumaticexperiences in Germany between 1912 and 1929 transformed German politics: loss of control of theReichstag by the Right and a terrible war which concluded in military defeat, runaway inflation, andeconomic collapse. These did not provide a solid base on which to establish a moderate, stable,functioning democracy. The Right grew at the expense of the centre and traditionalists, and racialantisemitism developed commensurately from a fringe phenomenon to the core idea of amovement that became Germany’s largest political party in the summer of 1932 and its ruling partysix months later. That context makes the history of Germany and German antisemitism differentfrom that of any other country in Europe.

The Third Reich

Yad Vashem

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Life in the Third ReichWhat historians suggested:

• That people were generally too terrified to do anything to challenge the Nazi regime

• That any challenge was brutally suppressed

• That the Gestapo were everywhere

• That Nazi propaganda was so subtle and persuasive that it overcame all opposition

Recent research has challenged the idea that much of the Nazi terror had been carried out in secret.It has been revealed that the German people knew about the secret police and about concentrationcamps, they were supposed to know!

The Nazis were able to exploit the mood in the country in early 1933. Solid German citizens, not justNazis, were disillusioned with the failed experiment of the Weimar Republic that had promised afree, democratic society. They were fed up with what they saw as the decline in ‘German moralvalues’ and the level of crime and decadence. In the prevailing atmosphere of the early 1930s, theNazis had little trouble in acting decisively against democratic and liberal activists and in outlawingthe Communist Party, trade unions and other political opponents. In general, the German peoplewere pleased that the Nazis were eliminating certain kinds of people from their society.

The Nazis established concentration camps, implementing a reign of terror. However, once the mainopponents of the regime had been eliminated or were in camps or had fled, terror was no longerrequired to keep most people in line. The Nazis gradually took over all aspects of people’s work andsocial lives, charity and sports clubs, children’s organisations and women’s networks.

Park bench ‘not for Jews’ Hulton archive

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The Third Reich

The Role of Anstisemitism Antisemitism was a central issue for Hitler and the Nazi leadership, who had little trouble rousingantisemitic activity through stirring pronouncements or the possibility of an antisemitic riot. Thisprovided activists with a channel to let off steam. However, it couldn’t be relied on to mobilise themasses. Unlike the leaders, initially the German people were not particularly interested in, nortroubled by, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish policies. They didn’t really care what happened to the Jews.

1935 Nuremberg Laws Posters of the Nuremberg laws were displayed everywhere from public streets to private and publicbuildings. This challenges the claim by German people who said they knew nothing about theHolocaust after the war; they may not have known everything about the Final Solution, but theywere aware of the steps towards it.

The Power of PropagandaNazi propaganda was not crudely forced on 80 million German people. On the contrary, it wasdesigned to appeal to them and to match up with everyday German understandings. It wasattractive and convincing, and was an indicator of what people sincerely hoped to be true. The Nazisoffered them an end to unemployment, to crime and to perceived ‘decadence’ – which they weretold were the fault of the Jews. In exchange, they abandoned their own moral barometers.

Nazi propaganda was a serious business. Hitler devoted two chapters in Mein Kampf to propaganda,in which he stated that it should be simple; it should be repeated constantly, although not in exactlythe same way; and it had to be one-sided. Above all, it had to appeal to people’s emotions.

German children reading antisemitic schoolbook “The Poisonous Mushroom” Yad Vashem

Hitler’s rhetoric appealed to the anxieties and hopes of most Germans. They liked what they heardand became instrumentally and emotionally invested in the Nazi dictatorship. On balance, mostpeople seemed prepared to live with the idea of a surveillance society in return for stability, crime-free streets, the promise of an improved economy and restoration of moral and civic order.

Joseph Goebbels was appointed Minister for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda in March1933. However, he was not the only leading Nazi to be responsible for propaganda. Hitler gave hissubordinates overlapping areas of responsibility so that leading Nazis were always watching theircompetitors and jealously guarding their own areas of power.

The Working Class In the years after World War I, sections of the Germanworking people were very radical and active in tradeunions and left wing political parties. The CommunistParty was one of the largest political groups. The levelof repression adopted towards the working class by theNazis in the first months of the Third Reich meant thatexpressions of worker hostility towards the regime werevoiced less readily and more carefully.

Work programmes were popular with the publicbecause unemployment figures appeared to dropdramatically. Initially people were delighted to havework again, but this was an illusion. Work schemesforced people to take jobs which were short-term,poorly paid and under bad conditions.

The nature of industrial work and the existing traditionsof class consciousness prompted an increase in activedissent and opposition. The Nazis knew that workingclass dissent potentially endangered the stability of the

regime. In 1938 Hitler banned any rise in food prices because of its likely effect on morale. In late1939 an attempt to cut wages and abolish bonuses was abandoned after protests by workers andthe threat of strikes in industrial regions. It seems that when galvanised, the working people ofGermany could still organise and assert their power. Rising levels of employment, albeit with lowerwages than in the mid 1920s, reassured some. For others, government schemes such as building themotorways, promises of a Volkswagen (people’s car) for each worker, and cultural and sportingprogrammes were enough to keep them happy.

The lack of organised opposition to the Nazis must be due to the fact that most of the time workersdidn’t feel the need to challenge the regime. They might have resented working conditions, livingstandards and the corruption of bosses backed by the might of the State; but they engaged in workexcursions and outings to concerts organised by the Nazi Party, they welcomed the return of theRhineland to Germany, and they were pleased that the Olympics were held in Berlin in 1936. Tomany, Adolf Hitler was a great leader.

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Reichs Gesundheits Woche 1926 (Reich Health Week 1926) Health equals a happy life.By kind permission of: Memorial and Educational Site House

of the Wannsee Conference, Berlin

Some of the political and social certainties of working-class behaviour werechanged by the Third Reich. Older loyalties were disrupted by massiveturnovers of workers during wartime, as workers were sent to the front andslave labourers arrived to replace them. One effect of Nazism was to breakdown to some extent traditional working-class solidarity and replace itincreasingly – and especially among younger workers – with theindividualistic, performance-related attitudes to work which were generallyseen in the post-war ‘economic miracle’.

The Middle Class The middle class in general wanted a stable and trouble-free life. For them, the perceived reductionin crime, the challenge to the trade unions, and the removal of street people and Roma were sodesirable that the price was worth paying, they didn’t mind the loss of certain freedoms. Where therewere lower level rivalries, as with academics, lawyers and doctors, the removal of Jewish ‘rivals’ wasseen as a positive step.

Academics and Teachers In response to the Nazis’ expulsion of Jewish academics from their posts at universities, someacademic rivalry was removed and academics rushed to join the Nazi party.

The Wealthy Who funded Hitler? The Nazis offered an end to the fear of a Bolshevik revolution, still prevalent inthe imagination of the very wealthy who had come from Russia in 1917. Although the bestremembered attempt on Hitler’s life came from the ranks of the upper classes – the July 1944 bombplot – life for the very rich was generally better under the Nazis than it had been in the WeimarRepublic. Their property was safe, their investments not under threat.

FarmersFarmers expressed discontent about labour shortageand about the intervention of the Reich Food Estate inmarketing and production. But they did not object tothe Nazis' supplying them with slave labourers fromacross occupied Europe.

WomenWas the Nazi regime’s attitude towards women just aquestion of Kinder, Kirche, Küche (Children, Church,Kitchen)? Did this policy apply to women from all socialgroups? Were women happy to give up their paid workand return to home and hearth?

Nazi ideology viewed the family as a place of refugefrom the complexities of daily life. The Nazi regimehad a more clearly defined and more self-conscious

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The Third Reich

Sign reads ‘Avoid Jewishdoctors and lawyers’

Yad Vashem

The caption, in German, reads: ‘Healthy Parents haveHealthy Children.’ Germany, date uncertain. USHMM

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attitude towards women than perhaps any other modern government, a strangely protectiveattitude. Women were seen as wives and mothers – policies for women were policies for the family.At a Nuremberg rally in 1934, Hitler said that the big world could not survive if the small world (thefamily) was not secure. Keeping the home and family was the women’s role in the Third Reich, untilthere was a shortage of labour once the war had started – then the propaganda had to change toincorporate the need for women to return to paid work.

Children, Young People and StudentsThe Nazi ‘brand’ was very clearly aimed at young people. Youthgroups offered activities and fun, and an image of independencefrom parents. Boys in the Hitler Youth and girls in the BDM(Bund Deutsche Mädchen, League of German Girls) wereencouraged to inform on parents and teachers – a task theyadopted with enthusiasm. Outdoor pursuits and craft activitiesinitially mirrored the Scouting movement but becameincreasingly militaristic for the boys, and emphasised racial purityand preparation for motherhood for the girls.

However, there was some opposition from teenage groups. The Edelweiss Pirates who broke upHitler Youth camps and the Swing Youth, a group who listened to American music. The Nazis wereworried by these groups and set up concentration camps for young people. Eventually somestudents formed opposition groups – most notably the White Rose Group – which was ruthlesslydestroyed.

The November Pogrom (Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass)On 9/10 November 1938, the state-sponsored pogromknown as Kristallnacht erupted against the Jews of Germanyand Austria. Hitler Youth, bolstered by the SS, SA and locals,unleashed a night of terror, violence and destruction.Synagogues and Jewish schools were wrecked and set ablaze,the windows of Jewish shops and businesses were smashed,leaving the streets strewn with glass. Jewish cemeteries weredesecrated. Recent research estimates that over a thousandJews were beaten to death or subsequently died from theirinjuries and post-arrest maltreatment. A number committedsuicide. Some 35,000 Jewish men were thrown intoconcentration camps. After the destruction, the Jewishcommunities were fined one billion Reichsmarks to pay for thedamage! For many Jews, it became clear that they had toleave. With their property and bank accounts confiscated and

no longer able to find employment, Jews were forced to sell up far below the market value. Officeswere set up to speed Jewish emigration. The violence of Kristallnacht marked the acceleration ofJewish persecution that would ultimately lead to the Holocaust.

Hans and Sophie Scholl of the WhiteRose Group Yad Vashem

Kristallnacht, torched synagogue inGermany, Yad Vashem

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The Third Reich

From Ideology to Murder

TAUNTING

GRAFFITI

CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY

BOYCOTTS

EXCLUSION FROM WORKPLACE AND FROM SOCIETY

HUMILIATION

LABELLING

SEGREGATION

THE T4 EUTHANASIA PROGRAMME

CONCENTRATION CAMPS

GHETTOS

KILLING CENTRES/DEATH CAMPS

DEATH MARCHES

ConclusionAny sympathy for the Jews or anger at events such as The November Pogrom (Kristallnacht) camefrom intellectuals and from some Catholic churches. The road to Auschwitz was built by hate butpaved with stones of indifference (Ian Kershaw). Worse than people being indoctrinated by Nazipropaganda into becoming ideological antisemites, was the fact that they so easily condonedbarbarous discrimination and persecution. They witnessed what was happening to the Jews rightin front of them, in their villages, towns, streets and workplaces.

Inmates from Dachau during a Death March along the Noerdilichen Muenchner Street in Gruenwald, Germany, 29 April, 1945

Yad Vashem

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“Jews not wanted here” USHMM

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The Third Reich

Humiliation

Identification

Segregation

Annihilation

SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION

Concentration

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