Nazi Control of Germany

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Nazi Control of Germany

• Totalitarian State no rival parties, no
  political debate
• Ordinary citizens must divert their whole energy
  into serving the state
• I. The Schutzstaffel ? SS
• II. The Gestapo
• III. The Police and Courts
• IV. Concentration Camps

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The Schutzstaffel ? SS

• Formed 1925 virtually destroyed the SA in 1934
  and grew into a huge organization
• Led by Heinrich Himmler
• Reinhard Heydrich
• Members were Aryan, highly trained, and totally
  loyal to Hitler
• Primary responsibility to destroy opposition to
  Nazism and carrying out racial policies
• Important sub-divisions of the SS
• Deaths Head units
• Waffen-SS

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The Schutzstaffel ?SS (Protection Squadron) or
defense corps
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Heinrich Himmler
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Reinhard Heydrich
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The SS - Deaths Head

• Units responsible for the concentration camps
• Mostly responsible for the slaughter of
  undesirables (civilians, Jews, etc.)

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The SS - Deaths Head
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The Waffen SS or Armed SS

• Special SS armored regiments which fought
  alongside the regular army

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The Waffen SS or Armed SS
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The Gestapo (secret state police)

• Probably most feared by the ordinary citizen
• Under the command of Reinhard Heydrich
• Had sweeping powers
• Could arrest people on suspicion and ?
  concentration camp without trial or explanation

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Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Street in
Berlin (1933)
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The Police and Courts

• Top jobs in local police forces given to
  high-ranking Nazis reporting to Himmler
• Police added snooping to their normal law and
  order role
• Under strict instructions to ignore crimes
  committed by Nazi agents
• Similarly the Nazis controlled magistrates,
  judges, and the courts, which meant that
  opponents of Nazism rarely received a fair trial

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Concentration Camps

• Set up almost immediately ? Hitler
• Early ones were makeshift prisons in disused
  factories and warehouses
• Soon they were purpose built (Deaths Head) in
  isolated rural areas
• Prisoners ? hard labor, food limited, harsh
  discipline, beatings, and random executions
• Became very common by late 1930s few emerged
  alive
• Jews, Socialists, Communists, trade unionists,
  political opponents, etc.

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Political prisoners at Oranienburg Concentration
Camp, Brandenburg, Germany, Aug 1933