Figure 1.--One of the great questions of history is how Hitler and the NAZIs so thoroghly captured the devotion of the German people. An important part of the NAZI effort was focused on youth and youth Germans responded with great fervor. |
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World War I had convinced most Europeans that there must never be another war. There was no desiire for another war, even in Germany. The War was the
creation of one man--German Führer Adolf Hitler. His World war I service had been the high point of his sad life. He thus viewed war differently than most people.
In addition the achievement of his goals necesitated war. The question of Germany and the Germans has to feature prominently in any discussion of World War II. Why didn't the German people resist Hitler and the NAZIs? Just how did it transpire that one of the most civilized of European countries, the land of Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Brahms, could have started two world wars--the second almost single handely. How could the Germans so passionately have followed the most evil of all historical monsters, Adolf Hitler and so eagerly embrace militarism and racism that would have returned Europe to a new Dark Age of unimagined barbarity? How could so many Germans gave participated in the killing of so many innocent civilians, most of whom were non-combatant women and children. Even more unsettling is how the Germans could have embraced and idolized Adolf Hiter, the mastermind mind of such unspeakable horror so fervently.
A new German Weimar Republic relaced the Imperial German Government at the end of World War I. The Allies refused to negotiate with the German military. Thus the Armistace (1918) and resulting Versailles Treaty (1919) were signed by republican officials. This allowed right-wing politicans after the War to claim that the German Army was not defeated, but stabbed in the back. The Republic from the beginning had major problem. It inherited a civil service from Imperial Germany that was strongly monacharist in loyalty and suspicious of parlimentary democracy. The officer corps of the Army took a oath of loyalty to the Reoublic, but in fact was deeply suspicious of the Weimar regime and from the onset set out to evade the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty--in oart explaining how the NAZIs were able to so quickly rearm after seizing power. Popular support for the Weimar Republic was impaired by first the public shock at the Versailles Treaty and then the ruinous inflation. In fact the Republic was headquarters in Weimar rather than Berlin because the Army remamed the Reichwehr could not guarantee security in Berlin. Gradually the Republic began to gain some credibility. Competent fiscal management, the Dawes Plan, and the Locarno Agreements had by 1925 considerably improved the economic situation in Germany.
World War I had convinced most Europeands that there must never be another war. There was no desiire for another war, even in Germany. The War was the creation of one man--German Führer Adolf Hitler. His Worold war I service had been thev high point of his sad life. He thus view war differently than most people. In addition the achievement of his goals necesitated war. Hitler in the first year of the War proved remarakably astute. In fact he was lauded by the NAZI press as the greatest German of all time. Something appears to have changed with the great success in France (May-June 1940). And almost immediately failures begin. He failed to destroy the British Army at Dunkirk and the British to seek terms. Even so Hitler's personal assessment of himself was unchanged. Hitler not only saw himself as a visionary strategic war planner, but as a great tactical commannder and as the War progressed played an increasingly important role in Wehrmacht operations. Historians debate Hitler's effectiness as a war leader.
The National Socialist German Worker's Party (NAZIs) became the most powerful of all Fascist parties. It was not founded by Hitler, but became dominated by him at an early point. He fashioned it an instrument for a personal totalitarian dictatorship. Mussolini and his Fascists seized power in Italy a decade before the NAZIs seized power ans stronly influenced Hitler. After the NAZIs seized power they soon elclipsed Mussolini's Fascists.
The question of Germany and the Germans has to feature prominently in any discussion of World War II. Why didn't the German people resist Hitler and the NAZIs? Just how did it transpire that one of the most civilized of European countries, the land of Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Brahms, could have started two world wars--the second almost single handely. How could the Germans so passionately have followed the most evil of all historical monsters, Adolf Hitler and so eagerly embrace militarism and racism that would have returned Europe to a new Dark Age of unimagined barbarity? How could so many Germans gave participated in the killing of so many innocent civilians, most of whom were non-combatant women and children. Even more unsettling is how the Germans could have embraced and idolized Adolf Hiter, the mastermind mind of such unspeakable horror so fervently. This question will perhaps never be fully answered. Several historians have addressed this subject with varying levels of success. One important effort is Sebastian Haffner's Defying Hitler. Haffner grew up in Germany during the inter-war era. He fleed Germany in 1938 when he was 27. He decribed his efforts to resist the NAZIS as "... a duel between two very unqual adversaries: an exceedingly powerful, formidable, and ruthless state and an insignificant unknown private individual". Haffner is not easy on the Germans. He tells us, "At the momnt of truth when other nations rise spontaneously to the occasion, the Germans collectively and limply collapsed". And the Germans continue to follow Hitler even after the country collapsed around them.
The Allies after World War I included sigificant limitations on the German military to ensure there would never be another World War. Adolf Hitler ordered a massive rearmament program after seizing power in Germany. He soon renounced the Versailles Treaty. The program was at first conducted in secret, but latter conducted openly. As a result a largely disarmed Germany wihin only a few years became the mpst potent military power in the wrld. The speed with which this was accimplished was in part due to the significant evasions of the Versailles Treaty limitations conduct during the 1920s before the NAZIs rose to power.
NAZI diplomacy played an important role in preparing the way for the stunning military successes early in the War. NAZI diplomatic successes went through several destinct stages in which Hitler made radical shits depending on the circumstances. The basic strategy of NAZI diplomsacy was to divide their enemies and then conuer them one by one. At first Hitler needed time to defeat his domestic opposition. As a result he at first presented a rational imafe as a responsible statesman. One in full control of Germany, he dramatically changed to a more aggressive German warlord. With his military rearmament underway, he had a poweful advantage over Britain and France. They were swilling to do just about anything to avoid another war while Hitler not only did not have a fear of war, he sactually wanted a war so he could become a great German military commander. And to achieve this goal he made a dramatic move, signing a military pact with his arch ememy--Stalin. While this looked like a dramatic shift, it was essentially hois basic tctic--divide and conquer. Once in control of Western Europe he encountered his first diplomatic failure, ge failed to bring the British to the peace treaty. His next diplomatic initiative was to create an anti-Bolshevick crusade against the Soviet Union. This proved another failure. Not only could he not convince the British to make peace, he was unable to bring Franco's Spain and Vichy France into his anti-Bolshevick crusade. The Axis alliance proved to be a diplomatic fiasco for Hitler. It required Hitler to divert forces to save his blundering Italiann ally. Even worse, it encouraged Japan to attack the United States, bringing Americaninto the war months or even a year before what might have otherwise occurred.
The Army or Wehremacht was Germany's dominant military force, as was the case throughtout German history. The Army high command made a pact with Adolf Hitler (1934). Hitler agreed to eliminate the SA as a threat to the Wehrmact and ordered the execultion of Roehm and other close associates. The Wehrmact swore a loyalty oath to Hitler--not to the German nation but to Hitler. In return for their loyalyty they were the beneficiaries of a huge rearmament ptogram in contravention of the Versailles Treaty. The Army had managed to evade many Versailles restrictions and when Hitler came to power the Versailles restrictions became moot and Germany began ro rearm. . The dimensions of the rearmament program far outweiged any level of armament needed for defense. It was patently clear to the Wehrmact general staff that Hitler meant to wage aggressive war. The Wehrmact developed the battle doctrine of Blitzkrieg which in essence is the basic concept of modern warfare. The Versailles Treaty prohibited Germany from having an airforce. Hiter ordered Göring to formally establish the Luftwaffe (1935). In the years right before the War and the early phase of the War, the Luftwaffe played a major role. The new Luftwaffe was staffed by Wehrmacht officers and througout the War was primrily a ground support force. Hitler gave relatively little attention to the Navy and even less to the U-boat fleet. The NAZIs signed a treaty with Britain that removed many of the Versailles limitations (1935). with Britain thaIronically, it was the Navy after defeats in Russia and North Africa and in the skies over Europe that by early 1943 offered the NAZIs the last chance for victory.
The NAZIs embarkened on a program to train boys to be warriors beginning with the Hitler Youth (HJ). This would take some time. The HJ was not at first compulsory. Thus when Hitler launched the War, many of the young recruits had some HJ experiences, but the officer corps of the German military had been trained in the military schools of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic. It was still hevily influenced by the the Prussian military tradition. And since the creation of the Prussian state, here was a warrior tradition that remained remarkably consistent over four centuries. The founder of that martial state was the Great Elector--Friderich-Wilhelm I (1640-88). He inherited a minor, rather poor and discontinguous principality in northern Germany--Brandenburg-Prussia. He turned his realm into a state with one purpose, to fund and support his army. The army he created was not a large one. His realm could not support a massive army on the level of the great powers like Austria, France, Russia, and Sweden. His solution to this problem was to create a small, but well-drilled and equipped standing army which could defeat a larger opponent before they could marshal their forces. [Citino, pp. xiii-xiv.] This was the only way a small power could defeat a larger power. And this was the policy that the Great Elector and his Hohenzollern's descendants followed and used sucessfully to turn Prussia into a major power. This was the tradition with which Hitler's Wehrmacht launched World War II. And Hitler had turned Germany into a state with a single purpose--to support a modern military machine that could expand the Reich. The Wehrmact had many strengths. Great attention was given to speed and mobility. These were capabilities that the Great Elector himself had emphasized. Blitzkrieg was in fact a modern version of the Great Elector's tactics with industrial weaponry. The Wehrmacht also had some major weakenesses. The industrial base of its targets, significantly increased that of Germany. Essentially the same sitation faced by the Great Elector and his descendants. German military strengths brough great victories at the beginning of World War II as they had at the start of World War I. A major strength was the support of the Luftwaffe in the early years. Perhaps the most serious Geman military weakness was the lack of attention to logistics. This was an area of lesser importance to an army designed to win a war in a brief period, but was of vital importance in a protacted war. [Citino, p. xiv.] Another weakness was military intelligence. [Citino, pp. xiv-xv.] This is less easy to understand, but may lie a tendency to underestimate their importance and an over confidence in their military superiority. These weakenes proved disastrous in World War II as they had in World War I. A great weakness was the lack of adequate naval power.
NAZI Germany withdrew from the Laeague of Nations soon after Hiltler seized power in 1933, but the next few years were spent in supressing domestic oppositon and steadily excluding Jews from national life. The NAZIs renounced the provisions of the Versailles Treaty limiting arms production in 1935. The NAZIs remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936 and carried out the Anchluss with Austria in early 1938. These actions could be seen as domestic German matters. The next target was Czecheslovakia which had been created by thge Versilles Peace Treaty. Hitler in 1938 demanded the Sudetenland in Czecheslovakia which had a minority German population. The British and French gave in at talks held in Munich, but the NAZIs then seized the rest of the country in March 1939, areas without major German poulations. The Germans beginning in 1936 were also active in Spain helping Franco establish a Fascist regime. The defenseless Basque village of Guernica was the first European city to be destroyed by the Luftwaffe.
The War in Europe began in 1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. NAZI Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and newly appointed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on August 23, 1939, signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. At the time of the signing, British and French delegations were in Moscow trying to reach an understanding with Stalin. He was convinced, however, that they were tring to draw him into a war with Hitler. The two countries which until that time had been bitter foes, pledged not attack each other. Any problems developing between the two countries were to be delt with amicably. It was last for 10 years. The Pact shocked the world and the purpose was immedietly apparent. It meant that Germany could attack Poland without fear of Soviet intervention. Thus after defeating Poland, Germany did not have to fear a full-scale European war on two fronts. What was not known at the time was that there was a secret protocol to the pact which in effect divided Eastern Europe betwen the two countries. This protocol was discovered after the end of the World War II in 1945. The Soviets continued to deny this protocol until 1989. The NAZIs 8 days after signing the Pact invade Poland on September 1, 1939, launching World War II. Although the Soviet's did not enter the War against Britain and France, the Soviets were virtual NAZI allies as they provided large quantaies of strategic materials, especially oil. Communist parties in Britain and France opposed the war effort. The Communist Party in America opposed President Roosevelt's efforts to expand defense spending and assist Britain and France.
World War II was the culmination of the greatest geo-political crisis in Western civilization--the rise of the totalitarians. Following World War I, three totalitarians groups seized controlled of some of the post important countries in the world. First the Communists seized control of Russia (1917). Then the Fascists seized control of Italy and subsequently German Fascists seized control of that country (1933). Japanese militarists a kind of Shinto Fascism seized control of Japan (1930s). The countries as a whole had enormous scientific, industrial, human, and natural resources. With the NAZI victories in Europe, especially the defeat of France (1940), the ballance of world power swing to the totalitarian powers. The totalitarian powers in 1940 controlled almost all of Europe, wedding the industrial potential of Europe with the natural resources of the Soviet Union. The threat to the Western democracies was that the totalitarian powers, especially the NAZIs, had superior military weapons and tactical doctrines. The threat to the West was that the totalitarian powers rejected much of the basic tennants of Western civilization--the value and dignity of the individual and the rule of law. The NAZIs added a virulent racism that targeted whole peoples forgenocide and other peoples for slavery. The tragedy of World War II is that by the time that the pupblic had been awakened to the mortal danger, the only way to prevent defeat was an alliance with one of the totalitarian powers. Here Hitler made the decession for the Democracies when he launched Operaion Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union (1941).
he major German operation orders for World War II came from the Führer, often issued through OKW. Most of the important ones were titled Führer Directives. There were also Führer Orders and other various titled orders and directives late in the War. We do not know and this time why these sifferent orders had various titles. In part some were ot aomed at the military, but the Party, security forces, and government agencies. These various orders are useful in following Hitler's major decesions and conduct of the War.
Adolf Hitler launched World War II with the Blitzkrieg on Poland (September 1939). German had allies in the War, but all the major campaigns in Europe centered on the German armed forces. Italy launched offensives against France, Greece, and Britain--all proved unsuccessful, some disastrously so. World War II in Europe centered on German campaigns and subsequently Allied campaigns against Germany. Here we have collected infotrmation on the major military campaign of the War. The Germans stunned the world with the its successful campaogns in the West culminating in the Fall ofvFrance (June 1940). Many observers believe that Britain could not hold out alone, but Britain did and refused to surrender. The FAF and the Channel made an invasion impossible. American Lend Lease ensured that Britain could continue the fight. The War was transformed when Hitler again stunned the world with Operation Barbarosa, his massive invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). Then Hitler after Pearl Harbor declared war on the United States (december 1941). Mamoth battles raged in the East. German U-boats attempted to cut off Britain with a harrowing campaign in the North Atlantic. American and British bombers waged a relentless campaign that would leave German cities in ruin. Mussolini's Italian Fascist was the first of the Axis allies to fall. The fate of Hitler and the NAZIs was sealed with the successful D-Day landings. The German offensive in the Ardennes (December 1944) was their last offensive of the War, depleting available reserves. The Red Army took Berlin in a horific battle fought in part by Hitler Youth boys and old men (April 1945). The War lasted 5 1/2 years until Hitler committed suiside and his successor Admiral Doenitz surrendered to the Allies who had overrun much of Germany.
The NAZis through the SS committed some of the worst attrocities of the 20th Century. The most prominant was the NAZI Holocaust targeting the Jews. Other attroicities were aimed at other ethnic groups, especially the Gypseys and Slavs. There were also attrocities associated with the shooting of civilian hostages. While the SS was the central frce involved, the Wehrmacht played a major contributing role in the Holocaust and was invoved in numerous reprisal actions against civilians. Many of these actions involved youths and sometimmes even children. HBC has chronicled much of the crimes committed by the SS and German military. We have noted another side of the Germany military. Quite a number of soldiers, we think mostly officers took photographs during their assignments and compiled photographic albums. Some of these privately compiled albums have come up for sale in Germany. We also notice sales from the Ukraine. We think these albums may be war booty brouht back tonthe Soviet Union as war booty. We note in many of these albums photographs of cildren. They of course give a rather different image of the individual German soldiers than that we have from the terrible policies implement by NAZI officials. We are not sure how to interpret these images, but it is an aspect of the German soldier that we think needs to be explored. Unfortunately, many of these photographs are not identified.
We are collecting images of the War to illustrate the various pages. We are especially interested in images showing children during the War. Some of these images are quite well lnown. Others have never before been published as far as we know. Our purpose here is to show how children were affected by the War, both as civilians and as actual participsnts in the fighting. Some of the images are identified and dated and can thus be placed on the appropriate page. Even when not identified We have also found images that are unidentified, we are often use them to illustrate pages in a general way. We have found some images, however, with no provinance an depicting scenes that we can not fully explain. Perhaps HBC readers can offer some insights on these images.
The Tripartite Pact was signed September 27, 1940. The agreement allied Germany and Italy (which were at war with Britain) and Japan (which was at war with China). Germany and Italy has since 1939-40 been at war with Britain. Japan since 1937 had been at war with China. The alliance did not require the partners to join these wars, but it did require them to come to each other's aid if attacked. The alliance became known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis alliance, or commonly the Axis. The three Axis partners German hegemony over most of Europe; Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean, and Japanese hegemony in East Asia. After the Axis agreement was signed, several German allies joined the Axis, notably Vichy France and Fascist Spain refused to do so. Japan had no Asian allies, except or the puppet state of Manchukuo.
After the RAF's victory, any NAZI invasion of Britain would not be possible until Spring 1941. At this stage of the War, the initiative lay with the NAZIs. The perponderance of power meant that the future direction of the War would be determined by the German Führer. Britain was the only country still at war with Germany. Some British officials
thought that an invasion was coming. Churchill thought that a move through Spain to seize Gibraltar and an offensive against Greece to secure the Balkand would be most likely. [McJimsey, p. 136-138] No one envisioned that Hitler would strike at the Soviet Union and open a Eastern Front while Britain was still fighting. In fact Churchill told Hopkins in that, "This war will never see great forces massed against one another." Churchill was right about another aspect of
the War when he briefed Hopkins, a struggle for mastery of the air (January 1941). [Mc Jimsey, p. 138.] Hitler's mind was clearly fixed east. British resisantnce had come as a surprise to him. With the RAF and Royal Navy undefeated, Hitler saw no way of defeating Britain. He convinced himself that the British would hold out, hoping to draw America or the Soviet Union into the War. He had from the beginning seen the East as the true prize in the War. At the onset of the War he was determined to avoid a two-front war. With the Wehrmach stopped bybthe Channel, Hitler convinced himself that the only way of forcing Britain to make peace was to destroy the Soviet Union and removing any hope of military assistance to the British. But before the NAZIs could strike at the Soviet Union the Reich's southern flank would have to be secured.
Religion touche on various aspects of the NAZI war effort. Germany was a Christian country with both a Protestant (mostly Lutheran) and Catholic population. The NAZIs were prepared to gradually de-Christianize Germany and had launched programs leading to this. Given the religious beliefs of the population, however, they were not prepared to aggrsively begin their effort during the War. The Holcaust of course was an assault against Jews, but this was more of a racial than religious matter. Religion also became a matter in many of the occupied countries because of the importance of religion and the association between religion and nationalism in countries like Poland and Greece. Another aspect of religion was the German orgnization of Muslim units. These were the only religiously organized military units in the German military.
The Holocaust was a crime without presidence in modern history. The NAZIs targeted the Jews for death camps. Many were killed by SS Eisen??? Groups as soon as they entered Russian villages in the early stahes of the Russian campaign in 1941. Others Jews were concentrated in Gettos for slave labor and evential dispatch to the death camps. Tragically it was not just the Germans involved, but in many countries the local population led by Fascist groups were all to willing to
participate in the robbery and killing. Jewish children were among the first to be killed by the NAZIs because they had no economic value which could be exploited. One can not forget the images of the starving Jewish children on the Warsaw Getto whose parents had been killed. A great body of litterature exists on the Hollocaust including the experiences of the children.
A Japanese carrier taskforce executed a surprise attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The Axis Alliance was a defensive alliance. It required the three countries to come to the other's aid in case of attack, but did not require any action if one of the three attacked another country. Thus Hitler was not required to come to Japan's assistance, Foreign Minister Van Ribontrop stressed this in meetings with Hitler. Up to this time Hitler had avoided attacking the United States, even when President Roosevelt launched was in effect an undeclared naval war in the North Atlantic. Thus Hitler's decession to declare war on America (December 11) is largely unexplained. Speaking before an audience of NAZI luminaries, Hitler announced his decession, explaining that America with its mixture of races would not be an important factor in the War. America was in fact the only country on which Hitler declared war. It was like the other important war decessions, a decession he made personally without any kind of staff discussion. He never explained his desission to his inner circle and historians today can only speculate concerning the decession. Even more unfathomable, he made the decession just as the Soviets launched their offensive before Moscow, clearly demonstrationg that Operation Barbarossa had failed to knock the Soviets out of the War in a quick summer campaign. America was unprepared for war against either Germany or Japan. Hitler's declaration solved a problen for President Rooseveltof how after a Japanese attack to enter the European against NAZI Germany The Japanese and NAZIs were unaware of the dangers of war with an industrial potential of the United States. They were convinced that America's war profuction could not be accelerated or a natioal will to wage war coalese in time to make an effective contribution. As a result of Pearl Harbor, instantly American isolationism evaporated. The nation was aroused with an almost crusading zeal. A massive army, navy, and aircorps had to be trained an equipped. The economy had to be reorgazized for war. All of this was underway in an amazingly short period, astounding not only the Germans and Japanese but the British and Russians and Americans themselves. The industrial capacity of the United States soon created an outpouring of ships, planes, tanks, and war material of virtually every discription that was unprecedented in history. It culminated in the building of the atomic bomb. In a steadily rising wave, the force of the American war production was visited on the Axis countries. The nature of the Japanese attack and the Batan death march galvanized the Americam people to wage a total war in both Europe and Asia. Allied War propaganda, however, did not begin to fully depict the horrors taking place in the occupied countries--especially Eastern Europe. American military production steadily expanded making possible the launching of a second front in Europe with the D-Day invasion of June 1944 and the destruction of industrial Germany and the Luftwaffe through a massive air campaign.
The World War I Versailles Peace Treaty (1919) placed major limitations on the German military. Throughout the Weimar Republic, the German military conducted covert limitations to evade those limitations. When the NAZIs seized power (1933) a major rearmament program was launched. That program rapidly created the most powerful military in the world. The most fearsome arm was the the Luftwaffe which gave Hitler the ability to make the British and French backdown at Munich. Soon the Luftwaffe and Panzers stunned the world with victories in Poland (1939) and France (1940). The Germans were so siccessful that Hitler scaled back military reserarch after the victory in France. Even so German resesearchers created a fearsome aresnal of weapons, many of which were the predecessors of major modern weapon systems including rockets, missles, and jet engines. IG Farbin Tabin and Serin poison gas, but Germany never used gas during the War. In many areas, the Germans were several years ahead of Allied reserachers. Germany's weakness was that it did have the industrial capacity to win the War once Operation Barbarossa failed to knock the Soviet Union out of the War and Hitler declared War on America (1941). This weakness was in part exacerbated by the inefficent utilization of resources. German weapons were often wonderfully crafted, but sometimes complicated and requiring extensive maintenance. There was also a penchant for gigantism reflected in Bismarck, huge railway cannons, and the Tiger Tank. One area that Germany fell behind the Allies was nuclear research, in part because Hitler viewed it as Jewish science.
Nuremberg procedutor Thomas Dodd declared, "The NAZI foreign labor policy was a policy of mass deportation and mass enslavement ... of underfeeding and overworking foreign laborers, of sibjecting to every form of degradation, brutality, and inhumanity ... a policy which constituted a flagarant violation of the laws of war and the laws of humanity." The NAZIs during World War II implemented a slave and forced labor program to supply needed labor to the German war industry. This program was approved by Hitler months before the 1939 invasion of Poland. The German program as it evolved during the War had two purposes, The primary purpose was two provide workers for German factories and farms as German manpower was to be directed into the armed forces. This was especially important as NAZI idelopgy resisted imploying married women in factories. Allied countries dealt with this problem by bring women into the work force, the proverable Rosie the Rivetor in America. (British and Soviet women were even more significantly brought into the workforce.) NAZI idelogy was involved here. The German Housefrau, however, was to stay home amd produce Aryan babies for future German armies. The other factor was the phenomenal German success at the beginning of the War which left the impression that there was no needed for women to enter the workforce. The secondary purpose was mass deportation and mass enslavement combined with underfeeding and overworking foreign laborers could be used to reduce populations of countries which posed a threat to NAZI Germany, Not only could the labors of these workers be used against their country, but the mistreatment could help reduce both the population of other countries and other ethnic groups, especially the slavs of Eastern Europe.
Historians still dispute the importance of NAZI idelogy during World War II. Many historians in the 1960s and 70s began to question the centrality of NAZI idelogy in the German wr effort. It is generally conceeded that Hitler truly believed the ideas he expoused in Mein Kampf. The question is how wide spread was the acceptance of NAZI ideology among NAZI officials and the public at large. Many Germans today believe or prefer to believe that the War and German attricities especially the Holocaust was the work of Hitler and a small group of important NAZI leaders. Other historians argue that NAZI ideology was central to the German war effort and widely supported by the German people.
The word Reich was very commonly used by the NAZIs. It was a German word, but not nearly as commonly used as it was during the NAZI era or Third Reich. Imperial Germany was the Second Reich, but the term was almost never used. In NAZI Germany everything became connected to the Reich: Reichsbahn (German Railways), Reichsdeutscher (German citizen as opposed to Volksdeutscher), Reichsminister, etc. Großdeutschlands Wiedergeburt means Greater Germany's rebirth. I am tempted to call Großdeutschland Super-Germany, the way the Nazis looked at it. Österreichische means Austrian. Austria became a province in Greater Germany. The NAZIs used the term Altreich to refer to the not so old Imperial Germany before the Hilerite World War II conquests. Of course some of the conquests were recovdring territory lost in World War I so I am not exactly sure what the Altreich was.
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The German people were elated with the succes of Hitler and the NAZIs in remilitarizing the Rhineland, uniting with Austria (the Anchluss), and then reclaimong the Sudetenland. There were, however, still many memories of World War II. There are many indications that there was no desire for war. War when it came resulted in spectacular German victories. Hitler believing the War had been won, actually scaled back war production in 1940-41. He was concerned about stressing the home front. This decession delayed critical work on weapons development (such at jet aircraft). Hitler was very concerned with maintaining German civilian consumption levels. Hitler even before the War began was concerned about the home front. He was aware that food shortages had destroyed civilkian morale and that disorders at home were a factor in the Kaiser's abdication. Hitler also did not want mothers not be taken out of the home to work in factories. German women were not mobilized for War work, rather slave labor was brought in from occupied countries to work in factories and on farms. The hard-pressed British in 1939-40 completely reorganized the economy for war production which included the use of large numbers of women and youths. The German approach to a war economy was to pillage occupied countries and to transport workers to concentration camps for slave labor, often under horendous conditions. As the War wet against the NAZIs, severe rationing became necessary.
Hitler cotrrectly judged that after his appointment as Chancellor, that the Reichwehr was the only force in Germany that could prevent him from seizing absolute power. The Whermacht was also in 1944 the only force capable of taking control of Germany from the NAZIs. Wehrmacht officers had perpetrated terrible attrocities. Some were apauled with what the SS abd other security forces were doing. Others were bothered about the Wehrmacht's conduct. Only the impending defeat of Germany, however, brought about an attempted (July 1944). An idealistic young Catholic aristocrat, Colonel Claus von Staufenberg, placed a bomb in the Wolf's Lair. After Hitler was dead, the Hpme Army would seize cintrol of Berlin and then Germany. The idea was to then negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies. That by 1944 was unrealistic. In the end, the failure to kill Hitler and the extensive NAZi penetration of the Wehrmact led to the coup's failure. The bulk of the Wehrmacht remained loyal to Hitler and the NAZIs. The real loser was the German people. The great bulk of German civilian casualties took place after the failed coup. To form the Honor Court trying the conspirators, Hitler appointed Field Narshal Gerd Von Rundstedt--a Prussian aristocrat who despised Hitler personally.
The British began the strategic bombing of Germany early in the War. RAF Bomber Command did not have the planes to reach Germany in force with large bombloads or the numbers of planes to do real damage until much later. NAZI leaders and even Molotov on a November 1940 visit to Berlin mention having to retreat to bomb shelters. It was not until 1943 that the Allies began doing real damage. For the Britizh bombing at night, the only target tey could hot were cities. This was, however, where German industry was located. Workers housing was generally located round industrial plants. The American American 8th Air Force began to build up (1942). Primeminister Churchill and President Roosevelt committed to ab around-the clock bombing campaign at Casablanca (January 1943). There were major raids and substantial damage such as Hamburg. The Americans bombed during the day, but even so give the limitations of World War II technology, much of the bombload fell on the surroinding cities rather than jist the war plabnts and other military and transportation facilities actually targeed.
The effective German air defense system during 1943 made the cost in terms of planes and crews unsustainable. This did not change until the arrival of the P-51 Mustangs that could escort the bombers (December 1943). In the ensuing raids, the American fighters broke the back of the Luftwaffe. Before the bombing campaign could be pursued to its full extent, Eisenhower seized control of both Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force to prepare for the D-Day Landings. Thus ot was not until after the July Bomb Plot that the full force of the Allies air forces was turned lose on German industry and the cities where the industry was located. They also attavked the transportation network. Thus most of the danage to Germany occured in the final months of the War. The damafe was done by both the strategic bombing campaign and the entrance of the Red Army from the east and the Allies from the West on German territory.
After Hitler's suiside and the surrender of Berlin, Admiral Doenitz's (Hitler's successor) primary concern was to buy time to allow as much of the Wehrmacht to surrender to the British and Americans pushinbg east. Doenitz and the German High Command were quite aware of what Germany had done in the East and were under no allusion as to the fate that awaitted them in Soviet hands. Finally Eisenhower set a deadline, threatening to stop accepting German surrenders. This forced the Germans to acceed to the terms of unconditional surrender set by President Roosevelt ar Casablanca (1943).
The United States along with Britain and France Japan oversaw an occupation with changed the nature of West German society. Most Germans readily admitted their country's responsibility for
the War and ther honredous acts of the NAZI regime. The Allies instituted a thorough going denazification process, a process which continues to this day in Germany. The Allies also attacked
the militarism of the old Prussian junker class which the united German state was built around in 1870. The Allies completely dismantled the NAZI regime and during military occupation reconstructed an entirely new political structure. In some ways the process was simplified by the NAZIs who although opposed to democracy had gone a great way toward the breaking down of class barriers and weakening the power of the Prussian junkers. The Germans were not without a tradition of democracy and parlimentary politics.
Given the NAZIs success in dominating the German people and the thorouness of that domination, it seems perhaps surprising how
readily the Germans adopted democracy. Perhaps the totality of the NAZI defeat and the spector of Soviet totalitarianism looming accross the border were major factors. What ever the reasons, the
German took to political democracy and free-market economics. A relationship with America was forged in the Berlin Airlift (1948)
and four decades of resistance to the Soviers and Warsaw pact. The results by all practical measures have been an overwealming success. Germany today is one of the most prosperous and democratic societies in the world. Germany unlike Japan was also occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet occupation policies in eastern Germany
were very different than those persued in the wetern occupation zone. Austria was separated from Germany after the War and occupied by the
Soviets and Western Allies.
Beavor, Anthony. The Fall of Berlin 1945.
Citino, Robert M. The German Way of War: From the Thirty Year's Warto the Third Reich (University Press of Kansas: Lawrence, 2005), 428p.
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Domarus, Max. Hitler Reden und Proklamationen 1932-45 Vo. 1-2 (Neustadt a.d. Aisch: Velagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962-63).
Haffner, Sebastian. Defying Hitler (Farrar Straus Giroux).
Jenkins, McKay. The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division and the Assault on Hitler's Europe (Random House, 2003).
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