Hitler

The Hitler

In the spring of 1945, a little eleven-year-old German boy called

Helmuth was lying in bed when he overheard his parents discussing

something in serious tones. His father, a prominent physician,

deliberated with his wife whether the time had come to kill the entire

family, or if he should commit suicide alone. His father spoke about

his fear of revenge, saying, ‘Now the Allies will do to us what we did to

the crippled and Jews.’ The next day, he took Helmuth to the woods,

where they spent their last happy time together, singing old children’s

songs. Later, Helmuth’s father shot himself in his office. Helmuth

remembers that he saw his father’s bloody uniform being burnt in the

family fireplace. So traumatised was he by what he had overheard and

what had happened, that he reacted by refusing to eat at home for the

following nine years! He was afraid that his mother might poison him.

Although Helmuth may not have realised all that it meant, his father

had been a Nazi and a supporter of Adolf Hitler. Many of you will

know something about the Nazis and Hitler. You probably know

of Hitler’s determination to make Germany into a mighty power

and his ambition of conquering all of Europe. You may have heard

that he killed Jews. But Nazism was not one or two isolated acts. It

was a system, a structure of ideas about the world and politics. Let

us try and understand what Nazism was all about. Let us see why

Helmuth’s father killed himself and what the basis of his fear was.

In May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies. Anticipating what

was coming, Hitler, his propaganda minister Goebbels and his entire

family committed suicide collectively in his Berlin bunker in April.

At the end of the war, an International Military Tribunal at

Nuremberg was set up to prosecute Nazi war criminals for Crimes

against Peace, for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

Germany’s conduct during the war, especially those actions whichcame to be called Crimes Against Humanity, raised serious moral

and ethical questions and invited worldwide condemnation. What

were these acts?

Under the shadow of the Second World War, Germany had waged

a genocidal war, which resulted in the mass murder of selected

groups of innocent civilians of Europe. The number of people killed

included 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1 million Polish civilians,

70,000 Germans who were considered mentally and physically

disabled, besides innumerable political opponents. Nazis devised

an unprecedented means of killing people, that is, by gassing them in

various killing centres like Auschwitz. The Nuremberg Tribunal

sentenced only eleven leading Nazis to death. Many others were

imprisoned for life. The retribution did come, yet the punishment

of the Nazis was far short of the brutality and extent of their crimes.

The Allies did not want to be as harsh on defeated Germany as

they had been after the First World War.

Everyone came to feel that the rise of Nazi Germany could be

partly traced back to the German experience at the end of the

First World War.

What was this experinece?

Germany, a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth

century, fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the

Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia.)

All joined the war enthusiastically hoping to gain from a quick

victory. Little did they realise that the war would stretch on,

eventually draining Europe of all its resources. Germany made initial

gains by occupying France and Belgium. However the Allies,

strengthened by the US entry in 1917, won , defeating Germany and the

Central Powers in November 1918.

The defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor

gave an opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.

A National Assembly met at Weimar and established a democratic

constitution with a federal structure. Deputies were now elected to

the German Parliament or Reichstag, on the basis of equal and

universal votes cast by all adults including women.

This republic, however, was not received well by its own people

largely because of the terms it was forced to accept after Germany’s

defeat at the end of the First World War. The peace treaty atVersailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating peace. Germany lost

its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 per cent of its territories,

75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland,

Denmark and Lithuania. The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to

weaken its power. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for

the war and damages the Allied countries suffered. Germany was forced

to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion. The Allied armies also

occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s. Many

Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the

defeat in the war but the disgrace at Versailles

1.1 The Effects of the War

The war had a devastating impact on the entire continent both

psychologically and financially. From a continent of creditors,

Europe turned into one of debtors. Unfortunately, the infant Weimar

Republic was being made to pay for the sins of the old empire. The

republic carried the burden of war guilt and national humiliation

and was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.

Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics

and Democrats, became easy targets of attack in the conservative

nationalist circles. They were mockingly called the ‘November criminals’.

This mindset had a major impact on the political developments of the

early 1930s, as we will soon see.

The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and

polity. Soldiers came to be placed above civilians. Politicians and

publicists laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive, strong

and masculine. The media glorified trench life. The truth, however,

was that soldiers lived miserable lives in these trenches, trapped with

rats feeding on corpses. They faced poisonous gas and enemy shelling,

and witnessed their ranks reduce rapidly. Aggressive war propaganda

and national honour occupied centre stage in the public sphere, while

popular support grew for conservative dictatorships that had recently

come into being. Democracy was indeed a young and fragile idea,

which could not survive the instabilities of interwar Europe.

.2 Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the revolutionary

uprising of the Spartacist League on the pattern of the Bolshevik

Revolution in Russia. Soviets of workers and sailors were establishedin many cities. The political atmosphere in Berlin was charged with

demands for Soviet-style governance. Those opposed to this – such

as the socialists, Democrats and Catholics – met in Weimar to give

shape to the democratic republic. The Weimar Republic crushed the

uprising with the help of a war veterans organisation called Free

Corps. The anguished Spartacists later founded the Communist Party of

Germany. Communists and Socialists henceforth became irreconcilable

enemies and could not make common cause against Hitler. Both

revolutionaries and militant nationalists craved for radical solutions.

Political radicalisation was only heightened by the economic crisis

of 1923. Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to

pay war reparations in gold. This depleted gold reserves at a time

resources were scarce. In 1923 Germany refused to pay, and the

French occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal.

Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper currency

recklessly. With too much printed money in circulation, the value

of the German mark fell. In April the US dollar was equal to 24,000

marks, in July 353,000 marks, in August 4,621,000 marks and at

Fig.3 – This is a rally organised by the radical group known as the Spartacist League.

In the winter of 1918-1919 the streets of Berlin were taken over by the people. Political demonstrations became common.

Fig.4 – Baskets and carts being loaded at a

bank in Berlin with paper currency for wage

payment, 1923. The German mark had so

little value that vast amounts had to be used

even for small payments.

New words

Deplete – Reduce, empty out

Reparation – Make up for a wrong done

98,860,000 marks by December, the figure had run into trillions. As

the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods soared. The image of

Germans carrying cartloads of currency notes to buy a loaf of bread

was widely publicised evoking worldwide sympathy. This crisis came

to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise

phenomenally high.

Eventually, the Americans intervened and bailed Germany out of

the crisis by introducing the Dawes Plan, which reworked the terms

of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germans.

1.3 The Years of Depression

The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability. Yet this was

built on sand. German investments and industrial recovery were

totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA. This

support was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in

1929. Fearing a fall in prices, people made frantic efforts to sell their

shares. On one single day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold.

This was the start of the Great Economic Depression. Over the next

three years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA

fell by half. Factories shut down, exports fell, farmers were badly hit

and speculators withdrew their money from the market. The effects

of this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.

The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis. By

1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929

level. Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. The number

of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million. On the streets

of Germany you could see men with placards around their necks

saying, ‘Willing to do any work’. Unemployed youths played cards

or simply sat at street corners, or desperately queued up at the local

employment exchange. As jobs disappeared, the youth took to

criminal activities and total despair became commonplace.

The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears in people. The

middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw

their savings diminish when the currency lost its value. Small

businessmen, the self-employed and retailers suffered as theirbusinesses got ruined. These sections of society were filled with the

fear of proletarianisation, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks

of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed. Only organised

workers could manage to keep their heads above water, but

unemployment weakened their bargaining power. Big business was

in crisis. The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in

agricultural prices and women, unable to fill their children’s

stomachs, were filled with a sense of deep despair.

Politically too the Weimar Republic was fragile. The Weimar

constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable

and vulnerable to dictatorship. One was proportional

representation. This made achieving a majority by any one party a

near impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions. Another defect

was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose

emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree. Within its short

life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on

an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis

could not be managed. People lost confidence in the democratic

parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions.

businesses got ruined. These sections of society were filled with the

fear of proletarianisation, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks

of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed. Only organised

workers could manage to keep their heads above water, but

unemployment weakened their bargaining power. Big business was

in crisis. The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in

agricultural prices and women, unable to fill their children’s

stomachs, were filled with a sense of deep despair.

Politically too the Weimar Republic was fragile. The Weimar

constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable

and vulnerable to dictatorship. One was proportional

representation. This made achieving a majority by any one party a

near impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions. Another defect

was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose

emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree. Within its short

life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on

an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis

could not be managed. People lost confidence in the democratic

parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions.

2 Hitler’s Rise to Power

This crisis in the economy, polity and society formed the background

to Hitler’s rise to power. Born in 1889 in Austria, Hitler spent his

youth in poverty. When the First World War broke out, he enrolled

for the army, acted as a messenger in the front, became a corporal, and

earned medals for bravery. The German defeat horrified him and the

Versailles Treaty made him furious. In 1919, he joined a small group

called the German Workers’ Party. He subsequently took over the

organisation and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’

Party. This party came to be known as the Nazi Party.

In 1923, Hitler planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin

and capture power. He failed, was arrested, tried for treason, and

later released. The Nazis could not effectively mobilise popular

support till the early 1930s. It was during the Great Depression that

Nazism became a mass movement. As we have seen, after 1929, banks

collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the

middle classes were threatened with destitution. In such a situation

Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future. In 1928, the Nazi

Party got no more than 2. 6 per cent votes in the Reichstag – the

German parliament. By 1932, it had become the largest party with

37 per cent votes.Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved

people. He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of

the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.

He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure

future for the youth. He promised to weed out all foreign influences

and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.

Hitler devised a new style of politics. He understood the significance

of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilisation. Nazis held massive rallies

and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and instil

a sense of unity among the people. The Red banners with the

Swastika, the Nazi salute, and the ritualised rounds of applause after

the speeches were all part of this spectacle of power.Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved

people. He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of

the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.

He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure

future for the youth. He promised to weed out all foreign influences

and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.

Hitler devised a new style of politics. He understood the significance

of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilisation. Nazis held massive rallies

and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and instil

a sense of unity among the people. The Red banners with the

Swastika, the Nazi salute, and the ritualised rounds of applause after

the speeches were all part of this spectacle of power.Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a saviour, as

someone who had arrived to deliver people from their distress. It is

an image that captured the imagination of a people whose sense of

dignity and pride had been shattered, and who were living in a time

of acute economic and political crises.

2.1 The Destruction of Democracy

On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg offered the

Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet of ministers, to

Hitler. By now the Nazis had managed to rally the conservatives to

their cause. Having acquired power, Hitler set out to dismantle the

structures of democratic rule. A mysterious fire that broke out in

the German Parliament building in February facilitated his move.

The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 indefinitely suspended civic

rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been

guaranteed by the Weimar constitution. Then he turned on his arch-

enemies, the Communists, most of whom were hurriedly packed off

to the newly established concentration camps. The repression of

the Communists was severe. Out of the surviving 6,808 arrest files

of Duesseldorf, a small city of half a million population, 1,440 were

those of Communists alone. They were, however, only one among

the 52 types of victims persecuted by the Nazis across the country.

On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act

established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to

sideline Parliament and rule by decree. All political parties and trade

unions were banned except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates. The

state established complete control over the economy, media, army

and judiciary.

Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and

order society in ways that the Nazis wanted. Apart from the already

existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the Storm

Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the

protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD). It

was the extra-constitutional powers of these newly organised forces

that gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal

state. People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers,

rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will or

arrested without any legal procedures. The police forces acquired

powers to rule with impunity.

2.2 Reconstruction

Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the

economist Hjalmar Schacht who aimed at full production and full

employment through a state-funded work-creation programme. This

project produced the famous German superhighways and the

people’s car, the Volkswagen.

In foreign policy also Hitler acquired quick successes. He pulled

out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in

1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan,

One people, One empire, and One leader. He then went on to wrest German-

speaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia, and gobbled up the

entire country. In all of this he had the unspoken support of

England, which had considered the Versailles verdict too harsh.

These quick successes at home and abroad seemed to reverse the

destiny of the country.

Hitler did not stop here. Schacht had advised Hitler against investing

hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing.

Cautious people, however, had no place in Nazi Germany. Schacht

had to leave. Hitler chose war as the way out of the approachingeconomic crisis. Resources were to be accumulated through

expansion of territory. In September 1939, Germany invaded

Poland. This started a war with France and England. In September

1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and

Japan, strengthening Hitler’s claim to international power. Puppet

regimes, supportive of Nazi Germany, were installed in a large

part of Europe. By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of

his power.

Hitler now moved to achieve his long-term aim of conquering

Eastern Europe. He wanted to ensure food supplies and living space

for Germans. He attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. In this

historic blunder Hitler exposed the German western front to British

aerial bombing and the eastern front to the powerful Soviet armies.

The Soviet Red Army inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat

on Germany at Stalingrad. After this the Soviet Red Army

hounded out the retreating German soldiers until they reached the

heart of Berlin, establishing Soviet hegemony over the entire Eastern

Europe for half a century thereafter.

Meanwhile, the USA had resisted involvement in the war. It was

unwilling to once again face all the economic problems that the

First World War had caused. But it could not stay out of the war

for long. Japan was expanding its power in the east. It had occupied

French Indo-China and was planning attacks on US naval bases in

the Pacific. When Japan extended its support to Hitler and bombed

the US base at Pearl Harbor, the US entered the Second World

War. The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US

dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.

From this brief account of what happened in the Second World

War, we now return to Helmuth and his father’s story, a story of

Nazi criminality during the war.

3 The Nazi Worldview

The crimes that Nazis committed were linked to a system of belief

and a set of practices.

Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview. According

to this there was no equality between people, but only a racial

hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans

were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. They

came to be regarded as an anti-race, the arch-enemies of the Aryans.

All other coloured people were placed in between depending upon

their external features. Hitler’s racism borrowed from thinkers like

Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Darwin was a natural scientist

who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the

concept of evolution and natural selection. Herbert Spencer later

added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea, only

those species survived on earth that could adapt themselves to

changing climatic conditions. We should bear in mind that Darwin

never advocated human intervention in what he thought was a purely

natural process of selection. However, his ideas were used by racist

thinkers and politicians to justify imperial rule over conquered

peoples. The Nazi argument was simple: the strongest race would

survive and the weak ones would perish. The Aryan race was the

finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger and dominate the

world.

The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical

concept of Lebensraum, or living space. He believed that new territories

had to be acquired for settlement. This would enhance the area of

the mother country, while enabling the settlers on new lands to retain

an intimate link with the place of their origin. It would also enhance

the material resources and power of the German nation.

Hitler intended to extend German boundaries by moving eastwards,

to concentrate all Germans geographically in one place. Poland became

the laboratory for this experimentation.

3.1 Establishment of the Racial State

Once in power, the Nazis quickly began to implement their dream

of creating an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by

physically eliminating all those who were seen as ‘undesirable’ in theextended empire. Nazis wanted only a society of ‘pure and healthy

Nordic Aryans’. They alone were considered ‘desirable’. Only they

were seen as worthy of prospering and multiplying against all others

who were classed as ‘undesirable’. This meant that even those Germans

who were seen as impure or abnormal had no right to exist. Under

the Euthanasia Programme, Helmuth’s father along with other Nazi

officials had condemned to death many Germans who were considered

mentally or physically unfit.

Jews were not the only community classified as ‘undesirable’. There

were others. Many Gypsies and blacks living in Nazi Germany were

considered as racial ‘inferiors’ who threatened the biological purity

of the ‘superior Aryan’ race. They were widely persecuted. Even

Russians and Poles were considered subhuman, and hence undeserving

of any humanity. When Germany occupied Poland and parts of

Russia, captured civilians were forced to work as slave labour. Many

of them died simply through hard work and starvation.

Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Nazi hatred of

Jews had a precursor in the traditional Christian hostility towards

Jews. They had been stereotyped as killers of Christ and

usurers.Until medieval times Jews were barred from owning land.

They survived mainly through trade and moneylending. They lived

in separately marked areas called ghettos. They were often persecuted

through periodic organised violence, and expulsion from the land.

However, Hitler’s hatred of Jews was based on pseudoscientific

theories of race, which held that conversion was no solution to

‘the Jewish problem’. It could be solved only through their

total elimination.

From 1933 to 1938 the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and segregated

the Jews, compelling them to leave the country. The next phase,

1939-1945, aimed at concentrating them in certain areas and eventually

killing them in gas chambers in Poland.

3.2 The Racial Utopia

Under the shadow of war, the Nazis proceeded to realise their

murderous, racial ideal. g******e and war became two sides of the

same coin. Occupied Poland was divided up. Much of north-western

Poland was annexed to Germany. Poles were forced to leave their

homes and properties behind to be occupied by ethnic Germans

brought in from occupied Europe. Poles were then herded likecattle in the other part called the General Government, the

destination of all ‘undesirables’ of the empire. Members of the Polish

intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers in order to keep the

entire people intellectually and spiritually servile. Polish children

who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers

and examined by ‘race experts’. If they passed the race tests they

were raised in German families and if not, they were deposited in

orphanages where most perished. With some of the largest ghettos

and gas chambers, the General Government also served as the killing

fields for the Jews.

cattle in the other part called the General Government, the

destination of all ‘undesirables’ of the empire. Members of the Polish

intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers in order to keep the

entire people intellectually and spiritually servile. Polish children

who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers

and examined by ‘race experts’. If they passed the race tests they

were raised in German families and if not, they were deposited in

orphanages where most perished. With some of the largest ghettos

and gas chambers, the General Government also served as the killing

fields for the Jews.

4 Youth in Nazi Germany

Hitler was fanatically interested in the youth of the country. He felt

that a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching children

Nazi ideology. This required a control over the child both inside and

outside school.

What happened in schools under Nazism? All schools were ‘cleansed’

and ‘purified’. This meant that teachers who were Jews or seen as

‘politically unreliable’ were dismissed. Children were first segregated:

Germans and Jews could not sit together or play together.

Subsequently, ‘undesirable children’ – Jews, the physically handicapped,

Gypsies – were thrown out of schools. And finally in the 1940s, they

were taken to the gas chambers.

‘Good German’ children were subjected to a process of Nazi schooling,

a prolonged period of ideological training. School textbooks were

rewritten. Racial science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.

Stereotypes about Jews were popularised even through maths classes.

Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews, and worship

Hitler. Even the function of sports was to nurture a spirit of violence

and aggression among children. Hitler believed that boxing could make

children iron hearted, strong and masculine.

Youth organisations were made responsible for educating German

youth in the ‘the spirit of National Socialism’. Ten-year-olds had to

enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation

– Hitler Youth – where they learnt to worship war, glorify aggression

and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies

and all those categorised as ‘undesirable’. After a period of rigorous

ideological and physical training they joined the Labour Service, usually

at the age of 18. Then they had to serve in the armed forces and enter

one of the Nazi organisations.

The Youth League of the Nazis was founded in 1922. Four years later

it was renamed Hitler Youth. To unify the youth movement under

Nazi control, all other youth organisations were systematically dissolved

and finally banned.

4.1 The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

Children in Nazi Germany were repeatedly told that women were

radically different from men. The fight for equal rights for men

and women that had become part of democratic struggles everywhere

was wrong and it would destroy society. While boys were taught

to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted, girls were told that

they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan

children. Girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distancethemselves from Jews, look after the home, and teach their

children Nazi values. They had to be the bearers of the Aryan

culture and race.

In 1933 Hitler said: ‘In my state the mother is the most important

citizen.’ But in Nazi Germany all mothers were not treated equally.

Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished

and those who produced racially desirable children were awarded.

They were given favoured treatment in hospitals and were also

entitled to concessions in shops and on theatre tickets and railway

fares. To encourage women to produce many children, Honour

Crosses were awarded. A bronze cross was given for four children,

silver for six and gold for eight or more.

All ‘Aryan’ women who deviated from the prescribed code of

conduct were publicly condemned, and severely punished. Those

who maintained contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were

paraded through the town with shaved heads, blackened faces and

placards hanging around their necks announcing ‘I have sullied

the honour of the nation’. Many received jail sentences and lost

civic honour as well as their husbands and families for this

‘criminal offence’.