Hitler and the Nazism

Origins of the Nazism

In 1923 the Nazi Party celebrated its first congress; they were like 20.000 affiliates. This year was critical for
Germany. The big inflation broke the country. They crisis were benefited by the members of the Nazi party
Partido Nazi to make the Putsch of Munich, a failed try of Coup of State. Hitler was judged and prisoned.
During this period in prison, he wrote the book "Mein Kampf" (My fight), published in 1925, where he
expressed the principles of his ideology.

Nazism. Took of power

The Wall Street crash of New York, the dramatic consequences to Germany. The economic and social crisis
benefited the Nazis. The crisis broke the Weimar Republic. In 1933 after the elections of the Nazis took 196
representatives. The president of the Republic, Hindenburg, pushed by businessmen and conservatives,
named to Hitler first minister, and create a government of coalition.

Political system
After creating a government, Hitler called for new elections. Days before the celebration, the building of the
German Parliament, the Reichstag, was target of an intentional fire that collapsed it (February of 1933).

Hitler took advantage of the situation to guilt the communist and socialist and, for the Law of the protection of
the people and State, create some measures of exception that ended with the freedom of judgement, press
and association, taking away of the law most of the population.

In a threatening atmosphere the elections happened in March of 1933. These gave the majority (44 %, 288
representatives) to the NSGWP. Hitler, once the communists were excluded, forced the Parliament to give
him special powers for 4 years.

From that moment, he proceeded to eliminate the democratic system of Weimar. The political parties were
prohibited, the Nazi Party was the only one left. The gather and expression rights were eliminated, the press
was censored, lists of forbidden books were made, and so on. The laws of the new Nazi State. Law to the
president of the Reich for the protection of the nation and the State of 28 th February of 1933.

The Gestapo was created, political police to control and eliminate the opposition. Part of the intellectuals had
to exile of the country and the public workers considered no-like from the Nazi Party were depurated.

The next step was the absolute control of power with the abolition of the revolutionary factions inside the
Nazi Party. The most important one, without any doubt, the SA, military group.

The action was during the “night of the Long Knives” (30th of June of 1934), more than 200 people were killed
link to the SA.

The big businessmen and the right strong wing were alleviated from the Hitler intentions and shared their
ideas, since then, any revolutionary revindication was eliminated.

Economy
The World War I was to Germany a big economical disaster. During the after war the difficulties became
serious by big amounts of money like the reparation of war to the winning ones.

The main problem was the hyperinflation, that affected the economical part and hit the society, especially the
wage earned, public workers, little savers and pensioners.

Since 1924 the situation improved, but years later, the crash of 1929 and his consequences, collapsed again
the German economy.

The main sequel of that, the unemployment, hit the middle and worker classes that, thank the Nazism. Hitler
promised that the problems were solved quickly when he took the power. When this happened, some
measures were executed which effect were reinforced by: He granted credits to regions that undertook public
works and created jobs, encouraged the abandonment of female labour in favour of male labour, and imposed
a period of unpaid work for young people between the ages of 18 and 25.

Finally, it reintroduced compulsory military service, which relieved the pressure of unemployment on those
who served. The impact of militarization on employment

The German economy under Nazism was conditioned by the interests of the state. But, unlike in the USSR, the
capitalist system and with-it private property was maintained. As in the Italian Fascist regime, neither large
enterprises nor banking were nationalized.

Land remained in the hands of the big landowners and the working conditions of the peasants did not improve
appreciably.

Hitler emphasized the development of heavy and chemical industry, in the hands of large industrial groups
(Krupp, Vögler, Boch, Siemens, etc.), prepared to face the rearmament program of the German army,
fundamental to guarantee an aggressive and expansionist international policy.

In 1936 a Four-Year Plan was launched, giving priority to the achievement of autarchy that would allow self-
sufficiency in food and raw materials during the conflict.

This policy increased the power of the magnates of the military industry, who would obtain enormous profits
through the war, increased by the policy of plundering conquered territories and the use of slave or semi-slave
labor in their factories.

Nazism maintained capitalism as an economic and social system. Hitler relied on the big businessmen to
ascend and consolidate his power, while the working class had the task of rebuilding the German economy,
battered after the Great War and the crisis of 1929.

As German rearmament increased, there was a perfect fusion between the Nazi hierarchs and the
businessmen connected with the military industry.

The German economic renaissance came at the cost of low wages, an increasing pace of work and the absolute
organizational disarticulation of the workers: class unions and political associations were banned.

Society
Society underwent a process of homogenisation that led to the persecution and elimination of leftist
elements, racial minorities (Gypsies and Slavs), homosexuals, the mentally handicapped and, in particular,
Jews.

The latter, who were very active in Germany's economic and social life, were segregated from the rest of the
population and were subjected to discriminatory laws that ruined their normal political, social, and economic
development.

In place of the trade unions, which were abolished in May 1933, the German Labour Front, headed by Robert
Ley, was set up, bringing together both workers and employers and dispensing with the class struggle wielded
by Marxist-inspired organisations.

It grew to 25 million members and had great influence within the state structure.

Social policy was put into practice by means of an intense tutelage of the workers, which even went beyond
their working life. Numerous cultural activities (cinema, theatre, sports, travel, etc.) were planned to identify
the masses with the regime and to promote a false image of equality between its members and those of the
ruling class. Nazi propaganda through the media

Ideology
A key element of Nazi ideology was the racial question.
Hitler spoke in his Mein Kampf of the existence of superior races and inferior races. The German people
belonged to the first group.

In order to prevent their contamination and to preserve racial purity, it was necessary to carry out a thorough
segregation.

He considered the Jewish race to be particularly dangerous, which he described as degenerate and the cause
of much of Germany's ills.

ANTI-SEMITISM (hatred of Jews) had existed in Europe for centuries. But the Nazis elevated it to the highest
level.

Another essential ingredient of this ideology was the question of "living space". According to this theory,
Germany needed to expand beyond its borders to channel its population growth and boost its economic
development.

This required breaking the constraints imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and conquering territory,
especially in Eastern Europe, at the expense of the Slavic peoples, Poland, and the vast Soviet territory.

Education was used as an instrument of indoctrination in Nazi ideals. All levels of education were subjected to
strict control, and the teaching profession was purged and placed in a pseudo-military structure. Curricula
were developed under the premises of profound racism.

Culture in general, and art, underwent a profound selection, with so-called "degenerate art" ("Entartete
Kunst") being reprobated and persecuted. Under this heading were classified the avant-garde trends (Cubism,
Dadaism, Fauvism, Impressionism, etc.) and artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Munch, Kandinsky, Klee,
among others.

In 1937 an exhibition was held in Munich with the aim of recovering what Goebbels had described as the
"essence of German art". It was dominated by the figurative style and genres such as still lifes, landscapes and
the human figure, through which the ideal of beauty and perfection of the Aryan race was exalted.

Books and the press were closely monitored by means of censorship, and publication was banned.

Thousands of volumes were publicly burned, as happened on 10 May 1933. Many writers had to flee
(Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Stephan Zweig and others).

Censorship also extended to other forms of expression such as cinema and radio.

The regime invested great efforts in the control and indoctrination of young people. Young people were
organised into organisations, most notably the "Hitler Youth", whose members were inculcated with the
principles of Nazism. Emphasis was placed on physical and sporting care, as these were considered ideal
means of maintaining a healthy and strong race, the basis of the future German army.

The role of women, although to a lesser extent than in other similar regimes, was confined to the domestic
sphere, and their main function was reduced to that of fathering and raising children. From childhood, men
and women were separated and segregated based on their sex.

The role of the mother was exalted, and a festival was instituted to commemorate it, with fertility prizes being
awarded to those women who had the most offspring.

Along with terror, propaganda was used as a way of imposing ideas.

Mass rallies, presided over by Hitler and the party's top leaders, were held in an atmosphere of fervent
patriotism where Nazi symbols (swastika banners and flags, martial salutes, etc.) were waved.

Permanent stages were built for such events, such as the one designed by Albert Speer - the regime's most
prestigious architect - in Nuremberg, which included a stadium, a conference hall and wide avenues for
parades.
Architecture was used as an instrument of regime aggrandisement. Lavish projects, such as Speer's Germania,
a city with formidable buildings and avenues, were designed to be the new capital of the world.

The figure of the Führer was at the centre of all these splendours. Even the Party Congresses, devoid of any
real deliberative character, were convened to exalt him. The working calendar was altered and new holidays
were instituted, such as the one commemorating Hitler's birthday.

His image was portrayed ad nauseam in the most diverse settings and attitudes: military, political, familial,
paternal, etc.

An irreplaceable figure in the organisation of the regime's propaganda apparatus was Joseph Goebbels. He
dazzled the masses with inflammatory radio speeches and press articles, loaded with anti-Semitism and
xenophobia.

As for relations with the Church, the Nazis tried to control Germany's two largest denominations, the
Evangelical (majority) and the Catholic Church. An agreement was signed with the Holy See in July 1933.

Ultimately, however, these relations cooled.

Nazi anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is the ideology that advocates hatred or aversion to Jewish beliefs and culture.

German Jews were gradually harassed: first by hindering their economic activities and socially discrediting
them. Later, legislation was passed against them. The so-called "Nuremberg Laws" (September 1935)
withdrew German citizenship from Jews, prohibited mixed marriages between Jews and Germans, and
denied them the exercise of any profession connected with the civil service (teaching, the army, the civil
service in general). SA members escorting Jews

Jewish-owned businesses and industries were boycotted and gradually underwent the process of
"Aryanisation", i.e. they were taken over by non-Jewish owners through purchase at derisory prices. The
Jewish employees of these businesses were dismissed and replaced by "Aryans".

Subsequently, in 1941, they were forced to wear a Star of David on their clothing to enable them to be
identified in public.

The turning point in the persecution of Jews came during the night of 9 November 1938, the so-called "Night
of Long Knives ", during which Jewish-owned neighbourhoods, synagogues and premises were destroyed and
hundreds of Jews were murdered.

The German people's attitude towards these outrages was one of passivity and tolerance, with very few
openly opposing them.

World War II intensified the Nazi anti-Semitic policy. Jews were forced to leave their homes and were
interned in ghettos and concentration camps. The most important ghetto was Warsaw, where hundreds of
thousands of people were interned, condemned to overcrowded and malnourished conditions. In April 1943,
the Jews in the ghetto revolted against the Nazis' massive policy of deportations to concentration camps.

In addition to the ghettos, Jews were interned in concentration camps enclosed by walls, barbed wire and
guarded from turrets. Some were built in the 1930s, such as Buchenwald and Dachau, but during the Second
World War their number and capacity increased.

Dissidents of the regime, enemy soldiers, homosexuals, gypsies and, of course, Jews were interned there.
Prisoners were subjected to forced labour, to the point of exhaustion, in the manufacture of military
components for the German army and other tasks; when they were unable to cope with the pace of work,
they were eliminated.

With the implementation of the 'Final Solution', the systematic elimination of all Jews under German
jurisdiction, special camps were set up, equipped with facilities capable of dealing with the mass
extermination of people.
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Lublin-Majdanek had poison gas chambers for executions and crematoria ovens for
disposal of the bodies.

Living conditions in these camps were subhuman and the treatment of prisoners by their guards, usually
members of the SS (Schutz-Staffel), brutal. Many were subjected to medical experiments, others cruelly
punished. An estimated 4 million prisoners, mostly Jews, died in the Nazi camps.

By the end of the war, the "holocaust" - the great slaughter of Jews - had reached over 6 million. Those who
survived did so in appalling conditions, and the experience marked them for the rest of their lives. Many of
them never returned home and chose to emigrate, mainly to Palestine, where a Jewish state, today's state of
Israel, was created in 1948.