Hello again.
On January 30, 1933 Hitler was appointed
Chancellor of Germany.
The National Socialist German Workers Party, better known
as a Nazi Party, was a minor party
within the German politics until 1930.
In the May 1924 elections it won 6.6% of the votes.
And in those of May 1928 only 2.6% of the Germans
supported it.
Yet in the next elections, those of September 1930,
got 18.3% of the votes, in July 1932 37.3%,
and on the deciding elections of November 1932
33.1% of the Germans supported it.
What can we learn from these data?
A few things.
First, the German political instability
on the eve of Hitler's rise to power.
Second, the disturbing effect the world economic crisis
of 1929 had on German society.
In October 1929 the Wall Street stock market
crashed in what signalled the beginning of the Great
Depression.
All throughout the globe economies
collapsed and millions lost her jobs.
Yet get this worldwide crisis had a special effect
on Germany, where people still remember the depression
and inflation of the end of World War I.
Thus in Germany this crisis was not only an economic one,
but also as psychological one.
It is no surprise that it resulted in political extremism
in which Nazi nationalists on the one hand,
and German communists on the other, gained power.
Third thing we should point out regarding those figures
is that, unlike what many people believe,
Hitler never won a majority vote in democratic elections.
His appointment to Chancellor was
within the democratic system and a result
of political agreements, not of a general support.
The central parties could not create a stable coalition
without one of the extremism parties.
They had to choose between the Nazis and the communists, two
parties which openly advocated dismantling democracy.
German moderate leaders prefered Hitler,
not only because of the fear of the communism, but also
because they thought they will be able to control Hitler.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
Within weeks from the seizure of power,
Hitler used the advanced democratic constitution
of the Weimar Republic in order to destroy it.
And in less than a year, Germany became Nazi Germany.
As a first step, Hitler manipulated the new scene
and called for new elections on March the 5th.
The second step occurred less than a
month after appointment of Hitler.
In the late hours of February 27, 1933,
the Reichstag, the German parliament building,
was set on fire.
Though it seems as if Herman Goering, one
of the leading figures in the Nazi party
and the Minister of Interior, was involved,
the blame was imposed on the communists and the anarchists.
More importantly, this event enabled
Hitler to promote the Reichstag Fire Decree, which you reduced
considerably many of the civil liberties
of the German citizens and enabled Nazi authorities
to imprison anyone who was [? grasped ?] by them
as an enemy.
Communists and other German citizens
were taken in protective custody, Schutzhaft,
for an unknown and unset period of time.
Where could the rest of the opponents have been held?
They could have been put in gaols
like in any other modern country,
but Hitler and the Nazi party had a problem.
Unlike other dramatic changes in forms of government,
Hitler did not want to provoke a revolution
and simply replace existing civil apparatus
with his people.
Hitler wanted to enlist the German people,
and it's bureaucratic system, to his Weltanschauung, his world
view.
But this would have taken too much time.
Thus, he had to find a way to justify removal of people whom
he deemed as dangerous elements, without going
through the legal system.
So what did the Nazi party do?
They implemented a new form of detention facility
for political enemies-- concentration camps.
Less than two months after Hitler became chancellor,
and three weeks after the Reichstag fire,
Dachau, the first of many concentration camps,
was established.
The changing character of Nazi camps,
and the different aspects of life and death created in them,
demand a full standalone course.
But in this framework, we must limit ourselves
to a basic understanding of this system
and its impact on the German society.
Generally speaking, in the first years,
inmates were supposedly imprisoned in the camp
for their re-education.
Meaning, they could be released, and some were released,
only if they recognised, or pretended to recognise,
the correctness of the Nazi path.
Later on, and especially after 1936,
to which we will refer later, releases
became increasingly less common.
More and more inmates were used for forced labour in the German
industry, especially the military German industry.
Thus, the regime used its enemies in order
to promote its own interests.
As soon as Nazi Germany occupied other countries,
it understood it could kill two birds with one stone.
Not only remove dangerous elements
in the occupied countries, local political leaders,
underground activists and freedom fighters,
but also use them for Germany's benefits.
What started in Dachau in 1933, ended in tens of thousands
of camps which were erected during the war
throughout Europe, in order to enslave
millions of European citizens.
For those of you who want to know more,
please see further reading suggestions below.
But returning to Hitler's first month in power
and the establishment of Dachau, we
should notice two more important things.
First, in this stage, the inmates
of the concentration camps were not Jewish, but political
enemies.
True, as you can see the following table,
if you were a Jewish communist or a Jewish criminal,
your chances to die in the camp were considered really high.
Yet Jews were imprisoned in camps for their Jewishness
only in 1938, as we will see later.
Second, the Nazi concentration camps
had a decisive role, not only in re-educating prisoners,
and guards about their superiority,
but also in re-educating the entire German population.
Unlike the familiar punishment system
of a felony, a police interrogation, a trial,
a verdict, and implementation of the punishment,
the Nazi Schutzsaft, protective custody,
worked completely differently.
People and those surrounding them
did not always know why they were arrested
or where they were taken, as well when and if they will ever
be released.
Not many really know what was going on in the camps,
but all heard enough to understand it was too
dangerous to ask more about it.
Rumours and whispers about people
who were dragged from their beds intensified the terror no less
than the SR thugs who filled the streets.
In March 1933, Nazi terrorism swept Germany.
While disseminating fear within the German society,
creating a reality that helped him win more than 43%
of the votes in March 5 elections,
Hitler continued to work on gaining
endless political power.
On the 23rd of March, 1933, the German Reichstag
approved the Enabling Act, in which the parliament gave away
its power and function for a restricted period, which
never ended in Nazi Germany.
The full legislative power was handed to the Reichskanzler,
Hitler, and the government.
Now, the road was paved for the true implementation
of the Gleichschaltung, forcible coordination of the Nazi Party
and the German state.
Starting in March 1933, the Nazi Party
took over the German states.
Local elections were dissolved, and other results
were forced on them.
In April, Reichsleiters, or Reich leaders,
were appointed in order to create a Nazi mechanism
parallel to that of the state.
Under this mechanism, Gauleiters,
regional leaders of the party, leader of districts,
Nazi head of cities and villages, and so on
were appointed.
The Nazi Party gained geographical control
of Germany.
Public and political life in Germany was the next target.
In May 1933, all trade unions were abolished,
and instead the German Labour Front, the Nazi organisation,
was established.
On July 14, all parties were dismantled,
leaving the Nazi Party as the only legal one.
Leftist youth movements were outlawed,
and all the others were incorporated
into the Nazi Hitlerjugend.
Student organisations ceased to exist,
leaving only the National Socialist German Student
League.
The same happened in the realm of welfare,
where only the National Socialist People's
Welfare remained legal, or the new National Socialists
Teachers League, which replaced all former teachers' unions.
In the field of culture, a Reich cultural organisation was
established, and all cultural activities throughout Germany
had to get the approval of its heads, and so on.
The 1st of May became the day of national work,
and the day Hitler gained power, the 30th of January,
was declared a new national holiday.
At this stage, one could not be a part of any social
or professional organisation-- teachers, lawyers,
or mechanics-- and avoid Nazism.
The party was the state.
The Nazi Party took over the states' infrastructure
by blurring the dividing lines between party and state
institutions and thus creating Nazi Germany, or the Third
Reich.
Nazi Germany was much more than a dictatorship.
It was a totalitarian regime which
controlled and ruled all aspects of the life of its citizens.
Who they will marry, how many kids they will have,
what will be their profession or where will
they work-- all were the interest
of the Nazi German state.
The last elections ever to be held in Nazi Germany
took place on November 12, 1933.
Hitler won more than 92% of the vote of the German people.
At the end of 1933, Hitler could look at this transformation
with satisfaction.
The Republic of Weimar was gone to a large extent,
although the overall process of Nazification
would last until 1937.
How did people, German European citizens,
react to this new reality?
And what else changed in the later years of Nazi Germany?
Those are some of the questions we
will answer in our next units.
