The terror state - Nazi Germany

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What was Hitler’s concept of law?

What was Hitler’s concept of law?

• Hitler did not believe in ‘the rule of law’ in any recognisable way

• For Hitler legitimacy (the right to rule) came from the fuhrerprincip and nowhere else

• Hitler expressed ‘the will of the people’ His word was literally law

What happened after the enabling act in the terror state?

From the Enabling Act onwards Germans lost their legal rights (e.g. The right to a fair trial, equality before the law, and right to free expression). In Hitler’s Germany people could be arrested, imprisoned, or executed without charge or trial

What was the Nazi ideology on criminality?

• For the Nazis crime was defined by reference to Nazi ideology.

• Those outside the ‘Peoples Community’ were by definition criminals

Who were racially outside of the ‘People‘s Community’?

• Non-Aryans

• Slavs

• Jews

• Black people

• Gypsies

Who were ideologically outside of the ‘People’s Community’?

• Marxists

• Socialists

• Liberals

often they were placed into camps for ‘re-education’

Who were morally outside of the ‘People’s Community’?

• Criminals

• Homosexuals

• Alcoholics

• Mentally ill

• Drug abusers

They were seen as a threat to racial purity

What were the institutions of the Nazi police state?

• The Peoples Court

• The SS

• The Concentration Camps

• The SD

• The Gestapo

• Informers and block leaders

What was the People’s Court and what was it used for?

The Nazis kept, but nazified, the existing criminal courts and added a new Peoples Court for political offences

Who headed the People’s Court and how was it run?

Headed by the infamous Roland Freisler there were no juries or defendants in the people’s court, just charges, abuse, humiliation and sentencing

Between 1934-39 how many communist/socialists were processed by the People’s Court, and how were they sentenced?

3400 communists and socialists were processed by the People’s Court – the usual sentence was execution by axe

What police organisations were there at the beginning of the period 1933 - 1939?

The SS – controlled by Himmler

The SD – an intelligence gathering wing of the SS

The SA – initially controlled by Rohm – SA maintained police powers throughout

The Gestapo (secret state police) – headed by Goring

What gradually happened over time to the numerous police organisations?

Gradually the SS took more and more controlled. In 1936 Himmler given control of SS, SD and Gestapo and by 1939 Himmler and the SS controlled all state police organisations

What was the generic role of the SS (Schutzstaffel)?

1. Personal bodyguard for Hitler

2. Controlled state police organisation in 3rd Reich

3. Camps – SS controlled the concentration camps

What was the ideological, militant, governmental, and economic role of the SS?

1. Ideology – SS seen as an ideological role model for Germans – racially pure and unquestioningly obedient

2. Military – Waffen SS (armed) had its own army divisions

3. Government – SS charged with administering occupied and conquered territories

4. Economic – SS ran a number of business enterprises based on the slave labour of concentration camp inmates

What were the original concentration camps intended for?

The original concentration camps were prison camps, not extermination camps (these came after 1942). The original purpose was for political prisoners to be re-educated. By 1936 political opposition had been primarily crushed and the camps started to be used for ‘undesirables’, asocials, homosexuals, gypsies, non-Aryans with a view to ‘purifying the race’

What camps emerged between 1933-1936?

A network of camps emerged 1933-36 including; Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Ravensbruck (women only)

What was the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and who was it led by?

The SD was the internal security service in Nazi Germany led by Reinhardt Heydrich

What was the role of the SD?

• Its role was to investigate claims that the Nazi party itself or its institutions had been infiltrated by enemies

• The SD also spent a great deal of time monitoring public opinion and investigating who had voted ‘no’ in the plebiscites

• The SD was manned by committed volunteers

Why were Germans scared of the Gestapo (State Secret Police)?

• German people were terrified by the Gestapo believing them to be everywhere – workplace, pub, club, residential block etc.

• The reality was rather different – only 20,000 officers for whole of Germany

• The Gestapo however had a deserved reputation for brutality

What was the Gestapo reliant upon?

• They relied on informers for information – party members were encouraged to spy on their neighbours Hitler Youth were encouraged to squeal on their parents. Every residential block had a ‘Block leader’ who reported suspicious activity to the Gestapo

• In some ways the German people could be seen as practising  ‘self surveillance’