Adolf Hitler's Terror

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler played a large role in the history of Germany and what he did in his time or rule. By the mid-1933 only one party existed in Germany, the party of Adolf Hitler (pg 249). Hitler wanted a totalitarian dictatorship, but one cannot firmly be established until it also controls the minds of the people. The first people who were forced into concentration camps were liberal, democratic, and socialist intellectuals and artists. Their books were publically burned, their paintings or music declared “un-German” and attacked as “degenerate” (pg 251-52). What Adolf Hitler was trying to do was get rid of anyone who could possibly pursued the people of Germany, or produce anything, that could speak out against him and make people not want to follow what he was trying to create. However, resistance increased within the Roman Catholic Church as news spread of the Nazis’ euthanasia plans, reaching its heights with issuance of the papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (With deep anxiety) in 1937 (pg 253).

In Adolf Hitler’s mind, there was an inferior race, and that race was the Jews.  The National Socialists had no difficulty in identifying a group to occupy the position of outsider, given Europe’s thousand-year tradition in this respect: It was the Jews (pg 254). The remaining rights of Jews were greatly reduced with the proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935, which made proof of Aryan decent a prerequisite for exercising the rights of citizens or holding elective office; they deprived Jews of full citizenship, and prohibited marriage between Jews and non-Jews (pg 256).

 Hitler wanted to work on destroying all of the Jews that were in Europe. Some Countries were hit with a devastating blow because of Hitler. Poland for example had 90%, or 3,000,000 Jews, exterminated. Yugoslavia’s and Greece’s Jewish population was also diminished greatly by Hitler’s attacks, losing 81% of their Jewish population (map on pg 268). It is shocking to learn just what percentage of Jewish people was exterminated in all of these different countries in Europe. In total, ten different countries were affected by what Hitler was doing to all of the Jews.  The only country that was not affected at all was Bulgaria. There can also be the questions raised, if at some points, people who were not Jewish were mistaken for people who were and were taken to the concentration camps.

Map of Concentration Camps
 during Hitler's time

 Another shocking map to look at is the one that shows the main concentration camps, death camps and other camps, outposts, and forced labor camps that were being used at this time. Looking at the map, it is amazing to see that there were nine main camps out of the fourteen, that were running, were located all throughout Germany. All of the death camps were located in Poland, along with one main camp. Even though Hitler began this in Germany it makes sense that the death camps were located in Poland because that was the first place that he went and cleared out of the Jewish people. All of these different sorts of camps were located in Germany, Poland, Sudetenland, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, and Lithuania (map on 269-69). Hitler was effecting the population of these countries dramatically besides for a couple of them where there was only a one percent difference, but that was still taking people out of that country for being a certain race.

The star that all the Jewish people had to
wear to identify themselves

 It seems impossible to get rid of this many people but Adolf Hitler managed to do it. His war was not a battle for hegemony of the type Europe had known from time immemorial; it was a racial war. As soon as Poland was conquered, the Germans had begun rounding up millions of Jews and confining them to ghettos in the major Polish cities, just as they had earlier compelled Jews within their own country to wear identifying badges (pg 273). The Jewish people were being pointed out and led away from the countries that they had grown up in and called home. Because of their race they were being treated differently and badly.

Great vs. Small Germany

One of the compelling facts that I found interesting was when new Germany began decided on which regions it would include. It seems like a simple process to go through but this question had never had agreement upon. When it did come time to discuss this issue there ended up being a couple proposed solutions. It was interesting to see how “Great Germany” seemed to fail while “Small Germany” strived.

Different ways that Germany go split up

The first was Großdeutschland or “Great Germany”. If this option was to be chosen; “Great Germany” would consist of all German regions including Austria and be headed by a Hapsburg emperor, as described on page 125. The addition of Austria to Germany could be seen as a good or bad for Germany. By choosing “Great Germany”, it would expand German territory and make it larger. The downside to the addition of Austria would be that, if Germany ever went to war they would not have other country as their allies. However , there were other problems that Great Germany suffered through. In the rebellion of 1848 there was a goal to get Great Germany to be a national state based on popular sovereignty and human rights. This, however, failed. Two reasons that this failed was from the resistance from the major powers, and lack of unity within the revolutionary ranks. Out of the two options that could have been chosen, Great Germany seemed like the one option that was failing more than rising to the task. The other option, as described on page 126, was Kleindeutschland or “Small Germany”. This proposal would exclude Austrian areas from Germany and be ruled by a Hohenzollern emperor. I found deciding this problem interesting because I would have thought that it would be easily decided if Austrian territory would be included in new Germany or not based on the past experiences that Germany has had with Austria. If Germany had experiences a good relationship “Giant Germany” should have been the vote, but if the experiences were voted on as bad “Small Germany” should have gotten the vote. Out of the two Germany’s, Small Germany was the one that prospered fastest because their goal was already met because they were in an area with a good economic policy.

Prussian Territories-Blue
Austrian Territories-Yellow
Independent German Confederation Stats-Grey
Red bborder shows the limits of the
Confederation

However, there was a third option that southwest Germany was taking and that was democracy. After a while an assembly managed to adoption a constitution, one that much resembled the America, French, and Belgian models.

It was also very interesting to learn about how, by being divided into these two groups affected Great Germany and Small Germany’s trade. The Prussian-led Customs Union had a more forward-looking economic community, as described on page 130, and it was experiencing continual growth. It was also gaining attraction on neighboring states. I found this interesting because it was the opposite deal with the other half of Germany at the time. I would have thought that, because Germany had been split into two sections that they would still have the same trade and economic situation. So if one prospered, then the other would and vice a versa.

The last section of this that I found very interesting that in the end new Germany ended up getting a central government, but it ended up having no power. In 1848 there became a worry among Europeans of a unified German state in the heart of the continent because they thought it would disrupt the overall balance. This was because of the spread of German nationalism to the possession of the Danish crown.