Ordinary Germans: To what extent could these five ordinary Germans be considered culpable for the crimes committed against Germans and Jews during Hitler's Regime 1933-45?

International Baccalaureate History

Leif Sandhop

History X

February 15th, 2007

Word Count: 2295

“Ordinary Germans”: To what extent could these five “ordinary” Germans be considered culpable for the crimes committed against Germans and Jews during Hitler’s Regime 1933-45?

When on January 30th in 1933 the National Sozialistische Arbeiter Partei, short NSDAP, came to power no German could have ever imagined what their land was to resemble by 1945. Once a powerful nation, Germany lay in devastating destruction by the end of WWII. The human fatalities had been shocking, both in combat and at the home front. Millions of Germans were forced out of their houses.

Never in history had this once proud country been in such misery. Beyond the physical destruction, Germans had been confronted with the moral devastation of defeat. Plus the inhumane war crimes that had been committed under Hitler had been discovered. Twelve million Jews had lost their lives in Konzentrationslager (concentration camps), medical experiments, mass shootings and other gruesome circumstances. This arouses a number of questions, who is to be responsible for the death of all these Jews, can it all be the responsibility of a single person named Adolf Hitler? The topic question of this very essay is whether “ordinary” Germans could be considered culpable of these crimes. The definition of culpable is to take blame or censure; be blameworthy. However, what does it take for an “ordinary” German to be labelled responsible of these crimes? To constrain this vagueness, it is to refer to a person as culpable only if the individual has knowingly aided to these crimes. This includes the collaboration with Hitler and the Nazi regime, and knowingly assisting the extermination of the Jewish race. There is another term that is misleading in the topic question. These “ordinary” Germans referred to are not so “ordinary”. The people tried are Werner Heisenberg, Gertrude Schultz- Klinik, Leni Riefenstahl, Hannah Reitsch and Max Schmeling. All of these have been celebrities at least nationally and internationally. Some of these characters seemed to have a rather serious collaboration with the regime, however others did not. Therefore this paper examines whether these people are to be culpable or not culpable of collaborating with Hitler and the Nazi Regime.

Even though all of these characters collaboratively worked together with Hitler and the Nazi regime in some way, also plenty of facts are suggestive that they had no relations in a sort that would call them fully culpable. Some of them just became merely acquainted with him as he was the president, or were urged to work with him and the regime. Many facts are to the positive for Werner Heisenberg. He was a person who never had much interest in politics and never had the wish to be involved with them. Therefore he never joined the Nazi Party. Only during the war he was entrusted by the Ministry of Educations. This institute was under the authority of the Army Ordnance Office because of its central role in co-ordinating a secret war project. In the Uranium Club, as these scientists including Heisenberg called their group, they investigated matters of making nuclear reactors for submarine propulsion and the creation of an atomic bomb. This might as first seem negative; however Heisenberg realized his significance of his work and purposefully derailed the project to hinder Germany’s sure victory, if they had an atom bomb. Gertrud Scholtz-Klinik is one of the more culpable characters, however when she joined the Nazi Party she had lost her husband and had six children, she was forced financially to do any job she could to ensure her families survival. This is why she joined the Nazi Women Party, and due to her pure Germanic looks and oratory skills she was appointed by Hitler as Reich Women’s Leader and head of the Nazi Women’s League. Hanna Reitsch was a woman test pilot and fighter pilot for the German Luftwaffe. As a flying ace she quickly became Hitler’s favourite pilot. Seemingly close, she was a women and Hitler did not entrust women with any confidential information concerning the question of the Jews, so she widely didn’t know what was going on. Max Schmeling is yet another of these characters. He was one of the greatest German boxers. He was asked to join the Nazi Party on multiple occasions however always refused to have any ties with them. This surely upset Hitler, and he was drawn into the army and sent on multiple suicide missions. Which all of them he survived. The last person tried was Leni Riefenstahl; she was mesmerized by Hitler’s powerful speeches just as millions of other people. She, just like Reitsch, was a woman and therefore would have never known about the Final Solution. She was a women film maker to create propaganda for Germany; Hitler never would have shown her any evidence that could change her image of the glorified Germany. These facts seem to put these people in an innocent light.

These factual statements provided above are not to be the only ones that aid to the belief of their innocence. Werner Heisenberg himself had many fellow Jewish scientists which some of them were his close friends, including Niels Bohr. This obviously proofs him free of the claims of being anti-Semitic. He was called a “white Jew” even though he was not of Jewish decent. This was because he taught the theories of Einstein, who was a Jew that had left Germany for America. After the war had finished a massive “brain drain” had occurred, and he felt it upon himself ...

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These factual statements provided above are not to be the only ones that aid to the belief of their innocence. Werner Heisenberg himself had many fellow Jewish scientists which some of them were his close friends, including Niels Bohr. This obviously proofs him free of the claims of being anti-Semitic. He was called a “white Jew” even though he was not of Jewish decent. This was because he taught the theories of Einstein, who was a Jew that had left Germany for America. After the war had finished a massive “brain drain” had occurred, and he felt it upon himself to create an elite scientist research group using his studies he supposedly sabotaged during the war to create nuclear power, by the ideas of nuclear fission. However he did not gain enough support. Gertrud Scholtz-Klinik was to speak to millions of German women advocating them to work hard purely for the family, physically and mentally they were supposed to renounce any luxury or pleasure. As she was a woman, she was usually left out of the more important meetings in the male dominated society of the Third Reich and has been considered usually to be a figurehead. Hanna Reitsch was for a fact Hitler’s favourite pilot; however she was still to follow orders as many of thousand others doing their forced duty to save their country as soldiers. And this is was she was a mere soldier. She came from a peasant family and she was educated just very poorly. This was not very common for officials in high ranks. So she was accredited so highly purely due to her piloting skill. Max Schmeling did by no means support anti-Semitism. His close friend and manager Joe Jacobs was a Jew and even during the war he kept him in his position. He opposed these anti-Semitic nearly risking his life saving two Jewish boys during the Kristallnacht. Leni Riefenstahl reason why she collaborated with Hitler in the term of her artistic movies was purely because she saw in Hitler an artist just like her. This is what made their speculated closer ties with Hitler. She was not an anti –Semite as in her movies such as Olympia she shows the black runner who won the gold medal glorifying him just as well she glorified the German athletes. Although some of these facts demonstrate some of the persons as innocent as lambs, they also had evidence that was to the negative of their innocence.

As some of these characters seem to be innocent, this might be a rushed choice to make. Some of these characters might have lied about their true intents to make themselves look better so they would have not have to face charges. This fact might be the truth for Werner Heisenberg; he always claimed that he had purposefully derailed the construction of atomic weapons. Maybe he was not able to do correct calculations. There was a meeting with his close friend Niels Bohr in 1941, it has never been publicized what he told Niels Bohr but after their meeting their friendship was to be affected for life. Heisenberg was kicked out of his house, maybe because Heisenberg had told him of the plans of making an atomic bomb for Germany, but this is speculation. Gertrud Scholtz-Klinik was maybe the guiltiest of them all. She not only joined the Nazi Party because of financial troubles, but also to honour her husband who had fallen in the war. As she was the leader of the Nazi Women Party she was the highest ranked women in Germany at this time. Also she was making speeches telling German women only to work and to not to enjoy leisure or any of that kind. Scholtz-Klinik herself pursued a very luxurious and glamorous life. Hanna Reitsch was just a normal pilot; however she was still one of the closest women to Hitler, also being his personal pilot. She collaborated with Hitler by aiding his propaganda plans test flying the aircrafts of the so mighty Luftwaffe, including participating in shows with a great audience. Also fighting in the war, she received two iron crosses. She was the first woman to ever to do so. Max Schmeling was not innocent either. He had many conversations with Hitler and lengthy dinners with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. He was used many times as a propaganda figure portraying him as Aryan super hero boxer; during his fights with Joe Louis high Nazi party officials accompanied him. Leni Riefenstahl, even though making some of her movies before the Nazis were in power aided with propaganda material to the NSDAP. Hitler saw her as his favourite movie director and personally asked her to create propaganda movies for Germany. Without these very strong propaganda movies the Nazi would have still been popular, but would have never gained popularity so quickly and strongly as without the filming of these movies. These facts show the other view of the five “ordinary” Germans providing facts as showing them culpable of the crimes.

There are yet more historical statements that depict a guilty view of these five Germans. Werner Heisenberg was given the opportunity to leave when many of his fellow friends left the country for places like America. He remained and wanted to work for the science laboratories in Germany which included the production of the atomic bomb and due to the fact that he was German he was able to abuse this and become the head of the department of science in Germany, which was to follow to Hitler’s orders. Gertrude Scholtz-Klinik has another very significant and incriminating fact that makes her culpable. She openly addressed crowds of women teaching and preaching them about Eugenics. The theory of whites and the Aryans being superior, this is very much against her as this is Hitler’s belief that caused millions of deaths of Jews. Also she was not forced into believing this, as even after the war and when the truth about the concentration camps was revealed proud of what she believed in which was the same as the NSDAP believed when their rule was at their peak. Hanna Reitsch had not many more facts proving her culpable; however she was the person who saw him in the last hours before Hitler’s death in the Führerbunker. Meaning she must have been close. Schmeling too, spread propaganda about Germany when he came to the United States. He told the press there of better conditions in Germany than it really was. Just like Goebbels and Hitler asked him to do. This is a clear evidence for collaboration. Leni Riefenstahl aided Hitler just as well as many more through her propagandist movies. When asked by Hitler to shoot another movie she was given unlimited resources, camera crews, budget, complete artistic control and final cut of the film. Sieg des Glaubens, title of the film, was a documentary glorifying Hitler and widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced.

Finally, in this paper both positive and negatives views of each of the five selected “ordinary” Germans, however a decision of whether they are culpable or not can only be established by creating an opinionated answer from the information given by this paper. Some of this information evolves around speculations therefore each justification is to be arguable. For Werner Heisenberg I believe to be not culpable as he was called a “white Jew” himself and had Jewish friends. His work never nor was responsible for the death or injure of a single body. Whether to his intentions to help Germany or not, I do not take into consideration as it to much evolves around speculation. Gertrud Scholtz-Klinik I believe to be culpable, she was a strong believer in the idealistic socialist Nazi society, and even worse taught the idea of Eugenics. Even till later after the war she was proud of this. The pilot Hanna Reitsch I believe to be not culpable even though she seemed to have close relations with Hitler. However, her only passion was flying and was a soldier like thousands of others. Schmeling I believe is one of the most obvious cases to call not culpable. Himself he risked his own life for Jews and refusing to collaborate with Hitler and the Nazis. Lastly, Leni Riefenstahl I as well believe not to be culpable as her intentions and collaborations were of artistic matters, and she did not seem to know what was happening to millions of the Jews in the concentration camps.

Whether or whether not ordinary Germans are to be culpable is still to be a debateable question, however I believe only the highest of the highest male ranks should be found guilty. I believe so as Hitler never openly admitted speech about the concentration camps. No ordinary Germans could have known of the inhumane and repulsive treatment, to them it was just told their home were ‘evacuated’ because of the Germans that had lost housing due to the bombings of civil areas of the allied forces.