Left with no protection force, the SS was born out of necessity. The brainchild of Bavarian Minister Heinrich Himmler, the SS was Hitler’s new bodyguard and paramilitary arm of the state. Membership was not as simplistic as the SA, however. Members-to-be had to prove they were of Aryan blood not “tainted” by Semitic ancestors. Aryan-Semitic relationships had been previously banned under the Nuremburg laws so these were obviously banned amongst SA members also. Most notorious among all SA members, one unit stands out. The Death’s Head squadrons, responsible for the management of the Nazi death camps at Dachau, Auschwitz and elsewhere. Himmler was also responsible for the Gestapo, the German secret police. Initially meant as a supplement to the Bavarian police force they were merged with the national police. Unlike the SA or SS before them, the Gestapo had a certain subtlety. If they had reason to suspect a member of the public, they would be tailed for a number of days or weeks until enough evidence was gathered against them to warrant an interrogation which for the majority of the time led to an equally unfair trial for the defendant.
Fear and terror was not of course, the only reason for Nazi success. When Hitler came to power in January 1933 he set to work creating a “1000-year Reich”. Political intrigue had set the foundations for this regime but Hitler was determined to set his position in the firm groundings of Weimar’s own laws. March 1933 saw the last – supposedly – democratic elections under Nazi rule. After an unfortunate fire at the Reichstag which Hitler conveniently blamed on a Dutch communist, van der Lubbe, Hitler and the NSDAP secured 44% of the vote – notably still not a majority. Hitler’s first motion was to pass the Enabling Act. This would further cement his position as Fuhrer. The Kroll Opera House was the setting for the vote that took place, with SA and SS lining the walls, the Act was passed. Communists and a free press were now banned, with the Reichstag had gone the last hopes for a workable German democracy.
Germany had taken the harshest blow from the worldwide depression when Wall Street collapsed. Sitting with over 6 million workers unemployed, Hitler had a monumental task ahead of him. Huge public works schemes were established such as the construction of the Autobahnen, a network of roads linking Germany together and rebuilding Germany’s infrastructure. Under Weimar, extremist parties had been allowed to flourish. One such party was the Communist KPD. With this new party came a new movement for increased civil rights. Trade Unions had sprung up across the country vowing to fight for their member’s rights and freedoms. Hitler saw this a clear and present threat to his rule. Trade unions were quickly banned and all workers joined the Nazi Union. The Nazi Union came with KdF – Strength Through Joy. This scheme encouraged workers to be more productive in their labour and rewarded the best workers with package holidays and foreign cruises. However, this was still not enough to fill the 6M posts, simply not enough jobs were available. The removal of the Jews from the civil service and professions by Hitler created thousands of posts for “true” Germans and was welcomed by the majority. With millions of people back in work, their outgoings also soared. Inflation set in and Germany seemed fated to face another bout of huperinflation. However, the German Minister for Economics, Schacht, saw this did not occur by not allowing wage rates to rise.
In 1933, Germany was still lying crippled from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler devised an innovative foreign policy, created to defy the super powers of the day. Hitler believed in Autarky – that Germany should be self sufficient and no longer reliant on foreign imports, this would prove vital in the coming war. Along with many Germans, Hitler also wished to reclaim the land he believed had been wrongfully taken from him in 1919 and soon marched into the demilitarised Rhineland, reclaiming it as German territory. Hitler also reintroduced conscription to increase the army from a meagre 100,000 and also poured vast amounts of money into rearmament, rebuilding the Army, Airforce and Navy. Anti-semitism in Germany was a huge part of daily life. Right from the get-go, Jews were hounded everywhere they went. Harassed by the separate security forces, the Jews encountered the first real sign that they would not be tolerated in 1935. Krystalnacht – the German retaliation for the murder of a German by a Jew – ended with 100 synagogues burned to the ground and over 1,000 Jews arrested. Prior to this, Jews had been also been forced out of the civil service and the professions such as doctors, lawyers and teaching.The education system was rapidly changing towards anti-semitism also. Jewish children were sent to the front of the class where they were ridiculed by their classmates and later into Hitler’s reign they were forced out of the system altogether into privately run schools with no assistance from the state.
The 1000-year Reich Hitler was building had so far focused on the current generation of workers and civilians. However, for this to last Hitler had to indoctrinate the new generation. With the Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens, Hitler set to this.
