Papers on Nazi Germany

[rah45]

As I've told a few of you, I just completed a class on Nazi Germany. I had to write two short papers for this class, both of which resulted in high grades (A's), so I don't feel too embarrassed to post them here. I thought that, especially considering the imminent passage of the National Defense Authorization Bill of 2012, you guys would like to see some products of individual research on what amounts to be a terrifying parallel to our current history. I hope you enjoy. There are two papers. One regards Nazi war propaganda during 1941, and the other concerns the emergence of the Nazi Party's power in Germany.

Selected Bibliography

Klemperer, Victor. I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941. Translated by Martin Chalmers. New York: Modern Library, 1999.

Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Translated by Clara and Richard Winston. Bronx: New York: Ishni Press International, 1970.



***Yes, I know there are only two sources. This is per the professor's instructions. Both are primary sources.

[rah45]

The Emerging Dominance of the Nazi Party in Germany

    Nazi Germany is the source of one of the most destructive wars in human history. It was the center of a persecution against many of its own citizens, minorities who did nothing wrong and were outcast, beaten, tortured and executed because of their ancestry. Its heritage is nothing less than a history of hate, ignorance, blind adherence, arrogance and pride. Destroying the monster that Germany had become took the lives of millions of men and women, from the French resistors in occupied France, the besieged British who suffered in the Battle of Britain, the Canadian forces at Dunkirk, the American soldiers who landed at Normandy, and every other individual who stood against the terror of Nazi Germany. Many history books exist documenting this period in German history and the international struggle that emerged from it. However, sometimes a more personal view is necessary to capture the emotions and actions of something so horrid.

   Albert Speer and Victor Klemperer are two Germans who lived through the Nazi takeover of Germany. Speer, an architect, joined the Nazi Party as one of Hitler's closest assistants and remained in that position until Hitler died. He chronicled his thoughts, feelings, and desires in hindsight. It is difficult to decide whether he attempted to justify his involvement with the Nazi Party, or merely recalled events that occurred, but in either case he provided a valuable insight to what happened during the Nazis's control of Germany. Klemperer, a professor at a German university, was a Jew and experienced a lot of the persecution that the Nazi government directed at his people. He was able to give a lot of good information regarding the events from 1933 onward because of his status in the community and also because he served as a front-line soldier during World War I. Thus, he provided an honest, educated and unique perspective of a persecuted minority in a country that quickly became mad with devotion to an ideology propagated by mad men. Many things are evident in both authors' books, but the main themes revolve around the subjugation of the intelligence and the youth of the German people, the isolation and persecution of the Jewish population, and the use of propaganda and force to compel Germans to obey.

   The Nazis proved quite adept at developing strategies to attract more followers. They targeted the emotions of people regarding the Versailles Treaty, and mixed them with negative views of minority populations such as those of Jewish ancestry and gypsies. Speer described the target audience of the Nazis when he said, ??I attended a membership meeting of the Mannheim local party group. I was struck by the low personal and intellectual level of the members. ?A country cannot be governed by such people,? I briefly thought.?  Speer also described the Nazi strategies used to keep the ratio of intellectuals vs. ?low intellectuals? when he recalled a speech by Goebbels in which Goebbels decried intellectuals who wanted to join the Nazi Party. Goebbels emphasized that the newer intellectuals would only want to take advantage of the success of the party ?and are now prepared to take it over themselves and provide it with leadership and expertise.?  Klemperer related to this as he described the serious lack of students in his classes and knew they were being overworked in different Labor Service projects, and believed that Nazi Party heads ?do not want anyone to study; intellect, scholarship are the enemies.?  Klemperer made note of instances in which the Nazi Party made propaganda efforts specifically targeting children. As evidence of this, he provided accounts of balls labeled with the swastika prominently displayed in a toy shop.  He also recalled a story an acquaintance told him about children who reacted extremely enthusiastically by singing a national song when they glimpsed a person with a swastika on his clothing.  These actions by the Nazis clearly show their intent to bolster their numbers early by recruiting people not intelligent enough to deduce their sinister designs, and also show shrewd planning in corrupting the children of intellectuals and ?low intellectuals? alike for future recruits into the party (the Hitler Youth is an excellent example of an institution designed specifically for that purpose).

   Accounts of wrongful actions against Germans of Jewish ancestry cannot be found in Speer?s book. Whether that is because he was so oblivious to it, or because he does not wish to look guiltier, is uncertain. Klemperer, however, is a perfect source of this information, considering that he endured some effects of the persecution. The most immediate effect that the persecution against the Jews had upon Klemperer occurred at his job. He was constantly afraid that he would be fired because he was a Jew. This is most notable when all the Jewish staff was fired except for Klemperer and two other professors, who only escaped such a fate because they all had been front-line troops during the Great War.  His is not the only example of economic persecution, as he recalls an account where a Jewish editor is fired from a pro-government publication.  The Nazis also ejected Jewish Germans from positions where they could adversely affect Nazi goals. Klemperer proves this when he recalled that the government dismissed a Jewish judge.  There was also a boycott one day against certain Jewish businesses, in an attempt to cripple Jewish families.  The government and German society itself became so anti-Semitic that those of Jewish ancestry were afraid to exchange mail or even call one another on the telephone. Communication, if any was made at all, was done in person in private settings.

   The Nazi government could not have instituted their ideology had they not been able to subdue opposition to it. First, the populace feared for their employment. Thieme, mentioned earlier, joined the Nazi Party partly because he wished to keep his job.  Newspapers that gave any information that the Nazis deemed harmful were shut down, ensuring that any public opposition against Nazi activities ended. Teachers feared that they would be fired if they spoke out against anything the Nazi Party sanctioned.  If the fear of unemployment was not enough to deter someone from speaking or acting against Nazi interests, violence and propaganda usually deterred them. Klemperer recalled: the violence surrounding the Reichstag fire, the propaganda on the radio, the swastika banners hung everywhere to remind Germany who was in control, buildings seized under Nazi authority, and even citizens being shot.  It is quite obvious that by combining fear of a very real intent to do harm with an extreme use of pro-Nazi propaganda gave the Nazi Party the ability to influence its people, and in fact the rest of the world, in the manner it did.

   Speer and Klemperer provide different insights to the events that occurred during the early years of the Nazi Party?s rise to dominance. Speer seems to hide information from the reader (either that or he was one of the ?low intellectuals? he described), but his insight into the type of people intentionally sought by the Nazi Party to fill its ranks explains the mindless devotion that the German people showed overall to their Nazi government. Klemperer shows this and more in his book, exposing the difficulties of living day-to-day even as a college professor. Both of them together help to paint the picture of what it was like living during the Nazis? rise to power.

[rah45]

Nazi Propaganda during 1941: The Fight for Control of the German Populace

During a war, there are always two aspects of the fight: there is a war on one or more fronts against a declared enemy, and there is a war at home to win the hearts and minds of the citizenry. This can be difficult to maintain, even in an extremely patriotic and free society, at a time when food and material shortages, manpower shortages, and curfews exist in order to meet wartime needs. In Nazi Germany, the government faced even greater opposition as it actively persecuted a percentage of its own populace. Given time to think for themselves and use reason to dictate their opinions, the German populace could very well become an internal threat to the Nazi government. Therefore, controlling the populace was a matter of the utmost importance.

Victor Klemperer, a German Jew who lived in Nazi Germany, kept a journal in which he recorded events that occurred in Germany during 1941.  As a college professor and a Jew, he had access to people from many different walks of life. As such, his recordings are extremely valuable, as they provide secondhand insight from a variety of sources, as well as his own opinions. Among other valuable information Klemperer provides, of particular interest is his information on German war propaganda during 1941. Klemperer provides detailed information on the German government?s attempts to control information related to military successes and setbacks, economic hardships caused by the war, and counters to anti-Nazi propaganda spread from sources both inside and outside of Germany.
Much of the control that the Nazi government exerted over the German people stemmed from the belief that Nazi Germany under Hitler was a righteous, unstoppable machine that would spread German values across Europe. In order to sustain this, official German war reports had to be extremely positive in order to retain support, both physically and via morale, for the Eastern Front. The most obvious method to accomplish this was to over-embellish German victories over Russian armies. According to Klemperer?s journal, on July 18th, German military bulletins stated that ?Bialystok was recently ?the greatest battle of attrition and annihilation in world history.??  A similar example of the use of superlative in a German military bulletin occurs on August 22nd, when it describes the Russians? ??unimaginable bloody losses.??  As if this was not extreme enough, on December 9th Klemperer recalls how many times the government has stated ?Russia [is] completely beaten,?  despite the fact that the Russian counteroffensive, plus the arrival of winter, had completely stopped the German advance.

Using grandiose verbiage in these media releases was not the only means by which the totalitarian regime attempted to assure the populace of Germany?s inevitable victory. German war reports frequently inflated the numbers of enemy casualties. On August 22nd, Klemperer recorded the reports as estimating over one million Russian casualties, an astounding number for only two months of fighting. It seems extremely unlikely, considering that the pre-war Russian military numbered five million and the German military on the Eastern front numbered only three million. On September 27th and 28th, Klemperer gives a possible method for arriving at this number. After speaking with an acquaintance named Loeben, Klemperer learns that, of a more than 600,000 Russians that the German military claimed to have taken prisoner at Kiev, approximately two-thirds of them were civilians living in Kiev.  Thus, it seems that the German war bulletins provided statistics that were grossly exaggerated in order to increase the popular opinion of German war actions.
The Nazi government also countered sources of anti-Nazi war propaganda. In one instance, the newspapers declared that one of Winston Churchill?s statements regarding the Eastern front were nothing but ?lies about Russian victories.?  Foreign propaganda was not the only target of the Nazi-controlled state, however. On October 27th, the German media announced the confiscation of typewriters from all individuals (having previously confiscated typewriters from businesses).  This prevented anyone from having a legal means to quickly make and distribute any papers that might counter German propaganda.

German propagandists also attempted to deceive the Germans regarding the state of their economy. Klemperer recorded constantly his personal experiences with shortages of food. He detailed the distribution of ration cards and the establishment of a ?scarce commodities? category that Jews were not allowed to purchase.  He referenced the severe tobacco shortage, as both he and his wife smoked regularly.  He described the lack of food (and resultant high prices) in restaurants,  and stated that he and his wife were only able to cook at home twice weekly.  In addition, he revealed that steel shortages led to inefficient airplane manufacturing (using lighter metals for the construction), wool shortages led to poor quality coats for the troops, and leather shortages resulted in a shoe shortage for the entire populace.  However, against this the government still attempted to maintain control. On September 2nd, Klemperer records the government?s message that, although ?foodstuffs are in short supply, in very short supply for us, but no one is starving.?  Later, on September 28th, the newspaper stated that the economy was ??greater than ever??based ?on the strength of the whole of Europe.??  Even though most Germans saw and felt the effects of Germany?s worsening economy, the Nazi-controlled media continued to print these lies in an effort to limit the damage to morale.

Many Germans did not believe the propaganda spread by the official media outlets, and sought other sources of information. Klemperer received much of his information from other individuals. An acquaintance named Kreidl (the informant of steel and wool shortages) helped Klemperer.  A member of ?senior medical authority? provided true casualty numbers from the front on September 2nd, totaling a million and a half dead, wounded, and sick German casualties on the Eastern Front.  This information was extremely helpful to other German citizens, because the German war reports, while highly embellishing German successes, did not list German casualties.

German propaganda did not always achieve its intended goal of preserving the blind obedience and patriotism to the Nazi state. However, many Germans did believe the information given by the official media outlets. Their numbers were enough to prolong the German war efforts for years, and ensure the deaths of millions. Klemperer voiced the issue best, when speaking of Hitler and his followers: ?How many people calculate, believe like him? Millions perhaps?How was it possible that they could incense the believing population in such a fashion in this war, in which so many are suffering??  It was possible through the Nazi propaganda, inciting millions to follow a power-hungry dictator wherever he would lead them.

[Reaver]

 [URL=http://www.smileyvault.co

I have a super bad ass wife. who recently got a 100 on her paper on " The Patriot Act "
I will have her read it aloud and tell me what she thinks.

[JohnyMac]

Great Job Rah.

As you read these papers, jot down on a piece of paper how many times the US is mirroring Germany today. It is very scary.

The question is: Will the American people put up with it like the German people did?

[Reaver]

Great Job Rah.

As you read these papers, jot down on a piece of paper how many times the US is mirroring Germany today. It is very scary.

The question is: Will the American people put up with it like the German people did?

I fear most will.

But some at least one ( me ) will not.  [url=http://www.freesmileys.or

[JohnyMac]

Right on Reaver  [URL=http://www.smileyvault.co