Nazi Thesis- Part X

X means ten in Roman numerals. Here is part ten in my continuing series on the Nazi personality.

There have been many movements and political parties throughout history, but Nazism outmatches most when it comes to the fanatiscm of its members. Hitler was able to tap into the fears and paranoia felt in Germany after World War I, and combine it with popular doctrines of the time. Racism, nationalism and even the dreaded Marxism played into what the Nazis created to gain their “living space,” and the elimination of true evil. By borrowing what he liked from various groups and texts, Hitler could create his own utopian ideology that spoke to everyone in Germany, including the workers who were mainly socialist. The very name of the party conveys this mass appeal, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. All of these things mean something different, in fact, they contradict each other, but Hitler knew that he needed to gain all the support he could. 

In the Nazi party there was something for everyone, and that is why there was such a grab bag of men that chose to join. No other movement could have culled such a varied spectrum of men into its ranks. Varied only applies to the places they came from, the viewpoints they held were not varied at all. The darkness in the hearts of the top Nazis was what connected them with each other and to the overreaching Nazi idea. Like all groups, the Nazis believed that they were doing good, and that Aryans were the preferred race on the entire planet. An ability to be easily swayed characterizes all die hard Nazis. 

In the Nazi personality there were varying degrees of gullibility, Goebbels represents the highest, and Speer the lowest. Certain men joined because it suited their lifestyle, and gave them the opportunity for success, like Speer. Others used it merely to fill a void in their lives, and bought into every facet of Nazism, like Goebbels. Perhaps gullible is the wrong word for those who completely immersed themselves in the party, but so large was the hole inside of them that a lack of truth in what the Nazis preached did not matter. 

The opportunism that Hitler exercised rendered any disbelievers helpless against the growing throngs of Nazi supporters. Times had been so hard in Germany following the war, and the population was so humiliated that it was easy for the Nazis to rally support, despite the lack of truth in their ideology. Also, the Nazis tapped into long standing social beliefs, mostly concerning the Jews. Among his many talents, Hitler had the ability to tell people what they wanted to hear, but even he was not able to make his people believe as the war turned against Germany.

Nazi Thesis- Part IX

Here is the ninth part in my continuing series.

Himmler and Heydrich bear much of the blame for the Final Solution, but every wing of the Nazi party became a cog in the machine to rid the world of Jews. Even though there were differences in opinion among the top Nazis, each man did believe that Jews were a pathogenic race. Hatred of Jews bonded the top Nazis together, and masked by the legitimacy of Hitler’s leadership they used their departments in cooperation with each other. Goebbels, for instance, raided Jewish factories and neighborhoods in order to rid Berlin of its Jewish population. Even the propaganda minister was not above rounding up Jews for his Fuhrer. 

The most telling bit of evidence of the existence of a Nazi personality, is to what lengths each man was willing to go for Nazism and Hitler. Hitler’s love of Germany during World War I was recreated in his own men and directed back at him during World War II. Unwavering devotion to the movement was what made it successful and popular, but this would also be its undoing, just as German defeat in 1918 had been Hitler’s.

Fragile. That is a word that can easily describe any one of the top Nazis. Hitler and all of his inner circle were men who had very little strength. Most of them only had success after joining the party, and the thought of living without it was unbearable. Not one of the top Nazi leaders was able to escape their role in the war because they were all so wrapped up in the party. Speer got the least amount of punishment, but as a high official he still received his due. 

Speer, with Hitler

Going into the movement, these men were already on the margins, and at any given time a twist of fate could have plunged them into grave misfortune. Nazism was what brought them back into the mainstream, and perhaps in gratitude they poured every ounce of their being into the ideology of National Socialism. Many men had given so much to party in its early years that they were glorified by the other members, and this in turn made men who were new to the party want to give as much as they could. Hitler, of course, set the example and began to use his power to create martyrs of certain party members who had been killed, always in the service of the party. Service of the party was what usually came first to the top Nazis, and life was forced to assume a back seat.

Nazi Thesis- Part VIII

Here is part eight in the ongoing series based on my undergraduate thesis on the Nazi personality.

The deception that was such a cornerstone of the Nazi personality served to allow them to carry out their worst atrocities. Without being able to project a good side to the public while engaging in such terrible deeds, the Holocaust might not have been executed as smoothly as it was. That is why Reinhard Heydrich is such an interesting Nazi personality. It was easy to see the evil in SS head Heinrich Himmler, or in the seedy Joseph Goebbels, but this was not true of Heydrich. Despite his genteel outward appearance, it was Heydrich that designed much of the process of the Holocaust at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. At that historic conference, which on its face looked like a simple policy making meeting, was in actuality the starting point of mass genocide. 

The villa where the Wannsee Conference was held.

The Wannsee Conference was just another in a series of great Nazi deceptions. While having coffee and pastries, the Nazis at the conference, led by Heydrich, calmly discussed how best to kill an entire race of people. To keep the genocide a secret Heydrich and the others decided to engage in yet another lie. In order to deceive others about the fate of Nazi prisoners the camps would be placed in desolate areas in occupied territory, far from the German population. While Heydrich was present at the meeting, the execution of the Final Solution should not be completely credited to Heydrich. Himmler and the other SS heads also masterminded perhaps the greatest and most terrible of all Nazi deceptions.

It is this ability to be so at ease with such evil acts that makes the Nazi personality so compelling and enigmatic. In many ways the Nazis even deceive themselves into thinking that such acts are justifiable. In films of Himmler visiting the death camps, he smiles, as if a part of a lush travelogue of Eastern Europe. The Nazis, and the SS in particular were so blatant in their acts of immorality that it is difficult to understand how a person is capable of such evil. Such is the entire Nazi party, an entity which through opportunity, was able to convince its own members to carry out genocide in the name of the cause. 

Not all Nazis maintained this ability to participate in such dark deeds, but those who did not actively participate could rarely achieve greatness within the party. Those at the top were so committed to becoming the heads of the Nazi movement that nothing would stand in their way, not even deception and murder. The head Nazis were able to make all of the horrors seem alright to their low-level functionaries, and in turn their compliance would gain them great face with Hitler.

All Nazis’ main focus was the good of the German “volk” or people. Obviously, the people were only those that Hitler deemed acceptable. For this group of men to categorize people into desirable and undesirable illustrates another key Nazi trait. The dehumanization of Jews was made possible due to a complete lack of empathy. Without being able to put themselves in the shoes of their adversary, the Nazis could do the unthinkable to them, and not feel any remorse. Originally, the plan had been to deport Jews to the French controlled island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, but that fell through. A lack of success in the Battle of Britain made it impossible to carry out a mass deportation of Jews, and so it was necessary to find another way, a deadlier way. 

By the time the Final Solution had been put into place in the 1940’s, the Nazis had been marginalizing the Jews for such a long time that it was easy to sign their death warrant without even a second thought. This talent for desensitizing themselves makes the Nazis a unique group. No one at the the top could see their actions as wrong, and more importantly they could turn their backs on horrific human suffering. Even those who did feel uneasy about the killing of Jews were given new methods to further distance themselves. The development of poison gas at the death camps was in response to many SS camp guards who could no longer stand to shoot Jews to death. Once again, Hitler and his men found a way to eliminate contact with their victims and keep the process moving forward.

Nazi Thesis- Part VII

This is part 7 in the ongoing series- for those of you who struggle with Roman numerals.

A key component to the Nazi personality, along with ambition, insecurity and intelligence, was manipulation. Hitler was the master of this trait, but others close to him were able to manipulate people and circumstances to forward their own goals as well as the party’s. Himmler and Heydrich were able to use manipulation to create a power base for themselves and get rid of their competitors in the SA. Goering too, had designs on power, and while he noticed “Himmler’s spinsterish face...concealed a ravenous ambition,” he was also secretly concerned with attaining a higher post for himself within the regime. 

While Himmler and Goebbels’ quest for power was well evidenced at the time, especially with Rohm’s execution, Goering played a significant role in implicating the SA head, and used it to vault himself higher in the Nazi pecking order. Goering, clearly seeing that Himmler and Heydrich were the men on the rise in Hitler’s eyes backed their SS consolidation of power by giving them control of the police in states which he administered. Now with Himmler firmly in power, Goering no longer had to worry about Rohm, and Himmler had to only report to Hitler himself. 

Deception was another a key element to the makeup of the ideal Nazi. Throughout the time leading up to the assassination of Rohm and his SA confederates, Himmler, Heydrich and Goering lied to Hitler to protect their own personal interests. These men were not above lying to their beloved Fuhrer to obtain their goals. Manipulation and deception went hand in hand, and the deception that went on in the Nazi regime was done to manipulate circumstances for the success of the Third Reich. During the war, the deception among the party elites was so prevalent that it led to widespread corruption. Each of the top Nazis was so good at deception and shady dealings that it crumbled the bureaucracy as time wore on. Hitler’s closest advisors were almost taught to lie by the Fuhrer himself. 

Not only was Hitler a master manipulator, he was also a great deceiver. He was able to create enough deception in Germany to convince the people of the Jewish threat, and that the only way to achieve his Aryan utopia was to get rid of the Jews. As time went on, Hitler and the SS heads lied more and more to the German people about the course of the war, and the fate of Jews and other undesirables.

Nazi Thesis- Part VI

Blogger was down earlier this week and it unposted this entry that I had already posted. Here, for the second time is part six in my series on the Nazi personality.

One man who Hitler trusted not to attempt to seize power was Rudolf Hess. Unlike the other top Nazis, Hess was not ambitious, and far less intelligent than Goebbels or Himmler. For that reason Hitler could treat Hess more like a friend than a subordinate. Hess possessed a duality in his personality like his comrades, but it was a different kind of duality. He had a dark brooding nature that made him look far more sinister than he actually was. While the reverse can be said of Himmler or Heydrich, Hess was the shy younger brother that tagged along with the older boys. Hitler played the role of older brother to Hess, by giving him power even though there were other more capable men in the regime, and in return Hess showed Hitler the utmost devotion. An adolescent in many ways, Hess survived the cutthroat Nazi power structure only due to his closeness with Hitler. To men like Himmler and Heydrich, Hess posed no threat, and he cooperated with their initiatives, especially the Final Solution.

By allowing himself to be swayed by the people closest to him, without giving up power, Hitler allowed for his most ambitious and ruthless subordinates to achieve great things by competing with each other for his favor. Each man carved out a niche for himself, and in many ways created his own job or jobs. Goebbels was officially the head of the Propaganda Ministry, but his influence extended into film, radio, newspapers and books. At any given time he had the power to intervene on any film being made in Germany. Hess was placated because of his secure post as the Deputy Fuhrer. Himmler, following the emergence of the SS and Gestapo, was the second most powerful man in Germany, and his rise to prominence was not opposed by Hitler. In fact, Himmler had done so much work to besmirch the SA and its leaders, that Hitler was grateful to him, and enabled his SS empire to out grow any other entity within the party. Like Himmler, Heydrich was able to make his job more vast by acquiring power inside the SS organization. Goering was also able to garner many different leadership positions; he was the head of the Luftwaffe and the head of German national parks among other things.

The Nazi personality centered around a quest for power and a need to do good for the advancement of Hitler’s plans, by any means necessary. Albert Speer was one of the few Nazis who were not overly ambitious. As the armaments minister to Hitler, Speer was not as much a part of the internal power struggle like Himmler and Goering. Not perhaps as sinister as the other leading Nazis, Speer did retain elements of the Nazi persona. Speer’s connection to the party was not like that of the others in Hitler’s inner circle; he was not bound to it in such a way that he could not bear its demise. Like Goebbels and Himmler, it was the party that brought Speer success, and Hitler liked having him as a key component to his staff. More than just another lackey who sucked up to Hitler to get ahead, Speer, like Hess, felt he actually had Hitler’s respect and friendship. In many ways Speer was at odds with much of the regime, and did not buy into the strange, dysfunctional camaraderie of the Nazi regime.

Undoubtedly there were others like Speer who joined the party and never gave it their full allegiance, but he is the one who had the most access to Hitler. Speer bared few similarities to his fellow Nazis, but his appearance was, in fact a deception. At his trial following World War II, Speer claimed to have not been in on the atrocities committed in the Holocaust. While he may not have had much to do with the actual carrying out of the Final Solution, Speer was able to use the Nazi trait of manipulation to save himself from the hangman’s noose.

Nazi Thesis- Part V

Here is installment five.

Himmler was one of the most diabolical members of the Nazi party. His activities as the head of the SS made him invincible to those who opposed him. A former chicken farmer, Himmler was a very simple looking man who might have been mistaken for a banker. This normal, mundane exterior concealed the cold, ruthless and cruel man who masterminded the Nazi plot against the Jews. Like Hitler and Goebbels, Himmler was a great propagandist, and knew how to gain allies to the movement.

The dual nature of the Nazi personality is displayed perfectly in Heinrich Himmler. He joined the party at the urging of Ernst Rohm, his good friend, and later conspired with others to kill him. At the time he joined the party in 1923, very few would have picked Himmler to eventually be the second most powerful man in Germany. Himmler knew quite early that he was capable of achieving great things as a Nazi. In order to create the post he desired, Himmler would allow nothing to stand in his way. It was this characteristic that gave Himmler the edge over other men in the regime with more flashy credentials and better education.

Himmler represents the great duality of Nazi leaders- a fertilizer salesman who became head of an empire. What he lacked in education and experience, he made up for in desire and ruthlessness. In these respects he was just like Hitler. Hitler prized individuals like himself who would stop at nothing to gain their objectives. This may be the reason that the Nazi personality had such an ambitious nature. Heydrich, Goering and Himmler were all prime examples of ambitious Nazis. Their lust for power called for them to eliminate the competition within the party, SA head Ernst Rohm was that competition. Rohm, forever wanting to create an SA police state, was targeted by these three for elimination. Himmler and Heydrich created reports in their departments to give Hitler the idea that Rohm was a threat, and that he needed to be dealt with.

Himmler (left) and Rohm

Showing the unquenchable thirst for power that is indicative of the Nazi personality, Goering, Himmler and Heydrich through their intervention signed Rohm’s death warrant and snatched up as much power as they could in the wake of “the Night of Long Knives.” No Nazi would allow anyone or anything stand in his way, whether it was a fellow Nazi, political opponent or a racial subordinate. While many might see this maniacal ambition as a horrible flaw, Hitler prized this quality above all, and encouraged his inner circle to jockey for position within the regime. All the while, however, Hitler knew exactly how to use them without giving up any control.

Nazi Thesis- Part III

Here's part three of my undergraduate thesis on the Nazi personality.

Like Hitler, those who joined the party in the early 1920’s were social outcasts, many of whom had fought in World War I and felt the sting of defeat like Hitler. Angry and lost, many ex-soldiers had no direction following Germany’s humiliating loss, and in the Nazi party they found structure and a forum in which to vent their frustrations. Hitler, as the leader of the party, was able to appeal to the discontent of the masses, and tapped into their anger to fuel the Nazi ideology.

The ideas that Hitler promoted were to enable the German people to right the wrongs that World War I inflicted on them. Even though the Weimar Republic was doing well prior to the Great Depression, the Nazis had a grander vision of the German nation, and Hitler was the master of the plan. In the early days the plan was only known to a small number of angry workers and veterans.

Joseph Goebbels

A man who saw eye to eye with Hitler and the ideas he promoted was Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels, first seeing Hitler at his trial in 1924, identified with him and saw the person that he believed could make his idea of a “just world” a reality. Like many of his generation, including Adolf Hitler, Goebbels was tormented by the loss of the war, but as he investigated the Nazi party, he began to see a ray of hope for himself and the German people. Born as a proud Prussian, Goebbels, like Hitler, felt he had something to prove all his life, and sought to vent his frustrations outwardly. Although the chip on his shoulder was different than Hitler’s, Goebbels had one nonetheless. Born with a deformed foot, and always seen as a sickly boy, Joseph’s misfortunes were seen by his parents as a punishment from God. His deformity, the source of ridicule and pity, Goebbels was a withdrawn sad youth who loved to read and write, and be alone with his thoughts.

Unlike Hitler, Goebbels did find some success prior to joining the party. Goebbels received a doctorate after writing a dissertation which included such themes as, “love of the Fatherland,” “spiritual greatness,” and “enthusiasm.” All of these ideas would be used by Goebbels in his eventual role as the Nazi’s chief propagandist. Neither Hitler nor Goebbels knew what they were creating as they joined forces, but each sought to find success in a world that had tried to keep them down in various ways. 

Over time, Goebbels used his skills to get himself as close to Hitler as possible, seeing him as the unquestioned force behind the party. In effect, Goebbels had become what Hitler had originally thought for himself, and now it was Goebbels’ job to pave the way for Hitler and soak up as much reflected glory as possible. The 1920’s were a period in which the party was gaining momentum, with Hitler speaking and Goebbels creating propaganda. 

The Depression made the people of Germany more receptive to radical ideas, and at the same time the Nazis hoped to become more mainstream, in order to gain power in the government. All of the party’s work paid off in 1930, as the Nazis won 107 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the nation’s second largest political party. The Nazis were now officially on the map, and men, like Hitler and Goebbels, who had been marginalized were now being taken seriously and gaining popular support. There were now others who had been left out in the cold that were coming to warm themselves in the glow of Nazism.

Nazi Thesis- Part II

Here is part two of my undergraduate thesis on Nazi Germany. I got an A on it.

With the arrival of war in 1914, Hitler, a failed artist, could see himself finally making an impact on the world, as his mother had told him he would. Feeling nationalism in his bones, Hitler enlisted in the German Army, and thus began his path of destiny. The war was integral in molding Hitler into his future self, as Ian Kershaw wrote, “the First World War made Hitler possible.” During the war Hitler and Germany became one. Hitler felt all the highs of success and all the lows of defeat as if he were Germany personified. (Later in his life he would assume that role completely.) With the surrender in 1918, Hitler and Germany hit rock bottom together. His own emotions, so tied to his adopted nation, Hitler sank into a deep hate-filled depression. Having reveled in the god-like half of his personality during the war, Hitler now felt lost and insecure, as if Alois himself had voiced disappointment at his son’s actions.

Hitler (far left) with his fellow soldiers and a dog

So disgusted with the pain of defeat, Hitler began to indulge the bitter, insecure half of himself, and made strides to right the wrongs of the war. Like many at the time, Hitler blamed the Jews for the loss of the war. Fear and hatred consumed Hitler at this time, and he took a shine to a group that felt much the same way he did. Already, European society was rife with tension, and the war had only served to create a larger divide between Jews and Gentiles. In his early years Hitler was not an anti-Semite, but as he became exposed to racially driven prejudice, Hitler became obsessed with the Jews, and their betrayal in the war. The party had anti-Semitic overtones before Hitler’s arrival, but it was he that molded them into a rabidly anti-Jewish group. It was due to his post-war hatred that Hitler discovered his talent for speaking and laying blame at the feet of the Jews.

As a speaker in the beer halls on behalf of his party, Hitler was able to synthesize the two sides of his personality, the angry, bitter side, and the ambitious, successful side, into what he eventually used as the Nazi demagogue. While Hitler’s two sides were meeting, the party was undergoing its own synthesis, as two of its major cornerstones were laid, propaganda and racial prejudice. Initially, Hitler was using his speaking ability to pave the way for the next great German leader, but as he gained notoriety, Hitler began to think that perhaps he was the man who could lead Germany into a new era of prosperity. The god complex had taken over, and Hitler saw his destiny before him as the Fuhrer of the Nazi party.

Nazi Thesis- Part I

One Year Old Adolf Hitler

I serialized my undergraduate history thesis on the Vietnam War on this blog last year, and now I will serialize my second undergraduate thesis on Nazi Germany. This main focus of this thesis is the nature of Nazi culture and what defines the personality of a Nazi. I hope that this will be informative and thought provoking. Here now is part one.

The Nazi regime was arguably the most oppressive and terrible in the history of mankind. It has come to symbolize the very essence of evil. Adolf Hitler and his closest henchmen formed the nucleus of an evil empire that sought to dominate the world through war and racial purification. Something about the Nazi ideology appealed to each of these men at a very base level which made them endeavor to do all that they could to forward the movement. No two men within the regime had the same life story, and each had their own path that drew them into the Nazi inner circle. While there are more differences than similarities in the lives of the Nazi leaders, each man had some void to fill in his life, and for all of them the party helped to fill that void. 

Hitler, perhaps, had the largest void to fill, and that is why he and the Nazi regime became one entity, and why when he died the Nazi movement could no longer survive. Those closest to Hitler became so wrapped up in the Nazi philosophy that none could survive without it. The key question to ask is, why was this? What made all of these men so dependent on Nazism? What sort of men were these, and why did they resort to such horrific means to obtain their goals? It was because of the Nazi personality, and it had the ability to take many forms, and affect people in different ways. 

Among the traits inherent in the Nazi personality- deception, manipulation, ambition, ruthlessness, insecurity and fear. These attributes were displayed to varying degrees in Hitler and his elite, and each man had a duality about his character that shaped his life. In order to comprehend the whole, the parts must be examined individually.

It is necessary to examine the leader of the movement to truly begin to brake down Nazi psychology. Adolf Hitler, the first child in his family to survive infancy, was pulled in two directions as a child that greatly affected the course of his life. Hitler’s father, Alois, was a strict disciplinarian who foisted great expectations and criticism on his son. An insensitive and domineering man, Adolf both hated and feared his father. This treatment by his father gave young Adolf an inferiority complex about himself and his abilities. The treatment his mother gave him more than compensated for his father’s coldness towards him. Klara Hitler doted on Adolf as he was the first of her children not to die in early childhood. The love that Klara Hitler gave Adolf was so unconditional that out of her treatment he was given a superiority complex. These two halves of Hitler’s personality came to make up what is in many ways the Nazi personality, fear on inadequacy and failure, coupled with a strong sense of god-like superiority and greatness. Each critical decision in Hitler’s life would be dominated by these two sides of his personality.