A Concise History of Nazi Germany by Joseph W. Bendersky

Author:Joseph W. Bendersky [Bendersky, Joseph W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2013-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

10

SS Terror, Anti-Semitism, and Resistance to Nazification

The nazification of Germany created a strangely ambivalent psychological atmosphere of uncertainty, suspicion, and fear combined with a sense of normalcy in the everyday lives of most people before the war. One historian identified this as an interrelationship of coercion and consent. The new order was characterized by intolerance, repressive policies, and terror but also by a growing popular consensus. It was a time in which capricious actions, repressive policies, and persecution kept certain segments of the population, particularly Jews, in a constant state of anxiety. Although few Germans were potentially safe from the police state that was seizing control, most remained unaffected by it unless they contested the power and policies of the regime. Unwilling or unable to resist, most Germans acquiesced to—occasionally supported—the repression of those the regime had identified as political, racial, or ideological threats. In return the regime restored the country to normality, national prestige, and economic recovery after the chaos of Weimar, the oppression of Versailles, and the Great Depression. It was a growing consensus enhanced by clever Nazi propaganda regarding their efforts to reestablish law and order as well as to solve problems associated with moral and social deviance.

The terrorist aspect of the Third Reich was best exemplified by the SS, whose black uniforms, death’s head insignia, and jackboots became symbols of unrestrained power, terror, and death. Founded in 1925 as Hitler’s personal guard or Schutzstaffel, the SS continually grew in size and influence until it became the most powerful of all Nazi institutions. The expansion of the SS and the role it played in Nazi Germany can be attributed to Heinrich Himmler, who was appointed Reichsführer-SS in 1929. A fanatical racist and anti-Semite, Himmler was a ruthless and cold exponent of the most extreme version of the Nazi ideology. Although a weak little man without any of the so-called Nordic characteristics cherished by him and other party racists, Himmler was determined to develop the SS into the future racial elite of the nation. Within one year after becoming SS leader, Himmler had expanded the organization’s membership from two hundred and fifty to two thousand; by 1933 there were over fifty thousand SS troops under his command.

In theory, the main criteria for acceptance into the SS were racial purity and ideological conviction. However, Himmler’s desire for rapid expansion of his organization initially brought in many of dubious character and background. When requirements were tightened in the early phase of the Third Reich, thousands had to be expelled from the SS as unacceptable on grounds of race, homosexuality, political reliability, or social deviance. After 1935 all recruits had to prove their racial purity and that of their wives. Ideal candidates were supposed to resemble the stereotype of the pure Nordic man, who had blond hair, blue eyes, the proper physique, and the necessary racial features desired by the organization, though never precisely defined.

Under Himmler, the SS was transformed into an elite social caste separate from the rest of the nation, with its own esprit de corps, internal rules, and dynamics.

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