Nazi Germany

The term Nazi is a short form of the German Nationalsozialismus; the ideology was institutionalized in the NSDAP, the Nazi Party.

The Nazi regime was characterized by political control of every aspect of society (Gleichschaltung) in a quest for racial, social and cultural purity. The Nazi Party pursued its aims through persecution of those considered impure, especially against targeted minority groups such as Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals, as well as political opponents.

This persecution reached a peak in the last years of the regime, in which some 6 million Jews, 10 million Slavs, and sundry others, were systematically killed. This genocide is referred to as the Holocaust in English, "Shoah" in Hebrew. (The Nazis used the euphemistic German term "Endlösung" -- the "final solution.")

Chronology of events

Articles related hereto:

• Weimar Republic (includes the events leading to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933)
• Gleichschaltung (for the legal measurements taken by the Nazis to establish their dictatorship)
• Racial policy of Nazi Germany (history of discrimination policies)
• World War II (with a focus on military events)

todo -- much missing here

In 1939 Germany's actions lead to the outbreak of World War II in Europe -- Poland, France, and the Netherlands were invaded, and Germany declared war on the United Kingdom. After invading Greece and North Africa, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It declared war on the United States in December of 1941. After losing the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of El Alamein in 1943 and the Battle of Normandy in 1944, the regime started to disintegrate quickly, losing ground to the Allied forces in the west and south and the Red Army and the Polish Army in the east. By Fall 1944 the Allies had crossed the front into eastern German territory. In April, 1945, Hitler committed suicide and Germany finally surrendered in the first week of May.

After the war, surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by the Allied tribunal at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity.

Organizations in The Third Reich

The leaders of Nazi Germany created a large number of different organisations for the purpose of helping them in staying in power. The character of the most of them is typical for totalitarian regimes, although most countries do have armed forces of some sort.

Military

• Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) -- Armed Forces High Command
• Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) -- Army High Command
• Oberkommando der Marine[?] (OKM) -- Navy High Command
• Oberkommando der Luftwaffe[?] (OKL) -- Airforce High Command
• Wehrmacht -- Armed Forces
• Heer[?] -- Army
• Luftwaffe -- Airforce
• Kriegsmarine -- Navy
• Oberbefehlshaber West[?]
• Abwehr -- Military Intelligence

Paramilitary organisations

• SA -- Sturmabteilung
• SS -- Schutzstaffel
  • Waffen-SS
• Deutscher Volkssturm

State police

Reich Central Security Office (RSHA - Reichssicherheitshauptamt)

• Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei (ORPO))
  • Schutzpolizei (Safety Police)
  • Gendarmerie (Rural Police)
  • Gemeindepolizei (Local Police)
• Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO))
  • Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo)
  • Reich Kriminalpolizei[?] (Kripo[?])
  • Sicherheitsdienst (SD)

Political organizations

• Nazi Party -- National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP)
• Youth organisations
  • Hitler-Jugend -- Hitler-youth (for boys and young men)
  • Bund Deutscher Mädel (for girls and young women)
• Labour organisations
  • Deutsche Arbeitsfront
  • Kraft durch Freude

Prominent persons in Nazi Germany

Nazi Party leaders and officials

• Adolf Hitler
• Martin Bormann
• Adolf Eichmann
• Joseph Goebbels
• Hermann Göring
• Rudolf Hess
• Reinhard Heydrich
• Heinrich Himmler
• Ernst Röhm
• Alfred Rosenberg
• Albert Speer
• Joachim von Ribbentrop

Military

• Karl Dönitz
• Erwin Rommel
• Wilhelm Keitel
• Claus von Stauffenberg
• Wilhelm Canaris
• Alfred Jodl
• Hanna Reistch

Other

• Karl Brandt
• Eva Braun
• Leni Riefenstahl
• White Rose (Sophie and Hans Scholl and others)
• Oskar Schindler
• Richard Sorge
• Julius Streicher
• Konrad Zuse

Noted refugees

• Bertolt Brecht
• Albert Einstein
• Anne Frank
• Sigmund Freud
• Friedrich Hayek
• Thomas Mann
• Ludwig von Mises

Terms closely related to Nazi Germany

Many of the following terms are German expressions that are now used as words in English -- a short english description is given here and the explanation can be found in the articles themselves. See also List of German expressions in English.

• Anschluss -- annexation (literally: "inclusion"), in particular the annexation of Austria in 1938;
• Blitzkrieg -- lightning war - quick army invasions aided by tanks and airplanes;
• Concentration camps -- (German: Konzentrationslager, KZ) originally detention centres, later sometimes mass-murder factories;
• coventrieren[?] -- bombing out cities completely (the term was coined by Joseph Goebbels after the bombing of Coventry);
• Death factory - concentration camps designed for the killing of their inmates;
• ersatz[?] - a substitute product. Germany did not have an easy access to some strategic materials. German scientist had to research how to produce artificial rubber[?], for example.
• Euthanasia - The T-4 Euthanasia Program to maintain the purity of the German Master race;
• Final solution (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage) -- final solution (of the jewish question), euphemism to describe the total extinction of all Jews;
• Führer -- leader; as Adolf Hitler demanded to be called;
• Gauleiter[?] -- governor of a region.
• Gestapo -- the Geheime Staatspolizei, Nazi Secret Police;
• Gleichschaltung -- literally "synchronisation", total control and obedience of all aspects of society, as well as seizure of power;
• Holocaust -- the genocide committed by the Nazis;
• Hakenkreuz -- swastika;
• IG Farben -- the company that was closest to the Nazi government, producing gas for the extinction of Jews in Auschwitz and other concentration camps and the most prominent example of corporativism in Nazi Germany;
• Kraft durch Freude (KdF) -- "strength through joy", state-sponsored programme intended to organize people's free time, offering cheap holidays, concerts, other leisure activities, and (unsuccessfully) a car (Kdf-Schiff, KdF-Wagen);
• Lebensraum -- space to live: a pretext for launching war on Eastern Europe;
• Master race (German: Herrenvolk) -- a politically charged term used by the Nazis to describe the so-called Aryan race;
• "Mit brennender Sorge[?]" -- A letter by the Pope warning against the Nazis.
• Nazi -- abbreviation for National Socialist, from German Nationalsozialismus; see also Nazi Party;
• Night of the Long Knives;
• Nuremberg trials -- the trials of Nazi officials after the war for war crimes and crimes against humanity;
• Panzer -- armor. Armored vehicles, like tanks, were essential in the Blitzkrieg strategy.
• Reich -- empire;
• Kristallnacht -- "crystal night", November 9, 1938, when the Nazi government organized a pogrom against Jewish businesses; the euphemism was used because the numerous broken windows made the streets look as if covered with crystal;
• Third Reich -- name used by Nazis to describe their regime;
• Thule Gesellschaft -- "Thule Society". The Nazis sought themes for their ideology in the Occult and the Germanic and Nordic traditions.
• Wannsee conference -- a conference at Wannsee near Berlin which led to the Final solution.
• Zeppelin -- The rigid airships were a symbol of the German air technology.

Related Articles

• History of Germany
• Weimar Republic
• Racial policy of Nazi Germany
• The Swing Movement in Nazi Germany