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Nazi Party
File:Flag of the NSDAP (1920–1945).svg.png
Full Name: National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
Alias: Nazi Party
Third Reich
Nazi Germany
NSDAP
National Socialist German Workers' Party
German Reich
Greater German Reich
Origin: Germany
Foundation: February 24, 1920
headquarters
Munich, Germany
Commanders: Anton Drexler (1920 - 1933)
Adolf Hitler (1933 - 1945)
Joseph Goebbels (1945)
Karl Dönitz (as President of Germany; April - May 1945)
Goals: Avenge Germany's defeat and blame the Jews for their perpetration of November 9th, 1918 (failed)
Establish the "Aryans" as the master race that will rule the world (failed)
Establish a thousand-year Reich (failed)
Conquer all of Europe (failed)
Crimes: Mass murder
Genocide
Tyranny
Torture
Slavery
Hatemongering
Warmongering
Human experimentation
Unlawful mass detention
Ethnic cleansing
War crimes
Human rights vilations
Crimes against humanity
Xenophobia
Terrorism
Propaganda
Kidnapping


The party must not become the servant of the masses, but their master.
~ Adolf Hitler

The National Socialist German Workers' Party (often shorted simply to "Nazis") were the ruling party of Germany during the events of World War II. First emerging in 1920 as the successor to the nationalistic German Workers' Party, the Nazi Party became infamous as a society that, under the control of Adolf Hitler, orchestrated a number of unlawful invasions as well as numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the most well known being the Holocaust, the genocidal mass slaughter of Jews all across Europe that is widely accepted to be the worst act of genocide in modern history.

The Nazi Party is considered by many to be the most evil organization to have ever existed; they have become a staple symbol of evil in the minds of many along with their symbol, the Swastika, which is outlawed in a few countries as a hate symbol — the Nazi Party was part of a wider network of regimes collectively known as the Axis Powers during World War II and ultimately found defeat shortly after Hitler committed suicide.

Although extensive work was done to try and remove and evidence of the Nazis' crimes from Germany and the world in general, sadly, their legacy continues to live on across the world in the forms of various Neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations throughout the world. Their ideals have also seen a major resurgence in popularity during the mid-to-late 2010's with the rise of the Alt-Right movement.

Ideology

The Nazi Party's prime ideology was a variation of fascism known as National Socialism (not to be confused with the type of socialism associated with communism) and it promoted the idea that the Aryan race (humans of Nordic and Germanic descent) was an innately superior breed of human and therefore deserved dominance over the world and other races. While the party is well-remembered for its extreme antisemitism, the Nazis also targeted Slavs (such as Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbians, Croatians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians; the Slavic peoples were notably the main victims of Generalplan Ost), Romani (targeting them with a separate event known as the Porajmos) Greeks, Arabs, Muslims, homosexuals, the disabled, Catholics, socialists, leftist-sympathizers, and others deemed Untermensch (sub-human) by the dictatorship.

History

The Nazi Party was founded as the German Workers’ Party by Anton Drexler, a Munich locksmith, in 1919. Adolf Hitler attended one of its meetings that year, and before long his energy and oratorical skills would enable him to take over the party, which was renamed National Socialist German Workers’ Party in 1920.

That year Hitler also formulated a 25-point program that became the permanent basis for the party. The program called for German abandonment of the Treaty of Versailles and for the expansion of German territory. These appeals for national aggrandizement were accompanied by a strident anti-Semitic rhetoric. The party’s socialist orientation was basically a demagogic gambit designed to attract support from the working class. By 1921 Hitler had ousted the party’s other leaders and taken over.

Under Hitler the Nazi Party grew steadily in its home base of Bavaria. It organized strong-arm groups to protect its rallies and meetings. These groups drew their members from war veterans groups and paramilitary organizations and were organized under the name Sturmabteilung (SA). In 1923 Hitler and his followers felt strong enough to stage the Beer Hall Putsch, an unsuccessful attempt to take control of the Bavarian state government in the hope that it would trigger a nationwide insurrection against the Weimar Republic. The coup failed, the Nazi Party was temporarily banned, and Hitler was sent to prison for most of 1924.

Upon his release Hitler quickly set about rebuilding his moribund party, vowing to achieve power only through legal political means thereafter. The Nazi Party’s membership grew from 25,000 in 1925 to about 180,000 in 1929. Its organizational system of gauleiters (“district leaders”) spread through Germany at this time, and the party began contesting municipal, state, and federal elections with increasing frequency.

However, it was the effects of the Great Depression in Germany that brought the Nazi Party to its first real nationwide importance. The rapid rise in unemployment in 1929–30 provided millions of jobless and dissatisfied voters whom the Nazi Party exploited to its advantage. From 1929 to 1932 the party vastly increased its membership and voting strength; its vote in elections to the Reichstag (the German Parliament) increased from 800,000 votes in 1928 to about 14,000,000 votes in July 1932, and it thus emerged as the largest voting bloc in the Reichstag, with 230 members (38 percent of the total vote). By then big-business circles had begun to finance the Nazi electoral campaigns, and swelling bands of SA toughs increasingly dominated the street fighting with the communists that accompanied such campaigns.

When unemployment began to drop in Germany in late 1932, the Nazi Party’s vote also dropped, to about 12,000,000 (33 percent of the vote) in the November 1932 elections. Nevertheless, Hitler’s shrewd maneuvering behind the scenes prompted the president of the German republic, Paul von Hindenburg, to name him chancellor on January 30, 1933. Hitler used the powers of his office to solidify the Nazis’ position in the government during the following months. The elections of March 5, 1933—precipitated by the burning of the Reichstag building only days earlier—gave the Nazi Party 44 percent of the votes, and further unscrupulous tactics on Hitler’s part turned the voting balance in the Reichstag in the Nazis’ favour. On March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which “enabled” Hitler’s government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency; Hitler in effect assumed dictatorial powers.

On July 14, 1933, his government declared the Nazi Party to be the only political party in Germany. On the death of Hindenburg in 1934 Hitler took the titles of Führer (“Leader”), chancellor, and commander in chief of the army, and he remained leader of the Nazi Party as well. Nazi Party membership became mandatory for all higher civil servants and bureaucrats, and the gauleiters became powerful figures in the state governments. Hitler crushed the Nazi Party’s left, or socialist-oriented, wing in 1934, executing Ernst Röhm and other rebellious SA leaders on what would become known as the “Night of the Long Knives.” Thereafter, Hitler’s word was the supreme and undisputed command in the party.

The party came to control virtually all political, social, and cultural activities in Germany. Its vast and complex hierarchy was structured like a pyramid, with party-controlled mass organizations for youth, women, workers, and other groups at the bottom, party members and officials in the middle, and Hitler and his closest associates at the top wielding undisputed authority.

Upon Germany’s defeat, Hitler’s suicide, and the Allied occupation of the country in 1945 at the end of World War II, the Nazi Party was banned, and its top leaders were convicted of crimes against peace and against humanity.

Members

  • Adolf Hitler - politician and leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945, with the title of Chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and with the title of Führer from 1934 to 1945.
  • Anton Drexler - A politician and member of the Nazi party through the 1920s. The founder and a leader of the German Worker's Party (DAP). Responsible for changing the name of the Party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) early in 1920.
  • Joseph Goebbels - One of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism. Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda throughout the Third Reich and World War II. Named Chancellor of the Reich in Hitler's will, a position he held for only one day before his own suicide.
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  • Adolf Eichmann - SS-Obersturmbannführer. Official in charge of RSHA Referat IV B4, Juden (RSHA Sub-Department IV-B4, Jews); responsible for the facilitation and transportation of the Jews to ghettos and extermination camps. Fled to Argentina, where he was captured by Mossad operatives in 1960, tried in Israel and executed on May 31, 1962.
  • Adolf Hühnlein - Korpsführer (Corps Leader) of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), from 1934 until his death in 1942.
  • Adolf Ziegler
  • Albert Forster - Politician and governor of the province Danzig-West Prussia from 1939-1945.
  • Alfred Baeumler - Philosopher who interpreted the works of Friedrich Nietzsche in order to legitimize Nazism.
  • Alfred Jodl - Generaloberst and Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. Personally signed the instruments of unconditional surrender at the end of the war in 1945.
  • Alfred Meyer - Deputy Reichsminister in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
  • Alfred Wünnenberg - SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und der Polizei. Commander of the SS-Polizei-Division, 1941-1943; Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, 1943–1945 after Kurt Daluege
  • Alois Brunner - Commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944.
  • Andreas Bauriedl
  • Anton Burger - Commandant of Concentration camp Theresienstadt between 1943 and 1944.
  • Arthur Greiser - Chief of Civil Administration and Gauleiter in the military district of Greater Poland.
  • Artur Axmann - Chief of the Social Office of the Reich Youth Leadership. Leader of the Hitler Youth from 1940 through war's end in 1945.
  • Baldur von Schirach - leader of Hitler Youth (1931-40), Gauleiter of Vienna (1940-45).
  • Benno von Arent - Responsible for art, theatres, and movies in the Third Reich.
  • Bernhard Krüger - Leader of the VI F 4a Unit in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt responsible for, among other things, falsifying passports and documents.
  • Bronislav Kaminski - Head of Briansk-Lokot Republic.
  • Christian Wirth - SS-Obersturmführer. He was a senior German police and SS officer during the program to exterminate the Jewish people of occupied Poland during World War II, known as "Operation Reinhard". Wirth was a top aide of Odilo Globocnik, the overall director of "Operation Reinhard" (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard).
  • Dieter Wisliceny - SS-Hauptsturmführer
  • Eduard Wirths - Chief SS doctor (SS-Standortarzt) at the Auschwitz concentration camp from September 1942 to January 1945.
  • Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski - Commander of the "Bandenkämpfverbände" SS units responsible for the mass murder of 35,000 civilians in Riga and more than 200,000 in Belarus and eastern Poland.
  • Ernst Biberstein - SS-Obersturmbannführer, member of the SD and commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 6.
  • Franz Ziereis - Commandant of Mauthausen concentration camp.
  • Friedrich Alpers - SS-Obergruppenführer and Minister of the Free State of Brunswick.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger - High-ranking member of the SA and SS.
  • Gerda Bernigau - Chief wardress of the Gross-Rosen region.
  • Gottlob Berger - Chief of Staff for Waffen-SS and head of the SS's main leadership office.
  • Gunter d'Alquen - Chief Editor of the SS official newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps ("The Black Corps"), and commander of the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers.
  • Hanns Kerrl - Reichsminister of Church Affairs for the Third Reich.
  • Hans Aumeier - deputy commandant at Auschwitz.
  • Hans Biebow - Chief of Administration of the Łódź Ghetto.
  • Heinz Auerswald - Commissioner for the Jewish residential district in Warsaw from April 1941 to November 1942.
  • Hellmuth Becker - Head of SS Division Totenkopf.
  • Helmut Knochen - Senior commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France.
  • Herbert Backe - Minister of Food (appointed 1942) and Minister of Agriculture (appointed 1943).
  • Hermann Wirth
  • Irma Grese - SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen. Known as "The Hyena of Auschwitz".
  • Josef Berchtold - Very early Party member, and the second Reichsführer-SS from 1926-27.
  • Josef "Sepp" Dietrich - rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel; was the original commander of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), and later commander of the 6th SS Panzer Army.
  • Karl Maria Wiligut
  • Karl Wolff - SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Waffen-SS. He became Chief of Personal Staff to the Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler) and SS Liaison Officer to Hitler until his replacement in 1943. From 1943 to 1945, Wolff was the Supreme SS and Police Leader of the 'Italien' area. By 1945 Wolff was acting military commander of Italy, and in that capacity negotiated the surrender of all the forces in the Southwest Front.
  • Klaus Barbie - Head of the Gestapo in Lyon. Nicknamed "the Butcher of Lyon" for his use of torture on prisoners.
  • Lothar Witzke
  • Max Amann - Head of Nazi publishing house Eher-Verlag
  • Max Scheubner-Richter - senior most Nazi killed during the Beer Hall Putsch, ideologue and mentor to Alfred Rosenberg.
  • Max Winkler
  • Max Wünsche - Regimental commander in the Waffen-SS and one-time adjutant to Hitler himself,
  • Richard Baer - Commander of the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp from May 1944 to February 1945.
  • Werner von Blomberg - Generalfeldmarschall, Defence Minister 1933-1935, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces 1935-1938. Forced out in the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair.
  • Wilhelm Schepmann