HITLER

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HITLERS HENCHMEN
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Who were they?

• Herman Göering
• Rudolph Hess
• Joseph Goebbels
• Heinrich Himmler
• Ernst Röhm
• Aim to evaluate the following
• Personalities
• Careers
• Fate

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Herman Göering The Marshal

• PERSONALITY
• Spent childhood in his Jewish Godfathers castle.
• Emotionally neglected.
• Decorated for bravery as a fighter pilot in WWI.
• Betrayed by Tr. of Vers.
• Fat, glamorous extravagant.
• Resented Röhm.
• Drug addict?

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Career

• 1922, became commander of the SA
• 2nd in command
• Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe
• President of the Reichstag
• 1936, put in charge of the 4-year plan
• Organised the terror in 1933 the Night of the
  Long Knives.
• Involved in Holocaust, but as an armchair
  assassin
• Not great influence Göering wanted transaction,
  Hitler wanted action.
• Saw Jews as an economic problem.

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Rudolph Hess The Flatterer

• PERSONALITY
• Served in same regiment as Hitler during WWI
• Few political skills
• Little intelligence
• Little oratorical ability
• Weak, submissive and dependent figure
• Had a religious fervour for Hitler.
• Mentally unstable?
• Believed Hitler is Germany! Germany is Hitler!

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Career

• Imprisoned with Hitler, influenced writing of
  Mein Kampf
• 1925- Became Hitlers secretary.
• By 1932 he was head of the Nazi Central Political
  Commission.
• His main significance was in dealing with
  administration.
• 1939 His power declined as Hitler became more
  absorbed in war.
• June 1941 - He felt increasingly cut off fled
  to Scotland.
• Why?
• Kept in the tower of London until Nuremberg
  trials.

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JOSEPH GOEBBELS

• PERSONALITY
• Born into poor family
• leg crippled by Polio
• Most educated intelligent of the Nazi leaders.
• Journalist
• Bitter cynic
• Powerful public speaker.
• He visited nightclubs and had mistresses.
• Bitter rivalry with Göering Riibentrop.

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Career

• 1928 - became party propaganda chief.
• Found his mission in selling Hitler to the public
  organising the Führer cult.
• Controlled the radio, movies, theatre press.
• Propaganda was our sharpest weapon in conquering
  the state, remains our sharpest weapon in
  maintaining and building up the state.
• V. anti-Semitic
• The mission of women is to be beautiful bring
  children into the world.

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HEINRICH HIMMLER The Executioner

• PERSONALITY
• A conscientious, popular schoolboy
• Bitter at Germanys defeat.
• A coldly efficient bureaucrat.
• His devotion to Hitler seemed unconditional
• Remembered by contemporaries, as an
  inconspicuous, amiable person.
• I cant betray the Führer..Everything I am I owe
  to him.

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Career

• Role
• 1929 - became head of the SS
• 1939 - Reich commissioner for Strengthening
  German Nationhood.
• He aimed to purify the German nation.
• Removing alien elements
• Selective breeding
• Had overall control of the Holocaust
• As German fortunes in the war turned, so did
  Himmlers loyalty
• Recruited sub-humans to the SS
• Tried to negotiate a secret armistice with the
  West
• Dismissed by Hitler for treachery.
• Flees, but captured by Allies.
• V. anti - Semitic/ Homosexuals/Gypsies

• With bigamy, each wife would act as a stimulus
  to the others so that both would try to be their
  husbands dream woman.
• We must be honest, decent, loyal comradely to
  members of our own blood, but to nobody else.

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ERNST RÖHM

• PERSONALITY
• A radical a socialist.
• He favoured radical change.
• Not a sophisticated thinker
• Since I am an immature wicked man, war
  unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois
  order.
• Reached rank of Captain in WWI, found it
  difficult to adjust to the post-war world.
• Heavy drinker
• Homosexual

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Career

• He built up a tough committed leadership of the
  SA, got them under tight control.
• 1933-appointed to the cabinet.
• Tensions grew over the role of the SA.
• Röhm wanted the SA to be a major force for
  radical revolution.
• Hitler believed he was planning a 2nd revolution.
• Hitler eliminated Röhm as part of the Night of
  the Long Knives
• All revolutions devour their own children.

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The Nuremberg Trials 1945-6

• Crimes against peace.
• Crimes against humanity.
• War Crimes
• Conspiracy to commit the crimes alleged in the
  first three counts.

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Guilty Men

• GöERING
• Guilty on all 4 charges
• Sentenced to death
• committed suicide
• GOEBBELS
• Committed suicide May 1945.
• HIMMLER
• Committed suicide May 1945.
• HESS
• Guilty on charges 1 4
• Sentenced to life imprisonment.