Five Brothers and a War

Waffen SS

In order to continue expanding the Third Reich, and in reality, just to support territory that had already been conquered, the Nazis needed more soldiers. It was one thing to force foreigners to work in their munitions factories and another completely to give them weapons and order them to fight for Germany. For that to occur, volunteers were needed—people who were willing to join the fray. The Germans had a number of major units in their armed forces—and their paramilitary forces—with differing levels of prestige. The Gestapo , the Geheime Statspolizei or the “Secret State Police” was established in 1933 by Hermann Göring. It was charged with finding and dealing with subversive elements, and quickly became highly feared dispensers of thuggery. The Wehrmacht (literally meaning “Defense Force”) existed from 1935 to 1946. It replaced the Reichswehr which was strictly regulated by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. For example, Germany was limited to an army of fewer than 100,000 soldiers. In establishing the Wehrmacht , much less massively increasing its size, Hitler was openly thumbing his nose at the Treaty of Versailles. The elements of the Wehrmacht were the Heer (the Army), the Kriegsmarine (the Navy), and the Luftwaffe (the Air Force). The Sturmabteilung (meaning “Assault Division”) went by the initials “SA”. These were the Stormtroopers or Brownshirts. These were the bullies that intimidated the German populace that ultimately orchestrated the rise of Hitler to power through seemingly legitimate means. Hitler started the SA in 1921 as the roughnecks that went on the offensive on behalf of the newly formed Nazi movement. Initially, the SA was made up of ex-soldiers that did battle with the leftists as the Weimar Republic was seeking its direction. They were given brown uniforms, hence their nickname. They first gained notoriety when Hitler used 600 SA troops, and hundreds of other people to attempt to seize power in München in 1923. When the putsch was put down, Hitler was sentenced to five years for treason, though he actually only served nine months, during which time he wrote Mein Kampf . Upon Hitler’s release, the SA was reorganized, and Hitler decided that an armed coup would not be as effective as gaining power strictly in accordance with the rules. Of course, in the end, he did become German Chancellor through somewhat legitimate means. At the height of its power, there were 2,000,000 Brownshirts, or 20 times the number in the regular German army. It was run by a close friend of Hitler, Ernst Röhm, who had visions of combining the SA with the regular army, and began to act in ways that were too independent for Hitler. On the night of June 30, 1934, Hitler used the SS to carry out a bloody overthrow of the SA, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Röhm and dozens of others were executed on the spot, and the SA was greatly reduced in size and influence, to the point that by the time World War II broke out, it was responsible for training home guard members.

nazi germany

Five Brothers and a War

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