De Cd Blood Purge Night of the Long Knives Ce a go a Reicharbeitsdienst Hitler’s ‘Army of Labour’ France falls Pee Bue | £2.95 MonthlyHITLER'S Third Reich Volume 4 Contents 1 cae tamer Boots tnd Secret Hier Fles bra Hitler and the Doctors [alent 4 ener, The Holocaust Kristalinacht: Night of Broken Glass Inside he Prd Rin Reichsarbeitsdienst: Army of Labour Uk ane ERE 16 Nazi Horrors Blood Purge: Night of the Long Knives Inde the Pir ln Heinrich Himmler: Crackpot Master of the SS 26 Hitler's Battles 3 The Battle of France 34 Hitler's War Machine feat des MG34/42 General-Purpose Machine-Gun eae toe OVERSEAS MARKI Party Colours Sieeitone ngs ste, 44 ‘A-to-Z of the Third Reich ‘Colditz’ to ‘Dietrich’ ‘our web si www.hitlersthirdreich.co.uk Our thanks o Ulric of England (PO Box 285, Epsom, ‘Surrey KTT72¥4}fo allowing ust photograph items collection,ae Hitcer Fices Hitler was a serious hypochondriac, with a pathological fear of cancer. He hated being touched, and favoured quack doctors - as long as they had a convincing manner. DOLF HITLER DID NOT drink, did not smoke, and was a vegetarian for much of his adult life. His enemies - Churchil Roosevelt and Stalin ~ were hard-living, hard-drinki ‘camivores, seldom seen withot Cigarette or pipe. Yer it was the clean-living Hitler whose health ‘out quicke At 55, as the war drew to close, h looked ten or twenty years older. He shutfled along with drooping shoulders, his left arm and leg prone to uncontrollable spasms, Many observers who saw Hitler in his fin yer of life had not seen him at close 1 for some time. They were stunned atthe speed of his deterioration, and asked the same question, What had happened to Hitler? Professor Emst Ginter Sch Slicer of SS division Le 1941-2, Promoted to a desk job in Berlin, he returned to su duties in Apeil 1945, working as ast ‘an improvised operating theatre in the of the New Reichs Chancellery. Introduced to Hit as astounded t0 encounter such a physical wreck. He noted Hitler's slazed and pufly eyes, his bent spine and next meeting, he save cep his left sem sil ping the table, and how his left leg witching constantly Addiction or disease? Schenck was an experienced doctor and he suspected Parkinson's Disease. Worse April, Hitler was demonstrating all the symptoms of morphine withdrawal. Hit speech was rambling and le was unabl ‘concentrate. Schenck came to the reluctant ‘conclusion that Germany's undisputed leader ‘would be a hopeless cripple within a year of senility Adolf Hier du and was already on the Hitler had a long history of stomach aches, which were probably psychosomatic in origin, A great speech, a bold gamble ‘an intractable problem was often the for gut-wrenching pains. These wer us build-ups he worse than the experienced even more freque contributed to the fear that he was sufferin, from the cancer that he had watched kill smother. Then Hit could treat the problem with special fiscovered Dr Morell, who Left; How much of Hitlers erratic behaviour in the last years of his fe was due to genuine Ines and how much was due to the ‘ministrations of Dactor Theodor Morell ~ seo hore with his most famous patient will probably never be known. HITLER'S THIRD REICH 1Above: Professor Car! von Eicken was one of Germany’ leading ENT fear nose and throat) Surgeons, who wa called upon twice to ‘Operate on Hits vocal chords. Below: Kar] Brandt was Hitlers personal SS physician. He was also Involved in almost ‘very aspect of medical experimentation ‘erred out Inthe Third Rese found guilty of War erimes at Nuremberg, ho was hanged. 2 HITLER'S THIRD REICH Above: Hitler often suffered from splitting headaches after making speeches, and any ‘doctor who could do something to alleviate ‘the pain -no matter how dubious the treatment “was looked on with favour Injections: it was, Hit ‘miracle cure, These were an unholy cocktail often stated, of stimulants like caffeine and pervitin (similar to benzedtine), probably supplemented by morphine. Two thin certain about the injections: the ingredients ed as Morell experimented, and 1¢ was increased as the War Went on. Other doctors Morell was nt the only doctor to tet Hite Cac von Eicken, a Professor of ENT ‘perted 1 remove «polyp fom Hiler’s Vocal cords in 1935 and had to remove another in November 194, Examining his Giscovered Hier’s eardrums had been uptred by the bomb blast on 20 July, Her twas unwell for mach of ha une he had only jus recovered from about of jaundice, brought on, so be sad, by endless arguments with Hermann Goering. Major dental work thi followed ister tat month was not Calculated to help Hler’s patience as he inssed on the Ardennes offensive agsns the advice of his generals Ioncaly, considering that twas Morel who had the reputation as a drug ple, it was on eminent Bertin doctor who prescribed cocaine-based eye- Arps for Hitler’ sinusitis at about the same time. The Fuhrer's valet Linge later admitted he was administering up to ten doses a day carly in 1945, It was with a wrinkled nose and a shudder that Albert Speer recalled meetings with Hitler in the Wolfsschance, the cluster of windowless concrete monoliths hidden in an East Prussian forest which the Fuhrer used as his operational headquarters. Before the wa, Hitler had been an obsessive about personal Cleanliness. Nov; in the heat of surnmer five years later, the Fuhrer’s body odour was ‘overpowering. By the time he withdrew to the Berlin bunker, Hitler had grown careless of his appearance too, and his once pristine ey uniform jacket was spattered with food Stains, His teeth were yellow, and his bad breath tested the devotion of his most fanatical adherents Assisted suicide Dr Morel joined the party tha led the bunker on 21 Apri, escaping on one of the las flights out of Berlin fo ie low in Bava and avait the end, He lef Hitler a veritable pharmacy complete with instructions, but it was probably the 34-year old SS Dr Lucvs Stumpfegger who provided cyanide caps he swallowed one himself) Morell survived his most famous client by only thr dying in hospital in May’ 1948,Pills, potions and injections health is activites 1896 the 50-year ols Morell was a successful Sarin doctor spe- Cialsing in skin and venerea! dis cases. He contrived to get him self introduced to Miter via the Photo: finrich Hoffman, Sand cured the Fuhrer ofa trou- Blesome leg rash Whether he capitalised on their shared experiences in the Great War of simply because he had succeeded where SS doctor Kari Brandt had filed, from that moment on Morell became Hitler's most trusted personal physician With the Fihrers sure way of eurrying Morell profited enormously in the process. He was not above preseribing unlicensed medicines produced by companies in which he had a financial interest Brandt and the other doctors attached to Hitle’s headquarters ‘were appalled by Morel. At best, he was s quack At worst, ‘was 3 killer. The ‘anti-gas’ he gave Hitir for his excessive flatulence contained the poison strychnine and he was dishing them out to the Fat lier disrega tablet, ‘master’s enduring real or imagl- Suffered recurrent Indigestion. (Others were farcical potions, Including one derived from bulls’ testicles, supposed to boost 2 ‘man's potency. To a one-testicled ‘man who had abstained from sex {or years, this latter concoction ‘must have had limited valu raps It contributed to the ‘ever more violent tantrums with ‘which Hitler Fight: Theodor Morell was a {fashionable Berlin doctor Specialising in treating venereal {nd skin dooases. His treatments Wore ~ to say the least ‘questionable. Below: Doctors ware an over rent part of Hitlers entourage. BS doctor Ker! Brandt fourth trom the lf) fs een here st 9 Imeeting of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, where military than medical advice wouldNight of terror for Germany’s Jews The night of 9/10 November 1938 saw the German state unleashing an anti-Jewish pogrom of medieval ferocity. EWS IN the Germany of the 1930s knew what it was like to be persecuted. Harassed ‘and attacked in the streets and deprived of basic civil liberties, they were the targets of Nazi ‘oppression from the moment that Hitler came to power. But even hey were surprised by the ferocity of the pogrom known as Kristallnacht, which broke out in November 1938, The anti-Jewish riots were on a seale unmatched in Germany singe the Middle Ages. Sparked off by Nazi stormtrooper, the pogrom became a conflagration involving hundreds of thousands of ondinary Germans, though few could have known thatthe roots of the events lay inthe bitter ‘ervtorial rivalry between Germany and Poland. ; east $0,000 Jews atthe stoke of | Above: On the moming Antisemitic rivals pen. roiand had egained its 9f}2 November 838 But for heroie resistance | independence in 1918, having | CNAME, against both the Nazi and Soviet | endured some 150 years of | shattred gle frwas regimes during World War ll, | Russian rule, Unforunatly, | sestored on te Polish antisemitism might have | Allied determination to punish | verytown and! cin come under closer and more | Germany for Word War ed to | fhe county seatching scrutiny by poscwar | large swathes of German historians. Persecution of Jews | tertory being included inthe | Aghe Wt the had been as virulent in Poland | new Polish state. Most shattared glass came, id Russias in pre-Hiler | controversial was the transfer of | Mpsmglt erate Germany oF Aust the wealthy indusial area of | Jowih'synegoguee In the 1930s Marshal Silesia (“like giving a monkey a | burned after arson Pilsudsk’s goverament saw an__| wristwatch’, said British Prime opportunity to rid Poland of at Minister Dav Lloyd-George). I 4 HITLER'S THIRD REICH" Silesia being ct. From the mid= cman and Poland were ‘Cold War’, with ‘on both sides of ler concentrated on how J ight one another March 1938 the Polish ent passed a law that prive Poles oftheir f they had lived ind for five years. jon was to denaturalise 5s time it appears that «stl planning to drive ‘out of Germany rather -cerminate them, and his se was to order the tediate deportation of all sh Jews. The Gestapo went to rounding up families and sporting them to the border. Poles refused to receive em, and the unfortunate people ried into insanitary along the border: stateless Lighting the spark ear-ld Polish Jew in Paris. When he heard happening in Germany since 1914 had lost me thie Hivelihood and now in one of the camps — he decided to make « spectacular protest, Armin revolver, he w embassy on 7 Nove intending to shoot the Ambassador. Talking his way inside, he shot Emst vom Rath, actually @ secretary and, ironically, an anti- Nazi a tion by the Gestapo. Grynszpan was arrested, Vom Rath lingered between life and death until succumbing to his wounds on the afternoon of 9 November: At that moment Hitler was in Munich, at a meeting of Nazi leaders. Goebbels, after a brief private conversation with him, stepped up to the podium ‘The murder of vor Rath, he ady under invest announced, had sparked ant Jewish rioting in Kurhessen and Magdeburg-Analt. The Fuhrer, he continued, had decreed that if the rioting spread, it was not to be discourag Not for the first time, Hitler kept his distance while a major Nazi atrocity was poised to take place. He gave no public order and signed no document, but his was the responsibility: no Nazi Jeader would have dared unleash the SA on the Jews without Hitlers sanction, At Teast two Nazis did put their name to documents that ‘make plain the Party's role Heinrich Miller instructed Gestapo offices to lise with sp the murder of Gorman dlplomat in Pars: A Long, Dark tradition ‘it-semitiem has existed in Europe since the Middle ‘Ages. Inspired by the Church, ‘Jews became targets for Christians because "they had Killed Jesus", More often, how: ‘ever, they were attacked simply because they looked different, spoke a different language, and ‘were easy scapegoats for any: thing which had gone wrong in society However, towards the end of, the last century a new kind of fantisemitiem arose. This fed on ‘envy at the abvious commerc ‘and financial success of one. ‘Above: Jews are made to clean the streets Vienna with their hands, watched by Auetrian SA ‘and $8 members. The Nazis ‘ere following a long Central European tradition of “antizomitiso. eeudo-scientific respectability by the turn-of-the-century writ ings of people like the Frenchman Arthur Comte de Gobineau and the Briton Houston Stewart Chamberlain “Antisemitism was rte all ‘though Central and Eastern Europe, but only in National Socialist Germany did it become one of the driving forces of a modern state. Above: From the ‘moment Hitler came fopower in 1933, the hhoat was on for Germany’ Jews. Evon in that first year the SA was caling for a boycott of Jo ‘owned businesses Left: Most German schools were an ‘Jewish even under the Weimar Republic, but when Hitler come to power ant Semitism became a Dart of the school urriculuem. HITLER'S THIRD REICH 5local police to ensure that Jewish properties were destroyed, but rot looted (which would be criminal, afterall, His orders came from Reinhard Heydrich who at 1.20 AM. on 10 November sent a telegram from Munich to all police and SD headquarters, garding measures against the Jews tonight”, There was at least ‘a nod towards international ‘opinion: “foreigners”, he ordered, even if they are Jews, are not 0 6 HITLER'S THIRD REICH be attacked! Tehecame known as, Kristallnacht ot “Crystal Nigh because the next morning si and sidewalks all over Germany were covered with broken glass ‘The rioting spread from the Rhineland to East Prussia within hours — news travelling suspiciously fast for that pre= television era. What began as scattered local disturbances by SA toughs, snowballed into a nation-wide pogrom on scale JOCOCAUST not seen in Germany since the middle ag Once it became clear thatthe police had been ordered to stand aside, that the authorities we ving carte blanche to beat, rape or kill Jews, gangs of like- minded thugs felt free to attack Jewish hom: Counting the cost By the momning of 10 Novembs agogues had been gutted 76 of them w subsequently demolished. One hundred and one Jewish ‘occupied been burned down; some 7,600 jewish-owned businesses had been looted and destroyed The huma quantify. There were 236 d including 43 women and 13, children. About 600 people were seriously injured and thousands 4 beatings of Left: The Ark and the bimah (th platform where the rabbi and th Eantor normal stad fom the "Revenge for the murder of vor) Rath! Death to the International, ews and Freemasons!” Left: Synagogues were prime targets for the rampaging Nazi ‘mobs: More than 1000 were ‘attacked and damaged mare or loss saverely, with nearly 200, being completely gutted by fre varying severity, The covered up, although for differ asons, According to Nazi ideology, no Aryan should sully himself with Jewish flesh, Five men were expelled from the Naz Party for violation of the Nuremberg racial laws ~ not fi he crime of rape, for which they ceived no punishment at al ‘Twenty-two Germans were arrested for trying to stop the violence. They were charg with interfering wit lawful monstrations. In the wake of Kristallnache the Nazis intensified their anti Semitic policies, probibiting Jews from theatres, cinemas, and even park benches. ‘Gestapo’ Miller Ordered his men to target wealthier Jews for arrest. More than 20,000 were tak custody, and only rele payment of heavy fines. But ‘many could not afford the fines ind never were released. They concentration camp whe ‘were treated abominably, and around 8,000 died. There were over a million ‘men and women on the streets that night, many drawn by th bbuming synagogues which spatched to Bue proved an imresistible spectacle But the horror ofthe pogrom spread far beyond the major towns and cities, In one village, near the Polish border, a Jewish widow and her hildren were selected to ‘oe the victims. They had only lived inthe vill years, and did not receive the ‘protection’ of longer-established Jewish families. Rebecca Feld and her children were put on a truck and driven towards the border by two local policemen The villagers then bumed down her house and small grocery store, watched by the police and local officials.Foreign reactionReichs arbeits eljenss Adolf Hitler's ‘Army of Labour’ The massive National Socialist ‘make work’ programme designed to eliminate unemployment in depression-hit Germany. 8 HITLER'S THIRD REICH NE OF THE many spurious Nazi claims made in the pre-war was that Hitler and the Party had put the nation back to work, solving the loyment problems that had -d Germany in the 1920s 30s, Before he came to Hitler had promised that ‘unemployment ‘Make-work’ German men, and later women, were indeed employed under National Socialism, but it was not true productive labour: in fact, the unemployed were cogs in an a vast uniformed ‘Make Work’ project Like many achievements Republic had actually taken the fist steps towards setting up a labour service. It state sponsore Beevers Pee aa ied Pee es eree eae ane erent was a way of solving the ‘employment problem, just asin the USA President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the New Deal which put unemployed men back to work on such as the Hoov The Reichsarb hed by a law prom 26, 1935, and Hitler chose Major Konstantin Hierl to lead it. Hier had been Hitler's commanding officer inthe Army ‘who in 1919 had tasked Hitler with penetrating the tiny German Worker's Party (DAP) ~ the hich his spy was to take over and which would ‘eventually become the nucleus of tween 19 and 25 were conscripted for six months into the RAD, period which toughening process beforeconstruction work and 30,000 workers were assigned to the task, The numbers eventually reached 70,000, but only a quarter of the planned 11000 kam of road had been completed by the outbreak of war. A rather bizare reminder of the RAD work programme was discovered following the reunification of Germany in 1089, The German goverment discovered that a vast act of ‘ature woodland in former East Germany had been planted by the RAD. Inthe centre of the dark green woodland, picked out in ttees with leaves ofa lighter colour was a huge swastika, covering about 4,000 square metres of forest! ‘Women served in their own | tabour organisation, Initially known asthe German Women's Labour Service, t was renamed the RADwd ot Reich Labour Service for Young Woman. sel up in 1934 as a voluntary organisation, but only attracted 1,000 girs Like the RAD the idea was not original. In 1932 the German Protestant churches had proposed the idea of women undertaking patriotic labour which would break down the barriers or clas and religion. Under the vigorous leadership of Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, the Reichsfravenfuhreri, the German Women’s Labour Service tok over the Protestant Women’s Organisation in 1936. In tum it was taken over by the RAD leader Konstantin Hier and became the RAD Tn January 1939 the voluntary | facade for the RADWI was | dropped an all women under 25 | were required to undertake year’s service, By 1940 the ‘were 200,000 girls working in agriculture, For the girls it was known as the Land Jahr ot Land Loft: The Fabror takes the salute. Konstantin Hier! inoarast the camera), hand-picked by Hiller to oad the RAD, was a sanior Party bureaucrat wo hed been Hitlers ‘commandlng officer in Munich in 1918 and 1948, 10 HITLER'S THIRD REICHstable wey worked for German nber of stood how te anged for wotk for as “domestic ially believed incapable of sation as big as But German erged, were more running work ula Siber of the ection atthe Ministry f the family, there aceupation which self-contained rnd a demand for ofall feminine hat of a woman ls, district schools ich School of the established, Their was not only to groom RADw] members ions of responsibilty, but, train professional womer 1s, lawyers and teachers — ised jobs in the Reich ere presented as the ent of new German “They were trained st dress in the nner, to display no broad-bipp radiant od by hi Bia Ge bess © RADWI TRIUMPH Art, Propaganda and the Reichsarbeitsdienst. ith shovels carried like rifles, lines of ‘men chant like a Greek chorus, “We stand here. We are ready.” A roll-call shows that these men. represent all of the main Gau or districts of National Socialist Germany. The chant resumes ~ “Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer. We plant trees. We build streets. We give the farm- fers new acres. For Germany.” Riefenstahl's film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of ‘the Will) was the RAD. A long section of the powerful documentary film of the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in September 1934 focussed on the newly established regimented band of labourers, the Reichs- arbeitsdienst or RAD. In the film, slow music follows the ‘and the RAD men shoul- der their spades. Hitler ‘watches with “grimly benevolent concentra tion” and then addresses the men. “Earth and labour unite us all. The entire nation goes through your school Germany is happy to see her sons marching’. “Above: Spades polished to a ‘aight alter and cared ie ‘ies, the mon of the. Foichsarbeltedienst march past the Fuhver after pledging their aliegance at Their ath was to Adolf Hitler tothe ‘National Socialist German Worker's Party and to the Fatherland. Left: The Party rallies honoured Variety of organizations, but the Labour Service event was one of the most important of them all, This fe why Keplays such an Important part in Loni Rletenstahis classic propegande ‘lm Triumph ofthe Wil HITLER'S THIRD REICH 11Above: The RAD was an Below: Gertrude Scholte-Klink ‘galarian organisation, where a was the head of the female ‘man was valued by the amount of branch of the Reichsarbelts ‘ork he could do. These are Pretty much self-appointed. University graduates and was @ devoted follower of the Undergraduates who have been Fuhrer. who continued to support Called upto dig a new drainage his memory long after the end of ‘system World Wer Above: Every able-bodied man in Below: RAD labourers build an Germany was lable to serve in” Autobahn in an iyi Alpine. the ranks of theReichearbelte” setting. In winter such work ~ and Sienst for at east a six or nine- the tented camps that were the ‘month period before being called only accommodation ~ would Up for miltary service. Ihave been a tough experience, p for young men, This juxtaposition seems to have ‘made for many (One couple the Labour Front, but ecially to the Land Jahr 0 ce of a pretty sometimes For the puritanical leadership of lar moral problems | the Third Reich, service in the ig the Household | RAD and RADWwJ ensured that ig men and women were corrupted by ions oF American hlife 12 HITLER'S THIRD REICHsing the brief period of bility in the Weimar onsidered to be nanifestations of an jenness which produced © Wall Street Crash and the Depression. In tum, the Depression was a time when unemployed young men hung around in groups on the streets. There were dissenters from this ideological ideal of state sponsored group youth activity, mostly among the middle classes inthe larger cities. In 1941, 500 girls and long-haired boys gathered together in a ‘swing val’ atthe Alsterpavillion in Hamburg. Swingjugend groups sprang up in other cities ~ for example, Frankfurt had the Ohio- Klub and the Cotton-Klub. Neither the young men nor the women liked the Hitler Youth, BM, RAD or RADwI, said an SD report on ‘juvenile demoralisation’, because these state-sponsored groups encroached on their free time. ‘The Sicherheitsdienst report concluded, “Their ideal is democratic freedom and American laxity” Anywhere except the Third ich such behaviour might have sna cause for concer, but hardly a crime against the state ‘azi solution to the problem in orders from State y Gutterer to SD chief sd Heydrich, authorising sids on the clubs and a f the young men. In 8 girls and 72 boys of it’s OK-Gang and Harem pad existed since ed out in police After a period of hard physical labour with the RAD the young men were sent to the Todt Organisation for more of the same treatment. Service to state, which had begun as a ‘means of curbing unemployment, become a form of shment for youthful high sand rebelliousness. with any organisation in the Third Reich, the RAD had a uniform. It consisted of 2 khaki tunic and trousers, mustard khakt shirt and black tie with marching boots; in service dress the men wore a rakish foresters cap with a white ‘metal RAD badge. In working order the cap was replaced by a side cap. The men had a military style leather belt with white metal buck Officors wore a Sam Brown belt, shoulder straps, breeches and riding boots ‘The RAD unit insignia appeared on the left sleeve of the tunic, the badge showing the spade blade pointing down and showing unit's number. AA standard red, black and white swastika arm band was worn immediately below. As with the armed forces, rank was displayed on the tunic fon the blade ‘Senior members of the RAD who had served in ‘World War could waar their military decors- tions, while many of the young men, fresh out of jugend would have sports badges. ‘the Hit fations, The Dienstauszeichnungen fur den Roichsarbeitsdienst (Long Service Awards of the State Labour Service) wer classes, with different configur ‘women. The women's version was w brooch hanging from a bow and featured a swastika supported by two ears of wheat. Men Wore a medal with the shovel and wheat motif. ‘The awards were bronze for four years service, silver for 12 silver witha silver eagle on t bon for 18, and In git metal witha git eag ‘the ribbon for 25 years service. Above: Rank insignia for an RAD ‘Arbeltsfuhrer” Below: Woven insignia: a sports badge for an ‘athletics vest let) and a unit/area arm patch 3s worn by other ranks and NCOs. HITLER'S THIRD REICH 1