THE THIRD REICH IN POWER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Professor of European History Richard J Evans | 941 pages | 07 Dec 2006 | Penguin Putnam Inc | 9780143037903 | English | New York, NY, United States Third Reich: An Overview | The Holocaust Encyclopedia

Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure the captured area. The decision to attack the Soviet Union and the decisive defeat at Stalingrad led to the retreat of the German armies and the eventual loss of the war. The Sturmabteilung SA; Storm Detachment , or Brownshirts, founded in , was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party; their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. After the purge of , the SA was no longer a major force. Initially a small bodyguard unit under the auspices of the SA, the Schutzstaffel SS; Protection Squadron grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany. It was dependent on the regular army for heavy weaponry and equipment, and most units were under tactical control of the High Command of the Armed Forces OKW. With recruitment and conscription based only on expansion, by the Waffen-SS could not longer claim to be an elite fighting force. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses. The most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 percent national unemployment rate. Hjalmar Schacht , President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created a scheme for deficit financing in May Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money. Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the soaring national debt. In October , the Junkers Aircraft Works was expropriated. From a workforce of 3, people producing units per year in , the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10, technically advanced aircraft annually less than ten years later. An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By , Farben regretted making the deal, as excess profits were by then being generated. Major public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of Autobahnen and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements. Envisioning widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany, Hitler arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the KdF- wagen Strength Through Joy car , intended to be an automobile that everyone could afford. With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. None were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen people's car. Six million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in and by there were fewer than a million. By early , the focus shifted towards rearmament. By , military expenditures accounted for 73 percent of the government's purchases of goods and services. The Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning. Historian Richard Overy describes it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States. Approximately 75 percent were Eastern European. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity. Foreign workers brought into Germany were put into four classifications: guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and Eastern workers. Each group was subject to different regulations. The Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers. By , over a half million women served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces. They also took jobs formerly held by men, especially on farms and in family-owned shops. Very heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline , as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals. By November, fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations and the production of new armaments was no longer possible. During the course of the war, the Nazis extracted considerable plunder from occupied Europe. Historian and war correspondent William L. Shirer writes: "The total amount of [Nazi] loot will never be known; it has proved beyond man's capacity to accurately compute. The Bank of France was forced to provide 4. The Nazis exploited other conquered nations in a similar way. Nazi plunder included private and public art collections, artefacts, precious metals, books, and personal possessions. France saw the greatest extent of Nazi plunder. Some 26, railroad cars of art treasures, furniture, and other looted items were sent to Germany from France. Goods and raw materials were also taken. In France, an estimated 9,, tonnes 8,, long tons; 9,, short tons of cereals were seized during the course of the war, including 75 percent of its oats. In addition, 80 percent of the country's oil and 74 percent of its steel production were taken. The valuation of this loot is estimated to be In Poland, Nazi plunder of raw materials began even before the German invasion had concluded. Following Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union was also plundered. In alone, 9,, tons of cereals, 2,, tonnes 2,, long tons; 2,, short tons of fodder, 3,, tonnes 3,, long tons; 3,, short tons of potatoes, and , tonnes , long tons; , short tons of meats were sent back to Germany. This relatively low number in comparison to the occupied nations of Western Europe can be attributed to the devastating fighting on the Eastern Front. Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the Nazi Party and the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany's racial policy was based on their belief in the existence of a superior master race. The Nazis postulated the existence of a racial conflict between the Aryan master race and inferior races, particularly Jews, who were viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated society and were responsible for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race. Discrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power. Following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses and synagogues, on 1 April Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The regime used violence and economic pressure to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. In November a young Jewish man requested an interview with the German ambassador in Paris and met with a legation secretary, whom he shot and killed to protest his family's treatment in Germany. This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazis incited against the Jews on 9 November Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by Kristallnacht and told that any insurance settlements would be confiscated. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement , but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government. Like the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. The Romani were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. They were shipped to concentration camps starting in and many were killed. The Nazis intended on deporting all Romani people from Germany, and confined them to Zigeunerlager Gypsy camps for this purpose. Himmler ordered their deportation from Germany in December , with few exceptions. A total of 23, Romani were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp , of whom 19, died. Outside of Germany, the Romani people were regularly used for forced labour, though many were killed. In occupied Serbia , 1, to 12, Romani were killed, while nearly all 25, Romani living in the Independent State of Croatia were killed. The estimates at end of the war put the total death toll at around ,, which equalled approximately 25 percent of the Romani population in Europe. Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that took place mainly from to , and continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others; gas chambers and gas vans using carbon monoxide were used by early Most of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals. Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. The Generalplan Ost "General Plan for the East" called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December , Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be killed in the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. The Allies received information about the murders from the Polish government-in-exile and Polish leadership in Warsaw, based mostly on intelligence from the Polish underground. Evans states that most German citizens disapproved of the genocide. Poles were viewed by Nazis as subhuman non-Aryans, and during the German occupation of Poland 2. The German authorities engaged in a systematic effort to destroy Polish culture and national identity. During operation AB-Aktion , many university professors and members of the Polish intelligentsia were arrested, transported to concentration camps, or executed. During the war, Poland lost an estimated 39 to 45 percent of its physicians and dentists, 26 to 57 percent of its lawyers, 15 to 30 percent of its teachers, 30 to 40 percent of its scientists and university professors, and 18 to 28 percent of its clergy. The Nazis captured 5. Of these, they killed an estimated 3. From onward, Soviet POWs were viewed as a source of forced labour, and received better treatment so they could work. Antisemitic legislation passed in led to the removal of all Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. The average class size increased from 37 in to 43 in due to the resulting teacher shortage. Frequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture , and other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools. Detailed indoctrination of future holders of elite military rank was undertaken at Order Castles. Primary and secondary education focused on racial biology, population policy, culture, geography, and physical fitness. At universities, appointments to top posts were the subject of power struggles between the education ministry, the university boards, and the National Socialist German Students' League. Women were a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, instead advocating a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home". Courses were offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking. Women were encouraged to leave the workforce, and the creation of large families by racially suitable women was promoted through a propaganda campaign. Women received a bronze award—known as the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter Cross of Honour of the German Mother —for giving birth to four children, silver for six, and gold for eight or more. Though the measures led to increases in the birth rate, the number of families having four or more children declined by five percent between and After the war started, slave labourers were extensively used. Nazi leaders endorsed the idea that rational and theoretical work was alien to a woman's nature, and as such discouraged women from seeking higher education. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary schools dropped from , in to 51, in However, with the requirement that men be enlisted into the armed forces during the war, women comprised half of the enrolment in the post-secondary system by Women were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital. From 25 March membership in the Hitler Youth was made compulsory for all children over the age of ten. The BDM's activities focused on physical education, with activities such as running, long jumping, somersaulting, tightrope walking, marching, and swimming. The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct regarding sexual matters and was sympathetic to women who bore children out of wedlock. Soldier's wives were frequently involved in extramarital relationships. Sex was sometimes used as a commodity to obtain better work from a foreign labourer. With Hitler's approval, Himmler intended that the new society of the Nazi regime should destigmatise illegitimate births, particularly of children fathered by members of the SS, who were vetted for racial purity. Existing laws banning abortion except for medical reasons were strictly enforced by the Nazi regime. The number of abortions declined from 35, per year at the start of the s to fewer than 2, per year at the end of the decade, though in a law was passed allowing abortions for eugenics reasons. Nazi Germany had a strong anti-tobacco movement , as pioneering research by Franz H. Government-run health care insurance plans were available, but Jews were denied coverage starting in That same year, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat government-insured patients. In , Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients, and in their right to practice medicine was removed entirely. Medical experiments, many of them pseudoscientific , were performed on concentration camp inmates beginning in Josef Mengele , camp doctor at Auschwitz. Nazi society had elements supportive of animal rights and many people were fond of zoos and wildlife. In , the Nazis enacted a stringent animal-protection law that affected what was allowed for medical research. It allowed for the expropriation of privately owned land to create nature preserves and aided in long-range planning. When the Nazis seized power in , roughly 67 percent of the population of Germany was Protestant , 33 percent was Roman Catholic , while Jews made up less than 1 percent. Under the Gleichschaltung process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant state churches , [] with the ultimate goal of eradication of the churches in Germany. Persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Catholic schools were required to reduce religious instruction and crucifixes were removed from state buildings. Pope Pius XI had the " Mit brennender Sorge " "With Burning Concern" encyclical smuggled into Germany for Passion Sunday and read from every pulpit as it denounced the systematic hostility of the regime toward the church. Enrolment in denominational schools dropped sharply and by all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities. Alfred Rosenberg , head of the Nazi Party Office of Foreign Affairs and Hitler's appointed cultural and educational leader for Nazi Germany, considered Catholicism to be among the Nazis' chief enemies. He planned the "extermination of the foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany", and for the Bible and Christian cross to be replaced in all churches, cathedrals, and chapels with copies of Mein Kampf and the swastika. Other sects of Christianity were also targeted, with Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery Martin Bormann publicly proclaiming in , "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable. While no unified resistance movement opposing the Nazi regime existed, acts of defiance such as sabotage and labour slowdowns took place, as well as attempts to overthrow the regime or assassinate Hitler. These networks achieved little beyond fomenting unrest and initiating short-lived strikes. The group was detected by the Gestapo and more than 50 members were tried and executed in The two groups saw themselves as potential rival parties in post- war Germany, and for the most part did not co-ordinate their activities. While civilian efforts had an impact on public opinion, the army was the only organisation with the capacity to overthrow the government. They believed Britain would go to war over Hitler's planned invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Germany would lose. The plan was to overthrow Hitler or possibly assassinate him. The planned coup was cancelled after the signing of the Munich Agreement in September Several more attempts followed before the failed 20 July plot, which was at least partly motivated by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war. Richard J. Evans , The Coming of the Third Reich The regime promoted the concept of Volksgemeinschaft , a national German ethnic community. The goal was to build a classless society based on racial purity and the perceived need to prepare for warfare, conquest and a struggle against Marxism. As well as taking control of tens of thousands of privately run recreational clubs, it offered highly regimented holidays and entertainment such as cruises, vacation destinations and concerts. Sub-chambers were set up to control aspects of cultural life such as film, radio, newspapers, fine arts, music, theatre and literature. Members of these professions were required to join their respective organisation. Jews and people considered politically unreliable were prevented from working in the arts, and many emigrated. Books and scripts had to be approved by the Propaganda Ministry prior to publication. Standards deteriorated as the regime sought to use cultural outlets exclusively as propaganda media. Radio became popular in Germany during the s; over 70 percent of households owned a receiver by , more than any other country. By July , radio station staffs were purged of leftists and others deemed undesirable. Newspapers, like other media, were controlled by the state; the Reich Press Chamber shut down or bought newspapers and publishing houses. By , over two-thirds of the newspapers and magazines were directly owned by the Propaganda Ministry. Under Goebbels, the Propaganda Ministry issued two dozen directives every week on exactly what news should be published and what angles to use; the typical newspaper followed the directives closely, especially regarding what to omit. Authors of books left the country in droves and some wrote material critical of the regime while in exile. Goebbels recommended that the remaining authors concentrate on books themed on Germanic myths and the concept of blood and soil. By the end of , over a thousand books—most of them by Jewish authors or featuring Jewish characters —had been banned by the Nazi regime. Pacifist works, and literature espousing liberal, democratic values were targeted for destruction, as well as any writings supporting the Weimar Republic or those written by Jewish authors. Hitler took a personal interest in architecture and worked closely with state architects Paul Troost and Albert Speer to create public buildings in a neoclassical style based on Roman architecture. Neither structure was built. Hitler's belief that abstract , Dadaist , expressionist and modern art were decadent became the basis for policy. The exhibition proved wildly popular, attracting over two million visitors. Movies were popular in Germany in the s and s, with admissions of over a billion people in , and Exports of German films plummeted, as their antisemitic content made them impossible to show in other countries. The two largest film companies, Universum Film AG and Tobis , were purchased by the Propaganda Ministry, which by was producing most German films. The productions were not always overtly propagandistic, but generally had a political subtext and followed party lines regarding themes and content. Scripts were pre-censored. Leni Riefenstahl 's Triumph of the Will —documenting the Nuremberg Rally—and Olympia —covering the Summer Olympics —pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that influenced later films. New techniques such as telephoto lenses and cameras mounted on tracks were employed. Both films remain controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of Nazi ideals. The Allied powers organised war crimes trials, beginning with the Nuremberg trials , held from November to October , of 23 top Nazi officials. They were charged with four counts—conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity —in violation of international laws governing warfare. The result was convictions of 1, people; of these were sentenced to death and to life in prison, with the remainder receiving lesser sentences. About 65 percent of the death sentences were carried out. The political programme espoused by Hitler and the Nazis brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as Stunde Null Zero Hour. While Evans remarks that the era "exerts an almost universal appeal because its murderous racism stands as a warning to the whole of humanity", [] young neo-Nazis enjoy the shock value that Nazi symbols or slogans provide. The process of denazification, which was initiated by the Allies as a way to remove Nazi Party members was only partially successful, as the need for experts in such fields as medicine and engineering was too great. However, expression of Nazi views was frowned upon, and those who expressed such views were frequently dismissed from their jobs. While virtually every family suffered losses during the war has a story to tell, Germans kept quiet about their experiences and felt a sense of communal guilt, even if they were not directly involved in war crimes. Study of the era and a willingness to critically examine its mistakes has led to the development of a strong democracy in Germany, but with lingering undercurrents of antisemitism and neo-Nazi thought. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the book, see Das Dritte Reich. Germany from to while under control of the Nazi Party. Emblem — Germany's territorial control at its greatest extent during World War II late :. Part of a series on the. German Confederation Zollverein. Occupation Ostgebiete. Cold War West East. Reunification New states. Further information: Reich. Further information: Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Further information: History of Germany. Main article: Gleichschaltung. Main articles: Anschluss and German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Further information: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Main article: Operation Barbarossa. Main article: Mass suicides in Nazi Germany. Play media. Further information: World War II casualties. Main article: Territorial evolution of Germany. Main article: Nazism. See also: Government of Nazi Germany. Main article: Law in Nazi Germany. See also: Myth of the clean Wehrmacht. Main article: Economy of Nazi Germany. See also: List of companies involved in the Holocaust. Main article: Nazi plunder. Further information: Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany. Further information: Porajmos. Main article: Aktion T4. Main article: Generalplan Ost. Main articles: The Holocaust and Final Solution. Further information: Occupation of Poland — Main article: Nazi crimes against the Polish nation. Main article: German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war. Further information: University education in Nazi Germany. Further information: Women in Nazi Germany. Further information: Animal welfare in Nazi Germany. Main article: Kirchenkampf. See also: Religion in Nazi Germany. If the experience of the Third Reich teaches us anything, it is that a love of great music, great art and great literature does not provide people with any kind of moral or political immunization against violence, atrocity, or subservience to dictatorship. See also: List of authors banned in Nazi Germany. Main article: Nazism and cinema. Main article: Consequences of Nazism. See also: Denazification. Germany portal World War II portal. See Statistisches Jahrbuch It could not be expected that even for a brief period our Air Force could make up for our lack of naval supremacy. Goebbel's propaganda campaigns carried out in the second half of and again in had failed to convert them". Evans , p. Bartrop, Paul R. Berlin: The Downfall London: Viking-Penguin Books. The Second World War. New York: Little, Brown. A Concise History of Nazi Germany: — Dachau — The Official History. London: Norfolk Press. Yearbook of European Studies. Amsterdam; Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. Biddiscombe, Perry Journal of Social History. The German Dictatorship. Translated by Steinberg, Jean. New York: Penguin Books. UK: Arrow. German Propaganda Archive. Calvin College. Retrieved 3 March London: Headline Review. How Green Were the Nazis? Athens: Ohio University Press. Fists of Steel. The Third Reich. The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, — Vancouver: Regent College Publishing. New York: Peter Lang. National Socialist Cultural Policy. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Rising ' the Battle for Warsaw. New York: Viking. Bombing Policy —". Air Power History. Washington: Cato Institute. Bradford February Nazis and Soviets". University of California at Berkeley. Archived from the original on 11 May Retrieved 21 April Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days. London: Frontline. Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry series. Ericksen, Robert P. Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust. Minneapolis: Augsberg Fortress. Das Bundesarchiv in German. Government of Germany. Archived from the original on 21 October Retrieved 19 May Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin. The Third Reich in Power. The Third Reich at War. German Psychological Warfare. International Propaganda and Communications. New York: Arno Press. Speer: The Final Verdict. Translated by Osers, Ewald; Dring, Alexandra. San Diego: Harcourt. Nazi Germany: A New History. London: Constable and Company. Holocaust and Genocide Studies. London; New York: Longman. Nazi Germany and the Jews, — New York: Harper Perennial. Der "Generalplan Ost". Central European History. Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Germany Reports. With an introduction by Konrad Adenauer in German. Wiesbaden: F. Gill, Anton London: Heinemann. Theory and Practice of Leadership. Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 28 September Retrieved 16 February Suicide in Nazi Germany. New York: Knopf. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 December Bonn: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Richter, Heinz A. Athens: Govostis. After six years of foreign policy brinkmanship that took the Nazi regime from success to success, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September The war he unleashed was to plunge the world into a maelstrom of genocide and destruction. The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss. Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. More Details Original Title. The History of the Third Reich 2. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Third Reich in Power , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Third Reich in Power. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Sep 05, Andrew rated it it was amazing Shelves: politics-and-political-theory , european-history , economics-business-finance , austria , czech-republic , germany. Evans, is the second book in Evans Third Reich trilogy on the rise and fall of the Nazi's in Germany. The book takes place after the events of his last book, titled The Coming of the Third Reich, which focuses primarily on the ideological background and rising nationalism and fascism in Germany in the 's and early 's. His second book focuses primarily on the Third Reich in power in Germany as the title may suggest Hitler used his 6 years in power to purge Germany of those deemed dangerous to the German political sphere and to German racial hegemony. Political dissidents, opposing factions, Jews, other minorities and those with disabilities, as well as homosexuals, were terrorized, robbed and ultimately placed into camps which alluded to the horrifying plans the Nazi's had during the War. Evans does an excellent job chronicling this period of history. He does not editorialize Nazi motives nor does he need to, as they are so horrifying to begin with and focuses on "just the facts. Art and Culture are examined, where leading Nazi officials looked to control the art world in Germany to encourage racial and cultural homogeneity. The integration of Nazi ideology into everyday lives is also explored in great detail, with the inclusion of many cultural institutions, from churches to swimming clubs and libraries, all conforming to Nazi ideals. Evans also examines Hitler's centralization of power after taking power. Nationalists are quietly retired from the government, and potential naysayers are purged from military and political positions. Jews and dissenters are fired from work, and Jewish companies are closed and divided up by their Germany competitors. The economy is examined in detail, as the economy begins its rapid ascent into militarization. Large German firms begin to divide the spoils of those who are incarcerated under the Nazi regime. Newly annexed territories are also brought into the German economy. Works projects including architectural works and the Autobahn are begun. Germany's balance of trade also begins to suffer in this time, as the price of German goods becomes unattractive on the world market. Internationally, Germany re-annexes the Saarland, reoccupies the Rhineland, and receives territorial concessions from Czechoslovakia and Lithuania. Austria is annexed directly into the Reich. Germany also ends its political isolation, by formulating political ties with Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Non-aggression pacts are signed with Poland and the Soviet Union ironically, in both cases. Japan becomes an attractive ally as well. Evans book is incredibly detailed. Everything that you need to know about how the Third Reich operated in between is laid out in detail, with all the monstrous details needed. This is a terrifying time in history, and Evans The Third Reich in Power is the definitive book, and part of the definitive trilogy, on Germany's Nazi years. A must read for those interested in this time period. There is much to learn in this book. View all 3 comments. Sep 17, Hadrian rated it really liked it Shelves: germany , politics-and-foreign-policy , history , nonfiction. The second volume of Sir Richard Evans' trilogy, focusing on the social changes and foreign policy moves of the Third Reich from January August He writes on their attempts to form a 'people's community' based on the barbarity of s race science and its relentless drive to a continental war. He writes, however, that many of the Nazis' beliefs - on an "Aryan" race and the glamorization The second volume of Sir Richard Evans' trilogy, focusing on the social changes and foreign policy moves of the Third Reich from January August He writes, however, that many of the Nazis' beliefs - on an "Aryan" race and the glamorization of military struggle, were not as widely accepted. Many Germans had brown or black hair, and anybody above a certain age remembered the deprivation of the last war. The Nazis did find support on issues that were already popular - the army as a vessel for economic revival, and repudiating the treaties of Versailles. But while in some cases these interests and beliefs coincided, Evans asserts that Nazis were still a sizable minority only, still unable to enact everything they wanted in German society - facing some pushback from religious organizations. Who is 'only' German? Who goes Nazi? As this is the Third Reich we're talking about, there are hundreds of books on that topic. There are, no doubt, authors would argue about how there were more Nazis in Germany; that their attempts to deform German society were more successful even in six years of peacetime. I won't wade into that historical debate over how much power they had; but this is still an excellent overview. Jun 22, Arghya rated it it was amazing Shelves: germany , social , non-fiction , ww2 , war , history , read-in This is a splendid book. Without obsessing over the brutality and sadism of individual Nazi party members, this book provides a complete and unnerving account of how the Nazis, after coming in power, "won" the support of German people. It also vividly portrays the important contribution of Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Propaganda minister, in mobilizing the people to a war for the "Living space". I am simply swept away by the coherent representation of the details of the Nazi regime. I am surprised This is a splendid book. I am surprised to find that how the government can manipulate its action by "amending" the legislation. This book provides a detailed account of the "small" changes which the Nazi leaders brought in legal system and coerced it to satisfy their ends. For example, Roland Freisler was one of the luminaries of the Nazi regime. The author has done an admirable and superb job in writing this book. Highly recommended for readers who do not get daunted by details! My thoughts on the complete series: Review Dec 02, Sebastien rated it really liked it. The 2nd volume in Richard Evans' trilogy on the Third Reich. Comprehensive and meticulously researched. Not quite as interesting to me as the first volume which focused on how and why German democracy devolved into a violent terrorist regime. This volume focuses on how the Nazis consolidated power from and the kind of policies they enacted, their coercive methods, and how they ran their police state. I've read some interesting critiques that Evans seems to overemphasize the Na The 2nd volume in Richard Evans' trilogy on the Third Reich. I've read some interesting critiques that Evans seems to overemphasize the Nazis coercing of the broader German population while underemphasizing the populations' enthusiasm and support of the regime. This critique seems valid, but there is no doubt as to the coercive nature and intimidatory tactics of the Nazi state and that this played a major role in forcing many to fall into line behind the regime. One fascinating point that surprised me: Evans claimed there was a generational divide between parents and children. I don't know how much this makes sense to me as it seemed that many WWI veterans older generation had a lot of anger against the Allies and hence were thirsting for revenge Made me think about some of the generational divides in our politics here in the US. Evans had some explicit criticisms of Shirer at the beginning of the 1st volume. That said his use of Shirer's work as a primary source works well, since Shirer was on the ground level in Germany throughout the Nazi regime's rise. Would seem that as a historical work Shirer's book is better viewed as a primary source than as a history that showcases deep historical analysis. I'll def be finishing up this series as I really enjoy Evans writing and his historical analysis of this era. I just found out he has a new massive book that came out on 19th century Europe. Another book I had to add to my endless exponentially growing to read list! View all 8 comments. Jess and ordinary Germans alike must've felt like the frogs in a pan of boiling water, except there was nowhere to jump. The absence of war enthusiasm in - contrasted Jess and ordinary Germans alike must've felt like the frogs in a pan of boiling water, except there was nowhere to jump. Dec 19, Mikey B. So do not look to this book for a broad European context. There were times where I felt that the author over-emphasized the coerciveness of the Nazi regime — as if Germans were forced into Nazism. So many photos and films with joyful flag-waving Germans like on the cover of my paperback edition illustrate the enthusiasm with which the German people revered their country and leader with little in the way of compulsion. Many followed him to the bitter end. There was a tendency through-out the book to quote those who dissented with Nazism, rather than those who loved it. Was not the bulk of the SA from the working class? Who was the audience of Der Sturmer? Evans almost gives the impression at times that Nazi rule was merely tolerated — as if they converted Germans into automatons obeying commands. The enthusiasm with which the German people subjected entire parts of Europe and North Africa does not bear this out. Nazism constantly imbued the German people with their alleged racial superiority over all others. Evans discusses this racist nationalism towards the end of the book. He does provide many valuable details of Nazi methodology and how quickly all these came into play after the acquisition of power in I do not feel he answers all the questions and perhaps no one can of how Germany pursued war so vigorously and why they adored a leader who led them on such a disastrous path. View 2 comments. Oct 27, Lewis Weinstein rated it it was amazing Shelves: a-history-bio-memoir , a-research. I am reading parts of this book whenever the history converges with the plot as I write the sequel to my recently published novel A Flood of Evil. It is excellent. Dec 28, AC rated it it was amazing Shelves: fascism. This book is a bit harder to read though it reads well than vol. I -- largely because of its subject matter which, until the final chapter, necessarily takes a topical approach -- and because so much of the specifics of fascist and nazi social organization such as the educational organization, the Italian's dopolavoro and Germany's Kraft durch Freude, social policy, etc. For all that, there of much of great interest This book is a bit harder to read though it reads well than vol. In general, Evans is so thoroughly steeped in the archival material and in the secondary literature in German, that he is invulnerable to the trivialities that infect so much recent American scholarship on this period. At the same time, he is a liberal unlike Niall Ferguson and somehow managed to extricate himself from the smug self-satisfaction and intellectual world-weariness that infects so much of Oxbridge -- esp. If one can skim through the sections that might otherwise bog this or that particular reader down -- the march will be well-rewarded. Jul 17, Bettie rated it really liked it Shelves: nonfiction , art-forms , tbr-busting , books-about-books-and-book-shops , fraudio , history , series , summer , summer , nazi-related. This describes Nazi Germany during the so-called "peacetime" period, picking up where the first volume left off, and going all the way up to the start of World War II in In sharp detail, Evans shows how Hitler seized This describes Nazi Germany during the so-called "peacetime" period, picking up where the first volume left off, and going all the way up to the start of World War II in In sharp detail, Evans shows how Hitler seized upon his political victory and immediately began his plan for the Nazi infiltration of every aspect of German society. The Nazi propaganda blitz covered everything from local councils to social clubs to all voluntary associations. And when propaganda didn't work, coercion and fear did. At the behest of Hitler, the brownshirts and SS secret police ruthlessly harassed, beat, and murdered the Jews and Communists first, but later targeted anyone who showed even the slightest criticism of Nazi activities. Those Germans who disapproved of the Nazis were mainly confined to acts of passive resistance to Hitler's totalitarian rule. Nationalism proved to be the one issue capable of galvanizing the nation, as the Nazis' growing power helped to erase the shame and humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles that closed World War I. Over the course of the book, Evans shows how everything Hitler did in this period was designed to prepare the nation for a war--"a life and death struggle"--whose aim was less geographical conquest than racial purity. Hitler's main objective was "to remould the minds, spirits and bodies of the German people to make them capable and worthy of the role of the new master-race that awaited them. Well written and logically organized, The Third Reich in Power is an impressive work of meticulous, readable history. View all 7 comments. Shelves: 2-kewlskewl , the-proper-study-of-mankind , twentieth-century , tyranny , death , germany , ideas , austria , Apr 02, Marks54 rated it it was amazing. This is the second part of trilogy by Richard Evans - a biography of the Nazi state. This volume covers the seizure and consolidation of power by the Nazis from the beginning of until the "Night of the Long Knives" when the SA was purged and through the remilitarization of Germany and the beginnings of the anti-Jewish activities, the beginnings of the final solution, and the final diplomacy leading up to the beginning of WW2 in September The story is well known but Evans brings a weal This is the second part of trilogy by Richard Evans - a biography of the Nazi state. The story is well known but Evans brings a wealth of detail and is really good on establishing continuities within the Nazi regime. For example, his discussion of Nazi policies towards education and especially higher education hint - not very supportive were new to me. This book is very well written, hard to put down strange for a page book and extremely engaging, even though I am well versed in the topic. Highly recommended. Oct 14, Charles J rated it it was amazing. And what we do is very incomplete. Outside of Germany, or having effect outside Germany, we might note the Olympics, the Anschluss, and Munich. Evans offers an expansion of knowledge to the reader, with the focus on what happened in this period inside Germany. Rather than a chronological organization, Evans takes a thematic approach. Each section is divided into four subsections, and throughout Evans offers not just bare facts but insightful introductory passages and end summaries. This is not a review of my own earlier review, but I feel obliged to note that my sanguine attitude about political violence in America has been somewhat shaken by events since I wrote that review last March, so seven months ago. Political violence from the Left has increased exponentially, most dramatically in the attempted assassination of the Republican leadership of Congress by a partisan Democrat whipped up by the left-wing media stopped only by the chance presence of armed police, since, for no reason I can fathom, Congress refuses to simply erase the gun control laws in the District of Columbia. But at the same time, Nazi Germany is a reminder that things can get that bad, and then worse. For co-ordination, the focus was not on political activity as such—any overt political opponents of the Nazis, especially the Social Democrats but also others less directly opposed to them such as the Center Party and the Nationalists, had already been dealt with by direct dissolution. Instead, the focus was on private life, private communications, and especially private associations, which were then extremely important to the lives of nearly all Germans as they were also in the United States at that time, before their precipitous decline in recent decades. The goal was to achieve compliance to outward adherence to Nazi ideology, and therefore apparent unity of thought and action. Order was first imposed by purging the SA in the Night of the Long Knives, along the way killing potentially oppositional conservatives such as Gen. Kurt von Schleicher, who had preceded Hitler as Chancellor and also killing his wife , as well as prominent lay Catholic leader Erich Klausener. And, as with so much Hitler did in this period, using a combination of adroit propaganda and luck, after the fact he convinced the vast majority of the population to applaud these actions. Such success sustained the ongoing erosion of the rule of law, thus laying the groundwork for future such actions against other enemies of the state. Evans covers, at least briefly, all aspects of the nascent security state—not just the new legal structures, but the perversion of existing ones for example, ex post facto laws ; the growth of concentration camps, holding both political prisoners and common criminals who, if deemed in any way habitual, often became permanently imprisoned for petty crimes; and the administration of the police themselves, especially in the institution of the secret police, the Gestapo. In Nazi Germany, working class muttering about the regime was strictly punished probably because the courts suspected workers of being closet Social Democrats , usually with short prison sentences; middle class offenders more often got off with a warning. The result was that the Gestapo did seem everywhere, because analogues to Dunham were everywhere. We also have reached this point in America—not the point of prison sentences although that would certainly please Dunham , but no social conservative can speak freely in America without fear of damaging his career prospects or losing his job, at least if that job is with a big business, academia, any profession, or the military. Here Joseph Goebbels comes to the fore, with his immensely successful propaganda efforts, both in the media and in re-ordering associational life. Some of this is well known, such as the Nuremberg rallies; other portions are more pedestrian, but just as important, such as control of newspapers and radio. Evans also covers all forms of art, from novels to sculpture, which were treated the same way—not with direct persecution of artists, in most cases, but by support for approved artists who were seen as advancing Nazi goals, and criticism that often became equivalent to effective suppression for those who were seen as acting counter to Nazi goals. Here, as in other areas of life, Jewish artists were directly suppressed; many took the hint and left, which as far as the Nazis were concerned, was all to the good. Thus, any tool of opinion formation, including purely artistic ones, was co-ordinated, and as Victor Klemperer noted, language itself was corrupted. A few went in for quasi-pagan rituals, as we often see portrayed in movies, but this was not a significant movement outside the SS. As Evans points out, though, Nazism was too incoherent to be a real religion, political or otherwise—unlike Communism, Nazism had neither sacred books or eschatology. Regardless of what the Nazis themselves believed, as with other co-ordination efforts, the key goal was to eliminate all independent or oppositional power of the established Churches, especially the Catholic Church, such that outward conformity of all individuals was achieved. But the reality was that most Protestants were happy to be co-ordinated, although the relatively small Confessing Church was persecuted. Nonetheless, the German Christian Church never managed to achieve the Nazi goal of a unified state Church, even though only the Catholics were broadly and consistently opposed to Nazism. As to Catholics, despite the Concordat with the papacy, the Nazis shut down any political action and closed or co-ordinated private associations, including youth groups and schools. Quite a few Nazis admired the Catholic Church because of its duration and cohesive power, but all were hostile to it as an alternate center of authority with its members having independent expression. Some were fanatically hate-filled, such as Reinhard Heydrich; others more pragmatic. Flogging only made them ask for more, as a sign of their devotion. Forced to watch the execution of fellow Witnesses who had refused to carry out military-related work or obey orders conscripting them into the armed forces, they only begged to be allowed to be martyred themselves. The groups who hoped for a restoration of old social barriers and hierarchies were as disappointed as were those who looked to the Third Reich to carry out a radical redistribution of land and wealth. The Nazis wanted to build community by reducing class distinctions and frictions, while at the same time marking certain groups as apart, not only Jews but also any burdens on the state, such as elderly or disabled welfare recipients. In practice, though, its services were used more by the lower classes and often looked down on by the other classes, especially to the extent they had to put up with drunken carousing by the lower classes, which the objects of their scorn repaid by resentment of the bourgeois for their ability to afford extras on the tours and cruises. Ultimately, the Nazis created much less social change than they desired and they did not desire all that much leveling, for all their occasional devotion to socialism. The leadership of the Third Reich did, as we have seen, carry out a limited killing action against dissidents within its own ranks. The final two sections cover well-trodden ground. This section covers Jewish emigration, Kristallnacht, and other topics in a crescendo of unpleasantness. And the author talks extensively about the pre-war events focused outside Germany, such as the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Anschluss, and Czechoslovakia. All of these were extremely popular actions among all segments of German society, and would have been, even without co-ordination. Ending the book, Evans discusses the run-up to the invasion of Poland, offering us a cliffhanger where we all know how it ends. View 1 comment. Dec 02, Mohamed al-Jamri rated it liked it Shelves: nazi-germany-wwi-wwii. Very detailed. Quite interesting in the beginning and end, but the middle part is just boring with the huge amount of detail given to each facet of life during the Third Reich. Jun 04, Maureen rated it it was amazing Shelves: history , anthropology-sociology , non-fiction , nazism , reference. The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically depleted country to a mostly revitalized economy capable of invading Saarland, Malme, Austria and Czechoslovakia before the French and the British took any substantive action. I found this book to be mind-blowing for a number reasons: first, it lays out in detail that even before the Reichstag fire in , Hitler, along with Goring, Goebbels and a handful of others, had a plan for world domination that was driven by Hitler's absolute certainty that he was invincible. While this certainly was not the case, there was virtually no opposition to his quest for power in the early days. In part, this was because within Germany's borders opposition was met with vicious physical force. Also, while other countries sought to rebuild their economies based upon an assumption of peace, Hitler immediately made Germany's rearmament his number one priority upon gaining the Chancellorship. Equally disturbing is the lengths the Third Reich went to to insinuate itself into every single facet of German life. Not satisfied with mere politics, it invaded the community clubs and organizations that were central to German society. It also took over not just the newspapers, but all forms of media, including art, music, architecture, film, and probably most important, radio. A great deal of emphasis was attached to the children of the Reich: from the earliest age onward, they were conditioned to be obedient to Hitler. Their and their parents' free time was organized, their teachers had to teach the Nazi curriculum, the textbooks were "Aryanized", and critical thought was punished all the way through university. As Hitler took a tighter and tighter hold over the reins, churches in general and the Catholic Church in particular caved in to Nazi demands. The Catholic Church literally made a deal with the devil. Evans is particularly good at placing events in context: in or , for example, the lengths that Hitler was willing to go to to fulfill his so-called destiny would not have been clear. The Third Reich in Power by Richard J. Evans, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Retrieved The Times. Archived from the original on 7 May The Coming of the Third Reich. The Third Reich in Power. The Third Reich at War. Some were fanatically hate-filled, such as Reinhard Heydrich; others more pragmatic. Flogging only made them ask for more, as a sign of their devotion. Forced to watch the execution of fellow Witnesses who had refused to carry out military-related work or obey orders conscripting them into the armed forces, they only begged to be allowed to be martyred themselves. The groups who hoped for a restoration of old social barriers and hierarchies were as disappointed as were those who looked to the Third Reich to carry out a radical redistribution of land and wealth. The Nazis wanted to build community by reducing class distinctions and frictions, while at the same time marking certain groups as apart, not only Jews but also any burdens on the state, such as elderly or disabled welfare recipients. In practice, though, its services were used more by the lower classes and often looked down on by the other classes, especially to the extent they had to put up with drunken carousing by the lower classes, which the objects of their scorn repaid by resentment of the bourgeois for their ability to afford extras on the tours and cruises. Ultimately, the Nazis created much less social change than they desired and they did not desire all that much leveling, for all their occasional devotion to socialism. The leadership of the Third Reich did, as we have seen, carry out a limited killing action against dissidents within its own ranks. The final two sections cover well-trodden ground. This section covers Jewish emigration, Kristallnacht, and other topics in a crescendo of unpleasantness. And the author talks extensively about the pre-war events focused outside Germany, such as the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Anschluss, and Czechoslovakia. All of these were extremely popular actions among all segments of German society, and would have been, even without co-ordination. Ending the book, Evans discusses the run-up to the invasion of Poland, offering us a cliffhanger where we all know how it ends. View 1 comment. Dec 02, Mohamed al-Jamri rated it liked it Shelves: nazi-germany-wwi-wwii. Very detailed. Quite interesting in the beginning and end, but the middle part is just boring with the huge amount of detail given to each facet of life during the Third Reich. Jun 04, Maureen rated it it was amazing Shelves: history , anthropology-sociology , non-fiction , nazism , reference. The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically depleted country to a mostly revitalized economy capable of invading Saarland, Malme, Austria and Czechoslovakia before the French and the British took any substantive action. I found this book to be mind-blowing for a number reasons: first, it lays out in detail that even before the Reichstag fire in , Hitler, along with Goring, Goebbels and a handful of others, had a plan for world domination that was driven by Hitler's absolute certainty that he was invincible. While this certainly was not the case, there was virtually no opposition to his quest for power in the early days. In part, this was because within Germany's borders opposition was met with vicious physical force. Also, while other countries sought to rebuild their economies based upon an assumption of peace, Hitler immediately made Germany's rearmament his number one priority upon gaining the Chancellorship. Equally disturbing is the lengths the Third Reich went to to insinuate itself into every single facet of German life. Not satisfied with mere politics, it invaded the community clubs and organizations that were central to German society. It also took over not just the newspapers, but all forms of media, including art, music, architecture, film, and probably most important, radio. A great deal of emphasis was attached to the children of the Reich: from the earliest age onward, they were conditioned to be obedient to Hitler. Their and their parents' free time was organized, their teachers had to teach the Nazi curriculum, the textbooks were "Aryanized", and critical thought was punished all the way through university. As Hitler took a tighter and tighter hold over the reins, churches in general and the Catholic Church in particular caved in to Nazi demands. The Catholic Church literally made a deal with the devil. Evans is particularly good at placing events in context: in or , for example, the lengths that Hitler was willing to go to to fulfill his so-called destiny would not have been clear. His public statements emphasized peace, while behind the scenes he instructed his subordinates to raise hell. Nowhere is the clearer than in the lead up to the Olympic Games in , where anti-Jewish signs were taken down, and The Stormer , the most extreme Nazi newspaper, suspended publication until the tourists left. As soon the Olympics departed, Hitler unleashed his forces against the Jews, beginning with Kristallnacht , or The Night of Broken Glass , when Jewish homes and storefronts were destroyed, looted, and set on fire by the Brownshirts and their confederates, and thousands of Jews were arrested and many were ultimately sent to concentration camps. Every synagogue in Germany was destroyed. Although there had been many actions against the Jews before this, Kristallnacht was a turning point and marked the moment in time when the Third Reich laid bare its plan for their eradication. Many Jews tried to emigrate to other countries, but due to bureaucratic red tape or insufficient funds, many were unable to leave. Adolph Eichmann began his rise to prominence when he streamlined the emigration procedures in Austria, using the suggestions of a Jewish prisoner who was also an attorney. Hitler had the machinery in place to proceed with his plan for world domination, but he also had massive challenges to overcome. Evans lays out this panoramic history in an accessible way. While never losing sight of the bigger picture, Evans uses everything from diary entries of a German schoolgirl to William Shirer's firsthand reporting within sight of Hitler, and enormous amounts of research and documentation to support the most unbiased and comprehensive history of the Third Reich ever written. It is the only one you ever need to read. Very highly recommended, indeed. Aug 02, Steve rated it really liked it Shelves: political-history , world-war-two , nonfiction , military-history. I read this book and the third book of this series back to back, and so this review pertains to both to some extent. If I could, I would give this series 4. Evans' work really is excellent. The primary strength of this trilogy is how it focuses on the experience of the Germans before and during the war. My only real issue with the books is that there is a gre I read this book and the third book of this series back to back, and so this review pertains to both to some extent. My only real issue with the books is that there is a great deal of material and at times the presentation gets rather sprawling. I suspect that either Evans is a better writer than most, or that he received greater editorial support than is usual for contemporary books. My overall feeling was that the prose was well composed and polished. However, there were times when I felt myself sinking into a morass of detail, and perhaps some areas needed to be amended somewhat. Also, those seeking details of military operations will be disappointed. This was not an issue for me, because I have read so much on the military side of the war. Evans does not completely ignore this aspect, but he recounts the highlights of the military situation with great terseness. Evans' priority is plainly on the internal domestic situation of Germany. The sections of the book that dealt with the mistreatment of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and so on, became increasingly difficult for me to read, which is no fault of Evans. He is extremely objective at all times yet nevertheless represents Nazi policies with a stark and relentless analysis. But the effect on any reader with human feelings must be to create great emotional distress. I confess that I decided not to read the section in book 3 on the Final Solution itself, as emotional fatigue made it impossible. I will at some point read this section after I have recovered somewhat. On the whole, I found the analysis of Germany under Nazi rule to be both repellent and yet fascinating. Unfortunately, it reminded me of the United States during the G. Bush presidency, although Bush and his crew were poor shadows of the real Nazis. Marx's great quip that history occurs twice, first as tragedy and then as farce, comes to mind. As with the US under Bush, a great many Germans were not too sure of the sanity of the rulers, and yet the rulers made sure that dissent was largely quashed. The result in both cases was adventurism which in both cases lead to disaster. The book speaks to one of the great questions of history, can a whole people be blamed for the catastrophic policies of their leaders? On the one hand, as Evans shows, most Germans knew of the genocidal policies of the Nazis. To their credit, as Evans shows, many if not most of the older generations were not at all happy with these policies. Additionally, very few Germans were gung-ho on Hitler's military adventurism early in the war. Even after Hitler looked invincible, for such a supposedly 'militaristic' people, the Germans as a whole did not seem to be very warlike. On the other hand, few Germans did much about it. And many actively collaborated in genocidal efforts. Reading this gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. As an American, I felt disturbing echoes of how the United States went to war with Iraq and engaged in torture. I know I certainly did not do my part in opposing this, and I also know there were a great many people like me who also disliked the direction that the country was taking and the moral catastrophe in the making. On the other hand, the public space for resistance was very small, vastly larger than in the Third Reich, but without question smaller than it should be in a 'democratic' society. Evans' work will definitely be considered a landmark in this field and is well worth reading. It is not a book for the squeamish, however, while few details are graphic, there is much horror in its pages. I offer the potential reader one word of advice: Don't read it all in one go, do break it up with lighter fare. The Third Reich is a great negative example for us to all learn from, and this trilogy is definitely a place to look to for such lessons. Dec 04, Speesh rated it it was amazing Shelves: nazis , second-world-war , between-the- wars. There are, I doubt it not, shorter histories of The Third Reich, but none better. Authoritative, exhaustive and thoroughly, mind-bogglingly fascinating from the first word to the last, The Third Reich series, this being as consistent as The Coming of The Third Reich , is a look at what happened, rarely, as far as I could tell, delving into the nuances of the why. That is surely meant for the reader to do, that's what I was doing all the way through. For any reasonable person the paths will all lea There are, I doubt it not, shorter histories of The Third Reich, but none better. If you've had any contact with other books on the Second World War you'll find much of the background to the German side here. Some of the main take-aways I got were: Those lower down the scale, even those a rung down from Hitler, were opportunistic. They used 'the regime' to give free reign to excess, of their own inclinations. The Nazis in power had made them feel untouchable, and feel that anything they did would be approved by those above them. Until those above them saw them as a threat, of course. Any laws that were needed to justify any policy intentions, were introduced retroactively. The parallels of what Stalin was up to in Russia are startling all the way through the book. That they felt the need to have laws, even retroactively, surprised me, when they had total control of just about everything. There was massive resentment for the previous generation, from the young and the survivors, stemming from the defeat in World War I. They felt the generation above them, had let them and the concept of 'Germany' and Germanic European supremacy, down. Humiliation was often used to describe the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler used this zeitgeist and of course blamed the Jews. Though, as you'll read, distrust for the Jews and a desire to rid Europe especially of them, wasn't either Hitler's idea, or exclusively his aims in the thirties. While there was a whole load of Germans, especially Prussians, who wouldn't want to have been associated with Hitler, that was often because of his lowly background rather than a distaste for his policies. He wanted to 'restore' German hegemony over Europe and the world - and that was of course something they could go along with. It is perhaps not for the faint-hearted, leaving no Nazi stone left unturned as it does, so maybe think of it as a resource, a reference to use for any questions other book on WWII you read might raise. You can read it all the way through, as I did and thoroughly immerse yourself in pre-War Germany, but do be prepared to put aside some time to fully do it justice. Evans's comprehensive trilogy detailing the history of Nazi Germany. To say that this volume of pages of text and notes covers only 6 years to gives you some idea of how thorough this history is. This volume has to concern itself with how the new Nazi government solidified its philosophical dominance over the German people, the many steps taken toward rearmament, and, late in the decade, the political maneuvering which broug The Third Reich in Power is the 2d volume of Richard J. This volume has to concern itself with how the new Nazi government solidified its philosophical dominance over the German people, the many steps taken toward rearmament, and, late in the decade, the political maneuvering which brought about the incorporation of Austria and Czechoslovakia while leaving France and Britain diplomatically helpless. It's a familiar history. Less familiar but equally fascinating is Evans's social history of Nazism during the s. In the long central section, which is flanked by the propaganda-fueled takeover of national will in the early chapters and the diplomatic maneuvering in the final chapters as Hitler moved toward war, Evans writes at length about the impact of Nazism on the German social structure. The disenfranchisement of the Jews is familiar, as well, and is well told here. But I knew nothing about Nazi policies regarding such areas as education, religion, labor, and the arts, all extensively dealt with. Because of countless films, newsreels and photographic records, Nazi Germany is visually familiar to us. So is our perceptions of German attitudes toward ethnic groups, their willingness to go to war to right wrongs they felt had been unjustly levied against them by the Treaty of Versailles, their devotion to Hitler, and the penchant for Nazi organizations to resort to violence in pursuit of goals. We've all seen images of adoring crowds lining the streets, everyone waving a swastikaed flag. We're familiar with pictures of formations of uniformed organizations, young and old and of both genders, listening amid a forest of flags to a frantically lecturing Hitler, and we've all seen scenes of masses of people extending the Nazi salute. We've all been horrified at the brutality with which Jews were treated as the Nazis encouraged violence against them, stole their property, and hounded them out of the country. Evans's history makes it clear that the perceptions of Nazism which have come down to us via popular culture and historical accounts depicting Nazi actions and attitudes, in fact the whole Nazi era, are without exaggeration. As Evans convincingly shows, those years in Germany were everything we'd been told. This is a riveting, engaging account. Once you enter these 6 years of German history under the Nazis, you'll be spellbound. Jun 16, Mark Singer rated it it was amazing Shelves: nazi-germany , 20th-century , history , politics , germany , world-war-ii. I started reading this second volume in Evan's history of the Third Reich right after finishing the first one back in May. This one covers from the Nazi ascension of power in up until the beginning of the European phase of the Second World War in Evans organizes events by themes more so than dates; and so he describes topics such as economics, the Church, education, and the war on the Jews in compelling chapters. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Second World War. Jan 16, Rogier rated it it was amazing Shelves: history. With the same ability to avoid easy stereotyping that was evident in the first book, this book also provides a very nuanced overview of exactly how the Nazis took over the hearts and minds of the German people, but also demonstrates the limits of all that, which were a lot more evident a lot earlier than you would think. What perhaps interests me most is the clues you get from this book in terms of how early the Nazi's did begin to lose steam. Quite evidently already by a certain level of fa With the same ability to avoid easy stereotyping that was evident in the first book, this book also provides a very nuanced overview of exactly how the Nazis took over the hearts and minds of the German people, but also demonstrates the limits of all that, which were a lot more evident a lot earlier than you would think. Quite evidently already by a certain level of fatigue could be seen in the population, particularly in the area of radio, culture and events, where the regimentation and censorship, achieved a blandness which began to lose audience fairly quickly. The original political emergence of the Nazi's was already due more to the relative lack of organization of the other parties, and in that sense reactive, than that it was an explicit and positive movement. The Nazis deftly exploited their moment and used it to seize power, and suppress the other alternative, but from this careful account it becomes evident that even within a few years a reaction did begin to form, if nothing else in the form of fatigue with the message. It allowed for agencies of the party, state, and armed forces to operate outside the law when necessary to achieve the ideological goals of the regime, while maintaining the fiction of adhering to legal norms. As the Nazi leadership understood it, the concept did embody obedience but it also involved the use of considerable imagination and initiative. Hitler had the final say in both domestic legislation and foreign policy. Nazi foreign policy was guided by the racist belief that Germany was biologically destined to expand eastward by military force and that an enlarged, racially superior German population should establish permanent rule in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Here, women played a vital role. The Third Reich's aggressive population policy encouraged "racially pure" women to bear as many "Aryan" children as possible. During the war, however, the Nazi regime encouraged the active engagement of German women, particularly in the occupied east, in a variety of activities. These activities ranged from welfare and charity organizations that utilized recycled clothing and household equipment taken from the Jewish victims of the Holocaust to teaching Nazi versions of European history in ethnic German schools in occupied Poland and the Soviet Union. As an absolute principle of national security, Nazi ideology called for the elimination of "racially inferior" peoples such as Jews and Roma and implacable political enemies such as communists from regions in which Germans lived. In their foreign policy during the s, the Nazi leadership aimed from the beginning to wage a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. The Nazi government expended significant resources during the peacetime years to prepare the German people for such a war. In the context of this ideological war, the Germans planned and implemented the Holocaust, the mass murder of the Jews, whom the Nazi leadership considered to be the primary "racial" enemy. There was, however, some German opposition to specific policies or personalities of the Nazi state, often expressed in personal nonconformity or individual acts of defiance against Nazi ordinances. There were, in addition, two major attempts on Hitler's life. The first was carried out by a lone individual, Georg Elser, in November The second involved a small conspiracy of German military leaders, inspired by Colonel Klaus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, who sought to assassinate Hitler on July 20, , and replace the Nazi regime with a conservative-authoritarian regime under temporary military dictatorship. Though other small and isolated resistance groups developed, including a loosely organized, communist-inspired resistance, the vast majority of the German people supported the Nazi regime until its collapse. Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 8, Grunberger, Richard. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham, editors. Nazism, The Third Reich in Power by Richard J. Evans

Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree See Article History. Britannica Quiz. Woman in Germany burning marks because the money was worth less than conventional fuels, Erich Ludendorff second from left reviewing an assembly of Nazis, Weimar, Germany, Adolf Hitler's campaign for chancellor is aided by Joseph Goebbels's promotion of propaganda and terror. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. German minister of defense Gen. The absence of war enthusiasm in - contrasted Jess and ordinary Germans alike must've felt like the frogs in a pan of boiling water, except there was nowhere to jump. Dec 19, Mikey B. So do not look to this book for a broad European context. There were times where I felt that the author over-emphasized the coerciveness of the Nazi regime — as if Germans were forced into Nazism. So many photos and films with joyful flag-waving Germans like on the cover of my paperback edition illustrate the enthusiasm with which the German people revered their country and leader with little in the way of compulsion. Many followed him to the bitter end. There was a tendency through-out the book to quote those who dissented with Nazism, rather than those who loved it. Was not the bulk of the SA from the working class? Who was the audience of Der Sturmer? Evans almost gives the impression at times that Nazi rule was merely tolerated — as if they converted Germans into automatons obeying commands. The enthusiasm with which the German people subjected entire parts of Europe and North Africa does not bear this out. Nazism constantly imbued the German people with their alleged racial superiority over all others. Evans discusses this racist nationalism towards the end of the book. He does provide many valuable details of Nazi methodology and how quickly all these came into play after the acquisition of power in I do not feel he answers all the questions and perhaps no one can of how Germany pursued war so vigorously and why they adored a leader who led them on such a disastrous path. View 2 comments. Oct 27, Lewis Weinstein rated it it was amazing Shelves: a-history-bio-memoir , a-research. I am reading parts of this book whenever the history converges with the plot as I write the sequel to my recently published novel A Flood of Evil. It is excellent. Dec 28, AC rated it it was amazing Shelves: fascism. This book is a bit harder to read though it reads well than vol. I -- largely because of its subject matter which, until the final chapter, necessarily takes a topical approach -- and because so much of the specifics of fascist and nazi social organization such as the educational organization, the Italian's dopolavoro and Germany's Kraft durch Freude, social policy, etc. For all that, there of much of great interest This book is a bit harder to read though it reads well than vol. In general, Evans is so thoroughly steeped in the archival material and in the secondary literature in German, that he is invulnerable to the trivialities that infect so much recent American scholarship on this period. At the same time, he is a liberal unlike Niall Ferguson and somehow managed to extricate himself from the smug self-satisfaction and intellectual world-weariness that infects so much of Oxbridge -- esp. If one can skim through the sections that might otherwise bog this or that particular reader down -- the march will be well-rewarded. Jul 17, Bettie rated it really liked it Shelves: nonfiction , art-forms , tbr-busting , books-about-books-and-book-shops , fraudio , history , series , summer , summer , nazi-related. This describes Nazi Germany during the so-called "peacetime" period, picking up where the first volume left off, and going all the way up to the start of World War II in In sharp detail, Evans shows how Hitler seized This describes Nazi Germany during the so-called "peacetime" period, picking up where the first volume left off, and going all the way up to the start of World War II in In sharp detail, Evans shows how Hitler seized upon his political victory and immediately began his plan for the Nazi infiltration of every aspect of German society. The Nazi propaganda blitz covered everything from local councils to social clubs to all voluntary associations. And when propaganda didn't work, coercion and fear did. At the behest of Hitler, the brownshirts and SS secret police ruthlessly harassed, beat, and murdered the Jews and Communists first, but later targeted anyone who showed even the slightest criticism of Nazi activities. Those Germans who disapproved of the Nazis were mainly confined to acts of passive resistance to Hitler's totalitarian rule. Nationalism proved to be the one issue capable of galvanizing the nation, as the Nazis' growing power helped to erase the shame and humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles that closed World War I. Over the course of the book, Evans shows how everything Hitler did in this period was designed to prepare the nation for a war--"a life and death struggle"--whose aim was less geographical conquest than racial purity. Hitler's main objective was "to remould the minds, spirits and bodies of the German people to make them capable and worthy of the role of the new master-race that awaited them. Well written and logically organized, The Third Reich in Power is an impressive work of meticulous, readable history. View all 7 comments. Shelves: 2-kewlskewl , the-proper-study-of- mankind , twentieth-century , tyranny , death , germany , ideas , austria , Apr 02, Marks54 rated it it was amazing. This is the second part of trilogy by Richard Evans - a biography of the Nazi state. This volume covers the seizure and consolidation of power by the Nazis from the beginning of until the "Night of the Long Knives" when the SA was purged and through the remilitarization of Germany and the beginnings of the anti-Jewish activities, the beginnings of the final solution, and the final diplomacy leading up to the beginning of WW2 in September The story is well known but Evans brings a weal This is the second part of trilogy by Richard Evans - a biography of the Nazi state. The story is well known but Evans brings a wealth of detail and is really good on establishing continuities within the Nazi regime. For example, his discussion of Nazi policies towards education and especially higher education hint - not very supportive were new to me. This book is very well written, hard to put down strange for a page book and extremely engaging, even though I am well versed in the topic. Highly recommended. Oct 14, Charles J rated it it was amazing. And what we do is very incomplete. Outside of Germany, or having effect outside Germany, we might note the Olympics, the Anschluss, and Munich. Evans offers an expansion of knowledge to the reader, with the focus on what happened in this period inside Germany. Rather than a chronological organization, Evans takes a thematic approach. Each section is divided into four subsections, and throughout Evans offers not just bare facts but insightful introductory passages and end summaries. This is not a review of my own earlier review, but I feel obliged to note that my sanguine attitude about political violence in America has been somewhat shaken by events since I wrote that review last March, so seven months ago. Political violence from the Left has increased exponentially, most dramatically in the attempted assassination of the Republican leadership of Congress by a partisan Democrat whipped up by the left-wing media stopped only by the chance presence of armed police, since, for no reason I can fathom, Congress refuses to simply erase the gun control laws in the District of Columbia. But at the same time, Nazi Germany is a reminder that things can get that bad, and then worse. For co-ordination, the focus was not on political activity as such—any overt political opponents of the Nazis, especially the Social Democrats but also others less directly opposed to them such as the Center Party and the Nationalists, had already been dealt with by direct dissolution. Instead, the focus was on private life, private communications, and especially private associations, which were then extremely important to the lives of nearly all Germans as they were also in the United States at that time, before their precipitous decline in recent decades. The goal was to achieve compliance to outward adherence to Nazi ideology, and therefore apparent unity of thought and action. Order was first imposed by purging the SA in the Night of the Long Knives, along the way killing potentially oppositional conservatives such as Gen. Kurt von Schleicher, who had preceded Hitler as Chancellor and also killing his wife , as well as prominent lay Catholic leader Erich Klausener. And, as with so much Hitler did in this period, using a combination of adroit propaganda and luck, after the fact he convinced the vast majority of the population to applaud these actions. Such success sustained the ongoing erosion of the rule of law, thus laying the groundwork for future such actions against other enemies of the state. Evans covers, at least briefly, all aspects of the nascent security state—not just the new legal structures, but the perversion of existing ones for example, ex post facto laws ; the growth of concentration camps, holding both political prisoners and common criminals who, if deemed in any way habitual, often became permanently imprisoned for petty crimes; and the administration of the police themselves, especially in the institution of the secret police, the Gestapo. In Nazi Germany, working class muttering about the regime was strictly punished probably because the courts suspected workers of being closet Social Democrats , usually with short prison sentences; middle class offenders more often got off with a warning. The result was that the Gestapo did seem everywhere, because analogues to Dunham were everywhere. We also have reached this point in America—not the point of prison sentences although that would certainly please Dunham , but no social conservative can speak freely in America without fear of damaging his career prospects or losing his job, at least if that job is with a big business, academia, any profession, or the military. Here Joseph Goebbels comes to the fore, with his immensely successful propaganda efforts, both in the media and in re-ordering associational life. Some of this is well known, such as the Nuremberg rallies; other portions are more pedestrian, but just as important, such as control of newspapers and radio. Evans also covers all forms of art, from novels to sculpture, which were treated the same way—not with direct persecution of artists, in most cases, but by support for approved artists who were seen as advancing Nazi goals, and criticism that often became equivalent to effective suppression for those who were seen as acting counter to Nazi goals. Here, as in other areas of life, Jewish artists were directly suppressed; many took the hint and left, which as far as the Nazis were concerned, was all to the good. Thus, any tool of opinion formation, including purely artistic ones, was co-ordinated, and as Victor Klemperer noted, language itself was corrupted. A few went in for quasi-pagan rituals, as we often see portrayed in movies, but this was not a significant movement outside the SS. As Evans points out, though, Nazism was too incoherent to be a real religion, political or otherwise—unlike Communism, Nazism had neither sacred books or eschatology. Regardless of what the Nazis themselves believed, as with other co-ordination efforts, the key goal was to eliminate all independent or oppositional power of the established Churches, especially the Catholic Church, such that outward conformity of all individuals was achieved. But the reality was that most Protestants were happy to be co-ordinated, although the relatively small Confessing Church was persecuted. Nonetheless, the German Christian Church never managed to achieve the Nazi goal of a unified state Church, even though only the Catholics were broadly and consistently opposed to Nazism. As to Catholics, despite the Concordat with the papacy, the Nazis shut down any political action and closed or co-ordinated private associations, including youth groups and schools. Quite a few Nazis admired the Catholic Church because of its duration and cohesive power, but all were hostile to it as an alternate center of authority with its members having independent expression. Some were fanatically hate-filled, such as Reinhard Heydrich; others more pragmatic. Flogging only made them ask for more, as a sign of their devotion. Forced to watch the execution of fellow Witnesses who had refused to carry out military-related work or obey orders conscripting them into the armed forces, they only begged to be allowed to be martyred themselves. The groups who hoped for a restoration of old social barriers and hierarchies were as disappointed as were those who looked to the Third Reich to carry out a radical redistribution of land and wealth. The Nazis wanted to build community by reducing class distinctions and frictions, while at the same time marking certain groups as apart, not only Jews but also any burdens on the state, such as elderly or disabled welfare recipients. In practice, though, its services were used more by the lower classes and often looked down on by the other classes, especially to the extent they had to put up with drunken carousing by the lower classes, which the objects of their scorn repaid by resentment of the bourgeois for their ability to afford extras on the tours and cruises. Ultimately, the Nazis created much less social change than they desired and they did not desire all that much leveling, for all their occasional devotion to socialism. The leadership of the Third Reich did, as we have seen, carry out a limited killing action against dissidents within its own ranks. The final two sections cover well-trodden ground. This section covers Jewish emigration, Kristallnacht, and other topics in a crescendo of unpleasantness. And the author talks extensively about the pre-war events focused outside Germany, such as the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Anschluss, and Czechoslovakia. All of these were extremely popular actions among all segments of German society, and would have been, even without co- ordination. Ending the book, Evans discusses the run-up to the invasion of Poland, offering us a cliffhanger where we all know how it ends. View 1 comment. Dec 02, Mohamed al-Jamri rated it liked it Shelves: nazi-germany-wwi-wwii. Very detailed. Quite interesting in the beginning and end, but the middle part is just boring with the huge amount of detail given to each facet of life during the Third Reich. Jun 04, Maureen rated it it was amazing Shelves: history , anthropology-sociology , non-fiction , nazism , reference. The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically The second book in a trilogy has a hard job to fulfill: it delineates most of the "meat and bones" of its subject matter, without either the newness and excitement of the introductory volume, or the anticipation of a satisfactory conclusion, waiting to be experienced in the third. That being said, this book is indispensable to understanding how in six and a half short years, Hitler and his associates were able to transform Germany from an economically ravaged, morally, emotionally and physically depleted country to a mostly revitalized economy capable of invading Saarland, Malme, Austria and Czechoslovakia before the French and the British took any substantive action. I found this book to be mind-blowing for a number reasons: first, it lays out in detail that even before the Reichstag fire in , Hitler, along with Goring, Goebbels and a handful of others, had a plan for world domination that was driven by Hitler's absolute certainty that he was invincible. While this certainly was not the case, there was virtually no opposition to his quest for power in the early days. In part, this was because within Germany's borders opposition was met with vicious physical force. Also, while other countries sought to rebuild their economies based upon an assumption of peace, Hitler immediately made Germany's rearmament his number one priority upon gaining the Chancellorship. Equally disturbing is the lengths the Third Reich went to to insinuate itself into every single facet of German life. Not satisfied with mere politics, it invaded the community clubs and organizations that were central to German society. It also took over not just the newspapers, but all forms of media, including art, music, architecture, film, and probably most important, radio. A great deal of emphasis was attached to the children of the Reich: from the earliest age onward, they were conditioned to be obedient to Hitler. Their and their parents' free time was organized, their teachers had to teach the Nazi curriculum, the textbooks were "Aryanized", and critical thought was punished all the way through university. As Hitler took a tighter and tighter hold over the reins, churches in general and the Catholic Church in particular caved in to Nazi demands. The Catholic Church literally made a deal with the devil. Evans is particularly good at placing events in context: in or , for example, the lengths that Hitler was willing to go to to fulfill his so-called destiny would not have been clear. His public statements emphasized peace, while behind the scenes he instructed his subordinates to raise hell. Nowhere is the clearer than in the lead up to the Olympic Games in , where anti-Jewish signs were taken down, and The Stormer , the most extreme Nazi newspaper, suspended publication until the tourists left. As soon the Olympics departed, Hitler unleashed his forces against the Jews, beginning with Kristallnacht , or The Night of Broken Glass , when Jewish homes and storefronts were destroyed, looted, and set on fire by the Brownshirts and their confederates, and thousands of Jews were arrested and many were ultimately sent to concentration camps. Every synagogue in Germany was destroyed. Although there had been many actions against the Jews before this, Kristallnacht was a turning point and marked the moment in time when the Third Reich laid bare its plan for their eradication. Many Jews tried to emigrate to other countries, but due to bureaucratic red tape or insufficient funds, many were unable to leave. Adolph Eichmann began his rise to prominence when he streamlined the emigration procedures in Austria, using the suggestions of a Jewish prisoner who was also an attorney. Hitler had the machinery in place to proceed with his plan for world domination, but he also had massive challenges to overcome. Evans lays out this panoramic history in an accessible way. While never losing sight of the bigger picture, Evans uses everything from diary entries of a German schoolgirl to William Shirer's firsthand reporting within sight of Hitler, and enormous amounts of research and documentation to support the most unbiased and comprehensive history of the Third Reich ever written. It is the only one you ever need to read. Very highly recommended, indeed. Aug 02, Steve rated it really liked it Shelves: political-history , world-war-two , nonfiction , military-history. I read this book and the third book of this series back to back, and so this review pertains to both to some extent. If I could, I would give this series 4. Evans' work really is excellent. The primary strength of this trilogy is how it focuses on the experience of the Germans before and during the war. My only real issue with the books is that there is a gre I read this book and the third book of this series back to back, and so this review pertains to both to some extent. My only real issue with the books is that there is a great deal of material and at times the presentation gets rather sprawling. I suspect that either Evans is a better writer than most, or that he received greater editorial support than is usual for contemporary books. My overall feeling was that the prose was well composed and polished. However, there were times when I felt myself sinking into a morass of detail, and perhaps some areas needed to be amended somewhat. Also, those seeking details of military operations will be disappointed. This was not an issue for me, because I have read so much on the military side of the war. All civilian organisations, including agricultural groups, volunteer organisations, and sports clubs, had their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathisers or party members; these civic organisations either merged with the Nazi Party or faced dissolution. The day after, SA stormtroopers demolished union offices around the country; all trade unions were forced to dissolve and their leaders were arrested. The Nazi regime abolished the symbols of the Weimar Republic—including the black, red, and gold tricolour flag —and adopted reworked symbolism. The previous imperial black, white, and red tricolour was restored as one of Germany's two official flags; the second was the swastika flag of the Nazi Party, which became the sole national flag in Germany was still in a dire economic situation, as six million people were unemployed and the balance of trade deficit was daunting. The SA leadership continued to apply pressure for greater political and military power. On 2 August , Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. The new law provided an altered loyalty oath for servicemen so that they affirmed loyalty to Hitler personally rather than the office of supreme commander or the state. Most Germans were relieved that the conflicts and street fighting of the Weimar era had ended. They were deluged with propaganda orchestrated by Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels , who promised peace and plenty for all in a united, Marxist-free country without the constraints of the Versailles Treaty. Beginning in April , scores of measures defining the status of Jews and their rights were instituted. Eventually the Nazis declared the Jews as undesirable to remain among German citizens and society. In the early years of the regime, Germany was without allies, and its military was drastically weakened by the Versailles Treaty. Poland suggested to France that the two nations engage in a preventive war against Germany in March Fascist Italy objected to German claims in the Balkans and on Austria , which Benito Mussolini considered to be in Italy's sphere of influence. As early as February , Hitler announced that rearmament must begin, albeit clandestinely at first, as to do so was in violation of the Versailles Treaty. On 17 May , Hitler gave a speech before the Reichstag outlining his desire for world peace and accepted an offer from American President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military disarmament, provided the other nations of Europe did the same. In , Hitler told his military leaders that a war in the east should begin in When the Italian invasion of Ethiopia led to only mild protests by the British and French governments, on 7 March Hitler used the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance as a pretext to order the army to march 3, troops into the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler sent military supplies and assistance to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War , which began in July The German Condor Legion included a range of aircraft and their crews, as well as a tank contingent. The aircraft of the Legion destroyed the city of Guernica in Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence for 13 March, but Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazi Party or face an invasion. German troops entered Austria the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace. The Republic of Czechoslovakia was home to a substantial minority of Germans, who lived mostly in the Sudetenland. Under pressure from separatist groups within the Sudeten German Party , the Czechoslovak government offered economic concessions to the region. The crisis led to war preparations by Britain, Czechoslovakia, and France Czechoslovakia's ally. Attempting to avoid war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arranged a series of meetings, the result of which was the Munich Agreement , signed on 29 September The Czechoslovak government was forced to accept the Sudetenland's annexation into Germany. Chamberlain was greeted with cheers when he landed in London, saying the agreement brought "peace for our time". Austrian and Czech foreign exchange reserves were seized by the Nazis, as were stockpiles of raw materials such as metals and completed goods such as weaponry and aircraft, which were shipped to Germany. In January , Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Poland. The British announced they would come to the aid of Poland if it was attacked. Hitler, believing the British would not actually take action, ordered an invasion plan should be readied for September He expected this time they would be met by force. The Germans reaffirmed their alliance with Italy and signed non-aggression pacts with Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia whilst trade links were formalised with Romania, Norway, and Sweden. Germany's wartime foreign policy involved the creation of allied governments controlled directly or indirectly from Berlin. They intended to obtain soldiers from allies such as Italy and Hungary and workers and food supplies from allies such as Vichy France. Bulgaria signed the pact on 17 November. German efforts to secure oil included negotiating a supply from their new ally, Romania , who signed the Pact on 23 November, alongside the Slovak Republic. Although Japan was a powerful ally, the relationship was distant, with little co-ordination or co-operation. For example, Germany refused to share their formula for synthetic oil from coal until late in the war. Initially the intention was to deport them further east, or possibly to Madagascar. But little other activity occurred until May, so the period became known as the " Phoney War ". From the start of the war, a British blockade on shipments to Germany affected its economy. Germany was particularly dependent on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain. Denmark fell after less than a day , while most of Norway followed by the end of the month. Against the advice of many of his senior military officers, in May Hitler ordered an attack on France and the Low Countries. In violation of the provisions of the Hague Convention , industrial firms in the Netherlands, France, and Belgium were put to work producing war materiel for Germany. The Nazis seized from the French thousands of locomotives and rolling stock, stockpiles of weapons, and raw materials such as copper, tin, oil, and nickel. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder had advised Hitler in June that air superiority was a pre-condition for a successful invasion of Britain , so Hitler ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force RAF airbases and radar stations, as well as nightly air raids on British cities, including London , Plymouth , and Coventry. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the RAF in what became known as the Battle of Britain , and by the end of October, Hitler realised that air superiority would not be achieved. He permanently postponed the invasion, a plan which the commanders of the German army had never taken entirely seriously. On 22 June , contravening the Molotov—Ribbentrop Pact, about 3. The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic states, Belarus , and west Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk in September , Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kyiv. The Moscow offensive, which resumed in October , ended disastrously in December. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. Food was in short supply in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union and Poland, as the retreating armies had burned the crops in some areas, and much of the remainder was sent back to the Reich. The harvest was good, and food supplies remained adequate in Western Europe. Germany and Europe as a whole was almost totally dependent on foreign oil imports. Losses continued to mount after Stalingrad, leading to a sharp reduction in the popularity of the Nazi Party and deteriorating morale. By the end of , the Germans had lost most of their eastern territorial gains. Many sorties were intentionally given civilian targets in an effort to destroy German morale. By targeting oil refineries and factories, they crippled the German war effort by late Hitler ordered the destruction of transport, bridges, industries, and other infrastructure—a scorched earth decree—but Armaments Minister Albert Speer prevented this order from being fully carried out. Popular support for Hitler almost completely disappeared as the war drew to a close. Among soldiers and party personnel, suicide was often deemed an honourable and heroic alternative to surrender. First-hand accounts and propaganda about the uncivilised behaviour of the advancing Soviet troops caused panic among civilians on the Eastern Front, especially women, who feared being raped. High numbers of suicides took place in many other locations, including Neubrandenburg dead , Stolp in Pommern 1, dead , [] and Berlin, where at least 7, people committed suicide in Estimates of the total German war dead range from 5. The Saarland became a protectorate of France under the condition that its residents would later decide by referendum which country to join, and Poland became a separate nation and was given access to the sea by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which separated Prussia from the rest of Germany, while Danzig was made a free city. Germany regained control of the Saarland through a referendum held in and annexed Austria in the Anschluss of Some of the conquered territories were incorporated into Germany as part of Hitler's long-term goal of creating a Greater Germanic Reich. Several areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, were placed under the authority of an adjacent Gau regional district. The Reichskommissariate Reich Commissariats , quasi-colonial regimes, were established in some occupied countries. Areas placed under German administration included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Reichskommissariat Ostland encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus , and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Part of Poland was incorporated into the Reich, and the General Government was established in occupied central Poland. The Nazis were a far- right fascist political party which arose during the social and financial upheavals that occurred following the end of World War I. He viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Party rank was not determined by elections, and positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank. While top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, they had considerable autonomy. This led to a bureaucratic tangle of overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities typical of the administrative style of the Nazi regime. Jewish civil servants lost their jobs in , except for those who had seen military service in World War I. Members of the Party or party supporters were appointed in their place. In August , civil servants and members of the military were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler. Most of the judicial system and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in place to deal with non-political crimes. Thousands were arrested and confined indefinitely without trial. A new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof "People's Court" , was established in to deal with political cases. The Nazis used propaganda to promulgate the concept of Rassenschande "race defilement" to justify the need for racial laws. These laws initially prohibited sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring". The law also permitted the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone who was not supportive enough of the regime. The unified armed forces of Germany from to were called the Wehrmacht defence force. This included the Heer army , Kriegsmarine navy , and the Luftwaffe air force. From 2 August , members of the armed forces were required to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler personally. In contrast to the previous oath, which required allegiance to the constitution of the country and its lawful establishments, this new oath required members of the military to obey Hitler even if they were being ordered to do something illegal. In spite of efforts to prepare the country militarily, the economy could not sustain a lengthy war of attrition. A strategy was developed based on the tactic of Blitzkrieg "lightning war" , which involved using quick coordinated assaults that avoided enemy strong points. Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure the captured area. The decision to attack the Soviet Union and the decisive defeat at Stalingrad led to the retreat of the German armies and the eventual loss of the war. The Sturmabteilung SA; Storm Detachment , or Brownshirts, founded in , was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party; their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. After the purge of , the SA was no longer a major force. Initially a small bodyguard unit under the auspices of the SA, the Schutzstaffel SS; Protection Squadron grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany. It was dependent on the regular army for heavy weaponry and equipment, and most units were under tactical control of the High Command of the Armed Forces OKW. With recruitment and conscription based only on expansion, by the Waffen-SS could not longer claim to be an elite fighting force. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses. The most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 percent national unemployment rate. Hjalmar Schacht , President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created a scheme for deficit financing in May Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money. Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the soaring national debt. In October , the Junkers Aircraft Works was expropriated. From a workforce of 3, people producing units per year in , the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10, technically advanced aircraft annually less than ten years later. An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By , Farben regretted making the deal, as excess profits were by then being generated. Major public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of Autobahnen and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements. Envisioning widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany, Hitler arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the KdF-wagen Strength Through Joy car , intended to be an automobile that everyone could afford. With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. None were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen people's car. Six million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in and by there were fewer than a million. By early , the focus shifted towards rearmament. By , military expenditures accounted for 73 percent of the government's purchases of goods and services. The Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning. Historian Richard Overy describes it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States. Approximately 75 percent were Eastern European. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity. Foreign workers brought into Germany were put into four classifications: guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and Eastern workers. Each group was subject to different regulations. The Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers. By , over a half million women served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces. They also took jobs formerly held by men, especially on farms and in family-owned shops. Very heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline , as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals. By November, fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations and the production of new armaments was no longer possible. During the course of the war, the Nazis extracted considerable plunder from occupied Europe. Historian and war correspondent William L. Shirer writes: "The total amount of [Nazi] loot will never be known; it has proved beyond man's capacity to accurately compute. The Bank of France was forced to provide 4. The Nazis exploited other conquered nations in a similar way. Nazi plunder included private and public art collections, artefacts, precious metals, books, and personal possessions. France saw the greatest extent of Nazi plunder. Some 26, railroad cars of art treasures, furniture, and other looted items were sent to Germany from France. Goods and raw materials were also taken. In France, an estimated 9,, tonnes 8,, long tons; 9,, short tons of cereals were seized during the course of the war, including 75 percent of its oats. In addition, 80 percent of the country's oil and 74 percent of its steel production were taken. The valuation of this loot is estimated to be In Poland, Nazi plunder of raw materials began even before the German invasion had concluded. Following Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union was also plundered. In alone, 9,, tons of cereals, 2,, tonnes 2,, long tons; 2,, short tons of fodder, 3,, tonnes 3,, long tons; 3,, short tons of potatoes, and , tonnes , long tons; , short tons of meats were sent back to Germany. This relatively low number in comparison to the occupied nations of Western Europe can be attributed to the devastating fighting on the Eastern Front. Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the Nazi Party and the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany's racial policy was based on their belief in the existence of a superior master race. The Nazis postulated the existence of a racial conflict between the Aryan master race and inferior races, particularly Jews, who were viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated society and were responsible for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race. Discrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power. Following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses and synagogues, on 1 April Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The regime used violence and economic pressure to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. In November a young Jewish man requested an interview with the German ambassador in Paris and met with a legation secretary, whom he shot and killed to protest his family's treatment in Germany. This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazis incited against the Jews on 9 November Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by Kristallnacht and told that any insurance settlements would be confiscated. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement , but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government. Like the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. The Romani were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. They were shipped to concentration camps starting in and many were killed. The Nazis intended on deporting all Romani people from Germany, and confined them to Zigeunerlager Gypsy camps for this purpose. Himmler ordered their deportation from Germany in December , with few exceptions. A total of 23, Romani were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp , of whom 19, died. Outside of Germany, the Romani people were regularly used for forced labour, though many were killed. In occupied Serbia , 1, to 12, Romani were killed, while nearly all 25, Romani living in the Independent State of Croatia were killed. The estimates at end of the war put the total death toll at around ,, which equalled approximately 25 percent of the Romani population in Europe. Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that took place mainly from to , and continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others; gas chambers and gas vans using carbon monoxide were used by early Most of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals. Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. The Generalplan Ost "General Plan for the East" called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December , Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be killed in the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. The Allies received information about the murders from the Polish government-in-exile and Polish leadership in Warsaw, based mostly on intelligence from the Polish underground. Evans states that most German citizens disapproved of the genocide. Poles were viewed by Nazis as subhuman non-Aryans, and during the German occupation of Poland 2. The German authorities engaged in a systematic effort to destroy Polish culture and national identity. During operation AB-Aktion , many university professors and members of the Polish intelligentsia were arrested, transported to concentration camps, or executed. During the war, Poland lost an estimated 39 to 45 percent of its physicians and dentists, 26 to 57 percent of its lawyers, 15 to 30 percent of its teachers, 30 to 40 percent of its scientists and university professors, and 18 to 28 percent of its clergy. The Nazis captured 5. Of these, they killed an estimated 3. From onward, Soviet POWs were viewed as a source of forced labour, and received better treatment so they could work. Antisemitic legislation passed in led to the removal of all Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. The average class size increased from 37 in to 43 in due to the resulting teacher shortage. Frequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture , and other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools. Detailed indoctrination of future holders of elite military rank was undertaken at Order Castles. Primary and secondary education focused on racial biology, population policy, culture, geography, and physical fitness. At universities, appointments to top posts were the subject of power struggles between the education ministry, the university boards, and the National Socialist German Students' League. Women were a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, instead advocating a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home". Courses were offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking. Women were encouraged to leave the workforce, and the creation of large families by racially suitable women was promoted through a propaganda campaign. Women received a bronze award—known as the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter Cross of Honour of the German Mother —for giving birth to four children, silver for six, and gold for eight or more. Though the measures led to increases in the birth rate, the number of families having four or more children declined by five percent between and After the war started, slave labourers were extensively used. Nazi leaders endorsed the idea that rational and theoretical work was alien to a woman's nature, and as such discouraged women from seeking higher education. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary schools dropped from , in to 51, in However, with the requirement that men be enlisted into the armed forces during the war, women comprised half of the enrolment in the post-secondary system by Women were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital. From 25 March membership in the Hitler Youth was made compulsory for all children over the age of ten. The BDM's activities focused on physical education, with activities such as running, long jumping, somersaulting, tightrope walking, marching, and swimming. The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct regarding sexual matters and was sympathetic to women who bore children out of wedlock. Soldier's wives were frequently involved in extramarital relationships. Sex was sometimes used as a commodity to obtain better work from a foreign labourer. With Hitler's approval, Himmler intended that the new society of the Nazi regime should destigmatise illegitimate births, particularly of children fathered by members of the SS, who were vetted for racial purity.

Third Reich | The Holocaust Encyclopedia

Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. NOOK Book. The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of the Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss. Fluidly narrated, tightly organized and comprehensive. Home 1 Books 2. Read an excerpt of this book! Add to Wishlist. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree See Article History. Britannica Quiz. Woman in Germany burning marks because the money was worth less than conventional fuels, Erich Ludendorff second from left reviewing an assembly of Nazis, Weimar, Germany, Adolf Hitler's campaign for chancellor is aided by Joseph Goebbels's promotion of propaganda and terror. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. German minister of defense Gen. Werner von Blomberg right foreground, saluting inspecting troops in front of the Garrison Church, Potsdam, Germany, March 22, For example, Germany refused to share their formula for synthetic oil from coal until late in the war. Initially the intention was to deport them further east, or possibly to Madagascar. But little other activity occurred until May, so the period became known as the " Phoney War ". From the start of the war, a British blockade on shipments to Germany affected its economy. Germany was particularly dependent on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain. Denmark fell after less than a day , while most of Norway followed by the end of the month. Against the advice of many of his senior military officers, in May Hitler ordered an attack on France and the Low Countries. In violation of the provisions of the Hague Convention , industrial firms in the Netherlands, France, and Belgium were put to work producing war materiel for Germany. The Nazis seized from the French thousands of locomotives and rolling stock, stockpiles of weapons, and raw materials such as copper, tin, oil, and nickel. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder had advised Hitler in June that air superiority was a pre-condition for a successful invasion of Britain , so Hitler ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force RAF airbases and radar stations, as well as nightly air raids on British cities, including London , Plymouth , and Coventry. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the RAF in what became known as the Battle of Britain , and by the end of October, Hitler realised that air superiority would not be achieved. He permanently postponed the invasion, a plan which the commanders of the German army had never taken entirely seriously. On 22 June , contravening the Molotov—Ribbentrop Pact, about 3. The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic states, Belarus , and west Ukraine. After the successful Battle of Smolensk in September , Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kyiv. The Moscow offensive, which resumed in October , ended disastrously in December. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. Food was in short supply in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union and Poland, as the retreating armies had burned the crops in some areas, and much of the remainder was sent back to the Reich. The harvest was good, and food supplies remained adequate in Western Europe. Germany and Europe as a whole was almost totally dependent on foreign oil imports. Losses continued to mount after Stalingrad, leading to a sharp reduction in the popularity of the Nazi Party and deteriorating morale. By the end of , the Germans had lost most of their eastern territorial gains. Many sorties were intentionally given civilian targets in an effort to destroy German morale. By targeting oil refineries and factories, they crippled the German war effort by late Hitler ordered the destruction of transport, bridges, industries, and other infrastructure—a scorched earth decree—but Armaments Minister Albert Speer prevented this order from being fully carried out. Popular support for Hitler almost completely disappeared as the war drew to a close. Among soldiers and party personnel, suicide was often deemed an honourable and heroic alternative to surrender. First-hand accounts and propaganda about the uncivilised behaviour of the advancing Soviet troops caused panic among civilians on the Eastern Front, especially women, who feared being raped. High numbers of suicides took place in many other locations, including Neubrandenburg dead , Stolp in Pommern 1, dead , [] and Berlin, where at least 7, people committed suicide in Estimates of the total German war dead range from 5. The Saarland became a protectorate of France under the condition that its residents would later decide by referendum which country to join, and Poland became a separate nation and was given access to the sea by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which separated Prussia from the rest of Germany, while Danzig was made a free city. Germany regained control of the Saarland through a referendum held in and annexed Austria in the Anschluss of Some of the conquered territories were incorporated into Germany as part of Hitler's long-term goal of creating a Greater Germanic Reich. Several areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, were placed under the authority of an adjacent Gau regional district. The Reichskommissariate Reich Commissariats , quasi-colonial regimes, were established in some occupied countries. Areas placed under German administration included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Reichskommissariat Ostland encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus , and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Part of Poland was incorporated into the Reich, and the General Government was established in occupied central Poland. The Nazis were a far-right fascist political party which arose during the social and financial upheavals that occurred following the end of World War I. He viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Party rank was not determined by elections, and positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank. While top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, they had considerable autonomy. This led to a bureaucratic tangle of overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities typical of the administrative style of the Nazi regime. Jewish civil servants lost their jobs in , except for those who had seen military service in World War I. Members of the Party or party supporters were appointed in their place. In August , civil servants and members of the military were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler. Most of the judicial system and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in place to deal with non-political crimes. Thousands were arrested and confined indefinitely without trial. A new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof "People's Court" , was established in to deal with political cases. The Nazis used propaganda to promulgate the concept of Rassenschande "race defilement" to justify the need for racial laws. These laws initially prohibited sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring". The law also permitted the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone who was not supportive enough of the regime. The unified armed forces of Germany from to were called the Wehrmacht defence force. This included the Heer army , Kriegsmarine navy , and the Luftwaffe air force. From 2 August , members of the armed forces were required to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler personally. In contrast to the previous oath, which required allegiance to the constitution of the country and its lawful establishments, this new oath required members of the military to obey Hitler even if they were being ordered to do something illegal. In spite of efforts to prepare the country militarily, the economy could not sustain a lengthy war of attrition. A strategy was developed based on the tactic of Blitzkrieg "lightning war" , which involved using quick coordinated assaults that avoided enemy strong points. Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure the captured area. The decision to attack the Soviet Union and the decisive defeat at Stalingrad led to the retreat of the German armies and the eventual loss of the war. The Sturmabteilung SA; Storm Detachment , or Brownshirts, founded in , was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party; their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. After the purge of , the SA was no longer a major force. Initially a small bodyguard unit under the auspices of the SA, the Schutzstaffel SS; Protection Squadron grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany. It was dependent on the regular army for heavy weaponry and equipment, and most units were under tactical control of the High Command of the Armed Forces OKW. With recruitment and conscription based only on expansion, by the Waffen-SS could not longer claim to be an elite fighting force. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses. The most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 percent national unemployment rate. Hjalmar Schacht , President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created a scheme for deficit financing in May Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money. Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the soaring national debt. In October , the Junkers Aircraft Works was expropriated. From a workforce of 3, people producing units per year in , the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10, technically advanced aircraft annually less than ten years later. An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By , Farben regretted making the deal, as excess profits were by then being generated. Major public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of Autobahnen and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements. Envisioning widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany, Hitler arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the KdF-wagen Strength Through Joy car , intended to be an automobile that everyone could afford. With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. None were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen people's car. Six million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in and by there were fewer than a million. By early , the focus shifted towards rearmament. By , military expenditures accounted for 73 percent of the government's purchases of goods and services. The Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning. Historian Richard Overy describes it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States. Approximately 75 percent were Eastern European. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity. Foreign workers brought into Germany were put into four classifications: guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and Eastern workers. Each group was subject to different regulations. The Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers. By , over a half million women served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces. They also took jobs formerly held by men, especially on farms and in family-owned shops. Very heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline , as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals. By November, fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations and the production of new armaments was no longer possible. During the course of the war, the Nazis extracted considerable plunder from occupied Europe. Historian and war correspondent William L. Shirer writes: "The total amount of [Nazi] loot will never be known; it has proved beyond man's capacity to accurately compute. The Bank of France was forced to provide 4. The Nazis exploited other conquered nations in a similar way. Nazi plunder included private and public art collections, artefacts, precious metals, books, and personal possessions. France saw the greatest extent of Nazi plunder. Some 26, railroad cars of art treasures, furniture, and other looted items were sent to Germany from France. Goods and raw materials were also taken. In France, an estimated 9,, tonnes 8,, long tons; 9,, short tons of cereals were seized during the course of the war, including 75 percent of its oats. In addition, 80 percent of the country's oil and 74 percent of its steel production were taken. The valuation of this loot is estimated to be In Poland, Nazi plunder of raw materials began even before the German invasion had concluded. Following Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union was also plundered. In alone, 9,, tons of cereals, 2,, tonnes 2,, long tons; 2,, short tons of fodder, 3,, tonnes 3,, long tons; 3,, short tons of potatoes, and , tonnes , long tons; , short tons of meats were sent back to Germany. This relatively low number in comparison to the occupied nations of Western Europe can be attributed to the devastating fighting on the Eastern Front. Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the Nazi Party and the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany's racial policy was based on their belief in the existence of a superior master race. The Nazis postulated the existence of a racial conflict between the Aryan master race and inferior races, particularly Jews, who were viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated society and were responsible for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race. Discrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power. Following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses and synagogues, on 1 April Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The regime used violence and economic pressure to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. In November a young Jewish man requested an interview with the German ambassador in Paris and met with a legation secretary, whom he shot and killed to protest his family's treatment in Germany. This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazis incited against the Jews on 9 November Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by Kristallnacht and told that any insurance settlements would be confiscated. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement , but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government. Like the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. The Romani were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. They were shipped to concentration camps starting in and many were killed. The Nazis intended on deporting all Romani people from Germany, and confined them to Zigeunerlager Gypsy camps for this purpose. Himmler ordered their deportation from Germany in December , with few exceptions. A total of 23, Romani were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp , of whom 19, died. Outside of Germany, the Romani people were regularly used for forced labour, though many were killed. In occupied Serbia , 1, to 12, Romani were killed, while nearly all 25, Romani living in the Independent State of Croatia were killed. The estimates at end of the war put the total death toll at around ,, which equalled approximately 25 percent of the Romani population in Europe. Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that took place mainly from to , and continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others; gas chambers and gas vans using carbon monoxide were used by early Most of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals. Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. The Generalplan Ost "General Plan for the East" called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December , Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be killed in the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. The Allies received information about the murders from the Polish government-in-exile and Polish leadership in Warsaw, based mostly on intelligence from the Polish underground. Evans states that most German citizens disapproved of the genocide. Poles were viewed by Nazis as subhuman non-Aryans, and during the German occupation of Poland 2. The German authorities engaged in a systematic effort to destroy Polish culture and national identity. During operation AB-Aktion , many university professors and members of the Polish intelligentsia were arrested, transported to concentration camps, or executed. During the war, Poland lost an estimated 39 to 45 percent of its physicians and dentists, 26 to 57 percent of its lawyers, 15 to 30 percent of its teachers, 30 to 40 percent of its scientists and university professors, and 18 to 28 percent of its clergy. The Nazis captured 5. Of these, they killed an estimated 3. From onward, Soviet POWs were viewed as a source of forced labour, and received better treatment so they could work. Antisemitic legislation passed in led to the removal of all Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. The average class size increased from 37 in to 43 in due to the resulting teacher shortage. Frequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture , and other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools. Detailed indoctrination of future holders of elite military rank was undertaken at Order Castles. Primary and secondary education focused on racial biology, population policy, culture, geography, and physical fitness. At universities, appointments to top posts were the subject of power struggles between the education ministry, the university boards, and the National Socialist German Students' League. Women were a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, instead advocating a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home". Courses were offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking. Women were encouraged to leave the workforce, and the creation of large families by racially suitable women was promoted through a propaganda campaign. Women received a bronze award—known as the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter Cross of Honour of the German Mother —for giving birth to four children, silver for six, and gold for eight or more. Though the measures led to increases in the birth rate, the number of families having four or more children declined by five percent between and After the war started, slave labourers were extensively used. Nazi leaders endorsed the idea that rational and theoretical work was alien to a woman's nature, and as such discouraged women from seeking higher education. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary schools dropped from , in to 51, in However, with the requirement that men be enlisted into the armed forces during the war, women comprised half of the enrolment in the post-secondary system by Women were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital. From 25 March membership in the Hitler Youth was made compulsory for all children over the age of ten. The BDM's activities focused on physical education, with activities such as running, long jumping, somersaulting, tightrope walking, marching, and swimming. The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct regarding sexual matters and was sympathetic to women who bore children out of wedlock. Soldier's wives were frequently involved in extramarital relationships. Sex was sometimes used as a commodity to obtain better work from a foreign labourer. With Hitler's approval, Himmler intended that the new society of the Nazi regime should destigmatise illegitimate births, particularly of children fathered by members of the SS, who were vetted for racial purity. Existing laws banning abortion except for medical reasons were strictly enforced by the Nazi regime. The number of abortions declined from 35, per year at the start of the s to fewer than 2, per year at the end of the decade, though in a law was passed allowing abortions for eugenics reasons. Nazi Germany had a strong anti-tobacco movement , as pioneering research by Franz H. Government-run health care insurance plans were available, but Jews were denied coverage starting in That same year, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat government-insured patients. In , Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients, and in their right to practice medicine was removed entirely. Medical experiments, many of them pseudoscientific , were performed on concentration camp inmates beginning in Josef Mengele , camp doctor at Auschwitz. Nazi society had elements supportive of animal rights and many people were fond of zoos and wildlife. In , the Nazis enacted a stringent animal- protection law that affected what was allowed for medical research. It allowed for the expropriation of privately owned land to create nature preserves and aided in long-range planning. When the Nazis seized power in , roughly 67 percent of the population of Germany was Protestant , 33 percent was Roman Catholic , while Jews made up less than 1 percent. Under the Gleichschaltung process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant state churches , [] with the ultimate goal of eradication of the churches in Germany. Persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Catholic schools were required to reduce religious instruction and crucifixes were removed from state buildings. Pope Pius XI had the " Mit brennender Sorge " "With Burning Concern" encyclical smuggled into Germany for Passion Sunday and read from every pulpit as it denounced the systematic hostility of the regime toward the church. Enrolment in denominational schools dropped sharply and by all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities. Alfred Rosenberg , head of the Nazi Party Office of Foreign Affairs and Hitler's appointed cultural and educational leader for Nazi Germany, considered Catholicism to be among the Nazis' chief enemies. He planned the "extermination of the foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany", and for the Bible and Christian cross to be replaced in all churches, cathedrals, and chapels with copies of Mein Kampf and the swastika. Other sects of Christianity were also targeted, with Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery Martin Bormann publicly proclaiming in , "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable. While no unified resistance movement opposing the Nazi regime existed, acts of defiance such as sabotage and labour slowdowns took place, as well as attempts to overthrow the regime or assassinate Hitler. These networks achieved little beyond fomenting unrest and initiating short-lived strikes. The group was detected by the Gestapo and more than 50 members were tried and executed in The two groups saw themselves as potential rival parties in post-war Germany, and for the most part did not co-ordinate their activities. While civilian efforts had an impact on public opinion, the army was the only organisation with the capacity to overthrow the government. They believed Britain would go to war over Hitler's planned invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Germany would lose. The plan was to overthrow Hitler or possibly assassinate him. The planned coup was cancelled after the signing of the Munich Agreement in September Several more attempts followed before the failed 20 July plot, which was at least partly motivated by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war. Richard J. Evans , The Coming of the Third Reich The regime promoted the concept of Volksgemeinschaft , a national German ethnic community. The goal was to build a classless society based on racial purity and the perceived need to prepare for warfare, conquest and a struggle against Marxism. As well as taking control of tens of thousands of privately run recreational clubs, it offered highly regimented holidays and entertainment such as cruises, vacation destinations and concerts. Sub-chambers were set up to control aspects of cultural life such as film, radio, newspapers, fine arts, music, theatre and literature. Members of these professions were required to join their respective organisation. Jews and people considered politically unreliable were prevented from working in the arts, and many emigrated. Books and scripts had to be approved by the Propaganda Ministry prior to publication. Standards deteriorated as the regime sought to use cultural outlets exclusively as propaganda media. Radio became popular in Germany during the s; over 70 percent of households owned a receiver by , more than any other country. By July , radio station staffs were purged of leftists and others deemed undesirable. Newspapers, like other media, were controlled by the state; the Reich Press Chamber shut down or bought newspapers and publishing houses. By , over two-thirds of the newspapers and magazines were directly owned by the Propaganda Ministry.

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