![]() ![]() The criminality and complicity of the army in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes escalated most clearly during the invasion of the Soviet Union. The War of Annihilation in the Soviet Union While it is not possible to generalize completely about an organization of 17 million men, increasingly the German army became willing to support the Nazi leadership’s aggressive wars and genocidal policies. Army newspapers and bulletins, films, and lectures by “educational officers” spread racist and antisemitic propaganda and emphasized that Germany was fighting a defensive war against “Judeo-Bolsheviks” and “plutocratic” conspirators eager to destroy European civilization and enslave the German people. Building upon this, the Wehrmacht continued to ideologically indoctrinate German troops. While senior officers may not have always been committed Nazis, younger soldiers and officers entered the service having come of age under the constant propaganda of the Third Reich. Meanwhile, as the German army increased in size, it also became more politically extreme. Finally, many generals received systematic bribes from Hitler in the form of extra pay, grants, and even gifts of lands and estates. Second, he promised the opportunity to fight their enemies in France and the Bolshevist Soviet Union. While they still did not always agree with Hitler, they found a common ground that allowed them to partner with him.įirst, Hitler succeeded in rebuilding the German military after the humiliating reductions of the Versailles Treaty after World War I. The highest-ranking officers were aristocrats and upper-middle class professions. Common Ground between the Military and the Nazi Leadership All of these moves helped solidify the union between Hitler and his generals. ![]() In 1938, Hitler assumed the title of supreme commander of the entire German military. In 1935, in accordance with Nazi racial law, the military prohibited Jews from joining its ranks. In the new version, soldiers swore “unconditional obedience” to the Führer personally rather than to the German constitution. Two months later, the military changed its oath of service. This purge became known as the Night of the Long Knives. They also murdered other old enemies with whom the regime had a score to settle, such as General Kurt von Schleicher, who had preceded Hitler as Chancellor. The military did not intervene on June 30, 1934, when the SS murdered Röhm and many of the SA’s top officials. Consequently, in 1934, military leaders agreed to support Hitler’s undermining of the SA’s power and the elimination of much of its leadership in exchange for a guarantee of their status as the sole national military organization. Röhm wanted the SA to replace the professional military as a people’s army. However, the SA ( Sturmabteilung, or Storm Troopers), under the control of Ernst Röhm, posed a threat to the army. They fired on Hitler and his fellow insurrectionists rather than joining them. They did not support his attempted coup, the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. The often conservative leadership of the German military initially saw Adolf Hitler as a radical and as a political upstart. The German army (or Heer) was the most complicit as a result of being on the ground in Germany’s eastern campaigns, but all branches participated. In addition, the war and genocidal policy were inextricably linked. The military’s complicity extended not only to the generals and upper leadership but also to the rank and file. The German military participated in many aspects of the Holocaust: in supporting Hitler, in the use of forced labor, and in the mass murder of Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis. ![]() Long after the war, a myth persisted claiming the German military (or Wehrmacht) was not involved in the Holocaust and other crimes associated with Nazi genocidal policy. German Military Participation in the Holocaustĭuring World War II, the German military helped fulfill Nazism's racial, political, and territorial ambitions. ![]()
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