The riots and increased tensions in Denmark called for some changes in its Nazi representatives. The Germans pressured the Danish government to remove Prime Minister Vilhelm Buhl, the Social Democrat who succeeded Thorvald Stauning, and installed the pro-German Foreign Minister Erik Scavenius in his place. The commander of the German military in Denmark, General Erich Ludke, was seen as too lenient and was replaced by General Hermann von Hanneken, whose job was to take a tougher stance on the Danish resistance movement. Renthe-Fink was also replaced with SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best, who was personally handpicked by Heinrich Himmler in November 1942 to be the new plenipotentiary. Best’s role in the failed deportations is significant but his motives and actions are unclear and often called into question.
Dr. Karl Rudolf Werner Best was an ambitious man. Born in 1903, he earned a doctorate in law from the University of Heidelberg in 1927 and became a judge in 1929 in the Hessian court. He was fired in in December 1931 for his connection to the Boxheim Documents, which were made in a failed effort to overthrow the Weimar Republic. In 1930 he joined the Nazi Party and worked closely with SS-Reichsführer Himmler and the head of the security police, Reinhard Heydrich. He worked his way up to a few senior positions in the Gestapo, eventually serving as head of the Administration and Law department of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or
Hans Mommsen’s book, From Weimar to Auschwitz, presented an interesting look at Hitler within the Nazi Party. The overriding themes in the chapter “Hitler’s Position in the Nazi System” were the stubbornness and charisma of Hitler and the chaos within the Nazi Party. The weak leadership of Hitler along with the inability to concentrate power to one position helped lead the Third Reich to be a very frenzied and unorganized government.
'He who has a why to live for can bear any how.' The words of Nietzsche begin to explain Frankl's tone throughout his book. Dr. Frankl uses his experiences in different Nazi concentration camps to explain his discovery of logotherapy. This discovery takes us back to World War II and the extreme suffering that took place in the Nazi concentration camps and outlines a detailed analysis of the prisoners psyche. An experience we gain from the first-hand memoirs of Dr. Frankl.
Bernard Julius Otto Kuehn served as a midshipman in the German Navy during World War I and was a member of the German Navy’s secret police from 1928 through 1930. Kuehn also studied to become a physician after World War I. When the Nazi party took control in Germany, Dr. Kuehn became a minor official in the Nazi secret police, or Gestapo, and formed close ties with the head of the organization, Heinrich Himmler. Kuehn was married to Friedel Kuehn and had two children, Hans Joachim, six years old, and Suzie Ruth, seventeen years old (Jamison, 2014).
Heinrich Himmler was born on October 7th, 1900 in Munich to a middle-class Bavarian family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a secondary-school teacher and principal. His mother was Anna Maria Himmler (maiden name Heyder), a devout Catholic and extremely attentive mother. Heinrich had an older brother, Gebhard Ludwig Himmler, and a younger brother, Ernst Hermann Himmler. Heinrich was named after his godparent, Prince Heinrich of Wittelsbach of the royal family of Bavaria, who was tutored by Gebhard Himmler. Educated at secondary school in Landshut, Himmler served as an officer cadet in the 11th Bavarian Regiment at the end of WW1, although he saw no active service. After working briefly as a salesman for a fertilizer manufacturing firm, Heinrich Himmler joined the Nazi party and in the November of 1923 participated in the Beer-Hall Putsch as a standard bearer at the side of Ernst Rohm. All of these roles combined together were a major reason for Heinrich Himmler being chosen for the jobs he received later in his militaristic life. It is surprising, that Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the SS and the primary architect of the Holocaust, has not attracted the attentions of more biographers. For all that he had taken part in for the history of the Third Reich, he appears to lack the “infamous charisma” of Heydrich or Hitler, and because of this lack of “infamous charisma” he has been presented only rarely as a primary subject for a book about the holocaust and the
Wilhelm Reich was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire on March 24th, 1897. His parents were farmers, and at a young age Reich developed a fascination with the life processes of plants and animals. His formal education at this time was provided by a private tutor.
the price of goods would rise between joining the back of a queue in a
The Bavarian state commissioner, Gustav von Kahr, was addressing a meeting in the largest beer-hall in Munich. Hitler took over and attempted to persuade those present to adopt his plans for a government takeover. Hitler’s supporters in the Bavarian government abandoned him, and the event. Meanwhile Hitler’s troops marched into the city centre, but the police fired on them and the attempted putsch ended in a fiasco. Hitler was tried for treason, the outcome being his imprisonment for a five year sentence.
When one thinks of the most evil and powerful person through history, one often thinks of Adolf Hitler. However, most of the feats accomplished by Hitler would have been impossible without the help of his lesser known right-hand man, Heinrich Himmler. Deemed “the second most powerful man in Germany during World War II” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), he helped Hitler carry out his brutal genocide of the Jewish religion. Heinrich Himmler played an extremely important role in the Holocaust.
Machiavelli’s The Prince outlines tactics for a leader to seize and maintain lands under his power. His tactics have been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history, and though his approach is hardly ethical or idealistic, one cannot deny the fact that it has proved to be effective. Hitler is an example that exemplifies the accuracy of what Machiavelli said would bring success in the acquisition of new provinces.
On April 20, 1889, a demon was brought into this world. His name was Adolf Hitler. He was born in the family quarters of the Pommer Inn in Braunau, a small city on the Austrian border. The child was unhealthy and his mother, Klara, worried that young Adolf would not survive. Klara provided much love and attention to her baby, which Adolf would later take advantage of to get what he wanted (Smith 50). Despite his self-centeredness, Adolf held a deep bond with his mother which united them throughout his childhood. On the other hand, Alois, Adolf’s father, failed to play an important role in Adolf’s development. Alois spent the majority of his time away from the customs station with his friends
Oskar Schindler was a very complex and dynamic man. When the Nazi party rose to power and began to dominate and discriminate against
The Rise of Hitler During the 1920's and early 1930's Germany was trying to recover from World War. It had to pay reparations and try to rebuild the economy from bankruptcy. It was because of the weaknesses of the economy and the Weimar Government, together with the growing popularity of the Nazis that Hitler was able to become Chancellor.
In the aftermath of World War I, Europe faced financial, economic, and physical devastation. Although figures are still exactly unknown, according to Encyclopedia Britannica (2011), it is believed that nearly 8.5 million soldiers died, while approximately 21 million were wounded. Vast areas of north-eastern Europe had been reduced to rubble and ruined. Furthermore, the infrastructure of the region was so severely damaged that such loss greatly hindered the area's ability to function normally. Consequently, someone needed to make amends for the fiscal instability in the region, and according to the United States, Great Britain, and France; Germany was the lone scapegoat. This angered the German citizens and through the use
To many World War II has been the most devastating war in human history. It
If there is such a thing as effective leadership, it involves enthusiasm, inspiration and devotion. Throughout his reign of dominance, the historical and contentious Adolf Hitler had possessed all of the listed traits; qualities in which a transformational leader seizes. Witherbee (2009) revealed that Adolf Hitler was an Australian-born German politician that was highly known as the leader of the Nazi Party. As a fascist and socialist, he took part in the Holocaust and World War II promoting the ideology of a central leadership. Moreover, Hitler’s ultimate goal was to pursue and total Nazi-German hegemony. Regardless of the blatant amount of wrong doings