HST 230    The SA, SS and Gestapo

I. The SA
  A. Background
	1. SA is short for Sturmabteilung: storm squad or storm troopers
	2. the problem of hecklers at mass meetings in 1919 and 1920
	3. the Saalschutzabteilung was formed (meeting hall protection squad)
	4. became the "brownshirts"
	5. called the Sturmabteiling by 1921
  B. Rise to power
	1. they were used to beat up opposition and intimidate the public
	2. they brought the Nazi party to power
	3. by 1932, there were about 400,000 SA
	4. by the end of 1933, there were about 3 million SA
  C. The problem with the SA
	1. mostly lower middle class men who wanted more power
	2. they wanted to be a replacement for the German army
	3. in 1933, SA leader Ernst Röhm tried to take over the military
	4. generals started conspiring with Nazi leaders to get rid of Röhm 
  D. The fall of Ernst Röhm and the SA
	1. Hitler had been friends with Röhm 
	2. but pressure to remove him was coming from everywhere
	3. Hitler decided that Röhm had to go
	4. June 30th, 1934 - the "Night of Long Knives"
		a. Hitler called SA leaders to a meeting and had them arrested
		b. about 200 other SA officials were rounded up
		c. most of them seem to have been killed - even Röhm 
	5. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels tried to kick up support 
		for the purge by publicizing the homosexuality of Röhm
		and other SA leaders
	6. the SA was then downsized, with a Hitler loyalist in charge
	7. they practically disappear when the was begins

II. The SS
  A. Background
	1. Hitler needed a bodyguard to protect him at meetings and rallies
	2. various iterations between 1923-1925
	3. by 1925, the Schutzstaffel was formed; it means protection squad
	4. becoming a national organization to protect all Nazi leaders
	5. very small unit within the SA; only a few hundred SS at this point
  B. Heinrich Himmler
	1. born into a conservative Catholic family in Munich in 1900
	2. WWI ended before he could fight for Germany
	3. he went to university; studied agronomy
	4. anti-Semitic, but not aggressively so
	5. yearned for the military experiences he missed in the war
		a. began hanging out with paramilitary types in Munich
		b. met Ernst Röhm; admired him
		c. joined the Imperial War Flag Society (anti-Semitic)
	6. hyperinflation meant that his parents couldn't pay for his PhD
		- he's a poor, disenchanted, anti-Semitic friend of Röhm
	7. he joined the Nazi party in 1923; joined the SA
	8. became more and more anti-Semitic
	9. he joined the SS in 1925 and rose through the ranks
		a. eventually became deputy propaganda chief and met Hitler
		b. Hitler loved his vision of the racially pure SS
		c. Hitler appointed him Deputy Reichsführer-SS in 1927
		d. and then Reichsführer-SS in 1929
  C. Himmler's leadership of the SS
	1. Himmler turned the SS into a dominant force in Germany
		a. it had a couple hundred members when he took over
		b. he increased membership to 52,000 by 1933
	2. his anti-Semitic world view dominated his leadership
	3. applicants were vetted; inferior people were kept out
	4. he divided the SS into various departments
		a. for example, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) - Security Service
		b. he appointed Reinhard Heydrich as leader of the SD
		c. the SD was supposed to keep an eye on everyone in Germany
	5. Himmler guided the SS in its break from the SA
	6. he brought all the police forces in Germany under the control of the SS
	7. in 1934, he also became head of the Gestapo
	8. the pinnacle of power: he controlled the SS, SD and Gestapo
	9. he made sure that all of the SS were properly indoctrinated
  D. The role of the SS
	1. protect Hitler and Nazi leaders
	2. main instrument of the Holocaust
		a. Kristallnacht
		b. concentration camps
		c. Einsatzgruppen
		d. killing on a close, personal level
		e. Himmler gave them a pep talk in Posen in 1943

III. The Gestapo
  A. Background
	1. Hitler brought Göring along when he became chancellor
	2. Göring became Interior Minister of Prussia
	3. he was in charge of policing and law and order
  B. Hermann Göring
	1. born into a military family in Bavaria in 1893
		a. his father had been a cavalry officer
		b. Hermann was sent to a military academy in Berlin
	2. he joined the Prussian army in 1912
	3. almost immediately found himself fighting in WWI
		a. not keen on trench warfare
		b. transferred to air force
		c. became a highly decorated fighter pilot
	4. like Hitler, blamed Germany's loss on Jews and Communists
	5. became a commercial pilot after the war, but eventually decided
		to study political science
	6. found his way back to Munich in the early 1920s
		a. heard a speech by Hitler and was inspired
		b. joined the Nazi party
		c. became leader of the SA within a year
	7. Beer Hall Putsch, then exile
	8. back to Germany in 1927 and returned to Hitler's inner circle
	9. elected to the Reichstag in 1928 and became president of the 
		Reichstag in 1932
	10. Interior Ministry of Prussia
  C. Creation of the Gestapo
	1. as Interior Minister of Prussia, Göring was in charge of the police
		a. he wanted to make sure that Jews and communists didn't
			hinder Nazi power
		b. this was especially important after the Reichstag fire
	2. he separated the political and intelligence police off from the regular
		police force in Prussia
	3. then he joined those two divisions into the Geheime Staatspolizei,
		or Gestapo for short (secret state police)
	4. he did this in order to protect the Nazi state and crush all
		political opposition
	5. Göring put Himmler in charge of the Gestapo
	6. in 1936, Hitler placed ALL the police forces (including the Gestapo)
		under the control of Himmler and the SS
	7. the Gestapo thus became a national agency, not just a Prussian agency
  D. Above the Law
	1. they saw their work in biological terms
		- they had to get rid of anything that was poisoning society
	2. everyone lived in fear of a visit from the Gestapo
	3. they had the power to place people in "protective custody"
	4. their actions were not subject to review by the courts
		- they answered only to Himmler and Hitler
	5. brutal interrogation methods
	6. they got to decide who were enemies of the state
	7. there were only about 31,000 Gestapo agents in the early 1940s
		but it seemed like they were everywhere
	8. they were so successful because:
		a. they were methodically made into ideological zealots
		b. they had smooth relations with other state agencies
		c. they were quite proficient at data collection
			- they collected index cards full of info on millions of people
  E. Reign of Terror
	1. Gestapo field agents often led the Einsatzgruppen
	2. no evidence gathering, no interrogating; simply racial cleansing 
		- rounding up people by the thousands and shooting them
	3. also responsible for getting rid of resistance movements
		- thus, they organized all of the following:
			a. local police forces
			b. forced laborers
			c. railroad officials
			d. Jewish collaborators
			e. clearing the ghettos
			f. rounding up Jews
			g. shipping Jews to concentration camps

IV. Discussion: Nazi Sterilization and Euthanasia Programs
	Topics
	1. Why were the Nazis so concerned about the declining German birthrate?
	2. What do you think about the list of illnesses that could result in forced 
		sterilization?  What does it tells us about the Nazis?
	3. Is forced sterilization ever ethical?
	4. Could such a law be passed today?
	5. Which questions on the T-4 questionnaire do you think the Nazis were most 
		interested in?  Why?
	6. Which questions on the T-4 questionnaire do you think the Nazis were least 
		interested in?  Do you think that there were any questions that they weren’t 
		interested in at all?  If yes, why ask them?
	7. Is forced euthanasia ever ethical?