Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State" PDF
Preview Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State"
Gun Control in the r . r etc t f Gun Control in the 'rhirb iteich THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE is a non-profit, non-partisan, scholarly research and educational organization that sponsors compre- hensive studies in political economy. Our mission is to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies, grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity. Politicized decision-making in society has confined public debate to a narrow reconsideration of existing policies. Given the prevailing influence of partisan interests, little social innovation has occurred. In order to understand both the nature of and possible solutions to major public issues, the Independent Institute ad- heres to the highest standards of independent inquiry, regardless of political or social biases and conventions. The resulting studies are widely distributed as books and other publications, and are debated in numerous conference and media programs. Through this uncommon depth and clarity, the Independent Institute is redefining public debate and fostering new and effective directions for government reform. FOUNDER & PRESIDENT Richard A. Epstein Paul Craig Roberts David J. Theroux new york university institute for political economy B. Delworth Gardner Nathan Rosenberg RESEARCH DIRECTOR brigham young university stanford university William F. Shughart II George Gilder Paul H. Rubin SENIOR FELLOWS discovery institute emory university Bruce L. Benson Nathan Glazer Bruce M. Russett Ivan Eland harvard university yale university John C. Goodman Robert Higgs Steve H. Hanke Pascal Salin Lawrence J. McQuillan johns hopkins university university of paris, france Robert H. Nelson James J. Heckman Vernon L. Smith Charles V. Peña university of chicago chapman university Benjamin Powell William F. Shughart II H. Robert Heller Pablo T. Spiller sonic automotive university of california, Randy T. Simmons berkeley Alexander Tabarrok Deirdre N. McCloskey Alvaro Vargas Llosa university of illinois, Joel H. Spring Richard K. Vedder chicago state university of new york, old westbury ACADEMIC ADVISORS J. Huston McCulloch ohio state university Richard L. Stroup Leszek Balcerowicz north carolina state warsaw school of economics Forrest McDonald university university of alabama Herman Belz university of maryland Thomas Gale Moore Robert D. Tollison clemson university hoover institution Thomas E. Borcherding claremont graduate school Charles Murray Arnold S. Trebach american university Boudewijn Bouckaert american enterprise university of ghent, belgium institute Gordon Tullock george mason university Allan C. Carlson Michael J. Novak, Jr. howard center american enterprise Richard E. Wagner institute george mason university Robert D. Cooter university of california, June E. O’Neill Walter E. Williams berkeley baruch college george mason university Robert W. Crandall Charles E. Phelps Charles Wolf, Jr. brookings institution university of rochester rand corporation 100 Swan Way, Oakland, California 94621-1428, U.S.A. Telephone: 510-632-1366 • Facsimile: 510-568-6040 • Email: [email protected] • www.independent.org Gun Control in the ileich ~hirb Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State" STEPHEN P. HALBROOK The INDEPENDENr INSTIIUTE Oakland, California All Rights Reserved. Copyright © Stephen P. Halbrook, 2013 May not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without written permission. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmit- ted in any form by electronic or mechanical means now known or to be invented, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Nothing herein should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Institute or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428 Telephone: 510-632-1366 Fax: 510-568-6040 Email: [email protected] Website: www.independent.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Halbrook, Stephen P. Gun control in the Third Reich : disarming the Jews and “enemies of the state” / Stephen P. Halbrook. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59813-161-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-59813-162-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Firearms—Law and legislation—Germany—History—20th century. 2. Gun control—Germany—History—20th century. 3. Jews—Legal status, laws, etc.—History—20th century. 4. Germany—Politics and government—1933–1945 I. Title. KK6010.H35 2013 363.330943’09043—dc23 2013022225 Cover Design: Denise Tsui Cover Image: Peter Zelei/iStockphoto Contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv part i Dancing on a Volcano: The Weimar Republic 1 Insurrection and Repression 3 2 The 1928 Law on Firearms 15 3 Keeping Firearm Registrations out of the Wrong Hands? 25 part ii 1933: Enter the Führer 4 The Nazi Seizure of Power 49 5 Disarming the Politically Unreliable: The Case of Brandenburg 69 6 Defining Enemies of the State 79 part iii Gleichschaltung: Forcing into Line 7 From the Night of the Long Knives to the Nürnberg Laws 97 8 The Gestapo 111 9 Hitler’s Gun Control Act 123 xi xii | Contents part iv Reichskristallnacht: Night of the Broken Glass 10 October Prelude: Arresting Jewish Firearm Owners 145 11 Goebbels Orchestrates a Pogrom 163 12 Jewish Victims Speak 187 conclusion Whither the German Resistance? 203 Bibliography 221 Credits for Illustrations 235 Index 237 About the Author 247 illustrations between 112 and 113 Acknowledgments this work would not have been possible without assistance by others, in particular the research in numerous German archives by Sebastian Remus and Katya Andrusz. Therese Klee Hathaway assisted with numerous translations, helped along by Oliver Harriehausen and David Moses. I also am grateful to Stefan Grus, Jay Simkin, Lisa Halbrook Hollowell, Heather Barry, Dave Fischer, and Joshua Prince for their research assistance. The author published some preliminary research for this study in “Nazi Firearms Law and the Disarming of the German Jews,” 17 Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law 483 (2000), and “‘Arms in the Hands of Jews Are a Danger to Public Safety’: Nazism, Firearm Registration, and the Night of the Broken Glass,” 21 St. Thomas Law Review 109 (2009). He is grateful to the editors of those journals for their insights and suggestions. Once the manuscript was created, Alice Rosengard provided invaluable advice in helping to make it more readable, and Professor Alexander Tabarrok, Independent Institute Research Director, challenged me to address hard ques- tions about the thesis. Gail Saari and Anne Barva greatly assisted in smoothing out the text. Thanks are due to Independent Institute President David Theroux and Acquisitions Director Roy M. Carlisle for bringing the book to publication. I alone am responsible for the interpretations given here as well as for any errors. xiii Introduction alfred flatow was a German Jew who won first place in gymnastics events at the 1896 Olympics. In 1932, he registered three handguns as required by a decree of the liberal Weimar Republic. The government had warned that the police must carefully store the registration records so that no extremist group could ever obtain them. That fear was realized, however, when an extremist group led by Adolf Hitler seized power the following year and used those very same registration records to disarm “enemies of the state.” In 1938, the records were used to disarm Jewish gun owners such as Flatow, whose arrest report stated: “Arms in the hands of Jews are a danger to public safety.”1 He would later die in a concentration camp. Shortly after confiscating firearms from Flatow and numerous other Jews, the Nazis instigated the pogrom know as the Night of the Broken Glass (Reichs- kristallnacht) against a defenseless Jewish population, who were threatened with twenty years in a concentration camp for possession of a firearm. Countless studies have documented how the Nazi dictatorship repressed its political opponents, Jews, and other “enemies of the state.” For whatever reason, historians have paid no attention to Nazi laws and policies restricting firearms ownership as essential elements in creating tyranny. A skeptic might surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the Nazi regime certainly did not act on that premise. While many historically unique factors ultimately led to the Holocaust, Nazi policies prohibiting pos- session of firearms helped to consolidate Hitler’s power at home, exacerbated 1. Bericht über einen polit. Vorfall, 4.10.38, Alfred Flatow. A Rep PrBrRep. 030/21620 Bd. 5 Haussuchungen bei Juden 1938-39. (FB Bd. 5). Landesarchiv Berlin. For details on Flatow, see chapter 10. xv
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