The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts

496 Pages·2002·7.36 MB·English

by  Roderick Stackelberg

The Nazi Germany Sourcebook
TheNaziGermanySourcebookisanexcitingnewcollectionofdocumentsontheorigins,
rise, course and consequences of National Socialism, the Third Reich, the Second
WorldWar,andtheHolocaust.Packedfullofbothofficialandprivatepapersfromthe
perspectivesofperpetratorsandvictims,thesesourcesofferarevealinginsightintowhy
Nazismcameintobeing,itsextraordinarypopularityinthe1930s,howitaffectedthe
lives of people, and what it means to us today.
Thiscarefullyeditedseriesof148documents,drawnfrom1850to2000,coversthe
pre-history and aftermath of Nazism. Sources include legislative and diplomatic
records,minutesofmeetings,speechesandmanifestoes,personaldiariesandeyewit-
nessaccounts.Eachdocumentisprecededbyabriefcriticalanalysisthatalsoprovides
thehistoricalcontextinwhichitwaswritten.Organizedintosevenchapters,TheNazi
GermanySourcebookfocusesonkeyareasofstudy,helpingstudentstounderstandand
critically evaluate this extraordinary historical episode:
• The ideological roots of Nazism, and the First World War
• The Weimar Republic
• The consolidation of Nazi power
• Hitler’s motives, aims and preparation for war
• The Second World War
• The Holocaust
• The Cold War and recent historical debates.
TheNaziGermanySourcebookcontainsnumerousdocumentsthathaveneverbeforebeen
publishedinEnglish,andsomedocuments,suchasGoebbels’1941diariesthathave
onlyrecentlybeendiscovered.Thisup-to-datecollectionofprimarysourcesprovides
fascinating reading for anyone interested in this historical phenomenon.
Roderick Stackelberg is Robert K. and Ann J. Powers Professor of the Humanities at
GonzagaUniversity.HeistheauthorofHitler’sGermany:Origins,Interpretations,Legacies
(1999).SallyA.WinkleisProfessorofGermanLanguageandLiteratureandDirector
ofWomen’sStudiesatEasternWashingtonUniversity.SheistheauthorofWomanas
Bourgeois Feminine Ideal(1988).

The Nazi Germany Sourcebook
AN ANTHOLOGY OF TEXTS
Roderick Stackelberg
and
Sally A. Winkle
London and NewYork
First published 2002
by Routledge
I I New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of
this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook.
© 2002 Roderick Stackelberg and Sally A. Winkle
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in anyform or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Nazi Germany sourcebook: an anthology of texts/Roderick Stackelberg and
Sally A. Winkle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Nationalsocialism–History–Sources. 2.Germany–History–1933–1945–Sources.
3.Nationalism–Germany–History–Sources.
I.Stackelberg,Roderick. II.Winkle,SallyAnne.
DD256.5 .N359 2002
943'.086–dc21 2001051082
ISBN 0-203-46392-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-77216-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–22213–3 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–22214–1 (pbk)
Contents
List of illustrations vi
List of documents vii
Authors’ acknowledgements xiii
Chronology xv
Preface xxi
Introduction xxiii
1 The German Empire and the First World War 1
2 The Weimar Republic, 1919–33 45
3 The Third Reich: The consolidation of Nazi rule, 1933–35 123
4 The Third Reich: The road to war, 1936–39 191
5 The Second World War, 1939–45 251
6 The Holocaust 329
7 The aftermath of Nazism and the Historians’ Debate 379
Index 441
Illustrations
Maps
1 The German Empire 1871–1919, showing territorial losses following
the First World War 59
2 The German Reich, 1 January 1939 230
3 The height of German expansion, November 1942 298
4 Germanyafter1945,showingterritoriallossesfollowing
theSecondWorldWar 385
Tables
2.1 Reichstag elections 1928–33 99
6.1 Nazi concentration and extermination camps 353
Plates
after page xxxi
1 25-year-old Adolf Hilter at a rally proclaming mobilization in 1914
2 “The Pimps of Death”
3 Children playing with worthless paper money in 1923
4 MembersofthegovernmentontheirwaytoGarrisonChurch
inPotsdam1933
5 ChancellorHitlerpayinghomagetoPresidentPaulvonHindenburg1933
6 Eintopf-Sunday in front of City Hall in Berlin in 1936
7 Low cartoon of Stalin and Hitler bowing to each other
8 GermanFührerAdolfHitlerwavestocrowdswatchedbyBenitoMussolini
9 GermansoldierstearingdownborderpostsatstartofinvasionofPoland1939
10 HitleratthesigningofthearmisticeinCompiègneafterthefall
ofFrance1940
11 A Wehrmacht soldier observes a burning village in the invasion
of Soviet Union
12 The deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto by SS units 1943
13 The railway ramp at Auschwitz where selections occurred
14 Trümmerfrauenin Berlin in early 1946
15 Social Democratic Chancellor Willy Brandt kneels in Poland 1970
16 PresidentReaganandChristianDemocraticChancellorKohl1985
Documents
THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR
1.1 Richard Wagner, “Judaism in Music,” 1850 3
1.2 Adolf Stoecker, speech on the social question, 1880 5
1.3 Heinrich von Treitschke, “The Aim of the State,” 1897 9
1.4 Houston Stewart Chamberlain,Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, 1899 12
1.5a Houston Stewart Chamberlain, letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II,
13 November 1901 17
1.5b Kaiser Wilhelm’s reply, 31 December 1901 18
1.6 Heinrich Class, “If I were the Kaiser,” 1912 20
1.7 Friedrich von Bernhardi, “World Power or Downfall,” 1912 27
1.8 Konstantin von Gebsattel, “The Jewish Question,” 1913 29
1.9 General Helmuth von Moltke, comments on the Schlieffen Plan 31
1.10 Chancellor Bethmann’s September Program, 1914 32
1.11 Werner Sombart,Merchants and Heroes, 1915 34
1.12 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, “German Liberty,” 1915 37
1.13 Ernst Troeltsch, “The Spirit of German Culture,” 1916 40
1.14 Founding Proclamation of the German Fatherland Party,
2 September 1917 44
THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, 1919–33
2.1 Proclamation of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council in Kiel,
7 November 1918 48
2.2 Proclamation of the Council of People’s Representatives to the
German People, 12 November 1918 49
2.3 Alfred Rosenberg, “The Russian-Jewish Revolution,” February 1919 50
2.4 The Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919 54
2.5 The Constitution of the German Reich, 11 August 1919 58
2.6 The program of the NSDAP 64
2.7 Proclamation of Director General Wolfgang Kapp as
Chancellor of the Reich 67
2.8 George Grosz,Autobiography 69
2.9a Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche,Permitting the Destruction of
Unworthy Life, 1920 71
viii DOCUMENTS
2.9b Fritz Lenz, “Psychological Differences Between the
Leading Races of Mankind,” 1921 74
2.10 Arthur Moeller van den Bruck,Germany’s Third Empire, 1923 76
2.11 Stefan Zweig,The World of Yesterday 83
2.12 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, letter to Hitler, 7 October 1923 84
2.13 Hitler’s speech in his own defense, 1924 86
2.14 Gregor Strasser, draft of a Comprehensive Program of
National Socialism, 1925 88
2.15 Adolf Hitler,Mein Kampf, 1926 93
2.16 Program of the Communist International, 1929 95
2.17 Lea Grundig, “Visions and History” 97
2.18 Manifesto of the Harzburg Front, 11 October 1931 101
2.19 Hitler’s speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf, 27 January 1932 103
2.20 Decree of the Reich President on the Restoration of Public
Security and Order in Prussia, 20 July 1932 113
2.21 Speech by Chancellor Franz von Papen to Bavarian industrialists,
12 October 1932 115
2.22 Letters from Hjalmar Schacht to Hitler, 1932 117
2.23 Excerpts from Goebbels’ diary, November 1932–January 1933 119
THE THIRD REICH: THE CONSOLIDATION OF NAZI RULE, 1933–35
3.1 Proclamation of the Reich Government to the German People,
1 February 1933 126
3.2 Hitler’s remarks on his political goals to army and
navy commanders, 3 February 1933 128
3.3 Hitler’s speech to leading industrialists, 20 February 1933 130
3.4 Affidavit of Rudolf Diels 133
3.5 Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and
State, 28 February 1933 135
3.6 Hermann Goering,Reconstruction of a Nation 136
3.7 Erich Ebermayer, diary entry on the “Day of Potsdam,” 21 March 1933 140
3.8 Law to Remove the Distress of People and State, 24 March 1933 142
3.9 Julius Streicher, Appeal for the boycott of all Jewish enterprises,
31 March 1933 143
3.10 “The Former Gunpowder Factory in Dachau a Concentration
Camp for Political Prisoners,”Dachauer Volksblatt, 6 April 1933 145
3.11 Lina Haag,A Handful of Dust 146
3.12a Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service,
7 April 1933 150
3.12b First Regulation for Administration of the Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, 11 April 1933 151
3.13 NSDAP Order for theGleichschaltungof the Free Labor Unions,
21 April 1933 153
3.14 Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring,
14 July 1933 154
DOCUMENTS ix
3.15 Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich,
20 July 1933 156
3.16 The nature and function of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts 162
3.17 Editorial Law, 4 October 1933 163
3.18 Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State, 1 December 1933 166
3.19 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church in
Wuppertal-Barmen, 29–31 May 1934 168
3.20 Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen’s speech at Marburg, 17 June 1934 170
3.21 Law Relating to National Emergency Defense Measures, 3 July 1934 173
3.22 Oath of officials and soldiers of the Wehrmacht, 20 August 1934 173
3.23 Hindenburg’s Political Testament, August 1934 174
3.24 William L. Shirer,Berlin Diary 177
3.25a Hitler’s speech to the National Socialist Women’s
Organization, September 1934 182
3.25b Emilie Müller-Zadow, “Mothers who give us the future”, 1936 184
3.26a Reich Flag Law, 15 September 1935 186
3.26b Reich Citizenship Law, 15 September 1935 187
3.26c First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935 188
3.26d Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor,
15 September 1935 190
THE THIRD REICH: THE ROAD TO WAR, 1936–39
4.1 Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag, 7 March 1936 193
4.2 Reinhard Heydrich, “Fighting the Enemies of the State,” 29 April 1936 194
4.3 Hitler’s Memorandum on the Four-Year Plan 196
4.4 Founding of the organization “Lebensborn e.V.,” 13 September 1936 200
4.5 Order for the entire SS and Police 201
4.6 Treaty between the Government of the Reich and the
Imperial Government of Japan regarding the common fight
against the Communist International, 25 November 1936 203
4.7 Law on the Hitler Youth, 1 December 1936 204
4.8 National political course for the armed forces, 15–23 January 1937 205
4.9 Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, “The Church in Germany,”
14 March 1937 208
4.10 The Hossbach Memorandum, 5 November 1937 213
4.11 Decree concerning the leadership of the armed forces,
4 February 1938 218
4.12 Notes of Chief of the Army General Staff Ludwig Beck on the risks of
war with Czechoslovakia, 16 July 1938 220
4.13a Orders issued to police by Gestapo Headquarters 222
4.13b Order of Chief of the Security Service (SD) 223
4.13c Decree relating to the payment of a fine by the Jews of
German nationality, 12 November 1938 225
4.13d Order eliminating Jews from German economic life,
12 November 1938 225
4.14 Werner von Fritsch, letter, 11 December 1938 226