1.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
2.
Biberach an der Riss
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Biberach is a town in the south of Germany. It is the capital of Biberach district, in the Upper Swabia region of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, to distinguish it from the other towns of the same name it is called Biberach an der Riss after the small river Riss which flows through the city. Biberach has a population of about 32,000, and is located in Upper Swabia between the river Danube and Lake Constance, the districts of Biberach comprise the inner city and its suburban, integrated villages Rissegg, Rindenmoos, Ringschnait, Stafflangen and Mettenberg. For many centuries, Biberach was an Imperial Free City in the Holy Roman Empire, in that role it participated in the 1792 Reichstag. This status ended in 1803, when Biberach was annexed by the Margraviate of Baden, in 1806, it was traded to the Kingdom of Württemberg in exchange for the town of Villingen, becoming part of the German Empire on its creation in 1871. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Biberach and its environs were the site of two battles in 1796 and 1800. During World War II, two large camps were located here, with Oflag V-B for officers, and internment camp Ilag V-B for allied civilians. KaVo KaVo is a company in producing dental medicine equipment and products like instruments, dental systems, laboratory. The head office is in Biberach, but KaVo has production locations and sales locations all over the world, e. g. in Brazil, England, USA, Canada, Russia, France, Italy, etc. In March 2004, Danaher, an American industrial company, took over KaVo, Boehringer Ingelheim Boehringer Ingelheim researches, develops, and produces drugs. With about 35,529 employees who are employed in 156 countries on all continents, today, Boehringer Ingelheim was founded in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany, in 1885, where the corporate headquarters are located. There are about 4,500 employees in Biberach and its corporate center is in Karlsruhe. In Stuttgart there is the Regional Center, enBW is Germanys third largest energy company. In Biberach there are about 900 employees, Liebherr Biberach The beginning of Liebherr Biberach was in 1954. The firm produces many sorts of cranes,1,700 people and 112 trainees work there. The groups founder, Dr. Hans Liebherr, invented the mobile crane in 1949 in Kirchdorf/Iller. There are many cafés and beer gardens in Biberach, braith-Mali-Museum, The museum resides in a building from the 16th century and presents on 2,800 square meters archaeology, history, art and natural history. Wieland-Museum, The exhibition explores the life and work of Christoph Martin Wieland, the museum was founded in 1907 and resides in the summer house of Wieland
3.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
4.
Nazism
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
5.
SS
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The Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party in Nazi Germany. It began with a guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed, under his direction, it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From 1929 until the collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance. The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS and Waffen-SS, the Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units of troops within Nazi Germanys military. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände, ran the concentration camps, additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst organizations. The SS was the organization most responsible for the killing of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews. Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II, the SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor. After Nazi Germanys defeat, the SS and the NSDAP were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS officer at the time, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946. By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz to provide security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the mass of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung. The new formation was designated the Stabswache, originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold, and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade, a Freikorps of the time. The unit was renamed Stoßtrupp in May 1923, the Stoßtrupp was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by the NSDAP to seize power in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organize a new bodyguard unit and it was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at NSDAP functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to an organization and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel. Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925, the new SS was to provide protection for NSDAP leaders throughout Germany. Hitlers personal SS protection unit was enlarged to include combat units
6.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
7.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
8.
Iron Cross
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The Iron Cross was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire and Nazi Germany. It was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in March 1813 backdated to the birthday of his late wife Queen Louise on 10 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars, Louise was the first person to receive this decoration. The recommissioned Iron Cross was also awarded during the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, the Iron Cross was normally a military decoration only, though there were instances of it being awarded to civilians for performing military functions. The design of the symbol was black with a white or silver outline. It was ultimately derived from the cross pattée occasionally used by the Teutonic Order from the 13th century, the black cross patty was also used as the symbol of the German Army from 1871 to March/April 1918, when it was replaced by the Balkenkreuz. In 1956, it was re-introduced as the symbol of the Bundeswehr, the Black Cross is the emblem used by the Prussian Army, and by the army of Germany from 1871 to present. It was designed on the occasion of the German Campaign of 1813, from this time, the Black Cross also featured on the Prussian war flag alongside the Black Eagle. The design is due to neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, based on a sketch by Frederick William, the design is ultimately derivative of the black cross used by the Teutonic Order. This heraldic cross took various forms throughout the history, including a simple Latin cross. When the Quadriga of the Goddess of Peace was retrieved from Paris at Napoleons fall, an Iron Cross was inserted into her laurel wreath, making her into a Goddess of Victory. The Black Cross was used on the naval and war flags of the German Empire, the Black Cross was used as the symbol of the German Army until 1915, when it was replaced by a simpler Balkenkreuz. The Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, the traditional design in black is used on armored vehicles and aircraft, while after German reunification, a new design in blue and silver was introduced for use in other contexts. The ribbon for the 1813,1870 and 1914 Iron Cross was black with two white bands, the colors of Prussia. The non-combatant version of this award had the same medal, but the black, the ribbon color for the 1939 EKII was black/white/red/white/black. Since the Iron Cross was issued several different periods of German history. For example, an Iron Cross from World War I bears the year 1914, the reverse of the 1870,1914 and 1939 series of Iron Crosses have the year 1813 appearing on the lower arm, symbolizing the year the award was created. The 1813 decoration also has the initials FW for King Frederick William III, the final version shows a swastika. There was also the 1957 issue, a replacement medal for holders of the 1939 series which substituted an oak-leaf cluster for the banned swastika
9.
Freikorps
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Freikorps were German volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, the members of which effectively fought as mercenaries, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries the first so-called Freikorps free regiments were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades and deserters and these sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry or, more rarely, as artillery. Sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong, the Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons, and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons and these units roamed the countryside, killing with impunity. They engaged in confrontations with republican loyalists and engineered some of the more notorious assassinations of the Weimar period. An entire series of Freikorps awards also existed, the very first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of hussars to be attached to the 1st Regiment of Hussars. He entrusted the creation and command of new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters and this squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first 4 squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised and they initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used as sentries. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained with certainty as the origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were often referred to as Hungarians or Croats, and Muslim recruits as Turks, for Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Serbs and Croats, were a clear model for the organization of such free troops. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresas Pandurs, in the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. Because, with exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard. In the so-called petty wars, the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare, in the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as vermin, were disbanded and their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments
10.
Heinrich Himmler
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Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Nazi Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler briefly appointed him a commander and later Commander of the Replacement Army. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, as a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service. He studied agronomy in college, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923, in 1929, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a paramilitary group. He was known to have good skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, on Hitlers behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens, realising that the war was lost, he attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitlers knowledge shortly before the war ended. Hearing of this, Hitler dismissed him all his posts in April 1945. Himmler attempted to go into hiding, but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known, while in British custody, he committed suicide on 23 May 1945. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family and his father was Gebhard Himmler, a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler, a devout Roman Catholic. Heinrich had two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig and Ernst Hermann, Himmlers first name, Heinrich, was that of his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, a member of the royal family of Bavaria, who had been tutored by Gebhard Himmler. He attended a school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. While he did well in his schoolwork, he struggled in athletics and he had poor health, suffering from lifelong stomach complaints and other ailments. In his youth he trained daily with weights and exercised to become stronger, other boys at the school later remembered him as studious and awkward in social situations. Himmlers diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of ten, shows that he took a keen interest in current events, dueling, in 1915, he began training with the Landshut Cadet Corps. His father used his connections with the family to get Himmler accepted as an officer candidate. His brother, Gebhard, served on the front and saw combat, receiving the Iron Cross
11.
Silesia
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Silesia is a region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is about 40,000 km2, and its population about 8,000,000, Silesia is located along the Oder River. It consists of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia, the region is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesias largest city and historical capital is Wrocław, the biggest metropolitan area is the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, the centre of which is Katowice. Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava fall within the borders of Silesia, Silesias borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states. The first known states to hold there were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, in the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire, which passed to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in 1526. Most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia in 1742, later becoming part of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the varied history with changing aristocratic possessions resulted in an abundance of castles in Silesia, especially in the Jelenia Góra valley. The remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were partitioned to Czechoslovakia, in 1945, after World War II, the bulk of Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement of the victorious Allied Powers and became part of Poland. The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder-Neisse line, which had belonged to Silesia since 1815 and its centres are Görlitz and Bautzen. Most inhabitants of Silesia today speak the languages of their respective countries. The population of Upper Silesia is native, while Lower Silesia was settled by a German-speaking population before 1945, an ongoing debate exists whether Silesian speech should be considered a dialect of Polish or a separate language. Also, a Lower Silesian German dialect is used, although today it is almost extinct and it is used by expellees within Germany, as well as Germans who were left behind. The names all relate to the name of a river and mountain in mid-southern Silesia, the mountain served as a cultic place. Ślęża is listed as one of the numerous Pre-Indo-European topographic names in the region, according to some Polish Slavists, the name Ślęża or Ślęż is directly related to the Old Slavic words ślęg or śląg, which means dampness, moisture, or humidity. They disagree with the hypothesis of an origin for the name Śląsk from the name of the Silings tribe, in the fourth century BC, Celts entered Silesia, settling around Mount Ślęża near modern Wrocław, Oława, and Strzelin. Germanic Lugii tribes were first recorded within Silesia in the 1st century, Slavic peoples arrived in the region around the 7th century, and by the early ninth century, their settlements had stabilized. Local Slavs started to erect boundary structures like the Silesian Przesieka, the eastern border of Silesian settlement was situated to the west of the Bytom, and east from Racibórz and Cieszyn
12.
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
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The Reichstag was a legislative body of Weimar Germany from 1919, when it succeeded the Weimar National Assembly, until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Constitutionally, the Reichsrat represented the governments of the federal German states, according to the 1919 Weimar Constitution, the members of the Reichstag were to be elected by general universal suffrage according to the principle of proportional representation. Votes were cast for party lists. Elections were to be held at the end of a session of four years. Because of some special requirements, there were inconsistencies between the total share of votes received by a party and its share of the seats. Hitler was not in power yet, there was no hard and fast threshold for winning a seat in the Reichstag. In practice, a party could do so with as little as 0.4 percent of the national seat for some 60,000 votes. While this provision was intended to reduce wasted votes, it resulted in a large number of parties being represented in the chamber. Combined with the nationwide party-list system, this made it difficult to form a stable government. Moreover, each party wanted to pull Germany in a different direction and parties often refused to compromise with, or even recognize. Whereas some looked at pocketbooks, others at the pigmentation of the skin or the index of the skull, when the speaker of one party indulged in his oratory, the others walked out. It was not worth while to listen to somebodys opinion when you knew that his premises were all wrong, the grim determination to silence the unconvincible enemy by execution or imprisonment already existed prior to 1933 in many parties. The parliament passed legislation and the government budget, as well as making declarations of war, the members of the German cabinet, or government, were responsible to the Reichstag, which could force the resignation of ministers or even the whole cabinet by a motion of no confidence. It could also revoke emergency decrees by the Reich President according to Article 48 of the constitution -—however, in contrast, the Reichsrat, the house of state representatives, had minor significance. The constitution also provided for the possibility of referenda, but the hurdles to overcome were high, there were only two plebiscites, which were both unsuccessful. All too often, when a Chancellor was removed from office and this was especially pronounced in the 1930s, when Chancellors had to resort to Article 48 just to conduct the ordinary business of government. In the election of 1928, the Nazi Party won only 12 seats in the Reichstag, however, over the following two years it gained another 95. At the election of 1932, the Nazis and the Communist Party, with this latter enabling act, the Reichstag formally gave up its exclusive responsibility for the exercise of the legislative power
13.
SS and police leader
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The title of SS and police leader was used to designate a senior Nazi official who commanded large units of the SS, Gestapo and the German uniformed police, prior to and during World War II. They were to act as the highest liaison under Himmler and unifier for command of the SS, inside the Reich the man named as HSSPF was usually also SS-Oberabschnitt Führer for that region. In the occupied territories, there was no Oberabschnitt, so the HSSPF existed on their own, however, they had something the Reich HSSPFs did not - several SS- und Polizeiführer reporting to them. There were two Höchster SS- und Polizeiführer posts and these were Italien and Ukraine, both of which had various HSSPF and SSPF reporting to them. The SS and police leaders directly commanded a staff with representatives from almost every branch of the SS. This typically included the Ordnungspolizei, Gestapo, Totenkopfverbände, SD, most of these SS and Police Leaders normally held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer or above and answered directly to Himmler in all matters pertaining to the SS within their area of responsibility. Their role was to be part of the SS control mechanism within the state policing the German population and overseeing the activities of the SS men within each respective district. The grand dream of Heinrich Himmler was to evolve the SS and police leader into an SS ruler of the Lebensraum which the SS would rule, in 1944 and 1945, many HSSPF were promoted to generals rank in the Waffen-SS by Himmler. This was apparently an attempt to provide protection under the Hague Convention rules of warfare. The SS and Police Leaders served as commanding SS generals for any Einsatzgruppen operating in their areas, a large number of the SS and police leaders who had been involved with such crimes committed suicide before capture. They had direct command over Orpo police battalions and SD regiments that were assigned to guard the ghettos, note – Men were often transferred and promoted as the war went on. The HSSPF areas themselves might change, be absorbed, cease to exist and this list is by no means exhaustive. Allgemeine-SS, The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS, the Order of the Deaths Head, The Story of Hitler’s SS
14.
Elbe
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The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia, then Germany and its total length is 1,094 kilometres. The Elbes major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, the Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148,268 square kilometres, the fourth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, with its largest parts in Germany, much smaller parts lie in Austria and Poland. The basin is inhabited by 24.5 million people, the Elbe rises at an elevation of about 1,400 metres in the Krkonoše on the northwest borders of the Czech Republic near Labská bouda. Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river, here the Elbe enters the vast vale named Polabí, and continues on southwards through Hradec Králové and then to Pardubice, where it turns sharply to the west. At Kolín some 43 kilometres further on, it bends gradually towards the north-west, at the village of Káraný, a little above Brandýs nad Labem, it picks up the Jizera. At Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, or Moldau, upstream from the confluence the Vltava is in fact much longer, and has a greater discharge and a larger drainage basin. Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře, in its northern section both banks of the Elbe are characterised by flat, very fertile marshlands, former flood plains of the Elbe now diked. At Magdeburg there is a viaduct, the Magdeburg Water Bridge, from the sluice of Geesthacht on downstream the Elbe is subject to the tides, the tidal Elbe section is called the Low Elbe. Within the city-state the Unterelbe has a number of streams, such as Dove Elbe, Gose Elbe, Köhlbrand, Northern Elbe, Reiherstieg. Some of which have been disconnected for vessels from the stream by dikes. In 1390 the Gose Elbe was separated from the stream by a dike connecting the two then-islands of Kirchwerder and Neuengamme. The Dove Elbe was diked off in 1437/38 at Gammer Ort and these hydraulic engineering works were carried out to protect marshlands from inundation, and to improve the water supply of the Port of Hamburg. The Northern Elbe passes the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and is then crossed under by the old Elbe Tunnel, a bit more downstream the Low Elbes two main anabranches Northern Elbe and the Köhlbrand reunite south of Altona-Altstadt, a locality of Hamburg. Right after both anabranches reunited the Low Elbe is passed under by the New Elbe Tunnel, the last structural road link crossing the river before the North Sea. At the bay Mühlenberger Loch in Hamburg at kilometre 634, the Northern Elbe and the Southern Elbe used to reunite, leaving the city-state the Lower Elbe then passes between Holstein and the Elbe-Weser Triangle with Stade until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes the entrance to the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel before it debouches into the North Sea, the Elbe has been navigable by commercial vessels since 1842, and provides important trade links as far inland as Prague
15.
Night of the Long Knives
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Leading members of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis. The murders of Brownshirt leaders were intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish Brownshirt tactics. Additionally, Hitler was uncomfortable with Röhms outspoken support for a revolution to redistribute wealth. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his new regime, especially loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen. At least 85 people died during the purge, although the death toll may have been in the hundreds. Most of the killings were carried out by the Schutzstaffel and the Gestapo, the purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the Reichswehr for Hitler. The Night of the Long Knives was a point for the German government. It established Hitler as the supreme justiciar of the German people, before its execution, its planners sometimes referred to it as Hummingbird, the codeword used to send the execution squads into action on the day of the purge. The codename for the operation appears to have been chosen arbitrarily, the phrase Night of the Long Knives in the German language predates the massacre and refers generally to acts of vengeance. Germans still use the term Röhm-Putsch to describe the murders, the given to it by the Nazi regime. German authors often use quotation marks or write about the sogenannter Röhm-Putsch for emphasis, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on January 30,1933. Hitler did not exercise power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. As chancellor, Hitler did not command the army, which remained under the leadership of Hindenburg. To a lesser extent, the Sturmabteilung, a Nazi paramilitary organisation, the SA evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years. A very large number of the Freikorps believed that the November Revolution had betrayed them when Germany was alleged to be on the verge of victory in 1918. Hence, the Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic, which was born as a result of the November Revolution, captain Ernst Röhm of the Reichswehr served as the liaison with the Bavarian Freikorps. Röhm was given the nickname The Machine Gun King of Bavaria in the early 1920s, Röhm left the Reichswehr in 1923 and later became commander of the SA. Also known as the brownshirts or stormtroopers, the SA became notorious for their battles with the Communists
16.
Reinhard Heydrich
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Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was a high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, and a main architect of the Holocaust. He was an SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei as well as chief of the Reich Main Security Office and he was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Many historians regard him as the darkest figure within the Nazi elite and he was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst, an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders. He helped organise Kristallnacht, a series of co-ordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany, the attacks, carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians, presaged the Holocaust. Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and he died from his injuries a week later. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the assassins to the villages of Lidice, both villages were razed, all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of its women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife and his father was Protestant and his mother was Roman Catholic. His two forenames were patriotic musical tributes, Reinhard referred to the hero from his fathers opera Amen. Heydrichs third name, Eugen, was his maternal grandfathers forename. Heydrichs family held social standing and substantial financial means, Music was a part of Heydrichs everyday life, his father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre and Teaching and his mother taught piano there. Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood and his father was a German nationalist who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children, but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I. As a youth, he engaged his younger brother, Heinz and he excelled in his schoolwork—especially in science—at the Reformgymnasium. A talented athlete, he became a swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was bullied for his high-pitched voice. The latter claim earned him the nickname Moses Handel, in 1918, World War I ended with Germanys defeat. In late February 1919, civil unrest—including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups—took place in Heydrichs home town of Halle, under Defense Minister Gustav Noskes directives, a right-wing paramilitary unit was formed and ordered to recapture Halle. Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maerckers Volunteer Rifles, when the skirmishes ended, Heydrich was part of the force assigned to protect private property. Little is known about his role, but the left a strong impression
17.
Einsatzgruppen
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Einsatzgruppen were Schutzstaffel paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting, during World War II. As ordered by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the Wehrmacht cooperated with the Einsatzgruppen, historian Raul Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945 the Einsatzgruppen and related auxiliary troops killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. The total number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust is estimated at 5.5 to 6 million people, after the close of World War II,24 senior leaders of the Einsatzgruppen were prosecuted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947–48, charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. Fourteen death sentences and two sentences were handed out. Four additional Einsatzgruppe leaders were tried and executed by other nations. The Einsatzgruppen were formed under the direction of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich and operated by the Schutzstaffel before, the Einsatzgruppen had its origins in the ad hoc Einsatzkommando formed by Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents following the Anschluss in Austria in March 1938. Originally part of the Sicherheitspolizei, two units of Einsatzgruppen were stationed in the Sudetenland in October 1938, when military action turned out not to be necessary due to the Munich Agreement, the Einsatzgruppen were assigned to confiscate government papers and police documents. They also secured government buildings, questioned senior civil servants, and arrested as many as 10,000 Czech communists, from September 1939, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt had overall command of the Einsatzgruppen. Action T4 mainly took place from 1939 to 1941, but the killings continued until the end of the war, initially the victims were shot by the Einsatzgruppen and others, but gas chambers were put into use by spring 1940. In response to Adolf Hitlers plan to invade Poland, Heydrich re-formed the Einsatzgruppen to travel in the wake of the German armies, membership at this point was drawn from the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst, and the police. Heydrich placed SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best in command, who chose leaders for the forces and their subgroups, called Einsatzkommandos. Some had previously been members of groups such as the Freikorps. There must be no Polish leaders, where Polish leaders exist they must be killed, the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen — lists of people to be killed — had been drawn up by the SS as early as May 1939. The Einsatzgruppen performed these murders with the support of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, members of the SS, the Wehrmacht, and the Ordnungspolizei also shot civilians during the Polish campaign. Approximately 65,000 civilians were killed by the end of 1939, in addition to leaders of Polish society, they killed Jews, prostitutes, Romani people, and the mentally ill. Psychiatric patients in Poland were initially killed by shooting, but by spring 1941 gas vans were widely used, seven Einsatzgruppen of battalion strength operated in Poland. Each was subdivided into four Einsatzkommandos of company strength, many senior army officers were only too glad to leave these genocidal actions to the task forces, as the killings violated the rules of warfare as set down in the Geneva Conventions. However, Hitler had decreed that the army would have to tolerate, some army commanders complained about unauthorised shootings, looting, and rapes committed by members of the Einsatzgruppen and the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, to little effect
18.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
19.
Kattowitz
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Katowice /ˌkætəˈviːtsə/ is a city in southwestern Poland and the center of the Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 299,910 as of 2015. Throughout the mid-18th century, Katowice had developed into a village upon the discovery of coal reserves in the area. In 1742 the infamous Silesian War transferred Upper Silesia, including Katowice, simultaneously Silesia experienced the influx of the first Jewish settlers. In the first half of the 19th century, intensive industrialization transformed local mills and farms into industrial steelworks, mines, foundries and this also contributed to the establishment of companies and eventual rapid growth of the city. At the same time, Katowice became linked to the system with the first train arriving at the main station in 1847. The outbreak of World War I was favourable for Katowice due to the steel industry. Following Germanys defeat and the Silesian Uprisings aimed at unfair pro-German plebiscites, Katowice, Poland was then backed by the Geneva Convention and the ethnic Silesian minority. On 3 May 1921, the Polish army entered Katowice and the Polish administration took control, the city became the capital of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship as well as the seat of the Silesian Parliament and Committee of Upper Silesia. After the plebiscite many former German citizens emigrated, however a vibrant German community remained until the end of World War II, in 1939, after the Wehrmacht seized the town, Katowice and the provinces were incorporated into the Third Reich. The town was liberated by the Allies on 27 January 1945. Katowice is a center of science, culture, industry, business, trade, and transportation in Upper Silesia and southern Poland, today, the city is considered as an emerging metropolis. The whole metropolitan area is the 16th most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union with an output amounting to $114.5 billion, Katowice is the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony and Orchestra. It also hosts the finals of Intel Extreme Masters, a video game tournament. The area around Katowice, in Upper Silesia, has been inhabited by ethnic Silesians from its earliest documented history, initially it was ruled by the Polish Silesian Piast dynasty until its extinction. The settlement of the area surrounding Katowice dates back to the end of the 12th century, from 1138, the Bytom castellany encompassed territories where Katowice is located nowadays. In 1177 the lands were handed over by Duke Casimir II the Just to his nephew Mieszko I Tanglefoot. From 1327, the region was under Czech administration as part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, historians assume that Katowice was founded on the right bank of the Rawa river by Andrzej Bogucki in around 1580. In 1598 a village called Villa Nova was also documented to stand in the now occupied by the city of Katowice
20.
Sosnowiec
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Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in southern Poland, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association. The population of the city is 220,450, Sosnowiec is the centre of the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie area within the historic Lesser Poland region near the border with Silesia. It is located about 10 km northeast to the downtown of Katowice and 65 km northwest of Kraków, situated in the Silesian Upland on the rivers Brynica and Przemsza, the city is part of Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999. Previously, it was part of Katowice Voivodeship, and before World War II, allegedly its name comes from Polish word sosna, referring to the pine forests which were common prior to 1830. It was originally known as Sosnowice, other variations of the name include Sosnowietz, Sosnowitz, Sosnovitz, Sosnovyts, Sosnowyts, Sosnovytz, Sosnowytz, and Sosnovetz. There are five smaller towns in Poland also called Sosnowiec, located in the Kielce Voivodship, Łódź Voivodship. The history of Sosnowiec in the proper sense begins in 1902 when it was granted city rights by merging a number of often several centuries old. However, the history of the village of Sosnowiec dates back to the year 1227 and it then was a small settlement in the Polish Duchy of Kraków, located in close vicinity of much larger and better developed villages of Sielce and Zagórze. Milowice was first mentioned in 1123 as Miley, documents from 1228 already mention Milowice, Klimontów, and Zagórze. Furthermore, Milowice was placed on a 1561 map, as part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sosnowiec belonged to Kraków Voivodeship, one of three voivodeships of Lesser Poland. It became a town after the neighbouring Duchies of Silesia passed to the Bohemian Crown in 1335. In result of the Third partition of Poland in 1795, however, during the Napoleonic Wars, it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 and later, of Congress Poland ruled by the namiestniks of the Russian Empire. Located at the borders with the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, Sosnowiec became famous for the Three Emperors Corner tripoint, which was located within current limits of the city. With effect from 10 June 1902, by the order of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Sosnowiec was legally named a city with the area of 19 square kilometres, obtaining the city rights helped the dynamic economic and cultural development of the town. Apart from steelworks and coal-mines and many enterprises of heavy and light industry, the newly established town consisted of the districts of Sosnowiec, Pogoń, Ostra Górka, Sielec, Kuźnica and Radocha, all of which had been separate villages before. Sosnowiec was first post-1860s location in Congress Poland to have received town charter, natural resources and the good geographical location had an important influence on the development of Sosnowiec. The opening of a line of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway in 1859 was vitally important for the growth of the town. The Summer Theatre and, in 1887, the Winter Theatre were founded, the second of which was called City Theatre from 1924 in independent Poland, in 1914, the village of Środula was incorporated into Sosnowiec
21.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
22.
Gestapo
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The Gestapo, abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, or the Secret State Police, was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various security agencies of Prussia into one organization. Then from 27 September 1939 forward, it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and was considered an organization to the SS Sicherheitsdienst. This gave Göring command of the largest police force in Germany, soon afterward, Göring detached the political and intelligence sections from the police and filled their ranks with Nazis. On 26 April 1933, Göring merged the two units as the Geheime Staatspolizei, which was abbreviated for a stamp and became known as the Gestapo. He originally wanted to name it the Secret Police Office, and its first commander was Rudolf Diels, a protégé of Göring. Diels was appointed with the title of chief of Abteilung Ia of the Political Police of the Prussian Interior Ministry, Diels was best known as the primary interrogator of Marinus van der Lubbe after the Reichstag fire. In late 1933, the Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick wanted to integrate all the forces of the German states under his control. Göring outflanked him by removing the Prussian political and intelligence departments from the interior ministry. Göring himself took over the Gestapo in 1934 and urged Hitler to extend the agencys authority throughout Germany and this represented a radical departure from German tradition, which held that law enforcement was a Land and local matter. In this, he ran into conflict with Heinrich Himmler, who was chief of the second most powerful German state. Frick did not have the muscle to take on Göring by himself so he allied with Himmler, with Fricks support, Himmler took over the political police of state after state. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung, Göring handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on 20 April 1934. Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia, Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SS Security Service. Himmler wanted to free himself entirely from Roehm, who he viewed as an obstacle, roehms position was menacing as upwards of over 4. Several Nazi chieftains, among them Goering, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, both the SD and Gestapo released information concerning an imminent putsch by the SA. Once persuaded, Hitler acted by setting Himmlers SS into action, on 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in the Reich and named Himmler as Chief of German Police. This action effectively merged the police into the SS and removed it from Fricks control, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Frick as police chief, but as Reichsführer-SS, he answered only to Hitler
23.
Dresden
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Dresden is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic, Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque, the controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger. Since German reunification in 1990 Dresden is again a cultural, educational and political centre of Germany, the Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany and part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative. The economy of Dresden and its agglomeration is one of the most dynamic in Germany and it is dominated by high-tech branches, often called as “Silicon Saxony”. The city is one of the most visited in Germany with 4,3 million overnight stays per year. The royal buildings are among the most impressive buildings in Europe, main sights are also the nearby National Park of Saxon Switzerland, the Ore Mountains and the countryside around Elbe Valley and Moritzburg Castle. The most prominent building in the city of Dresden is the Frauenkirche, built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed during World War II. The remaining ruins were left for 50 years as a war memorial, the church was rebuilt from 1994 to 2005. Although Dresden is a relatively recent city of Germanic origin followed by settlement of Slavic people, Dresdens founding and early growth is associated with the eastward expansion of Germanic peoples, mining in the nearby Ore Mountains, and the establishment of the Margraviate of Meissen. Its name etymologically derives from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the forest, Dresden later evolved into the capital of Saxony. Around the late 12th century, a Slavic settlement called Drežďany had developed on the southern bank, another settlement existed on the northern bank, but its Slavic name is unknown. It was known as Antiqua Dresdin by 1350, and later as Altendresden, dietrich, Margrave of Meissen, chose Dresden as his interim residence in 1206, as documented in a record calling the place Civitas Dresdene. After 1270, Dresden became the capital of the margraviate and it was given to Friedrich Clem after death of Henry the Illustrious in 1288. It was taken by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1316 and was restored to the Wettin dynasty after the death of Valdemar the Great in 1319, from 1485, it was the seat of the dukes of Saxony, and from 1547 the electors as well. The Elector and ruler of Saxony Frederick Augustus I became King Augustus II the Strong of Poland in personal union and he gathered many of the best musicians, architects and painters from all over Europe to the newly named Royal-Polish Residential City of Dresden. His reign marked the beginning of Dresdens emergence as a leading European city for technology, during the reign of Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland the Zwinger Royal Palace, the Hofkirche and the Frauenkirche were built
24.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
Almanach de Gotha
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The Almanach de Gotha was a directory of Europes royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published in 1763 by C. W and it was published from 1785 annually by Justus Perthes Publishing House in Gotha, until 1944 when the Soviets destroyed the Almanach de Gothas archives. In 1998, a London-based publisher acquired the rights for use of the title of Almanach de Gotha from Justus Perthes Verlag Gotha GmbH, Perthes regard the resultant volumes as new works, and not as a continuation of the editions which Perthes had published from 1785 to 1944. It also named the highest incumbent officers of state, members of the diplomatic corps, although always published in French, other almanacs in French and English were more widely sold internationally. The almanacs structure changed and its scope expanded over the years, the second portion, called the Annuaire diplomatique et statistique, provided demographic and governmental information by nation, similar to other almanacs. The first section always listed Europes sovereign houses, whether they ruled as emperor, king, grand duke, duke, in 1812, these entries began to be listed in groups. First were German sovereigns who held the rank of duke or prince elector. Listed next were Germanys reigning ducal and princely dynasties under the heading College of Princes, e. g. Hohenzollern, Isenburg, Leyen, Liechtenstein and they were followed by heads of non-German monarchies, i. e. Austria, Brazil, Great Britain, etc. Fourthly were listed non-reigning dukes and princes, whether mediatized or not, including Arenberg, Croy, Furstenberg alongside Batthyany, Jablonowski, Sulkowski, Porcia, in 1841 a third group was added to those of the sovereign dynasties and the non-reigning princely and ducal families. The almanac added a third section consisting exclusively of mediatized families of comital rank, in 1877, the mediatized comital families were moved from section III to section II A, where they joined the princely mediatized families. No other families whose highest title was count were admitted to any section of the almanac, moreover, other deposed European dynasties did not benefit vis-a-vis the almanac from a similar interpretation of their historical status. Even in the early 19th century the almanacs retention of deposed dynasties evoked objections, the elected Emperor Napoleon protested in writing to his foreign minister, Champagny, Monsieur de Champagny, this years Almanach de Gotha is badly done. First comes the Comte de Lille, followed by all the princes of the Confederation as if no change has made in the constitution of Germany. Summon the Minister of Gotha, who is to be made to understand that in the next Almanach all of this is to be changed and you are to insist that the article be transmitted to you prior to publication. In 1887 the Almanach began to include non-European dynasties in its first section, when Soviet troops entered Gotha in 1945, they systematically destroyed all archives of the Almanach de Gotha. In 1951 a different publisher, C. A, starke, began publication of a multi-volume German-language publication entitled the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels. However, no single volume of the Fürstliche Häuser includes all the families included in the Hofkalender or Almanach de Gotha and it is necessary to use multiple volumes to trace the majority of European royal families. In 1989 the family of Justus Perthes re-established its right to the use of the name Almanach de Gotha, the family then sold these rights in 1995 to a new company, Almanach de Gotha Limited, formed in London
27.
International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
28.
Christopher Browning
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Christopher Robert Browning is an American historian, known best for his works on the Holocaust. Browning received his bachelors degree from Oberlin College in 1968 and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975 and he taught at Pacific Lutheran University from 1974 to 1999, eventually becoming a Distinguished Professor. In 1999, he moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to accept an appointment as Frank Porter Graham Professor of History, Browning was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. Browning retired from teaching in Spring 2014, in other cases, they were ordered to merely kill a specified number of Jews in a given town or area usually helped by Trawnikis. The commander of the unit gave his men the choice of opting out of duty if they found it too hard. Almost all of them not to exercise that option. Fewer than 12 men opted out in a battalion of 500 willing executioners, in his book review published in the July 1992 edition of The New Republic, Goldhagen called Ordinary Men a book that fails in its central interpretation. Goldhagens own controversial 1996 book Hitlers Willing Executioners was largely written to rebut Brownings book, when David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel in 2000, Browning was one of the leading witnesses for the defense. Another historian, Robert Jan van Pelt, wrote a report on the facilities at Auschwitz. There is no last chapter in history, Browning noted that Hitler’s secret speech to his Gauleiters on December 12,1941, strongly alluded to genocide as the “Final Solution”. Guttenplan, who covered the trial, considered Browning to be the most effective of the witnesses for Lipstadt, functionalism sees the extermination of the Jews as the improvisation and radicalization of a polycratic regime. Functionalists do not vindicate Adolf Hitler yet they recognize that other factors were involved in the Final Solution. The intention was to have these and other Jews resident in the Third Reich expelled eastward once a destination was selected, germanys inability to defeat Britain prevented the execution of the Madagascar Plan. Browning has been able to establish that the phrase Final Solution to the Jewish Question, first used in 1939, the Functionalists point out the anarchistic character of the Nazi state, its internal rivalries and the chaotic process of decision-making, which constantly led to improvisation and radicalization. On the one hand, Lucy Dawidowicz, a radical Intentionalist, and not only that, He knew at what point in time his murderous plan would be realized. The Second World War was at the time the means. It is Broszats position that Hitler never took a definitive decision nor issued an order for the Final Solution. The annihilation program developed in stages in conjunction with a series of isolated massacres at the end of 1941, from this standpoint, Hitler was a catalyst but not a decision-maker
29.
Ernst Klee
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Ernst Klee was a German journalist and author. He is the author of The Good Old Days, The Holocaust Through the Eyes of the Perpetrators and Bystanders first published in the English translation in 1991, Klee was first trained as a sanitary and heating technician. Afterwards, he caught up on his university entrance requirements and then studied theology, as a journalist in the 1970s, he looked at socially excluded groups, such as the homeless, psychiatric patients and the disabled. During this period, he collaborated with Gusti Steiner, who laid the foundation for the federal German emancipatory movement of the disabled at that time, in 1997, he received the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis for his book, Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer. In 2001, the city of Frankfurt am Main honored Klee with the Goetheplakette for his book, the explanation states that Klees works are suitable to support civil freedom, moral and intellectual courage, and to give important impetus to current awareness. Klee wrote for the newspaper, Die Zeit. There were 27 articles by him between 1974 and 1995, Klee died in his hometown of Frankfurt am Main at the age of 71 after a long and severe illness. Täter, Gehilfen, Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3, eBook ISBN 978-3-10-402813-2. Wer war was vor und nach 1945, Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,2007,720 pages, hardcover, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5, reviews by Esteban Engel Frankfurter Neue Presse and by Fritz J. Raddatz in Die Zeit,1 March 2007, No. 10, p.54, Alphabet der Schändlichkeit, wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,2003, 2nd edition, Deutsche Medizin im Dritten Reich, Karrieren vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 Review, Die Zeit, No. 44,2001 Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer, Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,1997. Paperback,2001 Eine feine Gesellschaft, soziale Wirklichkeit Deutschland, Düsseldorf, Patmos-Verlag,1995 Euthanasie im Nationalsozialismus /. Vienna, Dachs-Verlag,1994 Persilscheine und falsche Pässe, wie die Kirchen den Nazis halfen, Frankfurt am Main, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag,1991 Durch Zyankali erlöst, Sterbehilfe und Euthanasie heute. Frankfurt am Main, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag,1990 Die SA Jesu Christi, Frankfurt am Main, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag,1989 Gott mit uns, der deutsche Vernichtungskrieg im Osten 1939–1945 / Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen. Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,1989 Schöne Zeiten, Frankfurt am Main, S. Fischer,1988. ISBN 3-10-039304-X Querschnittgelähmt – kein Leben vor dem Tod, mit einer Anzeige von Claudio Kürten
30.
Einsatzkommando
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After the war several Einsatzkommando officers were tried, in the Einsatzgruppen trial, convicted of war crimes and hanged. As a military term, the German Einsatzkommando is roughly equivalent to the English task force and is still in use for German paramilitary organizations, such as SEK and Einsatzkommando Cobra. Einsatzgruppen were paramilitary groups formed in 1938 under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich – Chief of the SD. They were operated by the Schutzstaffel, the first Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in the course of the 1939 invasion of Poland. Then following a Hitler-Himmler directive, the Einsatzgruppen were re-formed in anticipation of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, hitler ordered the SD and the Security Police to suppress the threat of native resistance behind the Wehrmachts fighting front. Their principal task, according to SS General Erich von dem Bach, at the Nuremberg Trials, was the annihilation of the Jews, Gypsies and they were a key component in the implementation of the Final Solution of the Jewish question in the conquered territories. These killing units should be viewed in conjunction with the Holocaust, the military commanders knew the task of the Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen depended upon their army commander for billet, food. Relations between the army and the SiPo and the SD were close. Einsatzgruppen commanders reported that the understanding by Wehrmacht commanders of Einsatzgruppen tasks made their operations considerably easier, Einsatzgruppen officers were drawn from the SD, the Waffen-SS, the Criminal Police, and the Gestapo. The enlisted men were from the Waffen-SS, the police, the Gestapo. When occasion demanded, German Army commanders bolstered the strength of the Einsatzgruppen with their own regular-army troops, the first eight Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in 1939 for the invasion of Poland. Long before the attack on Poland, the Nazis prepared a detailed list identifying more than 61,000 Polish targets by name, the list was printed as a 192-page-book called Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, and composed only of names and birthdates. By the end of 1939 already, they killed around 50,000 Poles and Jews in the annexed territories. The SS operational groups were assigned Roman numerals for the first time on September 4,1939, before that, their names were derived from the names of their places of origin in the German language. B. V, deployed in Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia Einsatzkommando 16 or EK–16 Danzig, deployed in Pomerania after the withdrawal of EG-IV and EG-V. The Commando was involved in the massacres in Piaśnica known as Pommern Katyń between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 conducted in Piasnica Wielka, the civilian shooters belonged to Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz aiding EK–16. During that period approximately 12,000 to 16,000 Poles, Jews, Czechs, not to be confused with Einsatzkommando 16 of Einsatzgruppe E deployed in Croatia Einsatzgruppe A, attached to the Army Group North, was formed in Gumbinnen in East Prussia on 23 June 1941
31.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
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Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany during World War II. An Obergruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel, between January 1943 and May 1945 he held the offices of Chief of the Reich Main Security Office and he was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial at the first Nuremberg trials. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, Kaltenbrunner was the son of a lawyer, and was educated at the Realgymnasium in Linz. After Gymnasium, Kaltenbrunner went on to obtain his degree in law at Graz University in 1926. He worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year before opening his own law office in Linz and he had deep scars on his face from dueling in his student days, although some sources attribute them to an automobile accident. On 14 January 1934, Kaltenbrunner married Elisabeth Eder who was from Linz, in addition to the children from his marriage, Kaltenbrunner had twins, Ursula and Wolfgang, with his long-time mistress Gisela Gräfin von Westarp. All the children survived the war, on 18 October 1930, Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party as NSDAP member number 300,179. In 1931, he was the Bezirksredner for the Nazi Party in Oberösterreich and he went on to join the SS on 31 August 1931, his SS number was 13,039. He first became a Rechtsberater for the party in 1929 and later held this position for SS Abschnitt VIII beginning in 1932. That same year, he began working at his fathers law practice, in January 1934, Kaltenbrunner was briefly jailed at the Kaisersteinbruch detention camp with other National Socialists for conspiracy by the Engelbert Dollfuss government. While there he led a strike which forced the government to release 490 of the party members. In 1935, he was jailed again on suspicion of high treason and this charge was dropped, but he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for conspiracy and he lost his license to practice law. From mid-1935 Kaltenbrunner was head of the illegal SS Abschnitt VIII in Linz and was considered a leader of the Austrian SS, to provide Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Heinz Jost with new information, Kaltenbrunner repeatedly made trips to Bavaria. Hiding on a train and on a ship traveled to Passau, he would return with money. Kaltenbrunner was arrested again in 1937, by Austrian authorities on charges of being head of the illegal Nazi Party organisation in Oberösterreich. Controlled from behind the scenes by Himmler, Kaltenbrunner still led, albeit clandestinely, then on 21 March 1938, he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer. He was a member of the Reichstag from 10 April 1938 until 8 May 1945, amid all this activity, he also helped establish the concentration camp at Mauthausen near Linz. On 11 September 1938, Kaltenbrunner was promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer, also in 1938, he was appointed High SS and police leader for Donau, which was the primary SS command in Austria
32.
Humbert Achamer-Pifrader
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Humbert Achamer-Pifrader was an Austrian jurist, who was member of the SS of Nazi Germany. He was commander of Einsatzgruppe A from September 1942 to September 1943, Achamer-Pifrader fought on the Italian Front in World War I as a one-year volunteer. He was positioned by Otto Steinhäusl in the headquarters in Salzburg in 1926. In addition to his activities, he began to study law and political science at the University of Innsbruck. Achamer-Pifrader joined the Austrian Nazi Party on 10 November 1931, in June 1935, he fled to the German Reich because of the Nazi ban in Austria, where he entered the service of the Bavarian Political Police immediately. In early September 1935, he joined the SS and rose steadily in this Nazi organization, in April 1936, he was transferred to the Gestapo in Berlin, where he worked on Austrian affairs. After the beginning of the Second World War, Achamer-Pifrader was head of the Gestapo in Darmstadt and he was promoted to SS-Standartenführer in 1941. From July 1942 he was Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD headquartered in Wiesbaden, in September 1942 he became, in succession to Franz Walter Stahlecker and Heinz Jost, commander of Einsatzgruppe A, which was responsible for the mass murder of civilians. In addition, he was commander of the Security Police in Riga for some time, Achamer-Pifrader was promoted to SS-Oberführer on 1 January 1943, and on 31 August 1943, awarded with the Iron Cross 2nd Class and also the War Merit Cross, 1st class. In 1944 he returned to the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin, on 25 April 1945, he died in an air raid on Linz. Achamer-Pifrader married Maria Hauser in 1929, with whom he had three children, helmut Krausnick / Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, DVA, Stuttgart 1981 ISBN 3-421-01987-8
33.
Walther Bierkamp
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Walther Bierkamp also spelled, Walter Bierkamp was a jurist of Nazi Germany who was born in Hamburg. He served as Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei or SiPo and Sicherheitsdienst or SD in Düsseldorf, later he held the same position for Belgium and Northern France. Bierkamp was involved in war crimes and he took command of Einsatzgruppe D, which was later known as Kampfgruppe Bierkamp, named after him when Bierkamp was its leader. He rose to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of Police and he committed suicide in Scharbeutz on 15 May 1945. He joined the Nazi Party on 1 December 1932 and joined the Schutzstaffel on 1 April 1939 and he was employed from February 1937 to February 1941 as head of the criminal police department in Hamburg. From February 1941 to September 1941 he worked as chief of the SiPo, from there he was sent to Paris as head of the SiPo and SD for Belgium and Northern France, along with being appointed Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer or HSSPF Southeast. Bierkamp remained there until April 1942, from 30 June 1942 to 15 June 1943, he was commander of Einsatzgruppe D, a SS paramilitary death squad which was responsible for mass killings, in the Soviet Union. Later Einsatzgruppe D was known as Kampfgruppe Bierkamp, on 21 and 22 August 1942,500 Jews from Krasnodar were shot. The same happened on 1 September 1942 in Mineralnye Vody, the Jews of Pyatigorsk were killed in gas vans. More than 6,000 Jews were killed, additional Jews were murdered in January 1943 in Kislovodsk. The overall death toll of the SS unit during that period amounted to about 10,000 Jewish victims, Bierkamp was then sent to Kraków as chief of police and security services until February 1945. In this capacity, as well as overseeing the cleansing of the Jews in Cracow, in his famous circular of 20 July 1944, he ordered the evacuation of prisoners from the prisons and the Jews from the armaments industries. In the final weeks of the Third Reich, Bierkamp was in Stuttgart and he committed suicide in Scharbeutz on 15 May 1945. Die Einsatzgruppe D in der südlichen Sowjetunion 1941-1943, Hamburg, Hamburger Edition 2003, ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Helmut Krausnick/Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938-1942. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-421-01987-8
34.
Erich Ehrlinger
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Erich Ehrlinger was a member of the Nazi Party and SS. As commander of Special Detachment 1b, he was responsible for murder in the Baltic states. He was also the commander of the Security Police and the Security Service for central Russia as well as a department chief in the Reich Main Security Office and he did not hold a doctorate degree, as is sometimes reported. He would eventually rise to the rank of SS-Standartenführer, Ehrlinger was the son of the mayor of Giengen an der Brenz, a small town in southwestern Germany, in what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg. In 1928 he completed school in Heidenheim, then studied law in Tübingen, Kiel, Berlin. The nationalist and xenophobic atmosphere at the University of Tübingen fit in well with his legal career in the SD, the RSHA. Ehrlinger was not only active at the university, after he completed an SA leadership training course in 1934, Ehrlinger gave up his legal career and became a full-time SA functionary. He was the leader of an SA sport school at Rieneck Castle, in May 1935, Ehrlinger was accepted into the SD. By September 1935, he had assigned to the main office of the Berlin SD. Ehrlinger was with the SD in 1938 during the Nazi takeovers in Austria, Ehrlinger was with the headquarters staff of Einsatzgruppe IV during the German attack on Poland in September 1939. In August 1940 he went to Norway for the buildup of the Waffen-SS there under his later chief, in April 1941, he took over leadership of Special Commando 1b, which was part of Einsatzgruppe A, of which Stahlecker was overall commander. Ehrlinger led the murder of Jews behind the front, in particular in the ghettos of Kovno, Dünaburg. For example, on 16 July 1941, the SD entered Dünaburg, Ehrlinger reported that s of now the EK 1b has killed 1,150 Jews in Dünaburg. Ehrlinger himself oversaw these shootings, euphemistically called actions, as a hardened SS perpetrator who stood at the shoot pit, there he was involved with the murder of the remaining Jews of Minsk. In 1944, Ehrlinger returned to Berlin, on 1 April 1944, he became chief of the Reich Main Security Office, Department I, replacing Bruno Streckenbach. In November 1944 Ehrlinger also became a delegate from Ernst Kaltenbrunner to Heinrich Himmler. At the end of the war, Ehrlinger disguised himself as a Wehrmacht NCO, after a few weeks as a POW, he was released and made his way to the Schleswig-Holstein area. He made contact with his family but did not provide his whereabouts, in 1947, his wife discovered him under an assumed identity living with another woman with whom he was about to have a baby
35.
Wilhelm Fuchs
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Oberführer and Oberst of Police Wilhelm Fuchs was a Nazi Einsatzkommando leader. From April 1941 to January 1942 he commanded Einsatzgruppe Serbia, from 15 September 1943 through 27 May 1944 he commanded Einsatzkommando 3. He was executed by hanging at Belgrade, Fuchs studied at the University of Leipzig Agricultural Science and received his doctorate in 1929, On 1 April 1932, he joined the NSDAP. On 1 December 1932 he became SS, on 11 July 1933 he was appointed Untersturmführer and, on 20 April 1938, promoted to Standartenführer
36.
Heinz Jost
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Heinz Jost was an SS-Brigadeführer and a Generalmajor of Police. Jost was involved in matters as the Sicherheitsdienst or section chief of office VI of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA. Jost was also responsible for genocide in eastern Europe as commander of Einsatzgruppe A from March to September 1942, Heinz Jost was born in the northern Hessian Homberg - Ortsteil Holzhausen - in Hersfeld in 1904, to a middle-class Catholic and nationalistic family. Heinrich Jost, Heinzs father, was a pharmacist and later became a fellow NSDAP member, Jost attended grammar school in Bensheim, graduating in 1923. As a student he became a member, and eventually a leader, of the Jungdeutsche Orden, Jost studied law and economics at the Universities of Giessen and Munich. He completed his civil service examination in May 1927, Heinzs legal career began as a legally trained civil servant employed in Hesse. He later worked in the court at Darmstadt. Jost joined the Nazi Party on 2 February 1928 with an NSDAP membership number of 75,946 and he performed various functions for the partys operations in southern Hesse. From 1930 he settled as an independent lawyer in Lorsch, Hesse, after the Nazi seizure of power in March 1933, Jost was appointed Director of Police in the city of Worms and then to police director of Giessen. From this period came his association with Werner Best, who brought Jost into the main Nazi intelligence and security agency, on 25 July 1934, Jost began his full-time career with the SD. His SS membership number was 36,243, in May 1936, Jost was promoted in the SD Main Office to head Department III2. In 1938, Jost was head of the Einsatzgruppe Dresden which occupied Czechoslovakia, in August 1939 Jost was tasked by Reinhard Heydrich with obtaining the Polish uniforms needed for the false flag attack on the station in Gleiwitz. When the Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA was organized in September 1939, Jost was appointed as chief of Amt VI Ausland-SD, one of the chief purposes of Amt VI was to counteract foreign intelligence services that might try to operate in Germany. He also served as an SS officer in the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Josts career suffered by being linked with Werner Best, who was a rival of Reinhard Heydrich. Best lost a struggle with Heydrich who went on to become one of the most powerful men in the Nazi state. In March 1942, Jost was fired from his position as Chief of Ausland-SD, Josts place was taken by Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg, a deputy of Heydrich. Heydrich had given Schellenberg the task of building up a case for Josts removal, according to Schellenberg, Jost was lacking in bureaucratic skill and drive. Jost was sent to command Einsatzgruppe A, whose previous commander Franz Walter Stahlecker, had recently killed in a battle with partisans
37.
Erich Naumann
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Erich Naumann was an SS-Brigadeführer, member of the SD. Naumann was responsible for genocide in eastern Europe as commander of Einsatzgruppe B and was a war criminal. Born 29 April 1905, in Meissen, Saxony, Erich Naumann left school at the age of sixteen and was employment in a firm in his home town of Meissen. He joined the Nazi party in November 1929, in 1933, Naumann joined the SA in a full-time capacity and then became an official and officer of police. He joined the SD in 1935 and he was Chief of Einsatzgruppe B from November 1941 until February or March 1943. During November 1941, reports he sent to Adolf Eichmann state that he was responsible for the deaths of 17,256 people in Smolensk, under his command, he admitted that his Einsatzgruppe possessed three gas vans which were used to exterminate human beings. After capture by the Allies, Naumann stood trial at Nuremberg, during the proceedings he repeatedly stated that he did not consider his actions during his tenure as commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe B wrong. He was found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and belonging to illegal organizations, namely the SS, Naumann was sentenced to death and hanged shortly after midnight on 7 June 1951. Naumanns trial from The Einsatzgruppen Archives Profile of Naumann from Musmanno, Michael A. Justice
38.
Arthur Nebe
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Arthur Nebe was a key functionary in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator. Nebe rose through the ranks of the Berlin and Prussian police forces to head of Nazi Germanys Criminal Police in 1936. Prior to Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, the killing unit was deployed largely in modern-day Belarus behind Army Group Centre, and reported over 45,000 victims by November 1941. In late 1941, Nebe was posted back to Berlin and resumed his career within the RSHA, Nebe commanded the Kripo until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944. Born in Berlin in 1894, the son of a Berlin school teacher, Nebe volunteered for military service, in 1920 Nebe joined the Berlin detective force, the Kriminalpolizei. He attained the rank of an inspector in 1923 and the rank of Police Commissioner in 1924. Nebe was a conservative nationalist, who embraced the shift of the country to the right in the 1930s, in July 1931, he joined the Nazi Party and the Schutzstaffel. Nebe became the Nazis liaison in the Berlin criminal police, with links to an early Berlin SS group led by Kurt Daluege, in early 1932, Nebe and other Nazi detectives formed the NS Civil Service Society of the Berlin Police. In 1933 he came to know Hans Bernd Gisevius, then an official in the Berlin Police Headquarters, after the war, in 1935 Nebe was appointed head of Prussian Criminal Police. He later obtained the rank of SS-Gruppenführer, an SS equivalent to that of a police general, in July 1936, the Prussian Criminal Police became the central criminal investigation department for Germany, the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt. It was amalgamated, along with the state police, the Geheime Staatspolizei, into the Sicherheitspolizei. Nebe was appointed head of the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt, reporting to Heydrich, the addition of the Kripo to Heydrichs control helped cement the foundations of the police state. It also led to an overlap of personnel from the SD, Gestapo and Kripo to leadership positions in the police and security forces in Germany. On 27 September 1939, Himmler ordered the creation of the Reich Main Security Office, the RSHA was divided into main departments, including the Kripo, which became Department V of the RSHA. Department V was also known as the Reich Criminal Police Office, Kripos stated mission, which Nebe embraced, was to exterminate criminality. In 1939, Nebe lent a commissioner in his Criminal Police Office, Christian Wirth of Stuttgart, to the euthanasia organisation, also in 1939, as head of Kripo, he was involved in the discussions around the upcoming campaigns against the Sinti and Roma. Nebe wanted to include sending Berlins Gypsies to the reservations for the Jews. In October 1939, Nebe ordered Adolf Eichmann to put Gypsies with Jews on the transports to Nisko, Nebe volunteered to command Einsatzgruppe B, which was to operate behind Army Group Center after the invasion of the Soviet Union
39.
Otto Ohlendorf
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Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS-Gruppenführer and head of the Sicherheitsdienst Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. Ohlendorf was also the officer of Einsatzgruppe D, which perpetrated mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea, and, during 1942. He was convicted of and executed for war crimes committed during World War II, born in Hoheneggelsen, the son of farm owners. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and the SS in 1926, Ohlendorf studied economics and law at the University of Leipzig and the University of Göttingen, and by 1930 was already giving lectures at several economic institutions. By 1938 he was manager in the Trade section of the Reich business board. Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became a consultant of the organisation. In November 1944 he was promoted again to Gruppenführer, in June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. Ohlendorfs Einsatzgruppe was responsible for the 13 December 1941 massacre at Simferopol where at least 14,300 people, over 90,000 murders are attributed to Ohlendorfs command, who testified to this effect during his trial at Nuremberg. He devoted only four years to full-time activity in the RSHA, for in 1943, in addition to his other jobs and he coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the war. Such planning for the time was strictly forbidden, on one side. g. How to introduce the new German currency Deutsche Mark, Ohlendorf himself spoke out for active and courageous entrepreneurship, which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war. Because of Ohlendorfs work in field, petitions for leniency were filed after he was sentenced to death by hanging. These, however, were turned down by the Allies, Ohlendorf took part in Himmlers flight from Flensburg and was arrested with him near Lüneburg, where Himmler committed suicide. During the Einsatzgruppen Trial, Ohlendorf was the defendant, and was also a key witness in the prosecution of other indicted war criminals. Ohlendorfs apparently reliable testimony was attributed to his distaste for the corruption in Nazi Germany and he expressed no remorse for his actions, telling prosecutor Benjamin B. Otto Ohlendorf was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during World War II and he was sentenced to death and hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria on 8 June 1951. Ohlendorf appears at length in Jonathan Littells docudrama Les Bienveillantes, die Währungsreform ist von langer Hand vorbereitet und bis ins Detail ausgetüftelt worden. Der Tag X In English, The day X, - In June 1948 the Deutschmark is introduced and this changes the country
