Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in their dock, circa 1945-1946. (in front row, from left to right): Hermann Göring, Rudolf Heß, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel (in second row, from left to right): Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel) Public Domain (Wikipedia)
In the aftermath of World War II, there was debate about how to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and especially the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels were already dead by suicide. Churchill had the simplest approach of wanting to simply execute them, but it was decided that tribunal would be a better method. The tribunal would reveal to the world the extent of the crimes upon humanity the persons were responsible for.
The concept of an international tribunal was novel and had never been done before. Then again, no nation had before committed to full scale extermination of whole peoples as the Nazi’s had tried to do. An international tribunal composed of representatives from Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States was formed. Defendants faced charges that varied from war crimes to crimes against humanity. Twenty- four were indicted along with six Nazi organizations such as the Gestapo that were also determined to be criminal. One was declared medically unfit to stand trial and another committed suicide before the trial began. Two top Hitler associates, Heinrich Himmler (1900-45) and Joseph Goebbels (1897-45), had each committed suicide in the spring of 1945 before they could be brought to trial.
Each defendant was allowed to choose their own lawyers. They all pled not guilty and either argued that the crimes they committed were declared crimes after the London Charter (meaning ex post facto) or that they were applying harsh standards as they were the victors. The trials would last 1 October 1946 when verdicts were handed down. Twelve were sentenced to death and others got prison terms. On 16 October 1946, 10 Nazi policy architects were hanged. Hermann Goering, who had been called the “leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews,” committed suicide by poison the night before. Martin Bormann was tried in absentia and many thought he had escaped Germany. However, he never left Berlin, and his remains were eventually found (it appears he committed suicide), examined, and conclusively identified in 1988 using DNA. Other war criminals (German and Axis government leaders both civilian and military) would be tried into the 1950’s. 5,025 were convicted and 806 were executed. Those not sentenced to death, depending on what they did, served life sentences or were given shorter sentences.
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Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957) German Federal Archives via Wikimedia
On 16 November 1941, Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that the “Jews wanted the war, and now they have it.” This was part of the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift blame for the war to Jews and thus rationalizing the Final Solution–the elimination of Jews. German soldiers and the SS were infused with this propaganda and anti-Communist rhetoric to carry out their task of eliminating the Jews with enthusiasm.
[T]he prophecy which the Fuhrer made…that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world…but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process…Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here.
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)
Joseph Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in 1924. He had obtained a PhD in German literature from the University of Heidelberg in 1920. Prior to joining the party, he had worked as a writer, journalist, and clerk. The same year he joined the Nazi Party, he became editor of the Völkische Freiheit (Folkish Freedom) where he honed his propaganda skills for the party. Goebbels became an admirer of Hitler and became unfailingly loyal to him. He was also a rabid antisemite.
He came to Hitler’s attention in 1926 due to his organizational skills, devotion to the party, and his clever propaganda. He was made a regional Gauleiter (party chief) for Greater Berlin. He built up the Nazi Party organization and ran his own newspaper (Der Angriff or The Assault in English) until 1935 where he advanced the Nazi Party goals of anticommunism, antisemitism, and promoted Hitler becoming dictator of Germany. He would be elected to the Reichstag in 1928 representing the Nazi Party in Berlin.
Goebbels was a tireless agitator as the District Leader in Berlin. He railed against the Communist and Social Democratic party members, marched with the SA (Storm Troopers) into working class neighborhoods where support for those parties was strong. Bitter street fights would result, and Goebbels would call those who were injured or killed as suffering for the party. He made sure through his paper and other media of the heroism of those who suffered. Films were made to dramatize the events and led to the creation of the Horst Wessel Song, named for one of those who were killed in 1930. The song would become the party’s anthem.
The image he crafted was one of bloodied stormtrooper (and overly muscled as well) that would appear in Nazi propaganda for years to come. They died, the party said, fighting the Marxist enemy.
Hitler would appoint him as Reich leader of propaganda for the Nazi Party in 1929 and would hold that position until his death in 1945. Hitler relied on Goebbels in the critical elections of 1932. Goebbels was the first of that era to use radio and film for mass propaganda techniques. Films of Nazi rallies, speeches, and other important events were filmed and broadcast over the radio to inspire supporters and draw new ones in. Hitler was depicted by Goebbels as energetic and using all the modern modes of transport to get around Germany. Films showed him flying all over Germany on the same day holding events.
German students publicly burn collected, “un-German” writings and books on the central boulevard “Unter den Linden” in Berlin. 10 May 1933 Photo: Pahl, Georg German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, Goebbels would be instrumental in implementing the Nazi’s desire to control all aspects of German culture. Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in March. At thirty-five years of age, he was the youngest member of the cabinet. Goebbels was tasked with decontamination of German culture, and nothing was considered outside of their control. Film, radio, and the press all fell under Goebbels control, and he used it to its fullest advantage. To make sure German’s accepted the anti-Jewish measures, Jews were cast into the worst possible light. Viewpoints unacceptable to the Nazi Party were silenced, books and publications were suppressed, and supported book burnings to cleanse the German spirit. Preaching national unity, Goebbels rallied people to support Hitler and the Nazi Party against those who had damaged Germany. And Jews were at the top of the list along with Communists, Socialists, certain religious groups, and others such as Roma. The doctrine of racial purity that party believed in excluded large swaths of people from German society.
Goebbels was the chief instigator for Kristallnacht in 1938. He convinced Hitler that the murder of the German diplomat in Paris was the perfect opportunity for a nationwide attack on Jews. And when Germany needed to invade other countries, he helped develop the Führer cult which glorified Hitler as both Germany’s war leader and savior. Mass propaganda was used to convince people that countries had to be invaded to save them from their mess created by Jews and Liberalism. Of course, during this whole time, the mass propaganda depicting the Jews and others negatively made it easier to target, imprison, and execute them. Right up until the end the near deification of Hitler and the rabid antisemitism would continue until the war ended in 1945. Goebbels was a complete supporter of the Final Solution-the Holocaust-the extermination of all Jews.
One of Goebbels last tasks in the final years was as Plenipotentiary for the War Economy which Hitler appointed him to in 1944. Goebbels had worked hard to keep morale up especially after the defeat at Stalingrad. In the new position, he was to help maximize manpower and arms production. He was not highly successful and ran into opposition with other ministers particularly Albert Speer who was in charge of armaments.
After Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, Goebbels became the new Reich Chancellor. He refused the idea of surrender and knew full well he would be put on trial and executed. He and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then both committed suicide on 1 May 1945. The corpses were partly burned but never buried. There were repeated burials and exhumations, and they were finally buried in Magdeburg at the SMERSH facility in 1946. The remains were exhumed again in 1970 under orders from KGB director Yuri Andropov and destroyed. They were then dumped into the Biederitz river.
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There has been quite a bit of talk lately about Nazi eugenics in the media. What did the Nazi’s believe? Let’s explore.
Eugenics poster at the exhibition Wonders of Life in Berlin in 1935 showing demographic projections under the assumption of higher fertility of the “inferior” (Minderwertige) relative to the “superior” (Höherwertige) March 1915 German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
The Nazi world view was that a certain group of white people were superior to others, the Aryan Germans. It was this group, they believed, that was superior because all of the significant achievements of civilization came from them. One could be white but only if they belonged to this specific group would they be considered superior. This concept of a superior people became popular in the nineteenth century and was part of the Nazi philosophy from its very beginning. Hitler argued in Mein Kampf that history proved that Aryan blood not mixed with other lesser peoples meant the end of a “culture-sustaining race.” Like many of his day, he thought that marriages between the superior and inferior destroyed the purity of the race. And the Nazi’s aim amongst many was to end this.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 saw its full implementation. The two laws- Reich Citizenship Law and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor-would incorporate their view of eugenics, which they called Racial Hygiene, into law. Aryan and kindred races would be granted German citizenship while others such as the Jews were reduced to subjects. Jews already had lost all government positions and were being forced out of owning major businesses, so this formalized a process that was already underway. In declaring Jews and others classified as lesser races as subjects, it took away all the legal protections they once enjoyed. The Reich Citizenship Law required for German citizenship that citizens be of German blood or kindred peoples. You had to show that for three grandparents none were Jewish to be considered a German citizen. Jews were classified not as a religion but as a people under this law. It did not matter if you were fully assimilated, didn’t practice the faith, converted, or were an atheist. Jews were seen as destroyers of civilization, so the Nazi’s took steps to remove them from society.
As one might expect that law caught many by surprise. Those who never thought themselves Jewish suddenly lost all their rights as citizens. Mixed races, those who were the product of a German and Jewish parents, were a complication as well. The Germans labeled such offspring as Mischling and were still considered Germans though that would change over time. The Law for the Protection of German Blood forbade such marriages. This included marriages between any German and any inferior person (this was not just a race but also those who had diseases or disabilities that could be passed down to children). To get married you had to show not only paperwork proving you were fully German but also to take blood tests to make sure there were no diseases preventing marriage. If you were found to have married in violation of this law, the punishment was usually being sent to a concentration camp.
These laws were initially targeted at Jews but later on Blacks, Slavs, Roma (Gypsy) would be added. Racial defilement was taking seriously and even sexual relations between Germans and subject races was forbidden. Those found in violation would be arrested, humiliated, tried, and imprisoned. Nazi eugenics was based on a belief system that had begun in the nineteenth century. Sir Francis Galton coined the word in 1883 borrowing from the Greek word meaning good birth or stock. At its core it argued that human heredity was fixed and unchangeable. The mid to late nineteenth century saw people in many countries seeing the rise of many social ills (alcoholism, failed marriages, poverty, and crime) and eugenicists believed these stemmed from hereditary factors. To address these problems in public health and morality, vital steps had to taken to ensure that civilization would not collapse. Campaigns for public health measures and developing solutions were called for. Eugenics was imported into Germany in 1895 and like in other western countries found believers in this new science.
In the United States, Charles Davenport argued for eugenics to improve the human race with better breeding. His supporters argued for policies aimed at helped certain peoples maintain themselves physically, emotionally, and hereditary healthy. Social services were needed to encourage better people to marry and have children. Better breeding was the objective to improve the race. Positive eugenics was argued by its supporters who advocated for public policies that aimed to encourage this outcome. The desired outcome is that people from the better people would get the needed services so that they would be both mentally and physically strong as well as making sure keeping the hereditary line healthy. Deserving families would get marital counseling, social welfare, legal and medical assistance while lesser peoples would receive few of these. In both Germany and the United States eugenicists argued for the separation of those with serious mental handicaps (and even those with degenerative medical conditions) and limit their ability to procreate. Both voluntary and involuntary means had to be considered for the common good. The key difference between the American and German eugenics is that the Nazi’s centralized it and became government policy.
In the United States, the states became the places where eugenics would play out rather than federal policy. Many held the belief that for the common good, and to reduce them being a burden on society, that removing such people away from the general population was needed. This would lead to the creation of places where such people, those with mental or physical handicaps, or degenerative diseases, would be housed and taken care of. One notorious example is Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania that opened in 1907.This was a place where people determined to be feeble minded or had physical disabilities to be housed in. The purpose of the place was to make sure they would not breed. What happened there was horrific; people treated poorly, fed poorly, overcrowded, and neglected. And forced sterilization as well.
Propaganda for Nazi Germany’s T-4 Euthanasia Program: “This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too.” from the Office of Racial Policy’s Neues Volk. Circa 1937 Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Nazi’s fused antisemitism into their concept of racial hygiene, which was never a component in the United States. Using the medical profession, they issued policies to identify those who were considered to be hereditarily ill with mental, physical and or social disabilities. The 1933 Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Disease mandated forced sterilization for those suffering from 9 disabilities and disorders. Mental illnesses like schizophrenia and feeble mindedness were included. A later law in 1935, the Marital Hygiene Law forbade marriages between those who had dangerous genetic material to marry German Aryans. These laws would lead inevitably to a program to eliminate such people housed in institutions in Germany. Called the T4 program, this forced euthanasia of 250,000 people would spark a backlash causing it to be halted. However, this would lead the Nazi leadership to conclude that to achieve total racial purity was to implement a solution that would do this at centralized locations. This would lead to the Final Solution and the creation of camps to exterminate all peoples deemed racially inferior as well as those who had diseases they wanted to keep away from the Germans.
The Nazi’s devoted considerable energy to convince Germans and everyone else they were correct. Propoganda was developed to be used in films, speeches, and publications to convince Germans that their racial policies were necessary. They created posters and exhibits covering the subject, all schools and universities taught their views on racial hygiene. And they made it clear that races there were subhuman were now better than rodents. That is why in World War II German soldiers who been indoctrinated could easily kill a Jewish baby without any regard since they considered Jews no better than rats. In the United States antisemitism was not the main concern but the desire was to keep certain peoples from reproducing was. As noted, those with physical or mental disabilities were housed away from the normal population often in very unpleasant situations. And many were sterilized without their consent. And it was made legal in the infamous Supreme Court decision, Buck vs Bell (1927).
Many states implemented laws that forced sterilizations on convicts and those in mental institutions as it was considered a form of keeping the public health. Most of those that were sterilized were women of color, the disabled and those with degenerative diseases, and incarcerated women. Margaret Sanger, who advocated and promoted for effective birth control for women and the founder of Planned Parenthood, had deep beliefs in eugenics as well. She believed that controlling reproduction of certain groups (the feeble minded, poor people, those with diseases and other things). She made the link between birth control and eugenics as a means to prevent people in those groups from reproducing. Both men and women would need to be sterilized so as to make sure they could not reproduce. Some argue her writings and actions targeted Black Americans particularly those she deemed feeble minded. It is clear though she believed in eugenics.
Today her views on eugenics have been disavowed by Planned Parenthood and others after her writings and views got widely known. The American eugenics movement has been repudiated as has been the highly questionable science that was used to back it up. The extreme view of racial hygiene the Nazi’s implemented shows how, when taken to its logical conclusion, the extermination of people will result. In the United States, compulsory sterilization has ended (another court decision weakened the Buck vs Bell decision). Many states have banned it outright except for extreme cases which a court often will have to review all the evidence before it can proceed. And many states have had to pay out large sums of money over forced sterilizations.
We rarely hear the words racial purity or eugenics used in any context other than historical. Most people do not, for instance, think of any race as subhuman. However, antisemitism still exists, and you hear all kinds of chants advocating for violence against them. The more radical and dangerous ones call for the Nazi solution, which is appalling as it supports mass murder. That is certainly a far more dangerous mindset considering what happened before. The real concern today is with a highly organized movement that has made it quite clear that exterminating the Jews is the solution to solving the Middle East problems. Many people appear deaf to it, repeating the same mistake made by those in the 1930’s who ignored what it would lead too in the end.
Remember.org, “Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine,” Remember.org – a People’s History (November 28, 2022), https://remember.org/educate/medexp.
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Child Survivors of Auschwitz, 1945 Public Domain (via Wikimedia)
On 27 Jan 1945, Soviet Union troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. In doing so, it revealed the horrors the Germans had perpetrated there. Auschwitz was a series of camps designated I, II, and III with also smaller satellite camps. Auschwitz II at Birkenau was the place where most of the exterminations at Auschwitz were done. Using four “bath houses,” prisoners were gassed to death and cremated. Prisoners were also used for ghastly medical experiments overseen by the infamous Josef Mengele (the “angel of death”).
As the Red Army approached, the SS began a murder spree and blew up the crematoria to try to cover up the evidence. When the Red Army finally got there, they found 648 corpses and 7,000 starving camp survivors. They also found six storehouses full of men’s and women’s clothes and other items the Germans were not able to burn before they left.
[This was updated from 2023 with updated sources and information]
Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in their dock, circa 1945-1946. (in front row, from left to right): Hermann Göring, Rudolf Heß, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel (in second row, from left to right): Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel) Public Domain (Wikipedia)
In the aftermath of World War II, there was debate about how to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and especially the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels were already dead by suicide. Churchill had the simplest approach of wanting to simply execute them, but it was decided that tribunal would be a better method. The tribunal would reveal to the world the extent of the crimes upon humanity the persons were responsible for.
The concept of an international tribunal was novel and had never been done before. Then again, no nation had before committed to full scale extermination of whole peoples as the Nazi’s had tried to do. An international tribunal composed of representatives from Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States was formed. Defendants faced charges that varied from war crimes to crimes against humanity. Twenty- four were indicted along with six Nazi organizations such as the Gestapo that were also determined to be criminal. One was declared medically unfit to stand trial and another committed suicide before the trial began. Two top Hitler associates, Heinrich Himmler (1900-45) and Joseph Goebbels (1897-45), had each committed suicide in the spring of 1945 before they could be brought to trial.
Each defendant was allowed to choose their own lawyers. They all pled not guilty and either argued that the crimes they committed were declared crimes after the London Charter (meaning ex post facto) or that they were applying harsh standards as they were the victors. The trials would last 1 October 1946 when verdicts were handed down. Twelve were sentenced to death and others got prison terms. On 16 October 1946, 10 Nazi policy architects were hanged. Hermann Goering, who had been called the “leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews,” committed suicide by poison the night before. Martin Bormann was tried in absentia and many thought he had escaped Germany. However, he never left Berlin, and his remains were eventually found (it appears he committed suicide), examined, and conclusively identified in 1988 using DNA. Other war criminals (German and Axis government leaders both civilian and military) would be tried into the 1950’s. 5,025 were convicted and 806 were executed. Those not sentenced to death, depending on what they did, served life sentences or were given shorter sentences.
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957) German Federal Archives via Wikimedia
On 16 November 1941, Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that the “Jews wanted the war, and now they have it.” This was part of the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift blame for the war to Jews and thus rationalizing the Final Solution–the elimination of Jews. German soldiers and the SS were infused with this propaganda and anti-Communist rhetoric to carry out their task of eliminating the Jews with enthusiasm.
[T]he prophecy which the Fuhrer made…that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world…but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process…Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here.
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)
Joseph Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in 1924. He had obtained a PhD in German literature from the University of Heidelberg in 1920. Prior to joining the party, he had worked as a writer, journalist, and clerk. The same year he joined the Nazi Party, he became editor of the Völkische Freiheit (Folkish Freedom) where he honed his propaganda skills for the party. Goebbels became an admirer of Hitler and became unfailingly loyal to him. He was also a rabid antisemite.
He came to Hitler’s attention in 1926 due to his organizational skills, devotion to the party, and his clever propaganda. He was made a regional Gauleiter (party chief) for Greater Berlin. He built up the Nazi Party organization and ran his own newspaper (Der Angriff or The Assault in English) until 1935 where he advanced the Nazi Party goals of anticommunism, antisemitism, and promoted Hitler becoming dictator of Germany. He would be elected to the Reichstag in 1928 representing the Nazi Party in Berlin.
Goebbels was a tireless agitator as the District Leader in Berlin. He railed against the Communist and Social Democratic party members, marched with the SA (Storm Troopers) into working class neighborhoods where support for those parties was strong. Bitter street fights would result, and Goebbels would call those who were injured or killed as suffering for the party. He made sure through his paper and other media of the heroism of those who suffered. Films were made to dramatize the events and led to the creation of the Horst Wessel Song, named for one of those who were killed in 1930. The song would become the party’s anthem.
The image he crafted was one of bloodied stormtrooper (and overly muscled as well) that would appear in Nazi propaganda for years to come. They died, the party said, fighting the Marxist enemy.
Hitler would appoint him as Reich leader of propaganda for the Nazi Party in 1929 and would hold that position until his death in 1945. Hitler relied on Goebbels in the critical elections of 1932. Goebbels was the first of that era to use radio and film for mass propaganda techniques. Films of Nazi rallies, speeches, and other important events were filmed and broadcast over the radio to inspire supporters and draw new ones in. Hitler was depicted by Goebbels as energetic and using all the modern modes of transport to get around Germany. Films showed him flying all over Germany on the same day holding events.
German students publicly burn collected, “un-German” writings and books on the central boulevard “Unter den Linden” in Berlin. 10 May 1933 Photo: Pahl, Georg German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, Goebbels would be instrumental in implementing the Nazi’s desire to control all aspects of German culture. Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in March. At thirty-five years of age, he was the youngest member of the cabinet. Goebbels was tasked with decontamination of German culture, and nothing was considered outside of their control. Film, radio, and the press all fell under Goebbels control, and he used it to its fullest advantage. To make sure German’s accepted the anti-Jewish measures, Jews were cast into the worst possible light. Viewpoints unacceptable to the Nazi Party were silenced, books and publications were suppressed, and supported book burnings to cleanse the German spirit. Preaching national unity, Goebbels rallied people to support Hitler and the Nazi Party against those who had damaged Germany. And Jews were at the top of the list along with Communists, Socialists, certain religious groups, and others such as Roma. The doctrine of racial purity that party believed in excluded large swaths of people from German society.
Goebbels was the chief instigator for Kristallnacht in 1938. He convinced Hitler that the murder of the German diplomat in Paris was the perfect opportunity for a nationwide attack on Jews. And when Germany needed to invade other countries, he helped develop the Führer cult which glorified Hitler as both Germany’s war leader and savior. Mass propaganda was used to convince people that countries had to be invaded to save them from their mess created by Jews and Liberalism. Of course, during this whole time, the mass propaganda depicting the Jews and others negatively made it easier to target, imprison, and execute them. Right up until the end the near deification of Hitler and the rabid antisemitism would continue until the war ended in 1945. Goebbels was a complete supporter of the Final Solution-the Holocaust-the extermination of all Jews.
One of Goebbels last tasks in the final years was as Plenipotentiary for the War Economy which Hitler appointed him to in 1944. Goebbels had worked hard to keep morale up especially after the defeat at Stalingrad. In the new position, he was to help maximize manpower and arms production. He was not highly successful and ran into opposition with other ministers particularly Albert Speer who was in charge of armaments.
After Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, Goebbels became the new Reich Chancellor. He refused the idea of surrender and knew full well he would be put on trial and executed. He and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then both committed suicide on 1 May 1945. The corpses were partly burned but never buried. There were repeated burials and exhumations, and they were finally buried in Magdeburg at the SMERSH facility in 1946. The remains were exhumed again in 1970 under orders from KGB director Yuri Andropov and destroyed. They were then dumped into the Biederitz river.
Poster from March 1935 exhibition in Berlin called ‘Miracles of Life.” The poster depicts the results of inferior people having more children than pure Germans thus outnumbering them over time. This and other things were used to show why the Nazi eugenics programs were important to preserve purity of the German people. Source: German Federal Archives (Bild 102-16748 ) via Wikimedia Commons
The systematic killing of children deemed “mentally defective” (Kinder-Euthanasie) was begun in 1939 under the code name T-4 to hide its purpose, which was to restore the genetic purity of the German people. Children that had been certified as mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of murder were either killed by lethal injection or gassed to death. Children who met this classification were removed from the facility they were in and taken to one of six centers for “disinfection.” Both Jewish and non-Jewish children were targets of this program. The successful implementation of this plan led to its expansion to adults who met the same classification as well.
Starting on 21 May 1940, Aktion T-4 had mentally ill patients in East Prussia transferred to Soldau concentration camp. There they would be killed by an SS unit under the command of Herbert Lange, who was paid 10 Reichsmarks for each person killed. However, since many of the patients were deported without notice to their legal guardians, this caused unexpected legal issues to arise. The death certificates that were eventually issued were ambiguous as to the cause of death often citing a contagious disease. This raised suspicion that something was going on (the same issue would also arise around the deaths of children killed already under this program). The Nazi’s tried covering their tracks by making it hard for the guardians and their doctors from tracking the movements of their patients or wards by transporting them first to transit centers and then later to an extermination camp (or done at the transit center).
The uproar that resulted from this not-so-secret extermination of children and adult mentally ill patients would force Hitler to suspend and then cancel the program in August 1941.
Lutz Kaelber (Author): Kinderfachabteilungen (“Special Children’s Wards”): Sites of Nazi “Children’s ‘Euthanasia’” Crimes and Their Commemoration. www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/children.
Child Survivors of Auschwitz, 1945 Public Domain (via Wikimedia)
On 27 Jan 1945, Soviet Union troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. In doing so, it revealed the horrors the Germans had perpetrated there. Auschwitz was a series of camps designated I, II, and III with also smaller satellite camps. Auschwitz II at Birkenau was the place where most of the exterminations at Auschwitz were done. Using four “bath houses,” prisoners were gassed to death and cremated. Prisoners were also used for ghastly medical experiments overseen by the infamous Josef Mengele (the “angel of death”).
As the Red Army approached, the SS began a murder spree and blew up the crematoria to try to cover up the evidence. When the Red Army finally got there, they found 648 corpses and 7,000 starving camp survivors. They also found six storehouses full of men’s and women’s clothes and other items the Germans were not able to burn before they left.
Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in their dock, circa 1945-1946. (in front row, from left to right): Hermann Göring, Rudolf Heß, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel (in second row, from left to right): Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel) Public Domain (Wikipedia)
In the aftermath of World War II, there was debate about how to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and especially the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels were already dead by suicide. Churchill had the simplest approach of wanting to simply execute them but it was decided that tribunal would be a better method. The tribunal would reveal to the world the extent of the crimes upon humanity the persons were responsible for.
The concept of an international tribunal was novel and had never been done before. Then again, no nation had before committed to full scale extermination of whole peoples as the Nazi’s had tried to do. An international tribunal composed of representatives from Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States was formed. Defendants faced charges that varied from war crimes to crimes against humanity. Twenty- four were indicted along with six Nazi organizations such as the Gestapo that were also determined to be criminal. One was declared medically unfit to stand trial and another committed suicide before the trial began.
Each defendant was allowed to choose their own lawyers. They all pled not guilty and either argued that the crimes they committed were declared crimes after the London Charter (meaning ex post facto) or that they were applying harsh standards as they were the victors. The trials would last under October 1946 when verdicts were handed down. Twelve were sentenced to death and others got prison terms. Hermann Goering committed suicide the night before he was to be executed.
[Editor’s note-When this was originally posted the short bio was not included along with an additional photo.]
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957) German Federal Archives via Wikimedia
On 16 November 1941, Joseph Goebbels publishes in the German magazine Das Reich that the “Jews wanted the war, and now they have it.” This was part of the Nazi propaganda scheme to shift blame for the war to Jews and thus rationalizing the Final Solution–the elimination of Jews. German soldiers and the SS were infused with this propaganda and anti-Communist rhetoric to carry out their task of eliminating the Jews with enthusiasm.
[T]he prophecy which the Fuhrer made…that should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging the nations into a world war once again, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the world…but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. We are in the midst of that process…Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here.
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)
Joseph Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in 1924. He had obtained a PhD in German literature from the University of Heidelberg in 1920. Prior to joining the party, he had worked as a writer, journalist, and clerk. The same year he joined the Nazi Party, he became editor of the Völkische Freiheit (Folkish Freedom) where he honed his propaganda skills for the party. Goebbels became an admirer of Hitler and became unfailingly loyal to him. He was also a rabid antisemite.
He came to Hitler’s attention in 1926 due to his organizational skills, devotion to the party, and his clever propaganda. He was made a regional Gauleiter (party chief) for Greater Berlin. He built up the Nazi Party organization and ran his own newspaper (Der Angriff or The Assault in English) until 1935 where he advanced the Nazi Party goals of anticommunism, antisemitism, and promoted Hitler becoming dictator of Germany. He would be elected to the Reichstag in 1928 representing the Nazi Party in Berlin.
Goebbels was a tireless agitator as the District Leader in Berlin. He railed against the Communist and Social Democratic party members, marched with the SA (Storm Troopers) into working class neighborhoods where support for those parties was strong. Bitter street fights would result, and Goebbels would call those who were injured or killed as suffering for the party. He made sure through his paper and other media of the heroism of those who suffered. Films were made to dramatize the events and led to the creation of the Horst Wessel Song, named for one of those who were killed in 1930. The song would become the party’s anthem.
The image he crafted was one of bloodied stormtrooper (and overly muscled as well) that would appear in Nazi propaganda for years to come. They died, the party said, fighting the Marxist enemy.
Hitler would appoint him as Reich leader of propaganda for the Nazi Party in 1929 and would hold that position until his death in 1945. Hitler relied on Goebbels in the critical elections of 1932. Goebbels was the first of that era to use radio and film for mass propaganda techniques. Films of Nazi rallies, speeches, and other important events were filmed and broadcast over the radio to inspire supporters and draw new ones in. Hitler was depicted by Goebbels as energetic and using all the modern modes of transport to get around Germany. Films showed him flying all over Germany on the same day holding events.
German students publicly burn collected, “un-German” writings and books on the central boulevard “Unter den Linden” in Berlin. 10 May 1933 Photo: Pahl, Georg German Federal Archives via Wikimedia Commons
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, Goebbels would be instrumental in implementing the Nazi’s desire to control all aspects of German culture. Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in March. At thirty-five years of age, he was the youngest member of the cabinet. Goebbels was tasked with decontamination of German culture, and nothing was considered outside of their control. Film, radio, and the press all fell under Goebbels control, and he used it to its fullest advantage. To make sure German’s accepted the anti-Jewish measures, Jews were cast into the worst possible light. Viewpoints unacceptable to the Nazi Party were silenced, books and publications were suppressed, and supported book burnings to cleanse the German spirit. Preaching national unity, Goebbels rallied people to support Hitler and the Nazi Party against those who had damaged Germany. And Jews were at the top of the list along with Communists, Socialists, certain religious groups, and others such as Roma. The doctrine of racial purity that party believed in excluded large swaths of people from German society.
Goebbels was the chief instigator for Kristallnacht in 1938. He convinced Hitler that the murder of the German diplomat in Paris was the perfect opportunity for a nationwide attack on Jews. And when Germany needed to invade other countries, he helped develop the Führer cult which glorified Hitler as both Germany’s war leader and savior. Mass propaganda was used to convince people that countries had to be invaded to save them from their mess created by Jews and Liberalism. Of course, during this whole time, the mass propaganda depicting the Jews and others negatively made it easier to target, imprison, and execute them. Right up until the end the near deification of Hitler and the rabid antisemitism would continue until the war ended in 1945. Goebbels was a complete supporter of the Final Solution-the Holocaust-the extermination of all Jews.
One of Goebbels last tasks in the final years was as Plenipotentiary for the War Economy which Hitler appointed him to in 1944. Goebbels had worked hard to keep morale up especially after the defeat at Stalingrad. In the new position, he was to help maximize manpower and arms production. He was not highly successful and ran into opposition with other ministers particularly Albert Speer who was in charge of armaments.
After Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, Goebbels became the new Reich Chancellor. He refused the idea of surrender and knew full well he would be put on trial and executed. He and his wife Magda poisoned their six children and then both committed suicide on 1 May 1945. The corpses were partly burned but never buried. There were repeated burials and exhumations, and they were finally buried in Magdeburg at the SMERSH facility in 1946. The remains were exhumed again in 1970 under orders from KGB director Yuri Andropov and destroyed. They were then dumped into the Biederitz river.
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