Nazi Germany: the seizure of power; dictatorship

During the 1929 economic crisis, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) gained momentum and made progress in the course of electoral elections. Adolf Hitler, at the head of the party since 1921, took advantage of the failures of the Weimar Republic and exploited the nationalism engendered by the Treaty of Versailles signed after the First World War (June 28, 1919). As an exceptional orator, Hitler develops a propaganda that uses arguments that are both new and secular, on a terrain where conservatism, frustrated nationalism and social resentment intertwine. In 1930, in the general elections, the party obtained 18.37% of the votes, becoming the second largest party in Germany, and on 30 January 1933 Hitler became chancellor. He then takes the head of a government with a national-conservative majority in which the Nazis are a minority against conservatives determined to use them to liquidate the Weimar Republic for the benefit of a traditional authoritarian regime.

Yet it takes only a few months for Hitler to seize power without sharing. The burning of the Reichstag on 27 February 1933 was the pretext for banning the Communist Party, whose leaders and 10,000 activists were interned. It enabled Hitler to obtain from Marshal von Hindenburg, still President of the Reich (official name of the Republic), the promulgation of "the decree for the protection of the people and the state"., 28 February 1933, and also to obtain exceptional police powers in the Länder. In this political climate, the Nazis won 44% of the vote in the parliamentary elections of 5 March 1933, or 288 seats out of 640 in the Reichstag. The deputies of the center (Zentrum) joined the Nazis and the German nationals to vote, on 23 March 1933, the law of authorization X (promulgated on 24 March) which gives Hitler full powers for 4 years, renewable in case of need.

Nazification of Germany

On 14 July 1933, all political parties were banned in favor of the Nazi Party, which was declared a single party. The trade unions were replaced by a new corporatist organization, the "Labor Front", controlled by the Nazis. The skilful and intensive propaganda of Goebbels, appointed on 11 March 1933 minister of Propaganda, is implemented. On 10 May 1933, students and librarians "cleaned up" the libraries of university towns, literary works and "undesirable" - liberal authors, socialist and Jewish pacifists. Faced with this direct threat, many writers and artists take the path of exile. The press, radio and cinema are strictly monitored and used by Nazi propaganda. From 1934, officials are forced to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Youth is the subject of special care: under the aegis of the National Socialist League of Education, school becomes a place of indoctrination. Youth movements, foremost among them the Hitler Youth, enlist and mobilize young people from their teenage years onwards; Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS (protection group), is vested with full police powers. Becoming increasingly important since the "Night of the Long Knives" (liquidation of the SA by the SS), the SS penetrates all sectors of public and private life and strives to establish by all means, including terror, a model of the new man in keeping with Nazi biological references.

The first measures against the Jews came into force two months after Marshal von Hindenburg had entrusted to Adolf Hitler the constitution of the government.

Economic exclusion

On 1 April 1933, an unofficial committee organized a huge boycott of Jewish businesses, law firms and doctors. This campaign is presented as a response to the protest reactions that occurred abroad "at the initiative of the Jews" against the policy of the German government. The SA stand guard in front of shops, doctors' and lawyers' offices. This day symbolically marks the beginning of the eviction of Jews from economic life. On 7 April 1933, the first two laws excluded Jews from public office and the bar. The Jews of Germany are gradually being driven out of the liberal professions, the army, the judiciary, cultural professions and the press. A numerus clausus was introduced in universities and from 1938 Jewish children had to leave school. The Nazi Party and its militants became involved in the aryanization of property belonging to Jews by intimidating the Jewish population : 41,000 of the 50,000 retail shops were "voluntarily" sold by their Jewish owners between 1933 and 1938.

The Nuremberg Laws

On 15 September 1935, the civil law of the Reich and the law "for the protection of German blood and honour" prohibited unions and sexual relations between Jews and "non-Jews", which were to generate defilement.
Jews are stripped of their citizenship and become subjects of inferior status, to whom it is even forbidden to "wear the German national colours." At the same time, the implementing decree of 14 November 1935 defines who is a Jew: "a Jew is one who comes from at least three Jewish grandparents; a Jew is one who belongs to the Jewish religious community." The racial criterion and religious affiliation are therefore both taken into account. Implementing orders, provisions relating to the case of Mischlinge (mixed) or half-Jews, followed a few weeks later. These laws trigger a series of denunciations: in the city of Hamburg alone, about 5,000 people are arrested and then interrogated while 1,150 investigation procedures are opened. After serving a sentence for an offence under the Blood Protection Act, such persons are usually interned in concentration camps.

The fire of the Reichstag on the night of 27 February 1933. Berlin, Germany, 1933.
Cr says photographic: M morial de la Shoah/CDJC.

Autodaf de livres, Berlin, Germany, 10 May 1933.
Cr says photographic: M morial de la Shoah/CDJC.

«The d goal of the exodus of Jews from the Jewish aquarium, Bad Herweck, Mannheim, Germany,» 1935.
Cr says photographic: Wiener Library.

Man holding a sign calling for the boycott of shops owned by Jews. Germany, April 1, 1933.
Cr says photographic: Yad Vashem.

Text of the Nuremberg Laws. 16 September 1935.
Collection: M morial de la Shoah/CDJC.