Gun control in the Third Reich
Subtitle: disarming the Jews and "enemies of the state"
By: Stephen P. Halbrook
Publisher: The Independent Institute
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Oakland, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
ISBN-13: 9781598131611; 9781598131628
Subjects: Firearms; Law and legislation; History; Gun control; Jews; Legal status, laws; Politics and government
Description: Based on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so?it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups. Gun Control in the Third Reich spans the two decades from the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918 through Kristallnacht in 1938. The book then presents a panorama of pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. And even though in the occupied countries the Nazis decreed the death penalty for possession of a firearm, there developed instances of heroic armed resistance by Jews, particularly the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-234) and index.
Table of contents: title: Insurrection and repression; title: The 1928 law on firearms; title: Keeping firearm registrations out of the wrong hands?; title: The Nazi seizure of power; title: Disarming the politically unreliable : the case of Brandenburg; title: Defining enemies of the state; title: From the night of the long knives to the Nurnberg laws; title: The Gestapo; title: Hitler's gun control act; title: October prelude : arresting Jewish firearm owners; title: Goebbels orchestrates a pogrom; title: Jewish victims speak; title: Conclusion : whither the German resistance, whither the holocaust?