Hitler

See also: Cult of personality

A report prepared during the war by the United States Office of Strategic Services describing Hitler's psychological profile states:

> He has been able, in some manner or other, to unearth and apply successfully many factors pertaining to group psychology
>
>
> Capacity to appeal to the most primitive, as well as the most ideal inclinations in man, to arouse the basest instincts and yet cloak them with nobility, justifying all actions as means to the attainment of an ideal goal.
>
>
> Appreciation of winning confidence from the people by a show of efficiency within the organization and government. It is said that foods and supplies are already in the local warehouses when the announcement concerning the date of distribution is made. Although they could be distributed immediately the date is set for several weeks ahead in order to create an impression of super-efficiency and win the confidence of the people. Every effort is made to avoid making a promise which cannot be fulfilled at precisely the appointed time
>
>
> Hitler's ability to repudiate his own conscience in arriving at political decisions has eliminated the force which usually checks and complicates the forward-going thoughts and resolutions of most socially responsible statesmen. He has, therefore, been able to take that course of action which appeals to him as most effective without pulling his punches. The result has been that he has frequently outwitted his adversaries and attained ends which would not have been as easily attained by a normal course. Nevertheless, it has helped to build up the myth of his infallibility and invincibility.
>
>
> Equally important has been his ability to persuade others to repudiate their individual consciences and assume that role himself. He can then decree for the individual what is right and wrong, permissible or impermissible and can use them freely in the attainment of his own ends. As Goering has said: "I have no conscience. My conscience is Adolph Hitler."
>
>
> This has enabled Hitler to make full use of terror and mobilize the fears of the people which he evaluated with an almost uncanny precision.
>
>
> His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
>
>
>
>

From Wikipedia: Nazism

The term "Nazi" was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or peasant, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. In this sense, the word Nazi was a hypocorism of the German male name Ignatz (itself a variation of the name Ignatius)—Ignatz being a common name at the time in Bavaria, the area from which the NSDAP emerged.

From Wikipedia:Political views of Adolf Hitler

After World War I, Hitler stayed in the army, which was mainly engaged in suppressing socialist uprisings across Germany, including in Munich, where Hitler returned in 1919. In **July 1919** Hitler was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance commando) of the Reichswehr, both to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). Much like the political activists in the DAP, Hitler blamed the loss of the First World War on Jewish (i.e. Bolsheviks) intrigue at home and abroad. Hitler became impressed with founder Anton Drexler's antisemitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas.

On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party, and within a week was accepted. Hitler was discharged from the army on **31 March 1920** and began working full-time for the party. Displaying his talent for oratory and propaganda skills, with the support of Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in **early 1920**. Party members promulgated their 25-point manifesto on **24 February 1920** (co-authored by Hitler, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, and Dietrich Eckart). At the same time the party changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NS-DAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party.

1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people and colonization for our surplus population.
4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.
6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore, we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.
8. Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.
9. All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.
10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to productively work mentally or physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the whole for the benefit of all. Consequently, we demand:
11. Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of debt (interest)-slavery.
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore, we demand the total confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalisation of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).
14. We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.
15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order. (Note:Common law is made by judges while Roman law is made by legistlators. In other word, case law vs statutory law. Common law is more "flexible" than Roman law.)
20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the state must be striven for by the school [*Staatsbürgerkunde*] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the state of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
21. The state is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.
23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that:
a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race;
b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the state to be published. They may not be printed in the German language;
c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications or any influence on them and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.
24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: "THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY COMES BEFORE THE GOOD OF THE SELF".
25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.

Back to top

### Brownshirts

From Wikipedia:Sturmabteilung, Wikipedia:Stennes Revolt, and Wikipedia:Beefsteak Nazi

The ***Sturmabteilung*** (**SA**), literally Storm Battalion (i.e. stormtroopers), functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. The SA developed by organizing and formalizing the groups of ex-soldiers and beer hall brawlers. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the **1920s and 1930s**. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Red Front Fighters League of the Communist Party of Germany, and intimidating Slavs, Romanis, trade unionists, and, especially, Jews – for instance, during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses. The SA were also called the "Brownshirts" (Braunhemden) from the color of their uniform shirts.

In **1922**, the Nazi Party created a youth section, the Jugendbund (youth band), for young men between the ages of 14 and 18 years. Its successor, the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend or HJ), remained under SA command until May 1932.

In the **second half of 1922** Hyperinflation caused many personal fortunes to be rendered worthless. When the German government failed to meet its reparations payments and French troops marched in to occupy the industrial areas along the Ruhr in **January 1923**, widespread civil unrest was the result. By **November 1923**, the US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks. French and British economic experts began to claim that Germany deliberately destroyed its economy to avoid war reparations.

The book, “Adolf Hitler: His Life and His Speeches,” by Baron Adolf Victor von Koerber was published in **early fall of 1923**. The book compares Hitler to Jesus, likening his moment of politicization to Jesus’ resurrection and using terms such as ‘holy’ and ‘deliverance’. It also argues that it should become ‘the new bible of today’. It is now suspected that Hitler himself wrote the book.

The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup attempt on **8–9 November 1923** by the Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler and other Kampf-bund leaders, including Gregor Strasser a regional head of the SA in Lower Bavaria, to seize power in Munich, Bavaria. Röhm, Hitler, General Erich Ludendorff, Lieutenant Colonel Hermann Kriebel and six others were tried in **February 1924** for high treason. Röhm was found guilty and sentenced to a year and three months in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was granted a conditional discharge. After a few weeks in prison Strasser was released because he had been elected a member of the Bavarian Landtag

While Hitler was in prison (and writing Mein Kampf), Ernst Röhm helped to create the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed SA. At Landsberg prison in **April 1924**, Röhm had also been given authority by Hitler to rebuild the SA in any way he saw fit. Hitler was released on parole on **20 December 1924** and Hess ten days later. The ban on the NSDAP and SA was lifted in **February 1925**. When in **April 1925** Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong Frontbann into the SA, Röhm resigned.

Beefsteak Nazi was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe Communists and Socialists who joined the Nazi Party. These individuals were like a 'beefsteak' – brown on the outside and red on the inside. The term was particularly used for working-class members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) who were aligned with Strasserism.

As a former Marxist in his early years, Goebbels once stated "how thin the dividing line" was between communism and National Socialism, which had caused many Red Front Fighters to "switch to the SA". Goebbels expressed that sentiment in a 1925 public speech, declaring that "the difference between Communism and the Hitler faith is very slight".

The Mueller government imploded in late **March 1930**. Its successor, the Bruening government, was unable to obtain a parliamentary majority. Members of the SA in Berlin, led by Stennes, had for some time been voicing objections to the policies and purposes of the SA, as defined by Hitler. These SA members saw their organization as a revolutionary group, the vanguard of a national-socialist order that would overthrow the hated Republic by force. Stennes complained that advancement within the SA was improperly based upon cronyism and favoritism rather than upon merit. He objected to the general law-abiding approach that Adolf Hitler had adopted after the Beer Hall Putsch, and he and his men chafed under the Hitlerian order to terminate street attacks upon Communists and Jews. Stennes decided that action was needed to make a statement. The SA then stormed the Gau office on the Hedemannstrasse, injuring the SS men and wrecking the premises. In **September 1930**, as a consequence of the Stennes Revolt in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new Oberster SA-Führer. The SA cheered and were delighted that their leader was finally giving them the recognition they felt they deserved. He sent a personal request to Röhm, asking him to return to serve as the SA's chief of staff. Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on **5 January 1931**. Röhm established new Gruppen which had no regional Nazi Party oversight. Each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by a SA Gruppenführer who answered only to Röhm or Hitler. Many of these stormtroopers believed in the socialist promise of National Socialism and expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy once they obtained national power.

Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on **30 January 1933** by Paul von Hindenburg. Göring (the number two man in the Nazi Party) was named as Minister Without Portfolio, Minister of the Interior for Prussia, and Reich Commissioner of Aviation. The Reichstag fire occurred on the night of **27 February 1933**. Göring was one of the first to arrive on the scene. (At the Nuremberg trials, General Franz Halder testified that Göring admitted responsibility for starting the fire.) The Nazis took advantage of the fire to advance their own political aims. The Reichstag Fire Decree, passed the next day on Hitler's urging, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Göring demanded that the detainees should be shot, but Rudolf Diels, head of the Prussian political police, ignored the order. After only two months in office the Reichstag body passed the Enabling Act on **24 March 1933** giving the Reich Chancellor full legislative powers for a period of four years – the Chancellor could introduce any law without consulting Parliament. Rudolf Hess was named Deputy Führer of the NSDAP on **21 April 1933**. Hitler's leadership style involved giving contradictory orders to his subordinates, while placing them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped. In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power

After Hitler and the Nazis obtained national power, the SA became increasingly eager for power itself. The SA leaders argued that the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power, but rather needed to implement socialism in Germany (see Strasserism). The SA numbered over three million men and many saw themselves as a replacement for the "antiquated" Reichswehr. Röhm's ideal was to absorb the army (then limited by law to no more than 100,000 men) into the SA, which would be a new "people's army". This deeply offended and alarmed the army, and threatened Hitler's goal of co-opting the Reichswehr. The SA's increasing power and ambitions also posed a threat to the other Nazi leaders.

Back to top

### SS and Gestapo

Originally an adjunct to the SA, the ***Schutzstaffel*** (**SS**), or protection squad, was placed under the control of Heinrich Himmler in part to restrict the power of the SA and their leaders. The younger SS had evolved to be more than a bodyguard unit for Hitler and showed itself better suited to carry out Hitler's policies, including those of a criminal nature. Over time the SS became answerable only to Hitler, a development typical of the organizational structure of the entire Nazi regime, where legal norms were replaced by actions undertaken under the Führerprinzip (leader principle), where Hitler's will was considered to be above the law.

As Interior Minister of Prussia Göring had command of the largest police force in Germany. 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*** (Secret State Police), which was abbreviated by a post office clerk and became known as the "***Gestapo***". The first commander of the Gestapo was Rudolf Diels.

On **5 March 1933**, yet another Reichstag election took place, the last to be held before the defeat of the Nazis. It was not the landslide expected by the party leadership. Goebbels finally received Hitler's appointment to the cabinet, officially becoming head of the newly created Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda on **14 March 1933**.

Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to effectively counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Göring handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on **20 April 1934**. Himmler named Reinhard Heydrich (whom Hitler called "the man with the iron heart") to head the Gestapo on **22 April 1934**. Himmler asked Heydrich to assemble a dossier on Röhm. Heydrich manufactured evidence that suggested that Röhm had been paid 12 million marks by French agents to overthrow Hitler. Hitler was also concerned that Röhm and the SA had the power to remove him as leader. Göring and Himmler played on this fear by constantly feeding him with new information on Röhm's proposed coup. A masterstroke was to claim that Gregor Strasser, whom Hitler hated, was part of the planned conspiracy against him. With this news Hitler ordered all the SA leaders to attend a meeting in the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee.

On **30 June 1934**, Hitler, accompanied by SS units, arrived at Bad Wiessee, where he personally placed Röhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. (See Night of the Long Knives). The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders was made public to add "shock value", even though the sexuality of Röhm and other named SA leaders had been known by Hitler and other Nazi leaders for years. Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history."

### War Is a Racket

War Is a Racket is a speech and a 1935 short book, by Smedley D. Butler, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient.

WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one
international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the
losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of
the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit
of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge
fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new
millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That
many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war
millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench?
How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of
them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun
bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were
wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This
newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few - the selfsame few who wrung
dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

...we can all
make more money out of peace than we can out of war -- even the munitions makers.
So. ..I say,

Back to top

### Einsatzgruppen

With the SA out of the way, Heydrich began building the Gestapo into an instrument of fear. The Gestapo had the authority to arrest citizens on the suspicion that they might commit a crime, and even the definition of a crime was at their discretion. The Gestapo Law, passed on **10 Feb 1936**, gave police the right to act extra-legally. (In other words, it was legal for the Gestapo to break of the law.) This led to the sweeping use of Schutzhaft—"protective custody", a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. The courts were not allowed to investigate or interfere.
On **7 March 1936**, Adolf Hitler took a massive gamble by sending 30,000 troops into the Rhineland. This was significant because the remilitarization of the Rhineland violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The British decided that the Germans had the right to "enter their own backyard", and no action was taken.
On the morning of **12 March 1938**, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria in what is known as the Anschluss ('joining'). The Einsatzgruppen (special-ops units) had its origins in the ad hoc Einsatzkommando formed by Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents following the Anschluss.

Adolf Hitler's Address to the German Reichstag on the anniversary of his coming to power:

The Jews are still propagating their campaign of hatred in certain states under the cover of press, film, radio, theater, and literature, which are all in their hands. Should indeed this one Volk attain its goal of prodding masses of millions from other peoples to enter into a war devoid of all sense for them, and serving the interests of the Jews exclusively, then the effectiveness of an enlightenment will once more display its might. Within Germany, this enlightenment conquered Jewry utterly in the span of a few years.
Peoples desire not to perish on the battlefield just so that this rootless, internationalist race can profit financially from this war and thereby gratify its lust for vengeance derived from the Old Testament. The Jewish watchword “Proletarians of the world, unite!” will be conquered by a far more lofty realization, namely: “Creative men of all nations, recognize your common foe!”
...
If Europe today is plagued by strenuous tensions, then this is due primarily to agitation in an unaccountable and irresponsible press. It allows not a single day to pass by without spreading disquiet among mankind by propagating false alarms, as ludicrous as they are libelous. The liberties taken in this context by the various organs of this worldwide poisoning of wells (Weltbrunnenvergiftung) can be regarded only as criminal wrong-doing. In recent days, there has been an attempt to place radio journalism at the service of this internationally instigated campaign. I wish to pronounce this warning here: if certain countries do not immediately desist from airing broadcasts targeted at Germany, then we shall respond accordingly. And then I hope statesmen from these countries will not venture to approach me with the sincere desire to restore normal relations between our states.
For I remain convinced that our educational campaign will be far more effective than the campaign of lies instigated by these international Jewish agitators. And the announcement of American film companies of their intention to produce anti-Nazi-i.e. anti-German-films, will only lead to our German producers creating anti-Semitic films in the future. And in this instance, too, certain elements would do well not to deceive themselves as to the effect: a multitude of states and peoples exist today who would be most receptive to such an educational campaign expanding their comprehension of this important issue.
...
Our relations with the North American Union have suffered unduly because of a smear campaign. With the pretext that Germany threatens America’s independence and even its liberty, it has placed an entire continent at the service of all too transparent political and financial interests. These are attempting to agitate against those European states governed by the people for the people. All of us are aware that these elements are not representative of the will of millions of American citizens who do not doubt for one minute, despite bombardment by a ‘gigantic Jewish-capitalist instigated propaganda campaign-via press, radio, and film-that there is not a word of truth in all these claims. Germany desires to live in peace and friendship with all countries, America included. It declines any involvement in America’s internal affairs and hence, equally vigorously, it rejects American involvement in Germany’s internal affairs.

In response to Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Poland on **1 September 1939**, Heydrich re-formed the Einsatzgruppen to travel in the wake of the German armies. Membership at this point was drawn from the SS, the SD, the police, and the Gestapo. From **September to December 1939** the Einsatzgruppen and others took part in Action T4, a programme of systematic murder undertaken by the Nazi regime of persons with physical and mental disabilities and patients of psychiatric hospitals.
Then following a Hitler-Himmler directive, the Einsatzgruppen were re-formed in anticipation of the invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). The invasion was set for **15 May 1941**, though it was delayed for over a month. The Commissar Order was an order issued by the German High Command (OKW) on **6 June 1941**. It instructed the Wehrmacht that any Soviet political commissar identified among captured troops be summarily executed. The Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, started at 03:15 on **Sunday, 22 June 1941** during a waning crescent moon. On **2 July 1941** Heydrich issued an order to his Einsatzkommandos for the on-the-spot execution of all Bolsheviks, interpreted by the SS to mean all Jews. One of the first indiscriminate massacres of men, women, and children in Reichskommissariat Ukraine took the lives of over 4,000 Polish Jews in occupied Łuck on **2–4 July 1941**, murdered by Einsatzkommando 4a assisted by the Ukrainian People's Militia.
On the orders of Himmler, forwarded to Odilo Globocnik soon after his visit to Lublin on **17–20 July 1941** concentration camp Lublin (Majdanek) was established in **October 1941**. On **13 October 1941**, SS Leader Odilo Globocnik received an oral order from Himmler – anticipating the fall of Moscow – to start immediate construction work on the first killing centre at Bełżec. In **October 1941**, Herbert Lange chose Chełmno on the Ner for an extermination centre, because of the estate, with a large manor house similar to Sonnenstein.
The Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour. The initial plan was to implement Generalplan Ost after the conquest of the Soviet Union. However, with the entry of the United States into the war in **December 1941** and the German failure in the Battle of Moscow, Hitler decided that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately rather than after the war, which now had no end in sight.
Chełmno extermination camp was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps. It operated from **December 8, 1941**.
In **January 1942**, during a secret meeting of German leaders chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, Operation Reinhard was drafted. Within months, three top-secret camps (at Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka) were built. Under Eichmann's supervision, large-scale deportations began almost immediately. The extermination camps of Operation Reinhard kept no prisoners. To hide the evidence of this war crime, all bodies were burned in open air pits.
In the second phase of annihilation, the Jewish inhabitants of central, western, and south-eastern Europe were transported by Holocaust trains to camps with newly-built gassing facilities.
Germany invaded Hungaria (land of the Huns) on **19 March 1944**.
Berlin fell in **May 1945**.

Highly recommend: War and Peace by Tolstoy

Back to top

## References

1. ↑ A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend by Walter C. Langer. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Washington, D.C. With the collaboration of Prof. Henry A. Murr, Harvard Psychological Clinic, Dr. Ernst Kris, New School for Social Research, Dr. Bertram D. Lawin, New York Psychoanalytic Institute. p. 219 (Nizkor project)
2. ↑ Dr. Langer's work was published after the war as *The Mind of Adolf Hitler*, the wartime report having remained classified for over twenty years.
3. ↑ Wikipedia:Schutzstaffel