Tag: Einsatzgruppen

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Hitler’s Enablers – Part One – Wannsee Conference

An “enabler” is someone who enables another to achieve an end. The term is quite often used in the context of enabling another to persist in self-destructive behavior by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior.

I think we would all agree that Adolph Hitler was the greatest mass murderer in the history of mankind (Stalin wasn’t too far behind him). Concentration camp deaths are estimated to be eleven million of which, six million were Jews. He was the leader who fomented the hatred and then handed off the problem solving to the first layer of senior Nazi leaders.

In the context of the Nazis’ systematic killing machine, there are two broad groups of enablers: those who “did it” and those who “made it possible.” According to Bartrop and Grimm in their book, Perpetrating the Holocaust, there are the leaders (e.g., Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Hermann Göring, Josef Goebbels, and Albert Speer to name a few) and then there are the enablers.

The vast scope of murders would never have been achieved without the enthusiastic support of hundreds of thousands of men and women over a period of twelve years. They participated in developing the framework, devising the details, and then implementing the process. Some would carry out the administration of the plan while another set of individuals would be responsible for executing the plan on a day-to-day basis. Other enablers included collaborators (e.g., not only individuals but collaborationist governments of occupied countries such as France and Norway) and the German industrialists.

I believe there were basically four layers of enablers. The first layer was the senior Nazi leaders reporting directly to Hitler. Along with Hitler, many of these men committed suicide before justice caught up to them (e.g. Himmler and Goebbels). Others were put on trial (e.g., Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Speer, and Rosenberg) and unfortunately, too many were never brought to justice. The first layer delegated the formation of details and final implementation to a second layer of enablers (e.g., Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich). Then there was the third layer. These were the men and women who were responsible for the administration and ultimately, ensuring the end result met senior Nazi leaders’ expectations. They were the camp commandants, the guards, SS mobile execution units known as the Einsatzgruppen, and various Nazi bureaucratic administration officials in Berlin. Key collaborationists fell into the third layer and included men like Pierre Laval and Marshal Pétain of the French Vichy government as well as Ante Pavelić (1889-1959), leader of the fascist paramilitary Ustaše in Croatia.

SS-Einsatzgruppen mass murder. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
SS-Einsatzgruppen mass murder. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
The body of Ernst Kaltenbrunner after his execution, 16 October 1946. Photo by anonymous (16 October 1946). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
The body of Ernst Kaltenbrunner after his execution, 16 October 1946. Photo by anonymous (16 October 1946). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

The fourth layer or, “those who made it possible” included the owners, executives, and managers of companies such as I.G. Farben which produced Zyklon B, the gas used in the extermination camps. They were no less guilty than the sadistic camp commander or brutal guard. The industrialists funded the Nazi party when it was broke and gave it the financial legs to take power. These are the people who fueled the Nazi war machine in part by appropriating Jewish businesses as well as using forced slave labor. Read More Hitler’s Enablers – Part One – Wannsee Conference

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“Nazi Werwolves”

Soon after the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, the Allies became concerned the Nazis had created an elite Schutzstaffel (SS) underground organization to continue fighting after the Germans were defeated. This secret organization was named “Werwolf.”

Werwolf organization pennant. Photo by Xufanc (2010). PD-Author release. Wikimedia Commons.
Werwolf organization pennant. Photo by Xufanc (2010). PD-Author release. Wikimedia Commons.

No one knows how and why Werwolf was used as the name for Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s guerilla resistance force. However, there are perhaps some dots we can connect.

Nazi Germany Werwolf member badge. Photo by Wolfmann (May 2019). PD-CCA Share-Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
Nazi Germany Werwolf member badge. Photo by Wolfmann (May 2019). PD-CCA Share-Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.

Hitler named his Ukraine field headquarters, Werwolf and on occasion, Hitler would refer to himself as “Wolf.” His Eastern Front military headquarters was known as Wolfsschanze or, Wolf’s Lair. A novel written in 1910 by Hermann Löns was Der Wehrwolf. It was a story of revenge whereby a group of men called Wehrwölfe became mercenaries and eventually began to enjoy killing people. The book became popular with the German right-wing so naturally, the Nazis embraced it.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Place de la Concorde in Paris was once a giant sundial? Most of us are aware of the three-thousand-year-old Luxor Obelisk that stands in the center of this giant roundabout. It was given to France in 1833 by the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Ali. All the Pasha wanted in return was a big mechanical clock for the Citadel in Cairo ⏤ it’s there but reportedly, doesn’t work. While you walk around the Place de la Concorde, look down at the pavement and you might see Roman numerals. The founder of the Société de France, Camille Flammarion, decided to create the largest sundial in the world and in 1913, plans were drawn up to use the Obelisk as a gnomon (the pin of a sundial). Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 1999 when the plans were finally approved by the mayor of Paris and the sundial was created. Time was not kind to the Paris sundial and by 2001, most of the pavement imprints had faded or worn away. However, there still are some numerals left and if you look closely at certain times of the day, the Obelisk can tell you the time. I think I’ll rely on my trusty Seiko watch. If you’d like to explore more about the history of the Obelisk, please be sure to read our next blog (7 December 2019), Cleopatra in Paris and Full Frontal Baboons (click here to read). We’ll also talk a little bit about our recent trip to Egypt where we saw the Paris Obelisk’s twin.

Roman numeral on the pavement at the Place de la Concorde. Photo by Claudine Hemingway (date unknown). Bonjour Paris.
Roman numeral on the pavement at the Place de la Concorde. Photo by Claudine Hemingway (date unknown). Bonjour Paris.

Unternehmen Werwolf

Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the SS, decided to form the Unternehmen Werwolf or, Operation Werwolf in late 1944. The purpose of this secret volunteer force was to operate behind enemy lines. Himmler envisioned them to be similar to the Allied Special Forces known as “Commandos.” SS Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann (1901-1945) was assigned the responsibility of organizing and training Operation Werwolf volunteers. Prützmann was a veteran of fighting Soviet guerilla soldiers and partisans in the Ukraine and he intended to use their guerilla tactics in training his Werwolf men and women. Prior to the Werwolf campaign, Prützmann, a fanatic Nazi, led the mobile extermination group, Einsatzgruppe A, which murdered thousands of Latvian Jews and Ukrainian civilians. Watch the movie clip SS Werwolves – The True Story here. Read More “Nazi Werwolves”