When was nazi germany in power

It was a frigid day in occupied Poland, and for all Shmuel Beller knew, it could be his last. As Russian forces advanced toward Auschwitz, Beller and other prisoners had been told by their captors that they had to leave the death camp. So he ran into one of the storage facilities Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, opened in , shortly after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

Located in southern Germany, Dachau was initially a camp for political prisoners; however, it eventually evolved into a death camp where countless Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, opened in and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps.

Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners. However, it evolved into a network of camps where On July 20, , during World War II , a plot by senior-level German military officials to murder Adolf Hitler and then take control of his government failed when a bomb planted in a briefcase went off but did not kill the Nazi leader. The assassination But during the Third Reich, you were more likely to hear a hymn called Exalted Night instead of one about a silent night.

The popular hymn, In , the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he named Joseph Goebbels , his trusted friend and colleague, to the key post of minister for public enlightenment and propaganda. In this capacity, Goebbels was charged with presenting Hitler to Live TV.

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The circumstances in the camps were atrocious. People were ill-treated, tortured, and sometimes killed. Jews and well-known Germans in particular had a rough time of it. SS guards at the Dachau camp, near Munich, for instance, took four Jewish prisoners outside the gates, where they shot them dead.

The guards then claimed that the victims had tried to escape. On 23 March , the Reichstag met in Berlin. The main item on the agenda was a new law, the 'Enabling Act'.

It allowed Hitler to enact new laws without interference from the president or Reichstag for a period of four years. The building where the meeting took place was surrounded by members of the SA and the SS, paramilitary organisations of the NSDAP that had by now been promoted to auxiliary police forces. In his speech, Hitler gave those present the choice between 'war and peace'. It was a veiled threat to intimidate any dissenters. The process was by no means democratic.

With votes in favour and 94 against, the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act. It was to form the basis of the Nazi dictatorship until Now that Hitler had become so powerful, it was time for the Nazis to bring society in line with the Nazi ideal.

The process was known as Gleichschaltung. Many politically-suspect and Jewish civil servants were dismissed. Trade unions were forcibly replaced by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. This allowed the Nazis to prevent workers from organising any opposition. All existing political parties were banned. From mid-July onwards, Germany was a single-party state. Books written by Jewish, left-wing, or pacifist writers were burned. While the Nazis took over, their destructive energy was mainly directed against their political opponents.

The German Jews formed the exception. As a group, they did not oppose the ambitions of the Nazis. Nevertheless, they were the constant victims of violence, harassment, and oppression. As early as 1 April , the government took official action against the Jews. It announced a major boycott of Jewish products. It was the first step in a series of anti-Jewish measures that would end in the Holocaust. After taking power, Hitler and the Nazis turned Germany into a dictatorship. Time and again, they used legal means to give their actions a semblance of legality.

Step by step, Hitler managed to erode democracy until it was just a hollow facade. Things did not end there, though. During the twelve years that the Third Reich existed, Hitler continued to strengthen his hold on the country.

Go in-depth In , Hitler came to power and turned Germany into a dictatorship. Hitler appointed Chancellor The conservative parties did not manage to win enough votes. If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule. The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. The SA and the SS had also been on a month long campaign of violence to scare or imprison other opponents to the party.

They had placed many in the first concentration camp , Dachau , which opened just a few days before the vote on the 20 March After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill.

Only the SPD opposed it. Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. In August there were approximately , members of the SA. By June this had grown to over 3,, members. They were often given a free rein on their activities and were violent and difficult to control. In addition to this, there was a mutual dislike between the traditional conservative elite — who maintained many key positions in the government and the army during the first years of the Third Reich — and the SA.

During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach.

They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. The tension between the SA and the Nazi leadership grew. On 30 June these tensions came to a head. Over the next two days, most of the SA leadership were placed under arrest and murdered without trial. Refusing to take his own life, he was shot on 1 July by two SS guards.

Whilst the purge focused on the SA, the Nazis also used the event to eliminate other political opponents, such as the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. From 20 August onwards, the Reichswehr , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. As the SA were known for being violent and unruly, many saw this as a legitimate move by the government to ensure public order. On 13 July the Reichstag retrospectively approved a bill legalising the purge as emergency defence measures.

Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. The process primarily took place between This act legalised removing anyone of non-Ayran descent from the civil service.

In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. This act was reinforced by the German Civil Service code of 26 January , which retired any judges or judicial official who would not intervene in cases and rule in favour of the Nazis. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete. Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects.

Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. Whilst Gleichschaltung aimed to reach every aspect of rule in Germany, this was not always possible. Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. By the end of , the Nazis had managed to infiltrate and take control of every major aspect of German government. Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role. The Nazis consolidation of power can be grouped into three main themes: pseudo-legality, terror and intimidation and pseudo-moderation.