German Holocaust Leaders
By Sophie Gaunt
Welcome!
Welcome to The Holocaust Newsletter, where we learn new things about the holocaust every week! This week, contrary to last weeks American holocaust leaders, we will be learning about the German holocaust leaders. The German leaders were full of hate and were the cause of millions of deaths. We will go in depth of the leaders and also the large organizations behind the operation.
Adolf Hitler
Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party and controlled the whole organization. He was the prime minister of Germany, or a dictator. He was very lazy and never specified what he wanted. He also wouldn't do anything himself; He would suggest an idea and then not discuss it any further and leave other people to guess what he wanted. This was called "Working toward the Further." In March 1933 he passed the Enabling Act , which allowed him to make his own laws.
Heinrich Himmler
Himmler joined the Nazi Party in 1920. He was apart of the Schutzstaffel (SS) which was a special security unit for their loyalty to Hitler. In June 1936 he became the head of police, controlled concentration camps, and developed his own army or a bureaucratic empire. He had pure Aryan ancestry back to 1800 at least.
Reinhard Heydrich
Heydrich was Hitlers right hand man. He supervised the concentration camps. He was assassinated in June 1942.
Adolf Eichmann
Eichmann is an expert on Jewish organizations. He organized systematic deportation and the extermination of Jews.
Hermann Goering
Was the leader of all air-force, and directed the Four-Year plan. He had constant conflict with Heinrich Himmler. He loved art and was known for stealing that from Jews.
Joseph Goebbels
Goebbels was the leading propagandist and head of the ministry of culture. He was also head of the campaign to drive Jews out of the arts
Albert Speer
Albert was an architect. He was also one of Hitlers favorites and was in charge of war production. He complained about the extermination policy and how it hurt the war economy, yet never resisted it. In his memoirs he says he knew little about the holocaust.
Sturmabteilung (SA)
The SA is the militia. The leader is Ernst Rohm. Rohm was very violent and brave enough to defy even Hitler himself. On June 30, 1934 he murdered Rohm and all the other leaders.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Kaltenbrunner was the chief of the RSHA. He also became head of security police after Reinhard was assassinated. Kaltenbrunner was also a lawyer.
Hans Frank
Frank was an honorary SA Obergruppenfuhrer. He was the governor of Poland and was also a lawyer.
Heinrich Muller
Muller was in WW1 as head of gestap. He was security police during the holocaust and was a higher SS.
Oswald Pohl
Pohl was a Naval Paymaster and a Naval officer. He was also a SS Obergruppenfuhrer and General Waffen.
Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger
Kruger was a SS Oberabschnittsfuhrer. He was also director of a refuse company prior to SS enrollment.
The End!
This brings us to the end of our newsletter! I hope you enjoyed learning about the German leaders of the holocaust. And as the famous quote goes: "We must learn from our mistake, otherwise we are doomed to repeat them." So until next week.. Goodbye from The Holocaust Newsletter!