Betting on Hitler: The value of political connections in Nazi Germany

This paper examines the value of connections between German industry and the Nazi movement in early 1933. Drawing on previously unused contemporary sources about management and supervisory board composition and stock returns, we find that one out of seven firms, and a large proportion of the biggest companies, had substantive links with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Firms supporting the Nazi movement experienced unusually high returns, outperforming unconnected ones by 5% to 8% between January and March 1933. These results are not driven by sectoral composition and are robust to alternative estimators and definitions of affiliation.Political Connections, Stock Market, Asset Pricing, Nazi Rise to Power, Interwar Germany

The ‘Autonomous Nationalists’: new developments and contradictions in the German neo-Nazi movement

This article examines the action repertoires, symbolism and political ideology of the ‘Autonomous Nationalists’ (Autonome Nationalisten in German) that have emerged as a sub-cultural youth trend within the German extreme right. Agitating within a landscape of networked, extra-parliamentary neo-Nazi organisations, Autonomous Nationalist activism forms a specific subsection within the German extreme right that copies the styles, codes and militancy of anarchist and radical left activists. A political analysis of its texts and slogans reveals a self- definition as ‘anti-capitalist’ and ‘national socialist’. A particular mobilisation potential beyond the traditional and party-political forms of extreme nationalism is fuelled by an openly displayed confrontational militancy, mostly directed at anti-fascist and left-wing groups and individuals, and by strong counter-cultural aspects. The article analyses how this emphasis on individual forms of expressions and rebellion appears to stand in contradiction with fascist understandings of organisation and has put the movement at odds with the established neo-Nazi scene in Germany

Memories of an Unfulfilled Promise: Internationalism and Patriotism in Post-Soviet Oral Histories of Jewish Survivors of the Nazi Genocide

Memories of Soviet Jews who were born during the first two decades of the existence of the USSR show that the destruction of the Soviet society and its ideological tenets is central to their experience of the Nazi genocide. Elderly survivors of the Nazi genocide remember their lives based on comparative evalu- ations of their lives in the Soviet Union and under the Nazi regime, making a strong case for understanding memory as a relational construct. Interrogating the significance of growing up secular and Soviet for experiencing and remembering the Nazi genocide reveals that in order to understand Soviet Jews’ responses to German occupation and genocide and how they remember them, we must turn to their prewar socialization as Soviet internationalists and patriots

The Long-Term Direct and External Effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany

This paper provides causal evidence on long-term consequences of Jewish expulsions in Nazi Germany on the educational attainment and political outcomes of German children. We combine a unique city-level dataset on the fraction of Jewish population residing in Germany before the Nazi Regime with individual survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Our identification strategy exploits the plausibly exogenous city-by-cohort variation in the Jewish population in Germany as a unique quasi-experiment. We find that the persecution of Jewish professionals had significant, long-lasting detrimental effects on the human capital and political development of Germans who were at school-age during the Nazi Regime. First, these children have 0.4 fewer years of schooling on average in adulthood. Second, these children are less likely to go to college or have a graduate degree. Third, they are less likely to have interest in politics as adults. These results survive using alternative samples and specifications, including controlling for Second World War, Nazi and Communist Party support and unemployment effects.human capital formation, dismissal, Jewish professionals, political development

Polish literature and the Konzentrationslager. The beginning

 In the article the author discusses the beginnings of Polish camp literature, more precisely: literature referring to the Nazi German concentration camps. For decades it was assumed that the earliest Polish texts of that type were published in 1945. It appears that the first works – reports and memoirs – were published before the outbreak of WWII. In this article, the author discusses them in the historical and historical-literary contexts (mainly in the context of German writings).

The RSHA Generation

The Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) was once the capital of a vast empire of terror; a place where surveillance, persecution, and extermination became merely a quotidian, bureaucratic function and where the Schreibtischtäter could implement their deadly ideology from afar, or sometimes in person; a place where divisions of the SS less associated by the general public with Nazi crimes against humanity, such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo), would persecute and kill more people than the Gestapo and most other Nazi institutions of terror. The RSHA and its many offices became an outlet for many Nazi intellectual elites, who were educated at the prestigious institutions of Weimar and Nazi Germany. After the creation of the RSHA within the SS, these individuals through this apparatus and the opportunities presented by German military conquests were transformed from ideological academics to calculating exterminators of millions. Some made the transition behind a desk in Berlin, while others were committed to seeing the fruits of their labor first hand. These were the ‘true believers’ and most devoted followers of National Socialism

Blood Over Soil: The Misconception of Nazi Environmentalism

Most people do not immediately think of environmentalism when they hear the term “Nazi.” Nazis were racist imperialists who killed millions of people. Is it possible for the genocidal policies of the Third Reich to be compatible with green politics and nature preservation? Several historians and sociologists during a period of anti-green backlash and Nazi revisionism in the late 20th century argued that environmentalism was, indeed, a central part of National Socialism. Citing environmentally progressive Nazi legislation combined with elements of the “Blood and Soil” element of Nazi ideology, these individuals made a case that Hitler and the Nazis were some of the first modern environmentalists. This intriguing and unusual claim was used both to depict Nazis more favorably as well as to paint contemporary green politicians in a more negative light. Although it is important to consider the views of such historians like Schama and Bramwell, who argued the above point, the Nazis cannot be called environmentalists. Despite their passing of a few noteworthy pieces of green legislation and their admiration for the German landscape, the Nazis prioritized rearmament, war, and ethnic purity far above national environmental protection policies, which were largely abandoned with the escalation of the Second World War. Nature preservation remained an effective propaganda theme for the National Socialists, as they were quite fond of linking the volk and their pure blood to the German land, but sweeping environmental reform simply did not take place. With that said, it is imperative to review the scholarship of those who argue that the Nazis were true environmentalists and the elements of the Third Reich that led them to come to those faulty conclusions

The 1941 miners' strike in northern France: from a dispute over soap to armed resistance

In Northern France in 1941, while under German military occupation, 100,000 miners went on strike from the 27th May to the 9th June. This strike not only cost the German war machine half a million tonnes of coal, but also had long-term consequences for the development of the Resistance in the area. Starting from a dispute with their employers over working conditions, the reality of living under Nazi occupation soon gave the struggle a political dimension, convincing the miners that their social aspirations were inextricably linked to the outcome of the war, thereby preparing the ground for what was to arguably become the most active underground resistance movement in wartime France. In organising a strike to resist the employers' offensive in the mines, rather as they might have done in times of peace, the miners showed everyone, themselves included, that the defeat of Nazi Germany was an essential prerequisite for any social progress. They thereby started a process that built a Resistance movement in the region that everyone had to recognise as second to none. Given the overwhelming level of collaboration amongst the French employing class and the way they used the German authorities to repress their employees, rather in the same way as other groups of employers elsewhere used their own native fascist organisations, the social question cannot be disentangled from the national question. Those who would keep the analysis of the Second World War restricted to a conventional war between two rival power blocks have only understood half the problem. The question of democracy and the struggle against fascism cannot be forgotten as a Nazi German victory would have meant the smashing of all working class organisation and this gave workers on the continent another motivation to resist and also gives the analysis of the war another complication. The collaboration of the employing class gave the Second World War an element of civil war which many commentators wish to forget. The strike gives valuable insights into the process whereby workers in struggle under repressive regimes move from industrial action to the armed struggle and parallels miners' actions in the Ludlow and Harlan County strikes in the USA, the Asturian Miners in 1934 and the Bolivian miners in the 1950s

How words behave in other languages: the use of German Nazi vocabulary in English

This paper undertakes a systematic investigation into the use of German Nazi vocabulary in English. Nazi vocabulary is checked for frequency of occurrence in a large webcorpus of English and then, where it occurs, for reference to Nazi discourse. Next, its frequency is compared to equivalent French and German webcorpora, showing whether or not the use of Nazi vocabulary outside German is unique to English and whether or not its current usage differs between German and the borrowing languages. Finally, the use of two words that occur with similar frequency in all three languages – judenrein and Blitzkrieg – and of two words that occur with the highest difference in frequency – Anschluss and Lebensraum – is investigated in detail by means of the Sketch Engine corpus tool, including analysis of collocations which indicate contexts of usage. The results can inform further research into lexical borrowing by demonstrating that borrowed words may be used in ways that differ notably from their use in the donor language

Borondatearen Garaitza: Aro Garaikidearen gatazkak zinemaren bidez

[EUS] "Borondatearen Garaitza" nazi aldiko zinemaren maisulana da eta XX. mendeko zinemaren lan gorenetako bat. Bere bikantasun teknikoa eta ahalmen bisuala ezinbesteko eragina izan zuten zinemaren bilakaeran gaur egunera arte.[ENG] Considered the finest example of propaganda cinema, Triumph of the Will shows in detail the 6th Party Congress hosted in the city of Nuremberg in September 1934. The film successes at being a monumental historical document of one of Nazism’s most impressive rituals and summarizes widely the main tenants of Nazi ideology. The Film´s director, former dancer and actress Leni Riefenstahl, catches masterfully the main events of the Party Congress featuring the main Nazi leaders as cast. Wisely chosen from the speeches and marches, Riefenstahl provides the audience with a powerful, but disturbing, recording of Nazi ideology in its most symbolic event that has done down in cinema history. German cinema´s evolution through the 1920s and early 1930s results indispensable to understand how such a technical achievement was be done. Inspired by the Mountain Films genre, German cinematography finds itself closer to Nazi ideology as they represent the myth of German supremacy over nature. Inspired by both Mountain Films and Nazi ideas, former dancer and actress Leni Riefenstahl (for long attached to director Fancks) is chosen by the high staff of the National Socialist Party to direct and cut a documentary about the Party Congress in Nuremberg. The Party´s aim was to show Germany and the world how mighty Germany was becoming and to attract the German People to the Nazi ideology. The documentary summarizes Nazi ideology in a subversive, artistic and terrifying way and represents the highest cinematic achievement of The Third Reich, just to witness the decadence of its cinematic industry with racist and unrealistic productions. The documentary´s influence in cinema history is undeniable and keeps been considered now days the best propaganda film ever made. Nonetheless, the documentary doomed his director´s career as his name by attaching his name to a piece of documentary where Hitler was portrayed as a godly messiahs. This documentary film focuses on catching the essence of the national socialist political religion and its main ritual: The Party National Congress. From the historical point of view, is a unique visual document and a faithful witness of German fascism whose visuals and style has inspired many other directors and artists worldwide for decades. Triumph of the Will represents the highest point in cinematography during the Third Reich and it was followed by a series of less successful, less impressive and less overwhelming films and documentaries