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Enemies of the State
In Mein Kampf, Hitler blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s troubles. As Führer, Hitler set out to remove Jews from public life. On September 15, 1935, the Nazi-dominated Reichstag passed the first of the Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews of their German citizenship and forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and "citizens of German or cognate blood." Subsequent laws defined as Jewish anyone with a Jewish grandparent, and declared Jews could not vote or hold public office. |
 Brown Shirts and their victims. The couple wear signs--hers says "I am a German maiden who sleeps with Jewish pigs," and his says "I am a Jewish swine who takes German girls and makes them mine." |
The "Paper Army"
Limited by the Versailles Treaty from having an Army greater than 100,000 men, or possessing substantial quantities of arms, the Nazis still managed to build a fighting force. However, between 1933 and 1935, Hitler began secretly increasing the size of the Army from 100,000 to 300,000 men. Hitler trained a core group of officers and NCO’s, using fake guns and tanks, who would later train others. He also built 1000 planes and secretly trained pilots at civilian flying clubs. By March 1935, Hitler had his new Luftwaffe (Air Force) with 2,500 planes and an army of 300,000 men. Finally, in 1935, the British government signed a treaty with Germany allowing the latter to build a Navy equal to one-third the tonnage of the Royal Navy--a gross breech of the Versailles Treaty, which only allowed Germany to have 36 ships. |
 German soldiers undertake tank drills using a cart and a wooden gun. |
Testing the West: The Rhineland
 |
Hitler wanted a chance to test his Army—and
the League of Nations. In March 1936, he marched his troops
across
the Rhine river to reoccupy territory seized from Germany by France
after
World War I. Hitler gambled—correctly—that the French were so
afraid
of war, they would not retaliate with force. It was a lesson
Hitler
would take to heart in the coming years. Left: German troops march across the bridge into the Rhineland. |
Testing Ground: The Spanish Civil War
| In 1936, a leftist coalition won the
Spanish elections and formed a new government. Conservatives,
backed by the Army and the Catholic church, struck back. An Army
officer named Francisco Franco invaded from Spanish Morocco. His
Nationalist Forces engaged Republican government forces in a civil war
that lasted three years. He received help from fellow fascist,
Adolf Hitler. With the Republican forces receiving aid
from Josef Stalin, and Nationalist forces from Adolf Hitler, the
Spanish Civil War became a testing round for weapons and tactics.
The Nazis tried out their Blitzkrieg—Lightning War—coordinating air
power and ground forces to murderous effect. The most notable
bombing raid of the War occurred at Guernica
, immortalized
by the great Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso, where the Condor Legion of
the Luftwaffe pounded civilians and combatants alike. Click here to read about American involvement in the Spanish Civil War with the Lincoln Brigade. |
"African Adventures"
Before Hitler tested his arms in Spain, Mussolini grabbed his own piece of the pie: Ethiopia. In the fall of 1935, Italy sent soldiers equipped with modern arms to “fight” the stone-age hill tribes of Africa. The troops of Emperor Haile Selaisse , the “Lion of Judah,” fought bravely, but to no avail. When the League of Nations failed to come to Ethiopia’s aid, Emperor Selassie stated prophetically: “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.” |
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