Adlerangriffe- code name for the air offensive by the Luftwaffe against England planned by Hermann Goering. The assault was launched in mid-August 1940 with the objective of driving the Royal Air Force from the skies and making way for the projected invasion of the British Isles. Operation Adlerangriffe failed, and Britain was spared a German invasion.
Afrika Korps- German elite motorized force that performed brilliantly in Hitler's North African campaigns from 1941-1943. Under the command of Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, the Afrika Korps arrived in Tripoli in February 1941, quickly retrieved sagging Axis fortunes, and caused dismay in Allied headquarters until its ultimate liquidation in Tunisia two and a quarter years later, in May 1943. The performance of the Afrika Korps under difficult circumstances was phenomenal. It is generally agreed among historians that had Rommel been given the three extra divisions of tanks for which he asked Hitler and the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) in 1941, he would have reached Cairo and the Suez Canal by the beginning of 1942 and could then have cut the flow of American supplies going to the Soviet Union.via the Persian Gulf route. The Allies were saved from disaster by Hitler's preoccupation with his main offensive against the U.S.S.R. and by his failure to take the African campaign seriously.
Ahnenerbe Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft- (society for Research and Teaching of Ancestral Heritage) An organization devoted to the study and spread of racial doctrine. Its purpose was to investigate early German history in order to prove the value of pure Aryan blood. It was administered by the personal staff of Heinrich Himmler, SS-Reichsleiter (SS Reich leader), the highest-ranking Nazi party official.
AIDA- Code name for an operation approved by Hitler in March 1942 for the offensive by General Erwin Rommel eastward across North Africa to the Nile. The operation was not successful.
Alarich- Code name for the occupation of Italy in the summer of 1943. On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III announced that he had "accepted the resignation from office of the Head of Government, Prime Minister and State Secretary tendered by Benito Mussolini" and had appointed Gen. Pietro Badoglio to the vacated office to carry on the war. For a time, the Badoglio government made a pretense of maintaining Italy's alliance with Germany, but actually Badoglio was attempting to make peace with the Allies through agents in Lisbon. Meanwhile, Hitler made plans to meet the emergency. A series of actions for the occupation of Italy would be implemented immediately on release of the code word Alarich, later changed to Achse (Axis). German troops would seize Italian positions in France, the Balkans, and Italy, and the Italian Fleet would be captured.
Alkett- The most important factory in Berlin for the production of tanks (see Panzer). Most of the main workshops were destroyed in an Allied air raid on November 26, 1943. Disturbed by this attack, Hitler issued a direct order to fire departments as far away as Potsdam and Brandenburg to move to Allkett and save as much as possible of the key factory.
Alpenfestung (Alpine Redoubt) - The area on Obersalzberg to which Hitler originally intended to retreat and lead the final struggle against the Allies in World War II. On the order of Heinrich Himmler, administration of the operation was entrusted to Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Hitler later changed his mind and retreated to his specialty built bunker in Berlin for the last days.
Alpenveilchen (Alpine Violet) - Code name for German intervention in Albania. In a war council held on January 11, 1941, Hitler directed that German reinforcements be sent to albania under Operation Alpenveilchen to help the Italians, who were bogged down there. He was anxious to avoid the danger of a collapse on the Albanian front.
Alte Kampfer (Old Guard) - Literally "old fighters", the Alte Kampfer were those early members of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei who were especially honored for their role in the rise of the National Socialist Movement. Hitler often praised them for their services. He gave them preferences for jobs in the bureaucracy and granted them civil service status. For example, in 1938 thirty-six Alte Kampfer worked as technicians at opera houses in Berlin and Wiesbaden. Those who had been injured in street fights against Communists received the same benefits as the ones allowed to disabled war veterans.
Altmark German auxiliary supply ship sunk by the British in Norwegian territorial waters. Some 300 British seamen captured by the Graf Spee, for which the Altmark acted as supply ship, were being taken to Germany as prisoners of war on the Altmark. On February 14, 1940, the Altmark was observed by a British scouting plane as she proceeded southward in Norwegian territorial waters in the direction of Germany. The Altmark took refuge in Jossing Fjord. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, apprised of the news, ordered an attack on the Altmark. On the night of February 16-17, a British destroyer, the Cossack, entered the fjord and sent a boarding party to the German ship. The assault party killed 4 Germans, wounded 5, and liberated 299 of their comrades. The Norwegian government protested this violation of its territorial waters, to which the British replied that Norway had itself violated international law by allowing its waters to be used by Germans to transport British prisoners to Germany. Hitler attacked Norway on April 9, 1940.
Anschluss- (union) Movement for the political union of Germany and Austria. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire was forcibly dissolved by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (September 10, 1919), most of its German-speaking people supported the idea of eventual union with Germany. This was explicitly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles, which at the same time denied the Bohemian (Sudeten) Germans the right to national self-determination. Anschluss became a burning issue during the 1920's as agitation continued for the union. In March 1931 both the German and Austrian governments proposed a customs union. Austria, weakened by the collapse of the Kreditanstalt (Loan Bank) and by political anarchy, was especially anxious to implement this first step toward anschluss. Both France and the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania) denounced the proposed customs union. The plan was submitted to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which by a vote of eight to seven decided that the suggested customs union was illegal. The drive for anschluss was revived in 1933 as soon as Hitler acceded to power. Born in Austria, the Fuhrer regarded the union of Germany and Austria as a keystone of his foreign policy.
On July 25, 1934, Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of Austria was murdered in the Chancellery in Vienna by Austrian Nazis anxious to stage a coup d'etat. Hitler backed the illegal Austrian Nazi party even though in 1936 he recognized the independence of Austria by treaty. Two years later, he tore up his agreement. He invited Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden in February 1938 and demanded concessions for the Austrian Nazis. Schuschnigg, aware that he could not count on the support of either Great Britain or France, was forced to yield. In a desparate attempt to forestall the inevitable, the Austrian chancellor scheduled an immediate plebiscite on the question of Austrian independence. Hitler countered by sending German troops to the border. In an ultimatum on March 11, 1938, Hitler demanded Schuschnigg's resignation in favor of Artur Seyss-Inquart, leader of Austrian Nazis. Neither Schuschnigg's resignation nor cancellation of the proposed plebiscite satisfied the Fuhrer. Hermann Goering ordered Seyss-Inquart to send a telegram to Germany requesting invasion "to restore order". Anschluss, Hitler proclaimed, was at long last achieved.
Anti-semitism- Name first applied to a movement of opposition to Jews in the second half of the 19th ctury. Anti-semitism had been prevalent, however, throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and varied in intensity in different countries. The modern movement originated in Russia and Central Europe, which had large Jewish minorities. Antipathy toward Jews in its recent form was not due completely to their religion but was based on economic factors of wealth and power. Towards the latter part of the 19th century, anti-semitism assumed a virulent form in imperial Russia and Hungary, where there were riots and murders. A revival of anti-semitism swept through Germany as soon as Hitler assumed political power. jews, no matter what their class or reputation, were reviled and deprived of their livelihood. Germans of part-Jewish origin were included in the persecutions. Nazi anti-semitism took the form of a political movement after Hitler promoted it as a basic part of his personal philosophy. In conformity with the teachings of Arthur Comte de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Hitler made anti-semitism an official movement in the Third Reich. Nazi anti-semitism led to the slaughter of 6 million Jews in the concentration camps and extermination camps.
Anton- Revised code name for the occupation of Unoccupied France (previously known under the code name Attila) and the Iberian Peninsula (formerly known as Isabella). Anton was specified by Hitler in a war directive dated May 29, 1942. On the defeat of France in 1940 the Petain government agreed to German occupation of more than half of the country, including Paris, the northern areas, and the entire Atlantic coast to the Spanish border. The French were required to bear the costs of occupation and to maintain a regime friendly to the Third Reich. Hitler's code name Anton was reserved for possible acquisition of the remainder of the country. On November 7-8, 1942, when American and British troops began landing in North Africa, Hitler notified General Gerd von Rundstedt that Anton was in effect.
Arbeit Macht Frei- (Labor Liberates or Work Makes you Free)- Adage emblazoned on the camp gates at Auschwitz, one of the extermination camps. The purpose was to indicate to both the public and the inmates that the camps were dedicated to the useful goal of labor in the service of the Third Reich.
Arierparagraph- (Aryan clause)- Clause that banned Jews from all cultural activities such as any part of the film industry. It was announced on June 30, 1933, but clear warning had been given as early as the preceding April. Because of this clause many Jews took the opportunity to leave Germany. The Aryan clause, also called the Aryan paragraph, was important in the relations of National Socialism, and the Protestant churches. According to this decision, any member of a Protestant church who could not prove the ancestry to be Aryan up to two or three generations back must be excluded from the church. These persons were known in the Third Reich as Juden-Christen. The German Faith movement (Deutsche Glaubensbewegung) accepted the Aryan paragraph, but the Bekenntniskirche, the newly organized Confessional Church, opposed it. The theologian Karl Barth stated, "A Protestant Church that would exclude the Jew-Christians or would regard them as second-class Christians would cease to be a Christian Church."
Artaman League- An organization of young nationalists in the 1920s who were devoted to the concept of settling of settling on the soil and to the idea of Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Members of the league wanted to work on farms in lieu of military service. Originating in the voelkisch wing of the German youth movement, the Artamans were strongly anti-Slav and urged that Polish farmers living in Germany be returned to their own country. many journeyed to farms in east Germany to defend the fatherland against the Slavs. Among the Artaman leaders in 1924 was Heinrich Himmler, who, like others in the league, turned in the end to National Socialism. Eventually, the Artaman League disappeared as the new Nazi movement gained strength.
Article 48- Key clause of the Weimar Constitution. Although the Weimar Constitution is considered one of the most advanced constitutions in history, its effectiveness was invalidated by the very existence of Article 48, which permitted the Reich President to suspend temporarily all the fundamental rights of the citizen guaranteed by the constitution. Hitler, who had given his word to achieve and hold political power legally, governed by virtue of Article 48 and used it to his own advantage in seizing absolute power.
Article 231- The famous war guilt clause of th Treaty of Versailles. The article was placed under Part VI, Reparation, and its opening lines ran as follows:
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies............
The significance of this controversial clause lay in the fact that it placed moral responsibility upon Germany and its allies for causing the loss and damage of the war. For the first time in history a provision of this kind was included in a peace treaty as a basis for reparations. Hitherto, the mere fact of victory had been deemed sufficient, on the ground that to the victor belonged the spoils.
All political parties in Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933 agreeed in denouncing Article 231. For Hitler and Nazi idealogists it was a special target of satire and sarcasm. In Hitler's view, the entire Treaty of Versailles was dedicated to the "enslavement" of Germany. He strongly supported the stab-in-the-back theory, which held that Jews and Social Democrats on the domestic front had been the Novemberverbrecher, the November traitors, who had driven Germany to defeat. In public addresses Nazi speakers continually referred to Article 231 as a disgraceful canard and demanded that Germans strike back at a wholly unwarranted charge of war guilt.
Aschaffenburg- One of the earliest Nazi concentration camps. It was located at the river port and resort town of Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, 168 miles northwest of Munich. In 1933 a group of SS men killed a number of Jews at the camp and were arrested by local authorities. SS officials insisted that their men were not subject to civil authority. Heinrich Himmler demanded that no charges be brought against the men. This was the earliest instance in which the power of the SS took precedence over any rival government agency. A precedent was set for future mass murder in the concentration and extermination camp.
Atlantis- One of Hitler's deadliest sea raisders in World War II. Originally built by the Bremen Hansane as the 7860 ton freighter Goldenfels, the Atlantis was 500 feet long and 60 feet wide, with a draft of 25 feet and a top speed of 17 knots. Soon after the beginning of the war, she was placed in drydock and in fourteen weeks was converted into an armed cruiser. She was fitted with six 6-inch guns, a 3-inch warning gun, two twin 3.7-centimeter antiaircraft guns, and four 2-centimeter automatics, all invisible under clever camouflage. On both sides below the waterline amidships there was a torpedo tube. A special compartment held 92 magnetic mines. A real funnel could be lengthened or lowered, and a dummy funnel could be set up or stowed away.
Auf Gut Deutsch (in Plain German)- Paper edited and published by Dietrich Eckart, nationalist poet in early post-World War I Munich. In this blunt and somewhat coarse journal, which had a circulation of about 30,000, Eckart took a strongly nationalist, Pan-German, and anti-semitic line. His columns contained bitter attacks on the Munich City Council.
Aufbau Ost (Buildup East)- Code name for the preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union, a preliminary to Barbarossa. On August 8, 1940, Hitler designated Col. Walther Warlimont, deputy to Gen. Alfred Jodl, chief of operations at the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, to prepare the deployment areas in the east for the coming assault on the Soviet Union. The transfer of large bodies of troops to the east was to be carried out in the greatest secrecy in order not to arouse Stalin's suspicions.
Augsburg- Code name for "Delay offensive in the west". In a war directive issued on November 20, 1939, Hitler ordered the armed forces to make preparations for conducting the campaign in the west. The code word Danzig meant "Proceed with offensive". Augsburg meant to halt offensive operations for the time being.
Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish)- Extermination camp in Poland. Situated on a marshy tract between the Vistula and its tributary, the Sola, 160 miles southwest of Warsaw, the camp was built in an unfavorable location surrounded by stagnant ponds, smelly and pestilential. The place was originally a military barracks and later a tobacco factory. It was opened in 1940, after the defeat of Poland, and later was greatly expanded. Spezialeinrichtungen (special installations) were added, including Badeanstalten (bathhouses) used for gassing and Leichenkeller (corpse cellars) for storage of bodies. An experienced concentration camp staff, composed of SS members, was sent to Auschwitz to carry out the "Final Solution" (see Endlosung). The staff was composed of Lageralteste (camp seniors), Blockalteste (block seniors), Stubendienst (room orderlies), and Kapos (foremen of the individual huts).
Death transports flowed to this large complex of buildings, including victims from all over Europe: 400,000 from Hungary, 250,000 from Poland and Upper Silesia, 100,000 from Germany, 90,000 from the Netherlands, 90,000 from Slovakia, 65,000 from Greece, and 11,000 from France. On May 1, 1940, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer (Capt) Rudolf Franz Hess was transferred from Sachsenhausen to Auschwitz. The next year Heinrich Himmler inspected Auschwitz and gave orders to enlarge the camp and drain the swamps. At the same time he set up a new camp at nearby Birkenau. The first Jews arrived from Slovakia and Upper Silesia in 1941. Those unfit for work were gassed in temporary chambers run by tank and automobile engines. Later, special crematoria were set up to implement the Final Solution. It is estimated that from 1 to 4 million persons died in gas ovens and by a variety of other methods at Auschwitz. The leading SS officers who worked at Auschwitz were tried at Frankfurt am main from December 20, 1963 to August 20, 1965.