Eight Things No One Knows About Nazi Germany

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

We all know Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist as the epitome of Evil - their toxic, hateful ideology caused the outbreak of World War II and millions of dead, not counting the tragedy of the Holocaust.

As an amateur historian, I came upon a number of verified facts that while they may seem small and offer a bit of insight into the evilness of the Nazi regime, it also shows us how petty and wacky things could be in Third Reich.

1. They tried to steal Christmas

Yes, literally. They were that evil.

Many senior Nazi figures such as Goebbels, Himmler and Bormann; wanted to eliminate Christmas from the calendar and substitute it with a more German celebration - the Winter' Solstice.

2. Many of the leaders weren't that racists

Excluding the most fervent antisemites like Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler; some big names like Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess and even the heinous Reynhard Heydrich expressed the opinion that they didn't really hate the Jews with such passion - they just went along follow Hitler (Hess) or because of the economical and personal advantages they got in persecuting them (Göring and Heydrich).

So they committed the atrocities only for personal gain, not because they thought it was right.

3. They created the first smoke-free zones

Being an ex-smoker, Hitler had a pathological hatred for it.

He pushed for smoke-free areas in offices and public venues, which was a novelty in the Europe of the time.

He was such a staunch anti-smoker, that in an episode where he came up announced at a party, Göring and other Heer and SS generals literally threw their fancy cigars and ashtrays out of the window to not get catched by him.

4. Nazism was never an unified ideology

Despite the myth of a uniformed ideology of evil, Nazism had a whole lot of different currents. There was even a socialist and antiracist wing lead by the Strasser brothers.

Easily enough, this wing of the Party got marginalized pretty quickly and in 1934 several of its members got killed in the Night of the Long Knives.

5. They weren't that competent

The image of the stereotypical Nazi is of a remorseless, efficient evil and killing machine.

Nothing more far from the truth.

Nazi Germany had a very tedious autocracy which slowed down a lot of day-to-day operations.

Plus, Nazis were as litigious among themselves as they were with non-Nazis.

Hitler's leadership style of giving the same orders to different people caused a lot of infighting and competition - the backstabbing got so bad that a law had to be done in order to prevent subordinates to succeed their ousted superiors.

6. At one point, SS and Zionists Jews were allies

In the period between 1934 and 1938, SS officer and Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann collaborated with Zionists leaders to find a place where to establish the state of Israel, among the countries selected were Siberia, Egypt and Madagascar.

The goal wasn't altruistic in any way - they just wanted to send away all the Jews in the quickest and less costly way possible.

When all those plans failed and the war started, they decided to finally kill them.

7. Africans, Asian and Indians were welcome

In the German Army, at least.

The Wehrmacht Generals in charge of the battle field in Africa behaved quite differently from the cruel SS and Polizei leaders in east Europe, they had the foresight that taking the time to train and care for Freiwilligen (volunteers) would bolster their numbers and cover the casualties.

The Waffen-SS did a similar thing, only opening to approved, "proto Aryan" people, such as French, Danish, Italian, Belgian and Byelorussian peoples.

8. They got screwed by Spain

Alongside Fascist Italy, Germany supported falangist leader Francisco Franco in taking power in the Spanish Civil War with troops, equipment and supplies.

Once Franco won, he promptly signed a nominal alliance with the Axis, but practically kept all the equipment and money the Nazi fascists and closed all bridges, refusing to enter WWII on their side. On plus on that, he offered a safe haven to the persecuted Jews of all Europe.

Many suppose he kept his power and his regime lasted to his death in 1975 thanks to those choices.

So!

Those were eight little-known facts about Nazi Germany!

Which did you know? Which not?

Share your thoughts and thanks for reading!

[Femdomina]

Well, that's very informative, but number one wasn't stealing, Winter Solstice is actually older than Christmas.
Christians stole the Winter Solstice celebration and replaced it with Christmas, in order to eliminate paganism.
All the European pagans had Winter Solstice celebrations:
Germanic tribes called it Yule, Slavic tribes called it Koliada, Romans called it Brumalia etc.
Very nice MyTake.

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

You brought up excellent points.
Those where the main motivation between Himmler's and other leading Nazis (Bormann, Goebbels, Globocnik, etc.) to try and have Christmas abolished in favor of a the Winter' Solstice.

Interestingly enough, other Nazi leaders like Alfred Rosenberg (the theologian who idealized Positive Christianity), Rudolf Heß and Hermann Göring opposed those ideas.
Hitler took a neutral stance on the whole thing.

[TheSpartan]

The Winter Solstice theft is a myth. It’s much more likely that Aurelian and the Cult of Sol Invictus stole the holiday from the Christians, as there’s no record of them celebrating it before the 4th century A. D.

[Femdomina]

@TheSpartan Nope, Winter Solstice was much older than Sol Invictus, Romans celebrated Brumalia and Saturnalia holiday long time before Sol Invictus, so yeah, the Christians stole the Winter Solstice.
Other than Romans, as I already mentioned, Winter Solstice was celebrated by the Slavic and Germanic tribes (Yule/Mōdraniht, Koliada/Koleda), Celtic tribes also celebrated Midwinter (Yuletide) long before Christians stole it, so your "myth theory" is totally invalid... Christians are well known for falsifying history ;)

[Femdomina]

Thank you for MHO :)

[TheSpartan]

What obscure Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic tribes celebrated is irrelevant. Christianity had not penetrated the fringes of Roman territory at the time of the 4th century. And no, Romans didn’t celebrate Saturnalia until long after Christians began celebrating Christmas. Stop it with this nonsensical pagan falsification of history.

[Femdomina]

@TheSpartan LOL, you are totally ignorant and ridiculous, Roman deities were celebrated long time before your falsifiers of history stoled it... and I repeat, Germanic, Slavic and Celtic tribes also celebrated Winter Solstice, long time before your primitive, violent, patriarchal and thieving religion.

[Femdomina]

PS - ancient Greeks also had their version of Winter Solstice (including the real Spartans, unlike you) ;)

[ChocolateCheesecake]

I don't read my takes haha

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

Don't worry 👍

[ChocolateCheesecake]

Okay👌

[goaded]

That was fascinating, I'll be looking up some of those things (especially the Strasser brothers; yet another counter to the obvious fraud that the Nazis were socialists).

Thank-you.

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

Thank you for your insight.
Yes, the fact that the Nazis were "socialists" is very partially true. They were initially, due to their need to appeal to working class youths to get support for their SA brownshirts.
But after they got in power, they tied themselves to the big industrials and old aristocracy, and became a very reactionary and conservative.
This is exampled by the SA getting toppled by the more conservative SS, especially after Stabchef-SA Röhm started to advocate for a proletariat revolution.
The SA were also nicknamed "beefsteaks Nazis" : brown (Nazi) outsid, but red (Socialist-Communism) inside.
The most socialists the Nazis got when they were in power was their Kraft durch Freude program and assistance to German mothers, something taken directly from Italian Fascism.

[ADFSDF1996]

Didn’t Hitler also ban human zoos in Europe while he was in power?

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

I had read something that said that, but wasn't exactly sure about it.

[ADFSDF1996]

There’s some articles that briefly mention it. https://www.BBC.com/news/magazine-16295827 It’s ironic if it’s true he banned them.

[JimRSmith]

I knew all of those except for the first one.

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

Well, I'm happy that at least one was new for you 😃.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

A lot of the incompetence came in the later years, if I’m not mistaken. This kind of ties into 7 and a bit of 6 where the SS were getting demolished and basically needed bodies to compete with the allies. It basically got diluted to non aryans, teenagers and untrained/non career soldiers of the traditional SS early in the war... I don't know how true that is and I forgot where I heard it

[WalterRadio]

Hitler is responsible for several useful things. Ballistic missiles, which led to space launches, cruise missiles, and practical jet aircraft are the first that come to mind.

He wanted a way to drive fast, and as a result, the limited access highway, the Autobahn was born. Americans call it a freeway or interstate.

He wanted to have a way to record a speech and have it broadcast later. The result was the magnetic tape recorder.

[goaded]

German scientists and engineers were responsible for them, not Hitler. One of the earliest computers was also German, the Zuse Z3.

Autobahns were a Weimar Republic (mid 1920's) plan (and Volkswagen cars were in the works before he came to power, too), but Hitler did put the full force of the government behind both of those, so you could say he was responsible for them. He was also a vegetarian and liked dogs. It doesn't make up for what else he did.

Magnetic tape recorders had been around for decades before the 1930's.

"Magnetic recording was conceived as early as 1878 by the American engineer Oberlin Smith and demonstrated in practice in 1898 by Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen."
"The BBC installed a Blattnerphone at Avenue House in September 1930 for tests, and used it to record King George V's speech at the opening of the India Round Table Conference on 12 November 1930."

en.wikipedia.org/.../Tape_recorder

[WalterRadio]

@goaded
He didn't invent them. He made them happen.

[AaronKrieger]

Also don't forget that there was a pool and theatre for Jews in Auschwitz. There was even a kickball team they were able to play. You can find images of it online and interviews about it.

[esotericstory]

Provide source thanks. Many of them seem outdated.

[Jean-Marie_Céline]

G. Knopp - Hitler's henchmen
P. Fritzsche - Life and Death in the Third Reich
J. Dumont - Secret History of the Gestapo
A. Brissàud's thesis "Himmler extends his tentacles"
J. Mabire's thesis "The SS against the Wehrmacht"

[esotericstory]

Thanks.

[Jackpot1977]

And they have returned under the name Antifa

[goaded]

Are Antifa running your country? Have the cancelled elections? Do they attack people based on the colour of their skin, or because of their religion?

Ridiculous.