Hitler's Hangman (77 page)

Read Hitler's Hangman Online

Authors: Robert. Gerwarth

Tags: #Yale University Press

BOOK: Hitler's Hangman
11.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

82. Statement on Heydrich by Dr Werner Best, 1 October 1959, in Copenhagen, in IfZ, ZS

207/2, p. 3. For a similar account, see Schellenberg,
Labyrinth
, 36; and the post-war testi-

mony of Anatol von der Milwe (26 June 1949), in IfZ, ZS 106.

83. Statement on Heydrich by Dr Werner Best, 1 October 1959, in Copenhagen, in IfZ, ZS

207/2, p. 13.

84. Herbert,
Best
, 91ff.

85. Stefan Breuer,
Ordnungen der Ungleichheit. Die deutsche Rechte im Widerstreit ihrer Ideen,

1871–1945
(Darmstadt, 2001).

86. Helmut Lethen,
Cool Conduct: The Culture of Distance in Weimar Germany
(Berkeley, CA,

2002); see, too, Moritz Bassler and Ewout van der Knaap (eds),
Die (k)alte Sachlichkeit.

Herkunft und Wirkungen eines Konzepts
(Würzburg, 2004).

87. Longerich,
Himmler
, 265ff.

88. See the post-war testimony of Walter Wanek, a senior official in the SD-Ausland, in IfZ,

ZS 1579.

89. The most insightful of these is the post-war account of Werner Best, in IfZ (Munich), ZS

207/2. Arthur Nebe wrote after the war that Heydrich’s presence alone caused him ‘physical

shaking’. See Arthur Nebe, ‘Das Spiel ist aus. Glanz und Elend der deutschen

Kriminalpolizei’, in
Der Spiegel
, 22 December 1949, 27. In a similar post-war statement, the

head of SD-Inland, Franz Alfred Six, maintained that ‘everyone was afraid of Heydrich’.

Post-war testimony of Franz Alfred Six as quoted in
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, 25

October 1963, p. 7. See, too, the post-war testimony of Walter Wanek, a senior official in

the SD-Ausland, in IfZ, ZS 1579.

90. See the post-war testimony of Heydrich’s personal adjutant Hans-Hendrik Neumann in IfZ,

ZS 1260; see, too, Heydrich,
Wandlungen
, 19f. From 1937 onwards, Heydrich personal y

supervised the regular physical exercise of his men as
SS Inspekteur für Leibesüberungen
. See

Heydrich’s orders of 9 May 1937 and 16 December 1940, in IfZ, Ed 450; see, too, Daniels,

‘Leibeserzieher’,
Leibesübungen und körperliche Erziehung
61 (1942), 114–17; Ulrich Popplow,

N OT E S to pp. 74–7

309

‘Reinhard Heydrich oder die Aufnordung durch den Sport’,
Olympisches Feuer. Zeitschrift

der deutschen Olympischen Gesellschaft
8 (1963), 14–20.

91. See Heydrich’s orders of 18 May 1940, 26 July 1940 and 6 January 1942, on ‘Dienstliche

Körperschulung im Reichssicherheitshauptamt’, in IfZ, MA-445. From 1941 onwards,

RSHA employess could choose between fencing, handball, football, boxing, athletics and

swimming. The fencing lessons, in which Heydrich participated himself, took place on

Thursdays between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the RSHA’s own gym. See Heydrich’s order of 23

April 1941, in IfZ, MA 445.

92. See Lina Heydrich to Peter Schneiders, 12 June 1962, NIOD, doc. I, 691A; Dieter

Rebentisch and Karl Teppe (eds),
Verwaltung contra Menschenführung im Staate Hitlers.

Studien zum politisch-administrativen System
(Göttingen, 1986).

93. George C. Browder, ‘Die Anfänge des SD. Dokumente aus der Organisationsgeschichte

des Sicherheitsdienstes des Reichsführers SS’, VfZ 27 (1979), 299–324; Banach,
Elite
, 95f.

94. On the war youth generation and its leadership role in the SS, see Wildt,
Generation
; Ulrich

Herbert, ‘Ideological Legitimization and Political Practice of the Leadership of the National

Socialist Secret Police’, in Hans Mommsen (ed.),
The Third Reich between Vision and Reality:

New Perspectives on German History, 1918–1945
(Oxford, 2001), 99–108; Herbert,
Best
, 187.

95. Post-war testimony of Werner Best, in IfZ, ZS 207/2, pp. 3–5.

96. BAB, BDC, SSO Hans-Achim Ploetz. He fell, in the late summer of 1944, on the Eastern

Front.

97. Banach,
Elite
, 19.

98. Tuchel and Schattenfroh,
Zentrale
, 63f.; Tuchel, ‘Gestapa und Reichssicherheitshauptamt.

Die Berliner Zentralinstitutionen der Gestapo’, in Paul and Mallmann (eds),
Gestapo
.

Mythos und Realität
, 84–100, here 86; Wildt,
Generation
, 217; Browder,
Foundations
, 89f.;

Wilhelm,
Polizei
, 42; Gellately,
Gestapo
, 46; Christoph Graf,
Politische Polizei zwischen

Demokratie und Diktatur. Die Entwicklung der preussischen Politischen Polizei vom

Staatsschutzorgan der Weimarer Republik zum Geheimen Staatspolizeiamt des Dritten Reiches

(Berlin, 1983), 139ff.

99. Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 46; Graf,
Politische Polizei
, 179ff.; Browder,
Foundations
, 87.

100. Wildt,
Generation
, 219f.; Tuchel, ‘Gestapa’, 88f.; Longerich,
Himmler
, 178.

101. Heydrich to Göring, 9 July 1934, Geheimes Preussisches Staatsarchiv, I HA Rep. 90

P 8H2; see, too, Banach,
Elite
, 283; Tuchel, ‘Gestapa’, 90; Wildt,
Generation
, 222; Rudolf

Diels,
Lucifer ante Portas. Es spricht der erste Chef der Gestapo
(Stuttgart, 1950), 415f.

102. Tuchel and Schattenfroh,
Zentrale
, 80; Hans Buchheim, ‘Die SS – Das

Herrschaftsinstrument’, in idem, Martin Broszat, Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Helmut

Krausnick,
Anatomie des SS-Staates
(3rd edn, Munich, 1994), vol. 1, 113–36; Tuchel,

‘Gestapa’, 90; Wildt,
Generation
, 222; Browder,
Foundations
, 115; Longerich,
Himmler
, 184.

103. Elisabeth Kohlhaas, ‘Die Mitarbeiter der regionalen Staatspolizeistellen. Quantitative und

qualitative Befunde zur Personalausstattung der Gestapo’, in Paul and Mallmann (eds),

Gestapo. Mythos und Realität
, 219–35; Browder,
Foundations
, 56.

104. Walter Otto Weyrauch,
Gestapo V-Leute. Tatsachen und Theorie des Geheimdienstes.

Untersuchungen zur Geheimen Staatspolizei während der nationalsozialistischen Herschaft

(Frankfurt am Main, 1989); on the block warden, see Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann,

‘Der “Blockwart”. Die unteren Parteifunktionen im nationalsozialistischen Terror- und

Überwachungsapparat’,
VfZ
48 (2000), 575–602; Gisela Diewald-Kerkmann,
Politische

Denunziation im NS-Regime oder die kleine Macht der ‘Volksgenossen’
(Bonn, 1995).

105. Howard Smith as quoted in Roger Moorhouse,
Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s

Capital, 1939–45
(London, 2010), 227.

106. Gellately,
Gestapo
; Eric A. Johnson,
Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans

(New York, 1999), 392ff.; Reinhard Mann,
Protest und Kontrolle im Dritten Reich.

Nationalsozialistische Herrschaft im Alltag einer rheinischen Grossstadt
(Frankfurt am Main,

1987); Stolle,
Geheime Staatspolizei
, 252ff.; Wildt,
Generation
, 214–62; Richard J. Evans,

‘Coercion and Consent in Nazi Germany’,
Proceedings of the British Academy
151 (2007),

53–81, here 74.

107. Moorhouse,
Berlin
, 224.

108. The image of the Gestapo as an omnipresent and universally intrusive institution was chal-

lenged by Robert Gellately, ‘Allwissend und allgegenwärtig? Entstehung, Funktion und

310

N OT E S to pp. 77–85

Wandel des Gestapo-Mythos’, in Paul and Mallmann (eds),
Gestapo. Mythos und Realität
,

47–70. See, too, idem,
Hingeschaut und weggesehen. Hitler und sein Volk
(Munich, 2002),

67ff.; Carsten Dams and Michael Stolle,
Die Gestapo. Herrschaft und Terror im Dritten Reich

(Munich, 2008); on Heydrich as a ‘propagandist of terror’, see Mallmann, Klaus-Michael

and Paul, Gerhard,
Herrschaft und Al tag. Ein Industrierevier im Dritten Reich
(Bonn, 1991),

164; and Heydrich’s speech on the occasion of the 1941 Day of the German Police, as

quoted in
Völkischer Beobachter
, 17 February 1941; idem, ‘Die deutsche Sicherheitspolizei.

Zum Tag der Deutschen Polizei’,
Völkischer Beobachter
, 28 January 1939.

109. Longerich,
SA
, 184 and 206f.

110. Heinz Höhne,
Mordsache Röhm. Hitlers Durchbruch zur Alleinherrschaft, 1933–1934

(Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1984), 224ff.; Longerich,
SA
, 204ff.; Herbert,
Best
, 141f. After the

purges, the Security Police continued to collect ‘evidence’ to prove the homosexuality of

leading SA members killed during the Night of the Long Knives. See Hamburg Police to

Heydrich, 29 July 1934, in IfZ, Fa 108.

111. Edmund Forschbach,
Edgar J. Jung. Ein Konservativer Revolutionär, 30. Juni 1934

(Pfullingen, 1984), 154ff.

112. Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, 505–17.

113. See the trial testimonies of Karl Wolff (7–8 September) and Werner Best (1 October

1951), and the case against Sepp Dietrich (Munich, July 1956 and May 1957), as quoted

in Browder,
Foundations
, 289, n. 4. For different interpretations, see Höhne,
Orden
,

97–112; Bessel,
Political Violence
, 132f.

114. Post-war testimony of Dr Werner Best (18 June 1951), in IfZ, ZS 207; see, too, Wolfgang

Sauer,
Die Mobilmachung der Gewalt
(Cologne, 1974), 955. On the context, see Höhne,

Mordsache Röhm
, 228f.

115. Aronson,
Frühgeschichte
, 193; Herbert,
Best
, 143f.

116. Evans, ‘Coercion’, 64; Höhne,
Mordsache Röhm
, 247ff.; Richard J. Evans,
The Third Reich in

Power
(London, 2005), 31ff.

117. Yad Vashem Archive, 97–210 F I; Herbert,
Best
, 156.

118. The decline of the family business is documented in Heydrich’s correspondence of the

early 1930s. See BAB, R 58/9319 (formerly ‘Anhang 22’); see, too, Heydrich,

Kriegsverbrecher
, 21f. On the general trends in the music industry, see Tim Blanning,
The

Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians, and their Audiences, 1700 to the Present
(London,

2008), 202.

119. See copies of the letter exchange in BAB, R 58/9319 (formerly annexe 22). Two receipts

for payments of 50 Reichsmarks each, paid on 21 and 23 November 1933, have survived

in Heydrich’s personal papers. See BAB, R 58/9318. On Wolfgang Heindorf ’s SD

employment, see Aronson,
Frühgeschichte
, 62.

120. BAB, R 58/9319 (formerly annexe 22).

121. On Maria’s party membership, see Bruno Heydrich to the magistrate of Halle, 7 July 1933,

in StaH, Akten der Schulverwaltung, 118, vol. II. The letter can be found in BAB, R

58/9319.

122. BAB, BDC, SSO Mehlhorn; on Herbert Mehlhorn and the SD in Saxony, see, too, Carsten

Schreiber,
Elite im Verborgenen. Ideologie und regionale Herrschaftspraxis des Sicherheitsdienstes

der SS und seines Netzwerks am Beispiel Sachsen
(Munich, 2008), 417f.

123. Mehlhorn to Heydrich, 18 December 1933, in BAB, R 58/9319.

124. Reinhard Heydrich to his mother Elisabeth, 29 January 1934, in BAB, R 58/9318;

Heydrich,
Kriegsverbrecher
, 38 and 44.

125. Reinhard Heydrich to his mother, Elisabeth, 29 January 1934, in BAB, R 58/9318.

126. StaH, FA 2571.

127. Heydrich,
Kriegsverbrecher
, 43ff. and 63.

Chapter IV: Fighting the Enemies of the Reich

1. Browder,
Foundations
, 180ff.

2. Walter Nicolai,
Geheime Mächte. Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg

und Heute
(Leipzig, 1923).

N OT E S to pp. 85–93

311

3. Browder,
Foundations
, 180ff.

4. Reinhard Heydrich, ‘Vergiftung des Verhältnisses zwischen Waffenträger der Nation und

Träger der Weltanschauung in Staat und Partei’, January 1935, in IfZ, MA 438, ff. 2374ff.

5. Müller,
Canaris
, 162ff.

6. Heydrich,
Kriegsverbrecher
, 63.

7. See the file collection on Abwehr–Gestapo/SD collaboration in BAB, R 58/242; Browder,

Foundations
, 180ff.

8. Browder,
Foundations
, 148ff.; Horst Duhnke,
Die KPD von 1933 bis 1945
(Cologne, 1972),

194; Stolle,
Geheime Staatspolizei
, 222f.; Johnson,
Terror
, 19ff.; Norbert Frei, ‘Zwischen

Terror und Integration. Zur Funktion der politischen Polizei im Nationalsozialismus’, in

Christoph Dipper, Rainer Hudemann and Jens Petersen (eds),
Faschismus und Faschismen

im Vergleich. Wolfgang Schieder zum 60. Geburtstag
(Cologne, 1998), 217–28.

9. Browder,
Foundations
, 163ff.

10. Longerich,
Himmler
, 209f.; Buchheim et al.,
SS
, 52; Tuchel, ‘Gestapa’, 84.

11. Gellately,
Gestapo
, 59; Browder,
Foundations
, 231ff.

12. Heydrich,
Wandlungen
, 5; Longerich,
Himmler
, 211ff.

13. Heydrich,
Wandlungen
, 14ff; Longerich,
Himmler
, 205.

Other books

Fight to the Finish by Greenland, Shannon
My Lucky Star by Joe Keenan
The Final Page of Baker Street by Daniel D. Victor
Other Lives by Pearlman, Ann
Cheri Red (sWet) by Knight, Charisma
A Perfect Passion by Kay, Piper
The Song Remains the Same by Allison Winn Scotch
The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee