During the Holocaust, bureaucracy played a large role within the Nazi Regime. Bureaucracy is a form of government that works through a chain of command hierarchy deriving from a high officials decision. The Nazi Regime had a structure for the specific purpose to remedy inefficiencies and exterminate Jews. The importance in Nazi Germany’s bureaucratic structure remained the basis for everything; everything went through the system. The Nazi’s bureaucratic structure was important in developing efficient methods of execution through loyal and strategic gatherings such as the Wannsee Conference, through the Nazi chains of command and extensive detail.
The Nazi bureaucratic system was the prime catalyst for finding solutions to problems the party
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The Nazi bureaucratic state in its entirety is responsible. However with the efficient chain of command the Nazis had in place provided a sense of no fault for anyone who participated. The Nazi’s extensive critical planning in immense detail helped the Nazi Regime prevail. Their research provided for an innovated war effort to benefit the Nazi goal of racial purification. The Nazi’s bureaucratic structure greatly enhanced their development of newer means of mass killings as well as efficient bureaucratic practices. The high officials signed the documents to instate the mass gassings, followed by their efficient bureaucratic practice. The hiccups the Nazis encountered were towards the end of the war when America entered the war and after the war when the Nuremburg trials occurred where Nazis were tried for conducting genocide. The Nazi structural system was efficient on both ends of the bureaucracy; the high ranked officials gave orders and through the chain everyone followed through with what was ordered on down for the final result. Everything that occurred can be traced back to the Nazi bureaucratic structure and how they established an efficient process to finalize decisions. Bureaucratic efficiency was a strong catalyst for the Nazis during their extermination process of the Jews and other prisoners. Throughout the course of the Holocaust, there were many policies passed and redefined structure put in place to ensure the Nazi goals were met. The Wannsee Conference and invention of Zyklon B were superlative examples of how well their bureaucratic structure worked. As a result, the Nazi’s were capable and accomplished inciting devastation while keeping the blame from one single
The main political changes that the Nazi Party or the NSDAP endured during the period of November, 1923 until January 1933 was its rise from a small extreme right party to a major political force. It is vitally important that the reasons behind this rise to power also be examined, to explain why the NSDAP was able to rise to the top. However first a perspective on the Nazi party itself is necessary to account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party.
Most can agree that one of the biggest catastrophes in the world. Though no one bothers to ask who was responsible. The most common response is that Hitler was the perpetrator, which is true to a degree but the responsibility isn't his and only his. There were many chances for people to help Jewish people in their time of need but nothing was done. It’s easy to say that measures should have been taken to protects the Jews though when it came to act on them many were bystanders. Many of these bystanders unfortunately included Americans, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish people themselves and lastly the Germans.
The government of Nazi Germany greatly resembled the Party, the government in 1984. Both operated similarly and had similar aims. Anything either government did was an action for maintaining power. Both the Nazis and the Party maintained similar ideologies, controlled mass media, educated children in their beliefs, had a secret police force, and had forced labor camps. Both governments used each of these methods maintain power and control over the people.
One of the key criteria of a totalitarian government is that there is complete control over the economy. However, within Nazi Germany there was never all-encompassing state ownership over the economy. In fact, Hitler never placed importance on the ‘socialist’ aspect of NSDAP ideology. He did not believe in state ownership or redistribution of wealth, and he allowed capitalism and big business thrive in the Third Reich, as they were necessary for the revitalisation of Germany’s economy. Moreover, the Nazi State was not the extremely rigid political structure it appeared to be. While, Hitler himself was very secure in his position as Fuhrer, below him the political structure was quite chaotic. In terms of government agencies, there was not much direction from the top, as they were instructed to interpret the will of the Fuhrer and then enact it. Moreover, there was a large amount of overlap and inefficiency, while solidifying Hitler’s position, generally weakened the ability to rule over people. Finally, below Hitler, there was a lot of infighting in attempt to gain greater power and favor from Hitler. Similar to the inefficiencies created by overlap, this created inefficiency and weakened the ability to have totalitarian
The debate as to whether Hitler was a ‘weak dictator’ or ‘Master of the Third Reich’ is one that has been contested by historians of Nazi Germany for many years and lies at the centre of the Intentionalist – Structuralist debate. On the one hand, historians such as Bullock, Bracher, Jackel and Hildebrand regard Hitler’s personality, ideology and will as the central locomotive in the Third Reich. Others, such as Broszat, Mason and Mommsen argue that the regime evolved out from pressures and circumstances rather than from Hitler’s intentions. They emphasise the institutional anarchy of the regime as being the result of Hitler’s ‘weak’ leadership. The most convincing standpoint is the synthesis of the two schools, which acknowledges both Hitler’s centrality in explaining the essence of Nazi rule but also external forces that influenced Hitler’s decision making. In this sense, Hitler was not a weak dictator as he possessed supreme authority but as Kershaw maintains, neither was he ‘Master of the Third Reich’ because he did not exercise unrestricted power.
Despite the judgments that were responsible for compensating the international community in terms of done damages to humanity on behalf of the Holocaust, the leading role of certain members who actively participated in the national Socialist movement led by Adolf Hitler is seen with suspicion even among academics and history buffs due to the new ways of torture and murder ever recorded throughout history up to that time.
To Weber’s critics and supporters alike, the Holocaust serves as an example of the negative consequences of the means based reality of bureaucracy. To further explore this assertion, the mid-twentieth century mass genocide can be evaluated with both an ends-based rationality and Weber’s means-based rationality.
The National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi party, originated during the 1920s. Formerly, the Nazi Party’s main purpose was to abolish communism. However, ...
...er really became unmanageable for the regime. The mixed strategies of propaganda and incentives, food on the table when it was most required and Gestapo surveillance for the most part ensured the compliance of the working class in public." From M.Housden 'Germans and their opposition to the Third Reich'
Some questions people wondered were if the Holocaust was intentional by Adolph Hitler. Intentionalism is when you do something purposely, or when wanting to harm something or someone; it is intentional. “Moreover, some functionalist theories tend to normalize Nazism by suggesting that its leaders stumbled into the most extreme criminal behavior” (Wistich 223). Some believe that the holocaust was not simply the result of directives from Berlin but of an interaction between the center and an increasingly radicalized periphery. “The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in January 1933” (Concentration Camps). A chancellor is a prime minister of state in certain governments, as in Germany. Some concentration camps were in the process of being built and some were already built before WWII started. During the war, the number of camps rapidly increased in Germany. “Conrad Gröber, archbishop of Fribourg, informed the people on the 14th of June, 1932 about the massacres of Jews being perpetrated by the Einsatzgruppenin, Russia” (Wistich 130).
The man responsible for the Holocaust was Adolf Hitler and his Nazi war-machine. As an Austrian born soldier-turned-politician, Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the racial supremacy of the German people. He was also a very bitter, very evil little man.
Through the manipulation of information and people the Nazi party succeeded in making the German people complicit in their plans. By surrounding everyone with the same ideas and ideals independent thought was effectively removed and the only choice was an acceptance of the Nazi’s and an acceptance of their beliefs. Film and radio showed the people what to think and the ‘Hitler myth’ bred by Goebbels gave them someone to lead, it was not until the war had ended and Germany was exposed to the world once more that it was possible how far from their principles they had erred.
After World War II the world began to here accounts of the atrocities and crimes committed by the Nazi’s to the Jews and other enemies of the Nazis. The international community wanted answers and called for the persecution of the criminals that participated in the murder of millions throughout Europe. The SS was responsible for playing a leading role in the Holocaust for the involvement in the death of millions of innocent lives. Throughout, Europe concentration camps were established to detain Jews, political prisoners, POW’s and enemies of the Third Reich. The largest camp during World War II was Auschwitz under the command of SS Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess; Auschwitz emerged as the site for the largest mass murder in the history of the world. (The, 2005)
With a combination of poor leadership on the Weimar Government’s behalf, the signing of the hated Treaty of Versailles and an unattractive economic situation, Hitler, using his charismatic personality, was able to convince the majority of the public to resort to the extremist nazi party. There are many other factors that influenced the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism; In every case, however, Hitler’s manipulative skills and sophisticated behavior towards circumstances lead to the success of the Nazi Party. By successfully manipulating the above set of circumstances, Hitler was able to cause to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party.
...overy, and return to the prewar economic atmosphere they had been used to. All of these factors together were far too much to expect a very strong, well-organized party with popular support to deal with. Unfortunately, the fact that there was no strong, organized and well-liked party to take control made matters even worse. After years of stagnant policy making, and very little change, it is no wonder the people turned to something new, and something that promised to make things change. It is truly unfortunate for human kind, that this party happened to be the Nazi Party.