ALEXANDER KIMEL - HOLOCAUST UNDERSTANDING & PREVENTION

Webster defines revolution as replacing one form a government, or social system with another. Hitler's coming to power drastically revolutionized the German state. Nevertheless the initial changes, introduced by Hitler, were minimal compared with the changes introduced by Himmler, when he created his totalitarian state. By creating a totalitarian state, based on an extensive network of concentration camps and the expansion of the S.S. into an all-encompassing organization, the Nazi revolution was hijacked.

In Nazi Germany, the power was concentrated into the hands of the Nazi Paladins, who like feudal overlords controlled segments of the national life. One area of responsibility that was not assigned to any satrap was the Jewish policy. This was the most rewarding area in terms of finding access to the Fuhrer and reaping the awards by plundering the Jewish properties. There was strong competition between the Nazi elite to get control over the Jews: in 1938 it was Goebbels the propaganda minister that organized the pogrom of the Kristalnight, Ley was also known as a Jew baiter. The easiest way for advancing in the Nazi hierarchy was the initiation of anti-Jewish measures.

The execution of the Final Solution gave the duo Himmler-Heydrich the opportunity to gain Hitler's support and amass a tremendous amount of power. By creating the powerful S.S. organization, they created a state within a state, and imposed on the German people a system based on cruelty, and complete control of the individual by the S.S. State. The playing on Hitler's Judeo-phobia. enabled Himmler the hijacking of the Nazi revolution.

In 1942 some Nazi circles realized the dangerous development and started, to late, to fight this development. Hans Frank, the legal adviser to Fuhrer, realized that the Nazi revolution has been hijacked by Himmler and his S.S. organization, and warned the German people. On June 1942 Frank declared in Berlin:

"Without law - or contrary to law- no German Reich is conceivable. A people cannot be ruled by force, a community without law is unthinkable . . . It is intolerable that the State should be able to deprive a member of the community of honor, liberty, life and property, declare him an outlaw and condemn him . . . "

In Vienna University he declared on July 1, 1942:

" I shall continue to assert with all the force at my command, that it would be bad if the Police State were to be presented as ideal of National-Socialism . . . in no circumstance can a State be endangered by being humane . . . Even in wartime, a mode of life based on the rule of law is important for the development of the community . . . force alone cannot make the State strong. Brutality is never synonymous with strength. "

Hitler himself was aware of this state of affairs, and it looks like that he purposely nominated Heydrich as the Protector of Czechoslovakia, to break up the duo. Without Heydrich's brains Himmler was not threatening.

It is interesting to note that only in 1936 Dr. Hans Frank, then Commissioner of Justice and Reich Law Leader, told the German Jurists that the National Socialist ideology is the foundation of all basic laws, explaining:

" There is no independence of law against National Socialism. Say to yourself at every decision which you make: " How would the Fuhrer decide in my place?" In every decision ask yourselves : " Is the decision compatible with the National Socialist conscience of the German people ?"

Conclusions

Anti-Semitism enabled Hitler to gain power, while his Judeo-phobia enabled Himmler the creation of the SS state, that maintained Hitler in power.

kimel@systec.com