Role of Prominent Individuals to 1939

Question 1

Hitler

Answer 1

• German chancellor in 1933 and Fuhrer (1934-1945)

Question 2

Hermann Göring

Answer 2

• role in the nazis rise to power (Munich Putsch)
• became 2nd most powerful man in Germany
• role in Nazi consolidation of power as 1 of 3 Nazi Cabinet members when Hitler first became Chancellor
• role in purge of SA
• Supreme Commander of Luftwaffe (air defense) and its development (1935-1945)
• role in mobilising all sectors of German Economy for WWII and in 1936 he was appointed to plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan

Question 3

Heinrich Himmler

Answer 3

• lead the SS
• main architect of the ‘Final Solution’
• role in the formation of Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) in 1939
• overseer of the concentration camps, directed the killing of between eleven to fourteen million people including six million jews. Other victims were romani, polish and soviet citiziens.

Question 4

Joseph Goebbels

Answer 4

• Reichminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (1933-1945)
• Promoting anti-semitism and wrote the order for the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses which led to Kristallnacht (November 1938)
• created the ‘Hitler Myth’
• founded ‘Der Angriff’ (the assault) newspaper he founded in 1927 which spread propaganda