Introductory to Nazi Soldiers

During the second world war, Germany was taken over by the new Third Reich, the Nazis. They believed they could and would make a new superior race of Germans, the Aryans. Also, their overall goal was world domination. They needed soldiers that would represent Nazi Germany and fight for their causes. This was when they made the main sections of their armed forces. The Gestapo, the SS, and the Wehrmacht were the different sections for the Nazis. Each of them had a seperate role that they had to fight for and accomplish. In this blog, I will explain what they did, why they did it and how they did it. In all, Nazi Germany's armed forces was a well laid out plan that was put into action during the 1930s and 1940s.

Wehrmacht

To begin with, the Wehrmacht were the main base of the Nazis' force. They made up the Army (Heer), Navy (Kriegsmarine) and the Air Force (Luftwaffe). They were the just the common soldiers in the war, and served no special purpose or objective except to win the war. Every section of the Nazis had their own symbol. The Wehrmacht's symbol was the iron cross. In the beginning of World War II, the Wehrmacht consisted of 24,000 officers and 2.7 million soldiers. During the middle, 13,555,000 soldiers were serving for Germany. By the end of the war, 18.2 million had served between 1935-1945. All of those soldiers had to be commanded by someone. Their chief in command was Adolf Hitler and senior officers, such as Walter von Reichenan. In charge of the certain sections of the Wehrmacht were the Oberkammandos. They were groups that were in supreme command of the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Heer and overall Wehrmacht. The OKW was supreme of armed forces, OKH was supreme of the Army, OKM is supreme of Navy, and the OKL is supreme of the Air Force. Some other facts about the Wehrmacht was the the average soldier carried a stick grenade, kar98k and gas mask for the various poison gases they may encounter. Overall, the Wehrmacht were the determined common soldiers ready to fight for their country and win the war on the front lines.

Schutzstaffeln

The next series of German soldiers during WWII was the SS (Schutzstaffeln) or "protection squads". They started off only being Hitler's personal bodyguards in 1925. Later they became the most powerful organization in Germany when they were under control of Heinrich Himmler in 1929. There was a few sections of the SS during the war and they all had their own role to play. In 1939, they seperated in two groups, Waffen (Armed) SS and Allgemeine (General) SS. Under the Waffen SS, there was the regular Waffen- SS, which was like a second army. Death's Head SS who ran concentration camps, and their role was to execute Jews and other civilians. The most notorious atrocities were made by the Einsatzgruppen. They were a mobile unit of SS that were attached to the Wehrmacht. Relentlessly, the Einsatzgruppen were responsible for 900,000 civilian deaths in the Soviet Union. If you were back in Nazi Germany and wanted to join the SS, you had to be a true aryan. Blond hair, blue eyes and only from German blood were all the ss soldiers. Throughout the war, SS soldiers were feared by the prisoners in concentration camps to the front lines to following the army and finishing off all the Soviet citizens.

Gestapo

The last group of Nazi soldiers in WWII were the Gestapo. They were the Secret State Police or the Geheime Staatspoliezei. As well as being leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler was also the chief of the Gestapo police. Throughout the war, there was 46,000 members. From 1937-1938 special Gestapo-SD units were trained to terrify and Nazify foreign countries. They soon became the main instrument of regime's Anti-Jewish policies. Their main roles were persecuting Jews, enslavement, and playing a major role in "The Final Solution". They find hiding Jews and do research to find any Jewish background in civilians and persecute them. During the war, they also suppressed partisan activities in their territories and committed reprisals against civilians. Overall, the Gestapo were meant for finding the Jews to put in camps and any treason commited to the Nazis.

Concluding Nazi Soldiers

From the first World War, had evolved into something way more powerful and organized. They were more sophisticated and advanced. Yet still their dreams of world domination had crumbled down into nothing as the war came to an end. Every section did their part but it just wasn't enough to pull through. From the beginning, the Nazi regime was very laid out with certain ideas and hopes signed to each type of soldier. Although they did fail, the Nazi solider were dedicated and devoted soldiers to their country and roles.