Hitlers Political

Enemies

First Political Opponents

• The first political of Hitler were the Communists, Social Democrats, Democrats

• Hitler targeted first the Communist then the same night he went after the Social Democrats and Democrats.

Communist

• The Communist Party of Germany was controlled by Moscow, Russia.

• They were the largest party in Germany until the Nazi Party was built.

Communists

• Hitler first targeted the Communist when the Reichstag building caught on fire.

• He ordered the Nazis to that same night that the Communist must be hanged or killed tonight.

• That same night the Nazis shot and hanged Communist, shot Communist deputies, and locked up their friends.

Ernest Thalmann

• Became elected to the Reichstag in 1920 by the Communist Party2 and lost the election to Hitler in 1932.

• He was arrested and imprisoned in March 3rd, 1933.

• Ernest was executed in Buchenwald Concentration Camp on 18th August 1944.

Social Democrats

• The Social Democratic Party continued to be the largest party in Germany until July 1932 when the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) gained more seats.

• The SDP voted against the Enabling Act in March, 1933, which gave Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers. The Nazi Party banned the SDP in June 1933 and most of its leaders were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Kurt Schumacher • In August 1932 he was elected to the

SPD leadership group; at age 38 • Schumacher was arrested in July and

was severely beaten in prison, making his disabilities even worse. He spent the next ten years in concentration camps at Heuberg, Kuhberg, Flossenbürg and Dachau

• In 1943, when Schumacher was near death, his brother-in-law succeeded in persuading a Nazi official to have him released into his custody. He was arrested again in late 1944, and he was still in Neuengamme concentration camp when the British arrived in April 1945.

Video of Hitler’s Speech

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeGL4DJs7qg&feature=related