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10. MILITARIZATION OF NAZI ORGANIZATIONS:

A. The Nazi conspirators placed many of their organizations on a progressively militarized footing with a view to the rapid transformation and use of such organizations as instruments of war.

(1) The Schutzstaffeln (SS). The SS was militarized beginning in March 1933, when special, volunteer, armed units were created consisting of full-time garrisoned troops. These units, which rapidly grew in strength, were a part neither of the Wehrmacht, nor of the police, but were exclusively at the disposal of the Fuehrer. This militarization of the SS was in accordance with Nazi policy. (For documentation and further discussion see Chapter XV, Section 5.)

(2) The Sturmabteilung (SA). The SA was founded in 1921 as a para-military organization to fight political enemies of the Nazis. After the accession of the Nazis to power, the SA was used to provide pre-military training at a time when the Reichswehr was legally limited to a strength of 100,000 men. Thus the SA, from its inception, had a military purpose, which was carried out and gradually increased in scope. (For documentation and further discussion see Chapter XV, Section 4.)

(3) The Hitler Jugend (HJ). One of the chief purposes of the Hitler Jugend was to provide for military training of German youth at a very early age. As early as 1933, the HJ entered into a secret program of extensive pre-military training for German youth in conjunction with the SA and the Wehrmacht. In addition to general military training, members of the HJ were given specialized training in various types of military units, such as flying units, naval units, motorized units, signal units, etc. (For documentation and further discussion, see (4) The Nation Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). The original NSKK was founded under the name of NSAK (National Socialist Automobile Corps) on 1 April 1930 by Hitler, who joined as its first member. By the end of 1931 it had a membership of approximately 10,000, as compared to 300 at the beginning of that year (2804-PS). In 1934 the motorized Hitler Jugend and the motorized SA were placed under the NSKK. Hitler, on 23 August of that year, decreed that:

"the NSAK and the motorized SA are from now on welded together into a unit called NSKK. The NSKK is directly subordinate to me". (2804-PS)

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Thus the NSKK was elevated to the position of an independent affiliated unit of the NSDAP, similar to the SA and the SS. The membership of the enlarged NSKK grew rapidly.

The military purpose of the NSKK is evident from the following statement from The Organizationbuch der NSDAP (1940):

"The young driver who has received his training in the six-week courses of the NSKK will be well prepared in body and spirit when the time comes for his military service, and will wear with pride the dress of the Armed Forces of the Nation." (2320-B-PS)

The program of militarization proceeded rapidly:

"More than one-third of all leaders and men of the NSKK, which had in the meantime grown to a membership of 350,000, were already active in the fight for power *** Thus, the NSKK had in its ranks, in addition to the proud tradition of the period of our fight, also that of the World War. This front spirit and experience of a generation matured to manhood in the barrage, in the battles of attrition, in the battles of the Freikorps, and in the heroic fight of National Socialism for Germany's rebirth, is passed on to our youth as a sacred heritage." (2804-PS)

The training given to NSKK members was intended to furnish seasoned recruits for the Nazi military forces.

"Military motorized training of our youth is the cardinal task of the educational work of the NSKK. Here it collaborates most closely with the bearer of the arms of the Reich, the Wehrmacht, and it has done so already throughout the years before the seizure of power. The demands and needs of the Army, which continuously grew in scope after the awakening of our Nation and after our regained military freedom also caused the tasks and the work of the NSKK in the field of military motorized training to grow correspondingly *** By order of the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, the NSKK has been given charge of the pre-military training of the entire young reserve of the motorized troop units of our Army in addition to post-military training." (2804-PS)

NSKK-trained men were intended to be assimilated into Reich Panzer units.

"Well prepared physically and spiritually, the young German man who has now become a motorized soldier, can serve with a motorized or partially-motorized unit of the Army. To become a tank soldier is his only ambition." (2804-PS)

The NSKK was actually used for military purposes.

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"The men of the NSKK have considerably contributed to the liberation of the Sudetenland by the Fuehrer and have thus gained undying merit, not only for the Germans in the Sudetenland, but for the entire German people as a whole." (2804-PS)

Further evidence of actual military use of the NSKK is given in the following passage from "Deutschland m Kampf" written by Mnisterildirigent A. J. Berndt of the Reich Propaganda Ministry and Lt. Col. von Wedel of the German Army High Command, in the issue of June 1940:

"The NSKK is playing a decisive part in the carrying out of considerable war-important tasks on the Inner Front, one of which is traffic. * * Among the tasks of the NSKK are pre-military training, education, and schooling and motorized transport. Thus, for instance, the conducting of the entire transport system of the TODT Organization on the West Wall and the traffic in the-Western War Theater are in the hands of the NSKK." (2810-PS)

(5) The National Socialist Aviation Corps (NSFK). The NSFK was another organization affiliated with the NSDAP used by the Nazi conspirators for military purposes. It was the great training school for the Luftwaffe.

"In the endeavor to assure for the German Luftwaffe a numerically strong and well prepared reserve, and to strengthen in the German people the conviction that Germany must retain its head-start in all spheres of aviation, the NSFK was founded by the Fuehrer on 17 April 1937 ***.

"The NSFK at the time of its creation, was given the following tasks by the Reichsmarshal:

"1. Pre-military aviation training of the new blood for the Luftwaffe.

"2. The keeping in training of the reservists of the aviation troops.

"3. The combining and directing of all German air sports.

"4. Promotion and extension of the aviation idea among the German people.

"These tasks are so great that the cooperation of tens of thousands of active members is necessary to make carrying them out possible, so that the Luftwaffe may be able at any time to count on their fulfillment according to plan." (2811-PS)

The original plaintext version of part one or part two of this file is available via ftp.

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