and permits for weapons or firearms, 25–26, 208
political police, 66, 102, 112, 113
power to allow possession of firearms, 103–5
and seizure of weapons, 49–50
types of, 99
See also SS; Storm Troopers
political discrimination
in civil service, 65–66
firearm licenses based on loyalty to Nazi regime, 107–9
Jew as “political affiliation” on incident report, 147
Jewish SPD deputy defending his home, 57–58
laws supporting, 23, 26
overview, 45
registration of firearms and disarming politically unreliable, 70–76
repression of political opponents, Jews, and other “enemies of the state,” xv, xx, 49, 53–57, 58–67
by SPD against RFB, 21
in Weimar Republic, 18–19, 23, 27–28, 32, 34
See also racial discrimination
political police, 66, 102, 112, 113
Political Police Commander (Politische Polizeikommandeur) of the Bavarian Interior Ministry, 102, 112
political violence, 21, 25–26, 43, 49–50, 56
Potsdam firearms registration, 35–36, 38, 73
“prerogative state” (Massnahmenstaat), 52–53
Preuss, Hugo, 11–12
proletariat, 9–10
protective custody/preventive detention procedure, 52, 104, 113, 149, 192
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Jewish plan for domination), 116
Prussian Supreme Administrative Court (Oberverwaltungsgericht), 104
public assembly and firearms, 25, 28
Public Order Police (Ordnungspolizei), 99
R
racial discrimination, 57–58, 64–66, 112, 113. See also political discrimination
Red Cross nurses (Rotkreuzschwestern), shooting of, 6
Red Front Combat League (RFB), 11, 21
Reger, Rudolf, 39–40
registration of German people, 67–68, 107, 126–28, 138, 139. See also firearms registration system
Regulation/Decree Against Jews’ Possession of Weapons, 173–75, 176–78
Reich Association of German Gunsmiths and Firearm and Ammunition Dealers (Reichsverband Deutscher Büchsenmacher, Waffen und Munitionshändler), 43, 81
Reich Citizenship Law (1935), 106
Reich Council (Reichsrat), 15–16, 19–20
Reich Court (Reichsgericht), 12, 41, 151–55, 157–58, 182–83
Reich Leadership of German Sports (Reichsführerring des Deutschen Sports), 80
Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt), 138–39
Reichman, Hans, 159–61, 161n, insert–5
Reich National Socialist organization for shooting clubs, 119
Reich Party Day, insert–7
Reich Regional Court (Landgericht), 123–24
Reich Registration Order (January 6, 1938), 138
Reichsbanner paramilitary group, 11, 12, 22, 40, 55–57, 60–61
Reichskristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)
aftermath, 168–71
fear of search, 196
foreign reactions to, 171
Grynszpan shooting of Vom Rath as excuse for, 118, 155–57, 161–62, 162–63, 175–76, insert–6
Himmler’s decrees, 168, 169–75
instigation/excuse for, 118
Jewish foreign nationals in Germany, 198
Jews’ required to pay for damage, 179–80
Jews with weapons attempting to comply, 192–95
Nazi planning for, 155, 155n, 161–62, 164
orders for treatment of Jews, 166–68
overview, xv, xxii, 163–64, 183, 185, 187
resistance to, 197–98
searches on, 187–92
Reich sport commissar (Reichssportkommissar/Reichssportführer), 80
Reich Sport Office (Reichsbund für Leibesübungen), 121
Reich sports führer (Reichssportführer), 119–20
Reichswehr (German army), 5–7, 22, 40–41, 100. See also Wehrmacht
Reign of Terror and Boxheim plan, 30
“Report Concerning Political Incident”
Adler arrest, 151–53, 154–55, 157, insert–4
Flatow arrest, 146–49, 153–54, 155, 157
Gold arrest, 150–51, 154, 155
Reichmann arrest, insert–5
Reppen, Germany, 70–73
resistance
armed Jews, 211–12, 213–14
Aryans helping Jews, 211
death penalty for, 166–67, 212–13
from Federalists, 51
Hitler–Frick Weapons Law on, 132, 134
Hitler’s plan for, 208
overview, 13, 203, 216–17
plot to kill Hitler, 31, 139, 205, 215–16
reasons for lack of, 9, 50, 101, 160, 172–73, 185, 198, 210–11, 214–15
Reichskristallnacht, 68, 196
to Reichskristallnacht, 197–98
White Rose student group, 208–9
and World War II, 206
See also Gisevius, Hans Bernd
rights to free speech and assembly, 21
right to bear arms, 44
Rolle, Werner, 113–14
Rollkommandos (wrecking crews), 172
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 171
Rubber Truncheon (Langhoff), 97–99
Rumania, 129
S
SA. See Storm Troopers
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, 161
Sackett, Frederic M., 40
Salter, Günther, 138–39
Sauckel, Fritz, 109–10
Saurma, Tony, 216
Saxon minister of foreign affairs, 87–88
Saxony, 112
Schaeffer, Fritz, 51
Schäfer, Hermann, 29, 30
Schiller, Friedrich, 117, 197
Schindler, Oskar, 214
Schlabrendorff, Fabian von, 216
Schleicher, Kurt von, 43–44
Schmitz, Wilhelm, 114
Scholl, Hans, 209
Scholl, Sophie, 209
Schumann, Karl, insert–4
Schützenfest (traditional shooting club event), 121
Sebastian (Roman archer), 120
Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution, xvi, xviii
Second Decree Implementing the Law Concerning the Change in Family Names (August 17, 1938), 139
Secret State Police. See Gestapo
Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei), 99. See also Gestapo
Security Service of the Reich SS Leader (Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS), 99
Seelow, Germany, 76
Semelin, Jacques, 214
“September crisis,” 160
Severing, Carl, 20–21, 43
shock troop (Stoßtrupp Hitler), 166, 168–69
Shooting Association for Free Cologne Sauerland (Schützenbund für das kurkölnische Sauerland), 121–22
shooting or touring clubs
firearm license exceptions for, 34
and Führerprinzip, 80–81
Gestapo power over, 203–4
hunting and sporting arms, 41–43, 124, 125–26, 180
license revocations, 66
and Nazi firearms law amendments, 86–87
and Nazi Gleichschaltung policy, 79–81, 119–22
restrictions on, 6, 16–17, 33
seizure of firearms, 57, 59–60
shooting societies in Northeim, Germany, 59–60
Simson, Arthur, 109–10
Simson & Co., Thuringia, 109–10
Simson, Julius, 109–10
Sinzheimer family, 192–93
Social Democrat Party. See German Social Democrat Party
socialism. See National Socialism
Sohn (Jew prosecuted for forbidden weapons possession), 153, 155, 182–83
Soldin, Germany, 74
Solmitz, Friedrich, 193
Solmitz, Luise, 193–94
Sophie Scholl (
film), 209
Sorau, Germany, 75
Spartacists, 4
Spartacist Uprising, German Communist Party, 4
SPD. See German Social Democrat Party
Special Deployment Forces (Einsatzgruppen), 212–13
sporting organizations, 79–81. See also shooting or touring clubs
Spremberg, Germany, 70, 75, 76
SS (Schutzstaffel)
and Decree for the Surrender of Weapons, 60–61
division for registering the Jews, 126
Göring’s arming and use of, 51
Hindenburg’s ban of, 41
overview, 61
as police, 51, 54–56
treatment of prisoners in concentration camps, 97–99
Stahlhelm (Steel Helmets)
criticism of regime, 98, 100
and Decree for the Surrender of Weapons, 60–61
Göring’s arming and use of, 51
Hindenburg as member of, 28
Hitler’s abolition of, 61, 66
overview, 11, 61
as police, 51, 54–56, 63
and prisoner treatment in concentration camps, 98
and SA, 100
Stapo. See Gestapo
Star of David on Jews’ clothing, 209–10
Stauffenberg, Claus von, 215–16
Steel Helmets. See Stahlhelm
Stettin Stapo, 111–12
St. Lambertus-Schützen Kalterherberg shooting club, 122
Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung, SA)
on acquiring weapons during ban, 8
and Communists, 40
and Decree for the Surrender of Weapons, 60–61
Göring’s arming and use of, 51
Hindenburg’s ban of, 41
increasing power of, 22
orders for treatment of Jews, 166–67
overview, 61
as police, 51, 54–56
and Stahlhelm, 100
Stuttgart, Germany, 50–51, 200
Sudetenland, 160, 174, 178
Supreme Court (Kammergericht), 92
Switzerland, xviii, 115–19, 165
T
Tell, William, 116, 117, 197
Teltow and Brandenburg Province firearms registration, 37–38
Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, 149–50
Thuringia arms makers, 42, 81, 84–85, 88
Time magazine, 30
“Time of the Ghetto Has Come” (Völkische Boebachter), 65
Tschammer und Osten, Hans von, 80
Tydings, Joseph, xviin
U
unions and Nazis, 55–56, 64
United Nations, on gun control laws, xiv–xv
U.S. Congress, xiii, xiiin
U.S. Constitution, Second Amendment, xii, xiv
U.S. Supreme Court, xviii
V
Vassiltchikov, 216
Versailles Treaty, 5–7, 10, 15, 44
Völkische Boebachter (Nazi newspaper)
on Communist snipers, 54
on decree against Jews owning weapons, 176–78
firearms seizure operation in Berlin, insert–2
on Hitler–Frick Weapons Law, 136
on Jews forbidden to possess weapons, insert–7
on Nazi raid on Jewish quarter in Berlin, 65
Volksgemeinschaftsgedanken (common mentality among the people), 121. See also Gleichschaltung
Vom Rath, Ernst, 118, 155–57, 161, 163, 175–76, insert–6
Von Everstein, Friedrich Karl Freiherr, 168
Von Keudell, Walter, 16
W
Wagner, Adolf, 166
Wannsee Protocol, 149
Warsaw ghetto uprising, 213–14
wealth discrimination, 42–43
weapons
collection after World War I, 3–7, 11–13
for thrusting, slashing, and striking, 38–39, 125, 136, 173–74, 177
See also entries beginning with “firearm”
Weapons Possession Decree (1919), 4–5, 11–12, 28
Wehrmacht (German army), 107, 128. See also Reichswehr
Weiler, Otto, 160
Weimar Constitution, 32, 51–53
Weimar Republic
birth of, 3
and election of 1928, 20
end of, 43–44
hand gun registration, xv
intent of firearms laws, 15
overview, xxi, 44–45
Weapons Possession Decree, 4–5, 11–12, 28
See also Law on Firearms and Ammunition of 1928
Weingärtner, Herman, insert–4
Weise, Edmund, 148, 150, 154
Wessel, Horst, 22
Wesslen, Erik, 211
Westhavelland firearms registration, 36
Westphalian Homeland Association (Westfaelischer Heimatbund), 121, 122
Westphalian Stapo, 121
White Rose (Weiße Rose), 208–9
Wildt, Michael, 100
Willers, Wilhelm, 55
William Tell (Schiller), 117, 197
Wilson, Hugh, 171
Wirth, Joseph, 28
Wittenberge municipality, Germany, 74
World War I
collection of weapons after, 3–7, 11–13
Jewish soldiers killed in, 132–33, 133n
Jews’ with side arms related to, 154, 184, 193, 195
medals and honors held by Jews, 193, 194
World War II, xiv, xviii, 206
Württemberg Interior Minister, 86–87
About the Author
STEPHEN P. HALBROOK is Research Fellow at The Independent Institute. He received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University, and he has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and Tuskegee Institute. The winner of several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on Bill of Rights guarantees, he has testified before committees in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on issues involving federalism and constitutional rights, and on nominations for Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice.
Dr. Halbrook’s previous books involving Nazi Germany, which were also published in German, French, and other foreign language editions, include:
The Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich
Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II (winner of two book awards)
His other books have been recognized in decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts, including:
The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms
Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms
That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right
A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees
Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice
Dr. Halbrook has also contributed to numerous legal and scholarly journals and the popular media, and he has appeared on many national TV and radio programs. For more information, see http://www.stephenhalbrook.com.
Praise for Gun Control in the Third Reich
“With Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook has written an important and disturbing book. It provides a timely reminder that self-defense and the right to bear arms are fundamental human rights.”
—Robert J. Cottrol, Professor of Law, History, and Sociology and Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law, George Washington University; author, The Long, Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and Law in the American Hemisphere
“Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook’s excellent history of gun control in Germany, shows that, motives notwithstanding, removing weapons from the general population always disarms society vis-à-vis its worst elements. In Germany the authorities tried to deal with the Nazi and Communist mobs that were shaking society’s foundations indirectly, by disarming ordinary people. But their cowardice e
nded up delivering a helpless population to the Nazis’ tender mercies. Halbrook’s richly documented history leads Americans to ask why those among us who decry violence in our society choose to try tightening the vise on ordinary citizens’ capacity to defend themselves rather than to constrain the sectors of society most responsible for the violence.”
—Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Boston University; author, Informing Statecraft, War: Ends and Means (with Paul Seabury), The Character of Nations, and Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History
“What good would private arms do against a totalitarian state? That won’t remain an unanswerable rhetorical challenge for readers of Stephen Halbrook’s calm, detailed scholarly book, Gun Control in the Third Reich. As Halbrook shows, Nazi leaders went to great lengths to extend the gun control laws they inherited from the Weimar Republic. They were obsessed with disarming Jews and other designated public enemies. Potential resistance was not only physically disabled. It was morally and psychologically disarmed. Evil then became irresistible in Germany, not because it was fueled by fanaticism but because it was shielded by fatalism.”
—Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
“‘The devil is in the details’ as the British note. Stephen Halbrook’s excellent and deeply researched book, Gun Control in the Third Reich, has revealed the anticipation of Nazi gun control techniques in Weimar attempts to control incipient civil war between Nazis and Communists. In a conservative country replete with WWI veterans, racked with unemployment and wrecked with ideological struggles among the extreme Left, the list of potential victims proliferated among whom unarmed Jews had top priority. They had been quickly disarmed by the Nazis using Weimar laws. Only armed peasants and urban refugees in the mountains and forests in the perimeters of the Reich could resist the Nazi juggernaut until saved by Allied armies. History does indeed provide important lessons for contemporary debates, and Halbrook’s important research should inform our contemporary debate on gun control.”
—Steven B. Bowman, Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati; Miles Lerner Fellow, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; whose books include Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece, The Holocaust in Salonika, The Agony of Greek Jews 1940–1945, and The Straits of Hell: The Chronicle of a Salonikan Jew in the Nazi Extermination Camps Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Melk, Ebensee
“Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook’s extensively documented account of gun control under Nazi Germany, shows how gun control was used to keep guns out of the ‘wrong’ hands, mainly Jews. Much of the discussion these days regarding registration focuses on the claimed ability to trace crime guns. There might be no evidence of registration’s success in doing that, but Halbrook slams home the success that registration had in tracing the guns of law-abiding politically undesirable citizens, so-called ‘enemies of the people.’ Americans in even modern cities such as New York can see how discretionary licensing on who can own guns keeps blacks from owning guns, but Germany paints a picture of how discretion was used to disarm Jews and others considered undesirable. Among the many chilling discussions is how German Jews were systematically disarmed just weeks before the Night of the Broken Glass (Reichskristallnacht). Ultimately, however, just as Americans have recently learned about their IRS tax records, Halbrook shows that no one can really guarantee promises that information on gun registration will never be abused.”
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