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1934: Triumph of the Will
 pg. 83 
 
The Führer offers a paternal embrace to a circle of Bavarian children. Nazi propaganda pictured Hitler as both a strong leader and a gentle and protective guide. The Nazi caption to this photo read: "One always sees the Führer surrounded by children in pictures."
Photo: Richard Freimark/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
Nazi scientists developed this kit, which contained 29 samples of human hair. The samples were used by geneticists, anthropologists, and doctors to determine ancestry. Hair color also became a means to prove the supposed superiority of Aryans and the inferiority of Jews, Gypsies, and those of Àmixed breeds.À
Photo: Institut für Humangenetik der Universität Göttingen/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
The SS

For Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, the extermination of the Jews was a "moral right," an "historical task," and "a page of glory in German history."

The SS became the chief instrument of Nazi terror, as well as the carrier of its racial ideals. Officially known as the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squad), the organization came into being in 1925, as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Once Hitler appointed Himmler to head the SS, in 1929, it rose beyond its bodyguard role and developed into a Party police.

Subordinate to the much larger SA until the so-called "Blood Purge" in 1934, the black-shirted SS expanded dramatically from a few hundred Germans in 1929 to almost a quarter-million by the beginning of the war ten years later. Controlling all police forces, the SS pursued domestic enemies of the Nazi Party and assumed responsibility for the "Final Solution." Membership was selective and based on racial criteria. Aryan racial purity was demanded even of prospective SS brides.

Himmler developed his forces into an elite brotherhood, complete with cult-like rituals and Teutonic symbols of a sacred order. Dabbling in an obscure occultism, he believed himself to be the reincarnation of a medieval German king who had conquered eastern territories.

 September 1934: In Denmark, a collaborationist SS organization, National Socialistike Ungdom (National Socialist Youth), is established.
 September 4-10, 1934: A massive Nazi Party Congress is staged at Nuremberg.
 September 24, 1934: The Nazis establish Verfügungstruppen (Militarized Standby Troops) as part of the SS. In wartime, the Verfügungstruppen will serve as conventional troops under the Wehrmacht.
 September 27, 1934: Hoping to deter Hitler's expansionist goals, Great Britain, France, and Italy declare support for the independence of Austria.
 October 1, 1934: Hitler secretly orders a quick buildup of the German Army and Navy, and the creation of an air force.
 
1934: Triumph of the Will
 pg. 83 
The Holocaust Chronicle
© 2009 Publications International, Ltd.