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Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and ''Enemies of the State,'' by Stephen P. Halbrook

Authors:
264
Bo o k Re v i e w
Gu n Co n t r o l i n t h e th i r d re i C h :
di s a r m i n G t h e Je w s a n d “en e m i e s o f
t h e st a t e
Stephen p. halbrook
oakland: th e Independent InStItute, 2013, 248 p p .
au d r e y d. kl I n e
How did Hitler do it? There is no shortage of theories or writings
related to the rise of the Third Reich and the subsequent
Holocaust. Halbrook, however, oers a compelling and important
account of the role of gun control in aiding Hitler’s goals of exter-
minating the Jews and other “enemies of the state.” While much
of the early gun prohibition was created with supposedly good
intent, Halbrook carefully and meticulously details how a change
in political regime was all it took for some well-intentioned gun
registration laws and other prohibitions to be used in ways never
intended. The Third Reich was able to further its agenda due to
Audrey D. Kline (audrey.kline@louisville.edu) is associate professor of economics,
University of Louisville College of Business.
VOL. 17 | N
O.
2 | 264–270
SUMMER 2014
The
Qu a r t e r l y
Jo u r n a l of
au S t r I a n
ec o n o m I c S
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Book Review: Gun Control in the Third Reich
available gun prohibition, and continued to expand such prohi-
bition to aid in achieving its desired goals.
Students of this period of history as well as Second Amendment
(and other) gun rights enthusiasts, will nd this a fascinating book,
and will nd parallels between gun prohibition in pre-Nazi and
Nazi Germany and attempts to prohibit types of gun ownership
and implement other forms of gun control in the United States
today. For example, Connecticut began requiring registration of
certain rearms and magazines by January 1, 2014. Those who
had not registered were told to surrender, get rid of, or make their
rearms inoperable, or run the risk of facing felony charges. It
remains to be seen how this will play out in Connecticut or in other
states following this path. While gun control advocates have over
time consistently minimized the role of gun control in the Nazi
regime, even the United States Congress must have recognized
its role given its explicit wording that forbade the registration of
rearms by individuals when it passed the Property Requisition
Act in 1941 (p. xvii).
While Halbrook is careful to point out that a combination of
factors led to the events of the Holocaust, there is no denying that
many of the pre-war activities—activities that are being discussed
and implemented in some states and nationally in the United
States today—contributed to Hitler’s ability to disarm targeted
groups, facilitating his campaign against the Jews. Of course,
many purport that the Holocaust arose out of a unique series
of events that could never be repeated. Others are less certain.
Halbrook steers clear of the debate, other than to note its existence
and the folly of ignoring history. Instead, Halbrook lays out a well-
documented analysis of four distinct periods leading up to and
including the rise of the Third Reich, and the gun control laws that
accompanied these periods in history. It is an astonishingly fresh
and important look at this historical period, if for no other reason
than to raise the question as to why no other research on the Third
Reich and the Holocaust has addressed the role of gun control
in the tragedies that occurred. The rapid pace with which Hitler
disarmed the populace in Germany is astonishing. Halbrook’s
account is gripping, thorough, and full of legal documentation,
leading the reader through the sometimes-daily changes in gun
prohibitions that furthered Hitler’s agenda.
266 The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 17, No. 2 (2014)
Halbrook breaks the book into four distinct historical periods.
First, Part I spans from the start of the Weimar Republic (1918–1938)
to its decline and the imminent rise of the Nazi party. This is the
period when Germany rst introduced gun control, requiring
registration of rearms. At the close of this time span, conscation
of rearms was made law. Part II, reviewing circumstances in 1933,
details the rise of Hitler and the use of Nazi power to conscate
rearms from political adversaries and the Jews. Part III examines
the following ve years of repression, which included instituting
more gun control laws, such as outlawing issuance of gun permits
to Jews and other “enemies of the state.” Finally, Part IV reviews
how existing gun control facilitated the disarming of Germany’s
Jews. Ultimately, the prohibitions enacted by the Nazi regime led
to monopoly control of rearms by the Nazis and eliminated the
ability of many groups in society to defend themselves. Halbrook
oers further episodes of gun control in the conclusion, detailing
how two decades of gun control unfolded during World War II.
In the opening Part I of the book, a chaotic post WW I Germany
is the backdrop, a time in which there were no established policies
or laws pertaining to rearm ownership. Concern about rearms
not being turned in after the war and conict between extremist
groups and the government led to the implementation of initially
well-intentioned gun control laws. It was never envisioned that the
laws aimed at controlling extremists would ultimately contribute
to the citizenry most likely to defend democracy being disarmed
and unable to defend itself. However, well-meaning clauses in
the laws were subsequently used to provide the government with
complete control over gun ownership, creating registries of gun
and ammunition ownership, which ultimately fell into the hands
of the Nazis. These lists were methodically used to disarm any
citizens who were deemed enemies of the state, particularly the
Jews. Through the rst three chapters of the book, Halbrook does
a masterful job of detailing the ever-changing gun control policies,
ranging from the most extreme (execution on the spot) to the
postured “relaxation” of gun control laws that allowed possession
of very expensive long arms that would not be aordable for the
majority of the population.
Part II of the book opens with the naming of Hitler as chancellor of
Germany at the end of January 1933, and the immediate utilization
267
Book Review: Gun Control in the Third Reich
of the Weimar gun control policies to begin the Nazi campaign to
seize arms and eradicate the so-called “enemies of the state” (all
of whom were tagged as Communists). All political parties were
under attack by the Nazis, culminating in a manufactured report
that Communists planned to attack the Nazis (pp. 51–52). Enemies
of the state included Jews and gypsies, as well. As a result, less than
a month later, Hitler and Göring convinced President Hindenburg
that an emergency decree was needed, which ultimately gave the
Nazis the ability to suspend the
constitutional guarantees of personal liberty, free expression of opinion,
freedom of the press, and the rights to assemble and form associations.
Secrecy of postal and telephonic communication was suspended, and the
government was authorized to conduct search and seizure operations of
homes. (p. 52)
This carte blanche for search and seizure essentially became the
modus operandi of the Third Reich. By the end of March, Hitler
had succeeded in passing the “Enabling Law” which gave him
the ability to create laws as he wished, with no requirement for
consultation (p. 60). Following this, the conscation of weapons
escalated, with continued fabrication of “confessions” by enemies
of the state. Municipal governments were informed that all military
weapons and ammunition had to be surrendered by the end of
March. The Jews were targeted next, with a large raid in East
Berlin on April 4, 1933. Jews were not forbidden to own rearms
until 1938, but the raid led to conscations and arrests (pp. 64–65).
Halbrook relates one account after another about the methodical
declarations of requirements to turn over weapons to any group
or class that was deemed a potential threat, including some of
Germany’s own veterans of World War I. The 1928 Firearms Law
was utilized to identify the so-called enemies of the state, locate
them, interview them, and subsequently conscate their weapons.
Enemies of the state ultimately included anyone in disagreement
with the new regime (p. 84). Numerous examples are provided of
the ever-increasing eorts to brand large portions of the population
“enemies of the state,” thereby increasing Nazi control and elimi-
nating private ownership of rearms from the majority of society.
Part III of the book details episodes of enforcement and expansion
of gun prohibition by Hitler ’s regime. To mark the one-year
268 The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 17, No. 2 (2014)
anniversary of Hitler’s power, the Law for the Reconstruction of
the Reich was passed in January 1934. This served to centralize
control over all police, and ultimately led to the replacement of the
SA with the SS. Upon the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler
assumed the presidency as well, allowing him the ability to rule by
decree (p. 101). Thus, Hitler could declare law without any process
and there was no right of appeal for those arrested. The military
pledged allegiance to Hitler and the citizenry was instructed to
follow Hitler’s decrees.
Conscated rearms were redistributed to the police and
concentration camp guards. The number of searches and arrests
continued to escalate, and with the adoption of the Nürnberg
Laws in September 1935, Germans or those with “kindred blood”
were decreed as citizens, leaving the Jews without citizenship and
consequently, without civil rights (p. 106). A new weapons law was
drafted in November that would also forbid Jews from operating
in the rearms industry. Though not yet enacted, the draft opened
the door for the theft of the gun manufacturing company, Simson
& Co., by Hitler, who claimed that the Jewish owners were
guilty of fraud. Additional accounts are given of exploitation of
various incidents to further the Nazi campaign against the Jews.
This usually included misrepresenting facts when Nazi party
members were killed to drum up support for the anti-Jewish
sentiment expressed by the Nazis, including the instigation of the
Kristallnacht (p. 118).
The Nazis’ control of the use and ownership of rearms was
quickly implemented and was far-reaching, with renements to the
Weapons Law continuing over the next few years. Eventually, in
April 1938, Jews were required to register their personal assets (if
over 5,000 marks). Just a few months later, Jews were required to
register at local police stations to receive identication cards. Jews
began to ee Berlin and other parts of Germany, as they were able.
In the concluding section of the book, Reichskristallnacht (Night
of the Broken Glass) is detailed. Jews had been systematically
disarmed, and their identity and locations now on le with local
police. It was simply a matter of time before the full shift into
deportation and extermination of the Jews would begin. Records
indicate that a campaign to arrest legally registered Jewish owners
of rearms was now underway, along with the push by the Nazis
269
Book Review: Gun Control in the Third Reich
to pressure Jews to ee Germany. German (Jew) Alfred Flatlow, an
Olympic gold medalist for Germany, appears to have been arrested
in 1938 while standing in line (with others) at the police station to
surrender rearms as had been ordered. His arrest record indicates
the incident as political, which gave him no right to appeal and
allowed the Gestapo to hold him indenitely. Another Jew, likely
standing next in line, was similarly arrested. Flatlow was deported
to a concentration camp in October 1942, where he died two months
later of starvation (p. 149).
The complete conscation of weapons held by Jews at this point
was sparked by the November 7, 1938 assassination attempt on
a German diplomat, supposedly by a Polish Jewish teenager
at the embassy in Paris. The Night of Broken Glass came in the
following few days. All Jewish weapons (including such things
as letter openers) were conscated, and all Jewish organizations
were deemed illegal. With the Jews disarmed, Hitler’s plans could
proceed with a defenseless populace. The majority of the non-
Jewish German population was stunned by what had transpired
but was too afraid to protest. As has been well documented,
Jews were methodically attacked, their homes, businesses, and
synagogues ransacked and burned. Upwards of 30,000 Jews
were arrested. Halbrook does document some successful cases
of deance by individual Jews and their families, but most were
too afraid to protest when the men showed up on their doorstep.
Any Jews resisting arrest were ordered shot on the spot. Attacks
on the Jews were to be carried out by the SA, with no interference
by police. Jews arrested were to be sent to concentration camps
for up to 20 years. The pogrom was so thorough that nearly all
Jewish adult males in Stuttgart had been arrested. This was fairly
common throughout Germany that night. With the population
afraid and disarmed, Hitler could proceed with little worry about
resistance. The Court reinforced the Nazi view that there was no
judicial review needed for activities of the Gestapo (p. 203).
With the onset of World War II, Hitler expanded his policies and
gun prohibitions to other countries he conquered. Subsequently,
even within Germany, all rearms were required to be registered.
Isolated cases of resistance remained, and Germans were instructed
to avoid associating with Jews. When deportations commenced in
October 1941, the possessions of the Jews were searched by the
270 The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 17, No. 2 (2014)
Gestapo for anything of value, and this completed the disarming
of the Jews. Still, isolated cases of resistance remained, despite the
threat of the death penalty if caught with rearms or weapons
(p. 212). The now well-known case of Oskar Schindler was one
example of resistance.
Halbrook concludes by noting that less government regulation
and a tradition of rejecting tyranny could have led to a dierent
outcome in Germany. Instead, systematic creation and manipu-
lation of rearms registration and regulations, coupled with
the decimation of individual citizen’s rights, enabled Hitler’s
dictatorship and the slaughter of millions of innocent Jews and
citizens of Nazi-occupied countries, as well as tens of thousands of
Germans. It remains for all of us to wonder what might have been
had people refused to register their rearms. Indeed, we should all
take note and bear in mind, Never Again.
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