0:02 on May the 8th 1945 the German Armed
0:03 Forces signed their unconditional
0:05 surrender to the Allied Powers World War
0:08 II at least in Europe was over and now
0:10 that the guns had fallen silent the US
0:12 Britain France and the Soviet Union had
0:14 to face a daunting conundrum how to deal
0:15 with the active members of the National
0:18 Socialist Party the SS the vmark and
0:19 other organizations who had committed
0:21 some rather extreme war crimes and
0:23 crimes against humanity on top of that
0:25 how to rids the fabric of the Fallen
0:27 Third Reich Society from the pernicious
0:29 influence of an extremist ideology so
0:31 many had bought into after all in some
0:33 respects with those who had bought into
0:35 the ideology holy it would have been
0:37 like going back to the 1700s American
0:39 South and trying to convince a mass
0:41 group of slave owners to completely and
0:43 almost immediately rethink their ideas
0:45 on slavery and those of African descent
0:47 in the nation a seemingly impossible
0:50 task and then beyond ideological shifts
0:52 just from a practical standpoint how to
0:53 speed up economic recovery for the
0:55 nation and ensure nothing like this
0:57 would happen again in the country and
0:58 provide a strong buffer between the
1:01 Soviets and the rest of Europe so how
1:03 was this all accomplished and how did
1:05 they do it so fast and just how
1:07 successful was all of this in reality
1:08 just before we get back to Simon diving
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3:32 you and now back to Simon and today's
3:34 video to begin with the very top ranking
3:36 members of the Nazi party and Nazi
3:38 adjacent organizations 199 defendants in
3:40 total were tried at the famous nurenberg
3:43 trials in 1945 and 1946 of course
3:45 hundreds if not thousands of other
3:47 officials and officers wanted by Allied
3:48 authorities were able to escape to
3:50 Argentina via the numerous rat lines
3:52 through Scandinavia Spain and even
3:55 Vatican City countless more had no need
3:57 to escape entities within the Allied and
3:58 Soviet forces were more than happy to
4:00 look the other way about any they got up
4:02 to during the war owing to the knowledge
4:04 contained in their brains and we've got
4:06 more on that in just a little bit but
4:08 when looking at the more widescale
4:10 process of denazification of the
4:12 citizenry most of these efforts
4:14 consisted of special tribunals reviewing
4:16 the alleged Nazi past of German and
4:18 Austrian citizens as well as just a
4:20 general installment in the mass populace
4:22 that everything that had happened was
4:23 their fault and trying to get rid of
4:26 various works that espouse Nazi ideology
4:28 on that latter point over 30,000
4:30 different books were not not only banned
4:32 in the country after the war but also
4:33 systematically collected and destroyed
4:35 anyone who tried to keep a copy could
4:37 face legal consequences the irony of
4:39 this was not lost on anyone given this
4:41 move was more or less a tactic taken out
4:44 of the Nazi handbook when they came to P
4:46 Beyond this as alluded to there was the
4:47 General popul who were made to feel
4:49 responsible for what Germany had done
4:51 under the Nazi regime with the
4:52 psychological warfare division of
4:54 Supreme Allied headquarters
4:56 expeditionary Force taking points on
4:58 this they began efforts here seeing to
5:00 it that the media from radio to
5:02 newspapers not only strongly emphasized
5:04 the atrocities in their coverage but
5:06 also explicitly noted that it was every
5:08 single German's fault for allowing it to
5:10 happen not just the Nazis another rather
5:12 ironic page taken out of the Nazi
5:13 hanburg although to be fair in this case
5:15 strongly emphasizing educating the
5:17 German public on all the atrocities that
5:19 had actually been committed unlike much
5:20 of the things were just completely made
5:23 up by the Nazis beyond the various media
5:24 Outlets posters were put up all around
5:26 showing pictures from concentration
5:28 camps with giant text overlaid saying
5:30 things like you are guilty of this as
5:32 noted by British author James Stern in
5:34 one German Town quote a crowd gathered
5:36 around a series of photographs which
5:38 though initially seemed to depict
5:40 garbage instead reveal dead human bodies
5:43 each photograph has a heading who is
5:44 guilty The Spectators are silent
5:46 appearing hypnotized and eventually
5:48 Retreat One By One The placards are
5:50 later replaced with clearer photographs
5:53 and placards proclaiming this town is
5:56 guilty you are guilty on top of that in
5:57 towns near concentration camps the
5:59 citizenry were often made to tore them
6:01 and even help bury the dead help dig up
6:03 Mass Graves and things like this with
6:05 films also being made of this by the
6:06 American war information unit to be
6:08 shown to Germans who couldn't see for
6:10 themselves as noted by the chief of the
6:11 film division of psychological warfare
6:13 Sydney Bernstein the point of all of
6:16 this was to quote shake and humiliate
6:18 the Germans and prove to them Beyond any
6:20 possible challenge that these German
6:22 crimes against humanity were committed
6:24 and that the German people and not just
6:26 the Nazis and SS bore responsibility the
6:28 general shift in mindset to blame all
6:30 Germans and not just the na began around
6:32 1944 with before there's generally a
6:34 distinction being made by the US brass
6:37 and with the US public whereas after a
6:39 strong push to solidify in everyone's
6:40 Minds that there was little difference
6:43 between a Nazi and a non-nazi German
6:45 citizen this also seems to have been a
6:47 general mindset pushed by the military
6:49 brass to their own troops warning
6:50 soldiers that quote the majority of
6:52 Germans supported the Nazis try to make
6:54 friends with us to get information to
6:56 get favors to create Sympathy for the
6:58 poor downrod and German people to make
7:01 us disagree among ourselves or just to
7:03 get a good chance to slip a knife into
7:05 Allied soldiers speaking of the soldiers
7:07 and going back to taking Pages out of
7:09 the Nazi handbook it is also noted that
7:11 during the denotification process not
7:12 just on the Soviet side but on the US
7:14 side as well frequent random beatings
7:16 and rape of German civilians out and
7:18 about was a thing as one German
7:19 Professor noted these assaults have
7:21 become notorious among the civilian
7:23 population of marberg nobody risks going
7:25 out in the evenings and people feel as
7:26 if they were exposed to acts of
7:28 indiscriminant brutality with no means
7:30 of protection but in all to help change
7:32 the mindset of the German populace who
7:34 had bought into the Nazi ideology the
7:36 general push was to show the atrocities
7:38 that have been committed and try to make
7:40 every German citizen feel responsible
7:41 going back to the tribunals to try and
7:43 punish those more directly involved and
7:45 rid Society of them in any prominent
7:47 position very briefly the objectives of
7:49 the process were codified as early as
7:51 July of 1945 and while the tribunal
7:54 sentences dragged on into 1957 the vast
7:55 majority of the millions of card
7:57 carrying Nazi Party members had already
7:59 been reviewed and sanctioned by April
8:02 1948 but that's all at a very high level
8:04 so how was this actually accomplished
8:06 and how was it done so quickly to begin
8:08 with the process of removing national
8:10 socialism ideology from the social
8:12 fabric of Germany was conceived long
8:13 before the end of the war in Europe in
8:15 fact the term densification itself was
8:17 coined in 1943 by the Pentagon as they
8:19 began thinking about what the post-war
8:21 Germany legal system would look like and
8:23 as early as August 1944 this had all
8:25 gotten expanded with US President
8:27 Franklin Roosevelt writing in his memos
8:28 that the Allies should drive home to the
8:31 Germans that they had participated in a
8:33 lawless conspiracy the same sentiment
8:34 was expressed more formly when Roosevelt
8:36 met with Winston Churchill and Joseph
8:38 Stalin at the yta conference in February
8:40 1945 on that occasion the so-called
8:42 three greats clarified that
8:44 dentification was to be considered a
8:46 strategic War aim more precisely the
8:48 removal of all Nazi and militarist
8:49 influences from public offices and from
8:51 the cultural and economic life of the
8:52 German people the Third Reich
8:55 surrendered on May the 8th 1945 and the
8:57 drive densification was restated in the
9:00 pot Stam agreement of august 19 1945 by
9:01 that month the Western allies had
9:04 compiled a list of 178,000 Nazis to put
9:06 under arrest while the Soviets had
9:08 already proceeded to the internment of
9:10 67,000 Reich officials such a huge
9:12 Endeavor could not be conducted
9:14 willy-nilly of course Allied occupation
9:16 forces had to clearly State the den
9:18 nification objectives and parameters as
9:19 well as the categories and related
9:21 sanctions for Nazi offenders according
9:23 to a US Department of State memo of July
9:25 1945 the objectives of the
9:27 denazification program included a the
9:30 arrest of Nazi leaders support and any
9:31 other persons dangerous to the Allied
9:33 occupation or its objectives B exclusion
9:35 of members of the Nazi party who had
9:37 been more than nominal participants from
9:39 both public office and positions of
9:41 responsibility and private Enterprises C
9:43 eradication of Nazi laws and decrees D
9:45 the dissolution of the Nazi party and
9:47 all its Affiliated organizations as well
9:49 as the prevention of their Revival which
9:51 went hand inhand with e elimination of
9:53 all paraphernalia so Central to Nazi
9:56 propaganda symbols flags and anthems and
9:58 finally F complete removal of Nazi
10:00 ideology from German Information
10:02 Services schooling system and religion
10:04 having clarified what densification was
10:06 about Allied Forces had to Define how it
10:08 would be carried out the Allied control
10:10 Council reached an agreement only in
10:13 January 1946 issuing directive 24 which
10:15 contained guidelines for a coordinated
10:17 approach as we shall see later this
10:20 would be anything but coordinated in
10:21 each of the four occupation zones of
10:23 Germany the Allies set up ad hoc
10:25 densification commissions and tribunals
10:27 which involved the participation of
10:29 local vetted individuals such as union
10:31 leaders judges and opponents of Nazism
10:33 the rulings of these bodies were made on
10:36 the basis of an extensive 131 Point
10:37 questionnaire drafted by the public
10:39 safety branch of the allied military
10:41 government this was known as the Fraga
10:43 Bogan which translated from German
10:45 simply means questionnaire respondents
10:47 had to provide accurate and detailed
10:48 answers about their education their
10:50 professional training employment and
10:52 military service going even deeper those
10:53 filling in the questionaire had to
10:55 provide details on the source of their
10:58 income and asset since January 1931 as
11:00 well as their right and speeches
11:02 published since 1923 but most of all
11:04 they to provide a full account of their
11:06 membership and role within the National
11:08 Socialist Party or any other Affiliated
11:10 organization in the American occupation
11:11 sector filled in and signed
11:13 questionnaires would be evaluated by a
11:15 densification tribunal in collaboration
11:17 with the US Counter Intelligence Corp
11:19 and a special Branch section of the
11:20 military government's Public Safety
11:22 Division these bodies would then
11:24 crosscheck all the answers against
11:26 police files civil service records and
11:28 the Very Archives of the Nazi party the
11:29 purpose of this screening was not to
11:31 identify all German citizens who had
11:32 joined the party or an adjacent
11:35 organization at any point as there would
11:37 have been very few exceptions the allied
11:38 military government in fact agreed to
11:40 safeguard from sanctions the purely
11:42 nominal member of the Nazi party who was
11:44 forced to join in order to retain his
11:46 position of livelihood or escape the
11:47 Concentration Camp the point was to
11:49 ascertain if the individuals under
11:50 scrutiny had been involved in more than
11:52 just a nominal capacity in supporting
11:54 the Nazi regime if they had contributed
11:56 to perpetrating war crimes and crimes
11:57 against humanity or if they posed a
11:59 threat to the allies and the restoration
12:01 of democracy based on these factors
12:03 respondents would be classified as
12:04 follows major offenders were to be
12:06 sentenced to life imprisonment or even
12:08 to death then you had the offenders
12:10 activists militarists and others who had
12:11 profited from Germany's war of
12:13 aggression who could face after to 10
12:15 years in prison next you had the
12:16 somewhat murkier category of lesser
12:18 offenders subjected to a probationary
12:20 period of up to 3 years the rank of far
12:22 followers and supporters of Hitler's
12:24 regime with no specific active
12:26 responsibilities might encounter a fine
12:28 and be subject to surveillance and
12:29 finally exonerated individuals would
12:32 receive no sanction based on this
12:34 categorization anybody from lesser
12:36 offender and up would deemed to have had
12:38 more than a nominal participation in the
12:40 Nazi party's activities as such in
12:42 addition to the sanctions described they
12:43 would face mandatory removal from their
12:45 post be them Military Officers or public
12:48 officials all right so we've covered how
12:50 the dentification of Germany should have
12:53 worked but how did it actually turn out
12:54 well especially in the US controlled
12:56 occupation Zone military authorities
12:58 started with a bang preemptively
13:00 detaining 400,000 Germans in internment
13:01 camps before they had even started
13:04 filling in their 131 questionnaires but
13:06 when the tribunals and commissions
13:07 started applying due process it became
13:09 apparent that Discerning rank andile
13:11 party members from ler more serious
13:14 offenders was no easy task the US
13:16 military had access to excellent records
13:17 the one thing the Nazis were
13:19 unquestionably good at was recordkeeping
13:21 occupation troops in Munich in fact
13:23 discovered the party's entire registry
13:24 with the names of 12 million card
13:26 carrying members but according to earf
13:29 ZM writing for the US Army cent of
13:30 military history quote it was on the
13:32 gray fringes of denazification that the
13:35 question of who and what were Nazis
13:37 vexed military government the military
13:38 occupation Authority splatter sift
13:40 through all of those 12 million
13:42 individuals trying to identify the worst
13:44 that Humanity had to offer and it turns
13:46 out that many of those 12 million Nazis
13:48 had training experience energy
13:50 affability and not a bad political
13:53 record as reported by ZM American troops
13:55 found those under scrutiny to be on the
13:57 whole surprisingly Pleasant chaps which
13:59 made their dentification efforts the
14:01 more difficult a US high ranking officer
14:03 commented that if all the Nazis had been
14:05 exceedingly unpleasant and rude
14:07 denazification would have been easy on
14:09 the other hands many among those Germans
14:11 who were not formal members of the party
14:13 could fall into two categories those
14:14 ballsy enough not to fall for Nazi
14:16 ideology and propaganda and those who
14:17 had applied for membership but have been
14:19 rejected interestingly the former were
14:21 equally not keen to cooperate with the
14:23 allies and the latter likely did not
14:25 make for ideal members of society and
14:27 that was the problem dentification was
14:29 all well and good but the allies were
14:31 also seeking to rebuild German Society
14:33 from its ruins and as fast as possible
14:34 if they made a clean sweep of anybody
14:36 even loosely associated with national
14:39 socialism in Zena's words they were
14:41 going to have to run the country with
14:43 old men until the next Generation grew
14:45 up the number of political acceptables
14:47 between the ages of 20 and 50 who were
14:48 also trained and competent was
14:51 exceedingly small so that was the first
14:53 snag the second one was that the whole
14:55 program required a huge bureaucratic
14:56 apparatus which the Allies simply could
14:58 not manage in the US controlled Zone
15:00 alone the commissions and tribunals had
15:02 to review a whopping 10 million
15:04 questionnaires sure they had enrolled
15:06 local Personnel to run the tribunals but
15:08 even so trained Manpower was scarce and
15:10 even those Germans who were willing to
15:12 participate were reluctant to dish out
15:14 harsh sanctions on their fellow citizens
15:16 the third snag was that defendants in
15:18 these tribunals had found a convenient
15:20 way out they could easily obtain signed
15:22 sworn affidavits from priests or even
15:23 just from friends and neighbors
15:25 attesting that the defendant was a mere
15:27 rank andf far follower or that he or she
15:29 could be altogether exonerated naturally
15:31 a cottage industry emerged putting these
15:34 affidavits on sale they later became
15:36 colloquially known as perial shine after
15:38 the popular pural brand of detergent in
15:39 other words they would leave a
15:42 defendant's reputation squeaky clean
15:44 eventually us authorities could not cope
15:45 with the red tape associated with
15:47 dentification in their controlled areas
15:49 and with tensions Rising between the
15:51 Soviets and the US their focus also
15:53 somewhat shifted in particular they were
15:54 now much more concerned with Germany's
15:56 rapid economic recovery rather than
15:58 trying to make sure everyone paid for
15:59 their crimes and weren't allowed to be
16:01 in prominent positions a similar thing
16:03 happens over in Japan with the now
16:05 termed reverse course policies but back
16:07 in Germany with this shift on March the
16:10 5th 1946 they formerly transferred all
16:12 such duties to reconstituted German
16:14 authorities something that the British
16:16 had done a few months earlier as well on
16:17 that note with the British and French
16:19 occupation zones local military
16:20 governments took an even more pragmatic
16:23 approach both prioritized the efficiency
16:24 of local Administration and economy to
16:26 quickly cope with housing and food
16:28 shortages thus they were even less
16:29 scrupulous when it came to into allowing
16:31 former high ranking officials to hold or
16:33 resume important positions French
16:34 authorities were most lacks of all even
16:36 allowing Nazis residing in other zones
16:37 to move and resume work in their
16:39 occupied areas with no hindrance as
16:41 another example given the Nazis had
16:43 placed individuals whose beliefs aligned
16:44 with their ideologies in prominent
16:46 teaching positions around three quarters
16:47 of teachers in the country were
16:49 immediately fired after the war only for
16:50 the vast majority in the French Zone to
16:52 be quickly rehired and given their
16:54 positions back this was reflected in
16:56 most Industries in the French Zone in
16:58 the end in total the French only labeled
17:00 13 Al individuals in their region as
17:02 major offenders finally moving to the
17:04 Soviet occupation Zone the removal of
17:06 Nazi personnel and ideology appeared to
17:07 be more Resolute than in the zones
17:09 governed by the Western allies in fact
17:11 denotification proceeded hand inhand
17:13 with the sovietization of Eastern
17:15 Germany that is extensive land reforms
17:18 and nationalization of Industry moreover
17:19 while Western allies strove to replace
17:21 Nazi officials with political
17:23 representatives from a broad spectrum
17:25 Moscow had a preference for the kbd or
17:27 Communist Party of Germany later the
17:29 Socialist United party or SED however
17:31 according to historian Timothy rvot the
17:34 dentification in the Soviet held area
17:35 was not as thorough as it initially
17:37 appeared thanks to the cooperation of
17:39 the KPD Soviet authorities were able to
17:42 delegate most densification processes to
17:44 the Germans themselves in the form of
17:46 local anti-nazi committees and newly
17:48 formed provincial governments these
17:49 bodies enacted their measures
17:51 inconsistently and were prone to caving
17:53 in when meeting local resistance and
17:56 objections moreover they appeared to
17:57 follow the general principle that if
17:59 former Nazis were willing to Rebrand
18:01 themselves as Communists they would not
18:03 be removed from public life as you might
18:04 have guessed from all of this as early
18:06 as 1948 it had become apparent that the
18:07 densification of Germany had not
18:09 resulted in the indended restructure of
18:11 society in December of that year
18:13 international relations scholar John H
18:15 Herz a member of the US delegation of
18:16 the nurenberg trials published an
18:18 article with a self-explanatory title of
18:21 the Fiasco of dentification in Germany
18:23 hers focused on the American occupation
18:25 Zone reporting our trials conducted
18:27 there were frequently hindered by
18:28 intimidation on the part of Nazi
18:30 sympathizers even without intimidation
18:32 prosecutors based their indictments of
18:33 the answers provided in the
18:35 questionnaire without verifying their
18:37 veracity thus most defendants were
18:40 categorized as mere followers moreover
18:41 after dentification efforts have been
18:43 handed over to German authorities in
18:46 March 1946 they had issued two amnesties
18:47 one in August one in December
18:49 exonerating members of the Hitler Youth
18:50 persons of low income and disabled
18:53 citizens herds pointed out our such
18:54 amnesties allowed even war criminals to
18:56 escape prosecution The Scholar also
18:59 Unearthed a major procedural FL La until
19:02 October 1947 dentification processes had
19:04 vetted some 50,000 individuals a month
19:05 which is quite a good number but the
19:07 tribunals had given precedence to those
19:09 who had been classified as followers on
19:11 the basis of their questionnaire by the
19:13 time the tribunals finally worked their
19:14 stash of paperwork to those classified
19:16 as offenders a legislative amendment
19:18 allowed prosecutors to recategorize them
19:20 as followers with the exception of
19:23 members of the SS such recategorization
19:24 still required approval from the allied
19:27 military government thus in January 1948
19:29 this procedural step was removed moved
19:30 by the enactment of an Expediting
19:33 procedure now all offenders could be
19:35 rubber stamped as follow as wholesale a
19:37 further relaxation of Standards took
19:39 place in March of 1948 with the almost
19:41 total removal of the exception clause
19:43 for members of the SS and other criminal
19:45 organizations Affiliated to the Nazi
19:47 party now only those belonging to the
19:49 category of the major offenders could
19:51 expect major sanctions everybody else
19:54 was deemed a follower and was free to go
19:56 after paying a fine as for the numbers
19:59 on all of this some 12, 753 th000
20:00 Germans were expected to undergo the
20:03 densification procedure more than 9
20:05 million were found not chargeable the
20:07 remaining 3.2 million were processed by
20:10 the end of April 1948 and of these more
20:12 than 2.3 million were amnestied without
20:15 trial that left 836 th000 to be tried a
20:18 mere 6.5% more than onethird of these
20:20 were exonerated and more than half were
20:22 classified as followers of the remainder
20:24 10.7% were classed as lesser offenders
20:27 2.1% were class two offenders and only
20:29 0.1% were found to be major offenders
20:32 that's 836 individuals from the nearly
20:36 13 million person pool and even those
20:38 who were sentenced as offenders in any
20:40 degree of severity most received lenient
20:42 sanctions such as Community work payment
20:45 of fines or short prison sentences hers
20:46 proceeded to compile several examples of
20:48 such lenient treatments of which we
20:50 shall report only a few an active
20:52 propagandist and publisher of
20:54 anti-Semitic writings was ranked as a
20:56 follower and find a mere 50 marks a dean
20:58 of Bor University active member of the s
21:00 and their intelligence Services the SD
21:02 was fully exonerated a high ranking
21:04 member of the Gustavo was found to only
21:06 be a follower and received a minor fine
21:07 another Garo Man head of a station in
21:10 the town of fer was also a follower and
21:11 the former deputy chief of police in
21:13 nurenberg and one of the men responsible
21:15 for the infamous Crystal KN also a
21:18 follower and find 800 Marks One
21:19 physician responsible for carrying out
21:22 the sterilization law against undesir
21:24 bles well you guessed it he was just a
21:26 follower please pay your 500 marks and
21:28 then leave finally an aeronautical Eng
21:30 and industrialist he made a Fortune of
21:33 36 million marks thanks to slave labor
21:34 well you get the gist by now he was
21:37 fined 2,000 marks moving on toward the
21:39 end of the 1940s across all areas of
21:41 occupation leniency gave way to amnesty
21:43 and a strategy of integration the chief
21:45 proponent of this approach was the first
21:47 Chancellor of the new federal republic
21:50 of Germany or West Germany Conrad adenau
21:52 after his election in September 1949
21:54 adenau advocated for West Germany to
21:56 forge strong bonds with Western Europe
21:58 against the Communist block this
22:00 strategy also included for old Nazi
22:02 cardr to be integrated into the new
22:04 Republic in order to move forward
22:07 towards that ending all this in May 1951
22:09 adona's government passed the first
22:11 amnesty law which reintegrated into
22:13 their position some 150,000 officials
22:16 and civil servants previously removed by
22:18 the Allied denotification efforts the
22:19 following year the chancellor reported
22:21 to the Parliament that 2third of German
22:23 diplomats were in fact former Nazis the
22:25 Armed Forces Security Services and even
22:26 the private sector were similarly
22:29 replete with former Reich personnel sir
22:31 ivone Kirk Patrick British High
22:32 Commissioner in Germany commented
22:35 whenever I traveled I ran into ghosts of
22:36 Hitler's Reich men who had occupied
22:38 positions in the administration in
22:40 industry or the Society of the day they
22:42 were either living in retirement or were
22:44 taking jobs in Banks Commerce or
22:46 industry despite the amnesty adona's
22:48 regime also took steps the other way for
22:50 example in August of 1952 his cabinet
22:52 banned the Neo-Nazi socialist Reich
22:55 party and in September he agreed to pay
22:57 the state of Israel reparation of three
22:58 billion German marks the equivalent of
23:02 $8.3 billion in today's value but Aron's
23:04 intention was to leave the past behind
23:06 nonetheless and in 1954 his government
23:09 issued the second amnesty law which this
23:11 time benefited around 400,000 German
23:14 citizens a similar dentification process
23:16 culminating in widespread amnesty was
23:18 followed in Austria this country is
23:19 often excluded from English-speaking
23:21 accounts of denotification but we should
23:23 not forget that Austria was annexed to
23:25 the Third Reich before the start of
23:27 World War II nor that Austrian citizens
23:29 actively joined the vmark the SS and the
23:30 Nazi party and therefore the country was
23:32 occupied by the Allies at the end of the
23:34 conflict the Austrian Den nazification
23:37 process was led by before occupying
23:40 Powers the UK France us and USSR in
23:42 collaboration with three local parties
23:44 the Social Democratic party the Austrian
23:46 peoples party and the Communist Party
23:48 according to historian deeta stifel the
23:50 Austrian denotification can be divided
23:53 into five phases during the military
23:55 security phase from April 1945 to June
23:58 1945 the four Allied occupation Powers
24:00 worked in coordination to intern an
24:02 initial batch of prominent SS and Nazi
24:04 Party members such potentially dangerous
24:05 individuals were hunted down and
24:07 detained on the basis of blacklists
24:08 compiled by the Allied High
24:10 Commissioners the next phase from June
24:13 1945 to February 1946 is labeled as
24:15 autonomous densification now the four
24:17 allies plus the Austrian government
24:18 carried out dentification efforts
24:20 independently from each other which
24:22 resulted in contradictory measures and
24:24 decisions for example the US occupation
24:26 used a seven-page questionnaire similar
24:28 to the Fraga bden the British and French
24:30 used did too but only in part while the
24:31 Soviets ditched it completely in fact
24:33 the Soviets acted relatively chill in
24:35 their zone of occupation delegating the
24:37 densification process to local
24:39 authorities they intervened directly
24:40 only when they identified someone guilty
24:43 of war crimes committed on Soviet soil
24:44 or when they selected a promising
24:47 scientist for let's say relocation under
24:49 pressure and again more on that later in
24:51 February 1946 the Allies devolved all
24:54 densification activities to the Austrian
24:56 government ushering in the third oronas
24:58 phase local authorities followed three
25:00 laws promulgated to this purpose the
25:02 prohibition act the economic cleansing
25:04 Act and the war crimes act in order to
25:05 enforce these laws the government
25:07 created adhoc people's courts consisting
25:09 of two professional judges and three lay
25:11 judges nominated amongst the general
25:13 public these tribunals were set up to
25:15 take very direct action as no appeal was
25:17 allowed against their verdicts
25:18 nonetheless alled authorities took note
25:20 that the Austrian Judiciary introduced
25:22 it at a very slow pace and pressured for
25:24 a quicker uptake in February 1947 the
25:26 government issued a new National
25:28 Socialist law regulating the removal of
25:30 the older I vestages thus kicking off
25:32 the fourth phase which lasted less than
25:34 one year the fifth and Final Phase from
25:37 1948 to 1957 is known as the time of
25:39 amnesties the first of these involved
25:42 the so-called minda Bell which can be
25:44 translated as lesser incriminated or
25:46 lesser offenders this amnesty was
25:48 applied to 90% of all registered members
25:50 of the Austrian National Socialist Party
25:51 the minderella estator amnesty
25:53 effectively put an end to all major
25:55 attempts at densifying Austrian society
25:57 which is not surprising much like in a
25:59 divided German after the onset of the
26:01 Cold War each Allied Power sought to
26:03 consolidate local authorities under
26:05 their sphere of influence the Austrian
26:06 people's courts however continued to
26:09 operate until December 1955 up to that
26:29 13,676 to 195 seven period Austrian
26:31 courts issued a total of 39 verdicts of
26:33 which only 18 were guilty sentences as
26:34 the dentification efforts and further
26:36 whittel down the Austrian Parliament
26:38 voted in favor of a final amnesty in
26:41 1957 besides widespread amnesties it's
26:43 no secret that hundreds of former Nazi
26:44 officials entirely escaped from
26:46 sanctions thanks to their military
26:48 scientific or technical expertise they
26:50 were simply deemed too useful to the
26:52 Allies in Ally countries this seems to
26:54 be something history paints as
26:55 completely acceptable though when other
26:57 countries like Argentina essentially did
26:59 the same thing thing it's more vilified
27:01 for various reasons you can see our
27:03 video why did so many Nazis choose to go
27:05 to Argentina after World War II for more
27:07 on that but as for the United States
27:09 according to the US Nazi war criminal
27:11 records in agency working group as early
27:14 as May the 10th 1945 The Joint Chiefs of
27:16 Staff advised the commander of US forces
27:18 in Europe General Eisenhower to make
27:19 some exceptions when it came to
27:22 arresting war criminals quoting in your
27:23 discretion you may make such exceptions
27:25 as you deem advisable for intelligence
27:27 and other military reasons throughout
27:29 the summer of 94 45 the US Army Counter
27:31 Intelligence Corps cic and the office of
27:34 strategic Services OSS did employ former
27:35 German military and Intelligence
27:37 Officers as informants but this was a
27:39 necessity to identify more dangerous
27:42 Nazi criminals or suppress anti- Allied
27:44 resistance but as friction mounted
27:45 across the Iron Curtain American and
27:47 other Western Allied Services took to
27:49 using German military personnel as a
27:50 source of intelligence about Soviet
27:53 military strategy equipment and tactics
27:55 toward this end the cic collaborated
27:57 closely with General ryanard Gan former
27:59 head of the foreign armies East founded
28:01 in 1938 and responsible for collecting
28:03 Intelligence on the Soviet Union but the
28:05 core also recruited Personnel whose
28:07 resumés ER on the criminal side such as
28:09 SS officer clouse Barbie charmingly
28:11 known as The Butcher of leyon Barbie The
28:13 Butcher and other war criminals were
28:15 eventually protected from prosecution
28:16 and smuggled out of Europe with the
28:18 complicity of the cic OSS and other
28:21 Allied Services many many more former
28:23 nzi and SS officials would Escape via
28:25 rat line set up by Argentinian
28:27 intelligence and even the Vatican the US
28:29 joint chief of staffs however were not
28:31 interested in simply knowing more about
28:33 the Soviets they were interested in
28:35 gaining a technological Edge over them
28:37 as early as July 1945 they explicitly
28:39 authorized a program to exploit chosen
28:42 rare Minds whose continuing intellectual
28:44 productivity we wish to use those R
28:46 mines were 350 German and Austrian
28:48 scientists and technicians to be brought
28:50 immediately to America under operation
28:52 overcast by 1946 the department of
28:54 defenses joint intelligence objectives
28:56 agency sought to expand overcast to
28:59 recruit a further thous former enemy
29:01 brains and even grant them American
29:02 citizenship this was a complicated
29:04 Endeavor as some of those chosen
29:05 thousand were high ranking members of
29:07 the Nazi party at least one of them
29:10 rocket scientist Verna Von braa had been
29:12 an SS officer the plan required
29:13 presidential blessing which president
29:16 Tran granted in September 1946 insisting
29:18 that only so-called nominal Nazis should
29:20 be allowed in the program the term
29:22 indicated German and Austrian citizens
29:23 who had joined the party out of
29:25 convenience or coercion but had not
29:27 actively supported the Reich the new
29:28 expanded Pro prog took the name of
29:31 Operation Paperclip in early 1947 a
29:33 panel constituted by the Departments of
29:35 Justice and state began combing dossier
29:37 of perspective scientists for relocation
29:40 to the US which were based on cic
29:41 investigations the panel initially
29:43 rejected several applications as the
29:44 individuals in question have been
29:46 identified as potential threats on the
29:48 basis of their Nazi past this did not
29:50 sit well with the joint intelligence
29:51 objectives agency according to the Nazi
29:53 war criminal records inter agency
29:55 working group they ordered American
29:57 intelligence in Europe to revise the
29:59 scientist dosier days so they could make
30:01 it through the paperclip panel thus from
30:04 1945 to 1955 operations overcast and
30:07 paperclip helped relocate 765 scientists
30:09 engineers and technician to the United
30:10 States the inter agency working group
30:12 estimates that as many as 80% of them
30:15 were former Nazi Party members now
30:17 Operation Paperclip is a well-known
30:18 episode of the Cold War what is less
30:20 wellknown is that the Soviet Union had
30:22 their own version of this project known
30:25 as operation oo ofakim or the for
30:28 relocation of more than 2,500 German
30:30 sists to the USSR however an interesting
30:32 thing about the name is that it's
30:35 actually a misnomer the term oo aim is
30:37 an acronym which stands for Union of
30:39 societies for assistance to defense and
30:41 Aviation chemical construction of the
30:44 USSR this was a paramilitary and
30:46 sporting organization founded in 1927 it
30:48 had absolutely nothing to do with the
30:50 Soviet equivalent of paperclip but
30:52 apparently a German radio incorrectly
30:54 used this word to refer to the brain
30:56 drain in 1946 and US intelligence
30:58 Services adopted the term the plan was
31:01 initiated in April 1946 when the Soviet
31:03 minister of aeronautical industry mik
31:05 krev issued an order for the relocation
31:07 of the German aeronautical and engine
31:09 industry this was followed by a May 13th
31:11 1946 resolution decreed by the ministry
31:14 of internal affairs or MBD which ordered
31:16 the transfer of 2,000 German Specialists
31:18 by the end of the year and not just
31:20 Specialists of any kind the Soviet zone
31:22 of occupation included facilities which
31:23 were replete with scientists and
31:25 technicians involved in aviation and
31:27 Rocket engineering projects initially
31:28 the Soviets found founded institutions
31:30 such as the Nord Housen Institute or the
31:32 Berlin Institute to resume work
31:34 initiated by the reich's best and
31:36 brightest for example the Nord hous was
31:38 put under the direction of helmet gotb a
31:40 former collaborator of Verna Von Brawn
31:43 on the V2 program but the agreement
31:44 signed amongst the Allies at the pot
31:46 Stam conference prohibited the
31:47 development of weapons on German soil
31:49 and so Moscow planned the relocation of
31:51 these programs elsewhere following the
31:54 mvds resolution of May 1946 the Soviet
31:56 forces started to gather hundreds of
31:58 experts in atomic research Electronics
32:01 navigation equipment Rockets jet engines
32:03 and even color video on October the 22nd
32:07 1946 operation osim was effectively
32:09 initiated under the leadership of Ivan
32:12 serov later a chairman of the KGB by
32:14 date serov had organized 92 freight
32:15 trains transporting the necessary
32:18 equipment of the USSR By Night the Army
32:20 and MVD police swooped in to arrest the
32:22 German scientists and their families for
32:24 a total of 6,500 individuals after being
32:26 made to see that their lives would be
32:28 much better doing what the Soviet regime
32:29 wanted and it would be a shame if
32:31 anything happened to themselves or their
32:33 families they were offered a regular
32:35 contract and paid salaries which were
32:36 higher than that of their Soviet
32:38 counterparts as you might imagine only a
32:39 fraction of the German scientific
32:40 contingent refused to cooperate with
32:43 Moscow and those that refused were
32:45 intered at gag the oso viim scientists
32:47 were gradually allowed to return to
32:49 Germany after 1950 with the vast
32:51 majority leaving after Stalin's death in
32:54 March 1943 but in the end at the start
32:56 of this video we asked the question how
32:58 did Germany and Austria Den naify so
33:00 quickly after World War II especially
33:02 given that the ideology behind their
33:04 former regime was so embedded into every
33:06 facet of society to some up on one hand
33:08 we can very simplistically state that
33:10 both societies needed to move on quickly
33:13 to both rebuild their economies and to
33:14 face the political challenges posed by
33:16 the Cold War and so everyone was
33:19 incentivized to do so and so did and on
33:21 top of this the extreme atrocities
33:22 committed by the Nazis during the war
33:24 helped convince those who had bought
33:26 into what the Nazis were selling that
33:27 maybe they should rethink their
33:29 decision-making Paradigm on the other
33:31 hand we can cynically acknowledge that
33:33 the process was quick because it failed
33:36 overall on a huge percentage of what it
33:38 was meant to accomplish wiping the Slate
33:40 clean in such a perversive regime was a
33:42 logistically daunting task one which the
33:44 allies and the local institutions were
33:46 ill-prepared and little motivated to
33:48 accomplish at a certain point the Nazi
33:49 party was finished the Soviets with a
33:51 new threat West Germany much like Japan
33:53 needed to be strong to help counter this
33:55 and to help facilitate this former
33:57 prominent Nazis and many prominent
33:59 individuals in Jaan would better serve
34:01 those goals in their positions that they
34:03 were experts in rather than sitting in
34:05 prison or executed and for more on the
34:06 Japanese side of this do see our
34:08 documentary swept under the rug the
34:11 truth about the Japanese Holocaust [Music]
