Nazi Germany documents

A collection of Nazi Germany documents and documentary extracts.

Nazi ideology and values

The ’25 Points’: the Program of the NSDAP or ‘Nazi’ Party (1920)
Hitler explains his views while on trial in Munich (1924)
A report on Hitler’s behaviour while in Landsberg prison (1924)
Hitler on the method and purpose of propaganda (1924)
Hitler on Russia and Bolshevism (from Mein Kampf, 1924)
Lyrics of The Horst Wessel Song (NSDAP anthem, 1929)
Hitler explains the agenda of his government (March 1933)
Himmler explains the history and men of the SS (January 1937)

The Nazi rise to power

Ludendorff calls for Germany to prepare for war (1922)
Goebbels on the Reichstag (1928)
Von Papen explains the ‘German crisis’ (1932)
Trotsky on Nazism (1932)
Hitler’s first address as chancellor (February 1933)
A police chief on the Reichstag fire (February 1933)
US news report on the Reichstag Fire (1933)
The Reichstag Fire Decree (February 1933)
The Enabling Act (March 1933)
A politician opposes the Enabling Act (March 1933)
Hitler proclaims victory to the SA and the SS (April 1933)
An Austrian journalist explains how Hitler came to power (1938)

Hitler, totalitarianism and political control

Goebbels on National Socialism and the purpose of propaganda (1931)
Adolf Hitler on the Nazi form of ‘socialism’ (1932)
Hitler addresses Reichswehr officers (February 1933)
The opening of Dachau (March 1933)
The Law to Safeguard the Unity of Party and State (December 1933)
Goering on the formation of the Gestapo (1934)
Hitler stresses the importance of party unity to his Gauleiters (February 1934)
An eyewitness account of the Night of the Long Knives (June 1934)
A new Reichswehr oath (August 1934)
Schulze-Wechsungen on the functions of Nazi propaganda (1934)
Josef Goebbels on ‘Our Hitler’ (April 1935)
Lloyd George reports on his meetings with Hitler (September 1936)

Racial ideas, anti-Semitism and eugenics

Hitler’s early views on ‘rational anti-Semitism’ (September 1919)
Hitler on the Jews (July 1922)
Himmler’s order on marriages within the SS (December 1931)
Streicher calls for a boycott of Jewish businesses (March 1933)
The Party orders a boycott of Jewish businesses (March 1933)
Goebbels’ diary entries on the Jewish boycotts (April 1933)
Victor Klemperer describes anti-Jewish boycotts in Dresden (April 1933)
The Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service (April 1933)
Hitler and Hindenburg on Jewish war veterans (April 1933)
The Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health (July 1933)
Walter Gross speaks on German eugenics policies (October 1934)
A victim of SS property confiscations (March 1935)
The Reich Citizenship Law (September 1935)
The Reich Citizenship Law – supplementary decree (November 1935)
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour (September 1935)
William Zukerman on the Nuremberg Laws (1936)
Julius Streicher on the mission of Der Sturmer (1936)
Heydrich’s order to initiate Kristallnacht (November 1938)
Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag on Jewish expulsions (January 1939)
Cardinal von Galen criticises the Nazi euthanasia program (1941)
Hitler orders the death sentence for homosexuals (November 1941)

Social ideas, values and policies

Josef Goebbels on German women (March 1933)
The Nazi-Catholic Concordat (July 1933)
The Barmen Declaration on German Protestantism (1934)
Hitler addresses the Nazi Women’s League (September 1934)
Walter Gross on German population decline (1934)
A female NSDAP member on women in Nazi Germany (1936)
The Law on the Hitler Youth (December 1936)
Mit Brennender Sorge (March 1937)
Nazi guidelines for the teaching of History (1938)
Heinrich Himmler’s procreation order to the men of the SS (October 1939)
Gregor Ziemer describes life in the Pimpf (1941)

Work, economic policy and re-armament

The Reichsbank president writes to Hitler about economic policy (August 1932)
Hitler’s first cabinet discusses spending priorities (February 1933)
Robert Ley on the Nazi economic recovery (1936)
Robert Ley on National Socialism, business and ownership (1936)
Hitler’s memo on economic priorities and self-sufficiency (August 1936)
Nazi report on the mood of industrial workers (September 1938)

Foreign policy

Goebbels attacks the Weimar government and Treaty of Versailles (1927)
Fodor on the spread of Nazism in Austria and beyond (1936)
Hitler’s speech on German colonies and the League of Nations (January 1937)
The Hossbach memorandum on long-term Nazi war plans (November 1937)
Adolf Hitler on Poland (September 1938)
The Munich agreement on Czechoslovakia (September 1938)
Hitler speaks to military commanders on foreign policy (February 1939)
German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty (August 1939)
Hitler warns Mussolini that war with Poland is imminent (August 1939)


Information and resources on this page are © Alpha History 2018-23. Content on this page may not be copied, republished or redistributed without the express permission of Alpha History. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.