Nazism

Ideology based on racism, nationalism, and the supremacy of the state over the individual. The German Nazi party, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party), was formed from the German Workers' Party (founded in 1919) and led by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945; see Germany: history 1919–49, emergence of the Nazis.

During the 1930s many similar parties were created throughout Europe and the USA, such as the British Union of Fascists (BUF) founded in the UK in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. However, only those of Austria, Hungary, and Sudeten were of major importance. These parties collaborated with the German occupation of Europe from 1939 to 1945. After the Nazi atrocities of World War II (see SS, concentration camp, Holocaust), the party was banned in Germany, but today parties with Nazi or neo‐Nazi ideologies exist in many countries.

Nazism in pre‐war Germany
The Nazi party's ideology was based on extreme German nationalism, anti‐Semitism, and opposition to German communism. Overlaying this thinking was the concept of unquestioning loyalty to Hitler, the Führer (leader). The National Socialist German Workers' Party used these views to force its way to power in Germany by 1933.

The various aspects of Nazi ideology were combined to form a political programme, the concepts merging and supporting each other. Nationalist feelings linked with the racial prejudices of Nazi ideology. Nazi belief in a master race of Aryans, represented by people of ‘pure’ German stock, supported Hitler's policy of Lebensraum (‘living space’). As the Nazis considered that Aryan Germans were superior to other races, such as the Slavs of Eastern Europe, they felt justified in annexing neighbouring states to reduce the overpopulation of Germany. Anti‐Semitism was a key principle of Nazism; any failure on the part of Aryan Germans was blamed on the Jews. They were accused of being part of a worldwide conspiracy to destroy Germany, in league with the communists. To save the purity of the Aryan race and the strength of the German nation, the Nazis believed that the Jews would have to be removed from German society.

Also crucial to Nazi party ideology was the role of Hitler as party leader. To the Nazis, Hitler was the guiding visionary who would lead the German nation to a glorious future as the master race of the world. He was, therefore, to be followed without question. The concept of a single master and goal reflected Nazi belief that the needs of the nation were more important than those of the individual. Only if the Germans worked together as one nation, following an absolute leader, would they be able to fulfil their destiny as the master race.

On a practical level Nazi party ideology meant opposition to the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and the democratic Weimar Republic. The Nazis blamed the Weimar politicians for ceding German territory and destroying Germany's economy in the 1920s. Under the treaty Germany had surrendered Alsace–Lorraine to France, and large areas in the east to Poland, as well as making smaller cessions to Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Belgium, and Denmark. A Polish Corridor to the Baltic had been created, cutting off East Prussia from the rest of Germany. The Rhineland had been demilitarized, German rearmament restricted, and the Germans forced to make large reparations. The Nazis wanted to unite Germany with Austria in an Anschluss (union), bringing the German people into one nation, but this, too, had been banned under the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazis sought to overturn the treaty in order to achieve their stated goal of a united and powerful Germany.

Post‐war Nazism
In the USA the American Nazi Party was founded in 1958 by George Lincoln Rockwell. In the UK Colin Jordan founded the National Socialist Movement in 1962 and in 1967 the National Front was formed. In 1993 there was a political storm after Derek Beackon of the British National Party (BNP; founded in 1982 after a split from the National Front) won a council by‐election in the East London borough of Millwall. There were allegations of intimidation of Asian voters by BNP supporters at the polling stations. In a determined attempt to curb right‐wing violence, the German government banned six neo‐Nazi groups between 1994 and 1995.

‘Nazi gold’
The UK and USA announced in September 1997 that their holdings of Nazi gold, worth up to £40 million, would be switched into a fund to help victims of the Holocaust. The agreement, reached between the UK, USA, and France, unlocked a 50‐year‐old post‐war reparation deal that divided the gold between governments, specifically excluding all claims from individuals whose gold was stolen by the Nazi Reich. The deal was announced after a meeting of the Tripartite Gold Commission, which had kept tight control over the German gold holdings since it was set up in 1946. The Commission had already distributed more than £2 billion of the gold to the central banks of countries which were looted during the war. The 5.6 tonnes left in bank vaults in the UK and the USA was less than 2% of the gold recovered by the allies at the end of the war.

The London talks on Nazi gold, hosted by the UK foreign secretary Robin Cook, ended in early December 1997 with a pledge for a follow‐up meeting. The US under secretary of state announced plans to examine the question of Nazi‐looted art at a gathering in Washington, USA, in 1998. The London talks were attended by 240 delegates from 40 countries. Robin Cook pledged £1 million from the UK government to a new international fund. The USA offered $4 million, with a further $21 million to follow. Cook proposed that all 15 nations due to receive the last remaining gold recaptured from the Nazis should donate it to help Holocaust victims, and that other countries might wish to help.

Austria and Germany agreed to seek missing Reichsbank records, and Degussa, the company that smelted stolen goods for the Nazis, agreed to allow World Jewish Congress officials to gain access to its files. A government‐commissioned report into the seizure of Jewish assets in Nazi‐occupied France estimated in 2000 that goods worth FFr8.8 billion/£0.8 billion/$1.3 billion in today's money had been confiscated. The commission recommended compensation for the heirs of the victims, and that the French state and financial institutions should give FFr2.4 billion/£227 million/$400 million to a proposed foundation to promote understanding of the Holocaust in France.

Compensation
Former Nazi prisoners used for slave labour sued 12 German and Austrian companies in August 1998. In December 1999, the German government and industrial groups agreed with Jewish groups to set up a DM10 billion/$5.2 billion/£3.2 billion compensation fund for those who were made to work as slave and forced labourers in Nazi Germany. In July 2000, Germany signed this compensation deal. However, it was criticized by Eastern Europeans who had been forced to work in Nazi camps, who said that they received in compensation a fraction of that which has been awarded to Jews.