CYIL Vol. 6, 2015
ALLA TYMOFEYEVA CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ establishing compulsory military service. 41 Frick drafted, signed, and administered numerous laws that abolished all opposition parties. He was also largely responsible for the legislation which suppressed the Trade Unions, the Church and the Jews. 42 Political preparation to war was in the hands of Ribbentrop and Rosenberg . The last one, as a head of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the NSDAP was largely responsible for Romania’s joining the Axis. 43 Ribbentrop actively participated in the aggressive plans against Czechoslovakia. In particular, in 1938 he gave instructions to the Sudeten German Party which resulted in transfer of the Sudetenland to the Reich. 44 One of the main actors of economical preparation to the Second World War was Funk . He received a post of Minister of Economics and Plenipotentiary General for War Economy in 1938. One year later, he also took the office of President of the Reichsbank. 45 The Minister of Economics was responsible for a gigantic increase in armaments. Schacht played an important role in the vigorous rearmament programme which was adopted, using the facilities of the Reichsbank. In its traditional capacity, the Reichsbank acted as a financial agent for the German Government. It floated long-term Government loans, the proceeds of which were used for rearmament. In view of this, Schacht was active in organising the German economy for war. 46 The other important method in which the Nazis prepared for the war was educational support . This kind of preparation is connected to the name of von Schirach, the Reich’s Youth Leader of the Nazi Party. He controlled all Nazi youth organisations, including the Hitler Jugend. Von Schirach used them to educate German young people in the spirit of National Socialism, which envisaged an intensive programme of Nazi propaganda. Actually, he was a person who established the Hitler Jugend as a source of replacements for the Nazi Party formations. In 1938 von Schirach agreed with Himmler that members of the Hitler Jugend who met SS standards would be considered as the primary source of replacements for the SS. 47 The last kind of preparation for the aggressive war, according to the present research, is media or propagative . Fritzsche was best known as a radio commentator, responsible for propaganda in the Reich. Fifty years later his experience was utilised in Rwanda as a means for invoking genocide. 48 The radio programme titled ‘Hans Fritzsche Speaks’ was a source of encouraging hate and violence. Being a head of the Home Press Division, Fritzsche also supervised the German press of 2,300 daily newspapers. 49 Moreover, he 41 Judgement: Hess. URL:
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