Hitler's Party Comrades

This study is the first to analyze both the Nazi party’s membership development and composition, as well as the motives for joining and the exoneration strategies of former party members chosen during the denazification process.This book examines how many members joined the party between 1919 and 1945 (over 10 million), how many left (more than 750,000), and how many the party lost through death in World War II. Furthermore, the question of whether the NSDAP was a middle-class or a catch-all party, the latter being closer to the truth, is linked to the thesis of whether party members predominantly belonged to the front-line fighter generation or the generation of war children born between 1900 and 1915. The study is based on the most comprehensive sample to date, more than 50,000 cases, from both central NSDAP membership registers, covering Germany, Austria, and the occupied Czech territories. This book also presents a unique analysis of the influence of the denominational context, the dominant local economic sector, and the extent of mass unemployment on the recruitment success of the National Socialists.Hitler’s Party Comrades is a comprehensive guide to understanding the Nazi party and will be of interest to scholars and students of World War II and European history.