Posted on 12/11/2015 6:00:13 AM PST by equaviator
Look at the body language and facial expressions on those listening.
Incredible photo. Thanks.
Question: What differentiated those wearing the red Nazi armband from those not?
I’ve sat through this a couple of time, and each time it just gets more and more bizarre. Even many Nazis were a bit perplexed as to why Hitler would even do this, and honestly it sounds like he was more rambling for an answer himself.
It seems like Adolf thought his winning streak was so good, that this would just be another easy enemy.
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Not all military were members of the Nazi party. Perhaps the difference?
They don’t look any too enthused.
How do you say we’re screwed in German?
I think it was the Nazi party symbol at first.
Cabinet members?
Joseph Goebbels can be seen in the left-most seat of the first row, in profile. He appears to be wearing an armband, but it’s hard to be sure.
Whats FDR doing sitting in the front row? I knew he was involved. /s
The “armband system” was instituted by the Nazi Party in 1939 at the same time that the political leadership ranks were expanded into their final form. The purpose of the armband system was to denote positional titles within the Nazi Party in contrast to a party member’s political rank.[1]
There were three groupings of armbands, classified as “operational”, “administrative”, and “command”. The operational armbands were used by Nazi Party political leaders on the local and county levels and were worn by those Party leaders directly engaged in implementing Party policies to the public. During World War II, this was most often associated with food rationing, war relief efforts, and civil defense.
The administrative armbands were worn by office staffs across all levels of the party, although mostly were used by the regional staffs of the Gauleiters. The third, and least common of the armbands, were the command armbands worn by the Deputy Gauleiters, Gauleiters, and Reichsleiters.
The Nazi Party armbands were intended for immediate implementation upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, although it was not until 1943 that the system was in total effect. Even then, photographic evidence reveals it was not uncommon for some political leaders to simply wear the pre-1939 bare swastika armband, with some photographs as late as 1945 revealing political leaders failing to wear the appropriate Nazi positional armband.
By pairing up a wearer’s political collar tabs and armband, it was possible to determine exactly what their position and responsibilities were within the Nazi Party political leadership corps; the armband system was also used to differentiate between Party leaders who may have held the same political ranks, but were entrusted with vastly different responsibilities. For instance, a Hauptbereichsleiter who was serving as the Kreisleiter of a German county, would wear a more elaborate armband than a Nazi Party member of the same rank who was on the administrative staff of a Gauleitung.
On the local level of the Nazi Party, political armbands were often used to denote those Nazis holding the positions of Blockleiter and Zellenleiter. A further political position, unique only to the local level of the Nazi Party, was that of Betriebsobmann which was a type of Shop Steward position. At the top tier of the operational armbands was a unique armband worn by both the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Kreisleiter
Administrative armbands were used across all levels of the Nazi Party, beginning with the position of Mitarbeiter which was a catch all staff position encompassing a wide variety of duties. Mitarbeiter had itself been a political rank prior to 1939, after which time the rank was phased out of the Nazi Party but survived as a political position. Leadership administrative armbands were worn by Office Leaders (Amtsleiters and Stellenleiters), of which there were eight levels of hierarchy. In all, the Nazi political offices, denoted by special armbands, were as follows:
Hilfssachgebiet - Auxiliary Administrative Area
Sachgebiet - Administrative Area
Hilfsstelle - Auxiliary Area
Stelle - Area
Hauptstelle - Head Area
Amtes - Office
Hauptamtes- Head Office
Oberst Amtes - Supreme Office
A leader of a political office was known as a Leiter followed by the office name. For instance, Leiter eines Sachgebietes would indicate the leader of an administrative area office.
Command armbands matched up directly with the positions of Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, each of which was denoted by its own unique armband. The political position of Deputy Gauleiter (Stellvertreter Gauleiter) was phased out as a political rank in 1939 (explaining why there was no “one leaf” Gauleiter insignia during World War II), bur survived as a political armband denoting status as a Deputy Regional Leader.
Display of armbands at link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranks_and_insignia_of_the_Nazi_Party
S.S. Officers had to members of the Nazi Party. I would be surprised if there wasn’t enormous pressure on high ranking members of the Wehrmacht. Speculation: Maybe those with Nazi armbands are SS?
Military men would have known they didn’t need yet another active enemy/front;attacking the Soviet Union was a huge mistake by Hitler.
Biggest mistake of Hitler. Even bigger than invading Russia.
Wir sind fooked?
Wir sind verschraubt
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