Martin Bormann Essays (2187 words) - SS-Obersturmbannfhrer

Martin Bormann On the night of October 15, 1946, ten of the twelve major war criminals, condemned to death at the Nuremberg trials, were executed. Of the two who eluded the hangman, one was ReichMarshal Hermann Goring, who committed suicide by swallowing a lethal vial of cyanide two hours before his execution. The other man was Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, who had managed to gain an enormous amount of power within the Nazi Party. He was virtually unknown outside of the Party elite as he had worked in the shadows of Hitler. As the end of the war drew near, many of the top Nazis were fleeing. Hermann Goring had fled west, and had been captured by American soldiers, after the death of Hitler had been announced. In Hitler's political will, Goring had been expelled from the party while Martin Bormann had been named Party Minister . According to Jochen Von Lang, Gobbels and Bormann had ?held a military briefing on the night of May 2, 1945. ? Gobbels had already decided to commit suicide but Bormann despe rately wanted to survive. The last entry into his diary was ?escape attempt! ? Martin Bormann's whereabouts after this night is unknown. There are many speculations as to his fate ranging from the probable to the spectacular. Reichsleiter Bormann who, according to A. Zoller, ?exercised absolute control over the whole structure of the Reich? and yet, virtually unknown to the public, was born June 17th, 1900. He was born in Saxon to a Postal Clerk. Bormann joined an anti-Semitic organization in 1920 and by 1923 he was a member of the Freikorps. During this period, he was imprisoned for a year for murder and one year after his release Bormann joined the Nazi Party as a financial administrator. By 1933 he had worked his way to being made a Reichsleiter, a General of the SS and the Chief of Staff to Rudolf Hess. When Hess took flight to England, Bormann gladly inherited his position and became Hitler's deputy. He had many enemies in the Party and Goring explained that even Goebbels feared him and his power . Bormann saw himself to be quite a noble character and in a letter to his wife dated April 2nd, 1945 he wrote that, ?if we are destined, like the Nebeliung, to perish in King Attila's hall, then we go to de ath proudly and with our heads held high.? For all his bravado, as the time to fight arrived, Bormann made a frantic attempt to survive. At the end of the war, the allied leaders decided to prosecute top Nazis as War Criminals in Nuremberg. As Martin Bormann was missing, it was decided that he would be tried in absentia. Although the allies had testimony stating that Bormann was dead, they ignored it because if ?Bormann at this point was to be declared dead by the court, and then to surface later on, die-hard Nazis would suspect that perhaps the Furher was alive too.? In order for allied credibility to remain intact, Bormann was to be tried for Crimes against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. Dr. Friedrich Bergold was appointed to this difficult task of defending a missing man. He considered it ?a miscarriage of justice for the Tribunal to try his client in absentia.? The International Tribunal sentenced Reichsleiter Martin Bormann to death. The night of May 1-2, 1945 is the last known whereabouts of Martin Bormann. The Reichsleiter was desperately trying to leave Berlin alive. He had tried to negotiate with the Russians for a brief cease-fire in order for him to obtain a safe passage through the enemy's lines. It had been rejected. The survivors in the Fuhrerbunker were attempting to escape the city and every twenty minutes a group left. Bormann emerged wearing an SS uniform without rank and a leather overcoat. His pocket contained a copy of Hitler's will, securing him to power. His group, that included Axmann, Kempka and Stumpfegger, arrived at the Friedrichstrasse Subway station but were held up at the Weidendammer Bridge. The Russians held the other side of the bridge and therefore made it impossible to cross without the cover of tanks. Miraculously, some German tiger tanks and a few armoured

Slaves and Masters essays

Slaves and Masters essays Masters attempted to gain absolute control over slaves' lives but were often frustrated in this by the tactics of resistance the slaves employed. I. Motives of Masters in controlling slaves: The paternalistic idea masters held was that they wanted absolute control over their slaves lives as well as the "fruits of their labor." Out of this derived the shape paternalism took for a long timeout became "system class rule" it was a way of life. The masters lived off the work of their slaves. The system class rule made the slave master relationships ambiguous and complex. Masters had many advantages over slaves one was that they got paid off the their slaves work. By definition and in essence it was a system class rule, in which some people lived off the labor of others. "American slavery subordinated one race to another and there by rendered its fundamental class relationships more complex; but remained class relationships. To insist upon the centrality of class relations as manifested in paternalism is not to slight the inherent racism or to deny the intolerable contradictions." II. Tactics of control employed by masters: the paternalism encouraged by the close living of masters and slaves was enormously reinforced by the closing of the African slave trade, which compelled masters to pay greater attention to the reproduction of their labor force. Wherever paternalism exists, it weakens solidarity among the oppressed by linking them as individuals to their oppressors. "The racial distinction between master and slave heightened the tension inherent in an unjust social order." The slaves of the old south displayed impressive solidarity and collective resistance to their masters, but in a web of paternalistic relationships their actions tended to become defensive and to aim at protecting the individuals against aggression and abuse. Black leaders won the loyalty and respect of slaves and free blacks because the...

Department of Homeland Security - Immigration enforcement Case Study

Department of Homeland Security - Immigration enforcement - Case Study Example However, the involvement of the state and local agencies might imply the difference achievement and malfunction in the enforcement of immigration laws. Nonetheless, the assistance provided by state and local police in enforcing immigration laws is deemed totally voluntary. This is so because there is neither a provision in the United States code nor the code of federal regulations that require the local law enforcing agencies to assign any resources towards enforcing federal immigration laws. Local enforcement of immigration laws has proved to be important as it has helped in capturing suspected terrorists during arresting of alien people. Thus, the role played by state and local authorities in enforcing immigration can never be overstated as they are the eyes and ears of law enforcement which keep the country secure. This can be attributed to the fact that there is a considerable number of officers who first come into contact with aliens in traffic stops, as well as in other law enforcement conditions. The state and local authorities assist in migration law enforcement mostly within the following scenarios: Arrests of Absconders: in the US there are now over 400,000 absconders who are aliens who have gone through court and disobeyed the last order of removal. The absconder issues have gone against the rule of law in as far as immigration is concerned. Several absconders have engaged in criminal activities apart from their initial immigration violation. Hence, it is the work of the state and local authorities to arrest these absconders. Enforcement in remote as well as underserved areas: due to bureau of immigration customs enforcement agents, who are usually thinly spread all over the country, some states experience substantial unlawful immigration without adequate enforcement attention from the particular BICE officials. Such areas may be not