By Stephen P. Halbrook, Ph.D., J.D
The Holland Poster
banning guns (click for closeup). Citizens had 24 hours to
surrender all firearms to the Nazis or face the death penalty. Printed in
German on the left and Flemish on the right. For translation, see below. From Die
Deutsche Wochenschau, May 15, 1940.
Translation
Regulations
on Arms Possession in the Occupied Zone
1. All firearms and ammunition, hand grenades,
explosive devices and other war matériel are to be surrendered.
The delivery must take place within 24 hours at the nearest German military administrative headquarters or garrison, provided that other special arrangements have not been made. The mayors (heads of the district councils) must accept full responsibility for complete implementation. Commanding officers are authorized to approve exceptions.
The delivery must take place within 24 hours at the nearest German military administrative headquarters or garrison, provided that other special arrangements have not been made. The mayors (heads of the district councils) must accept full responsibility for complete implementation. Commanding officers are authorized to approve exceptions.
German poster from occupied France imposing the death penalty for not
turning in all firearms and radio transmitters within 24 hours (click for closeup). For translation, see below.
From Musée de l'Ordre de la Libération, Paris.
Translation
Ordinance Concerning the Possession of Arms and Radio Transmitters in the Occupied Territories
1) All firearms and all sorts of
munitions, hand grenades, explosives and other war materials must be
surrendered immediately.
Delivery must take place within 24 hours to the closest "Kommandantur" [German commander's office] unless other arrangements have been made. Mayors will be held strictly responsible for the execution of this order. The [German] troop commanders may allow exceptions.
Delivery must take place within 24 hours to the closest "Kommandantur" [German commander's office] unless other arrangements have been made. Mayors will be held strictly responsible for the execution of this order. The [German] troop commanders may allow exceptions.
2) Anyone found in possession of
firearms, munitions, hand grenades, or other war materials will be sentenced to
death or forced labor or in lesser cases prison.
3) Anyone in possession of a radio
or a radio transmitter must surrender it to the closest German military
authority.
4) All those who would disobey this
order or would commit any act of violence in the occupied lands against the
German army or against any of its troops will be condemned to death.
The Commander in Chief
of the Army
of the Army
At the time of the
Nazi attack on Jews known as Night of the Broken Glass, Heinrich Himmler, head
of the Nazi SS and Police, ordered Jews disarmed (click for closeup). People's Observor
(Völkische Beobachter), Nov. 10, 1938.
Translation
Jews
Forbidden to Possess Weapons
By Order of SS Reichsführer Himmler
By Order of SS Reichsführer Himmler
Munich,
November 10 [1938]
The SS Reichsführer and German
Police Chief has issued the following Order:
Persons who, according to the Nürnberg law, are
regarded as Jews, are forbidden to possess any weapon. Violators will be
condemned to a concentration camp and imprisoned for a period of up to 20
years.
Invading Nazi troops in
Holland in 1940 immediately nailed up posters announcing a ban on all firearms.
From Die Deutsche Wochenshau, May 15, 1940.
I am writing a book on Nazi policies
and practices which sought to repress civilian gun ownership and to eradicate
gun owners in Germany and in occupied Europe. The following sampling of my
findings should give pause to the suggestion that draconian punishment of citizens
for keeping firearms necessarily is a social good.
The Night of the Broken Glass
(Kristallnacht)--the infamous Nazi rampage against Germany's Jews--took place
in November 1938. It was preceded by the confiscation of firearms from the
Jewish victims. On Nov. 8, the New York Times reported from Berlin,
"Berlin Police Head Announces 'Disarming' of Jews," explaining:
The Berlin Police President, Count
Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, announced that as a result of a police activity in
the last few weeks the entire Jewish population of Berlin had been
"disarmed" with the confiscation of 2,569 hand weapons, 1,702
firearms and 20,000 rounds of ammunition. Any Jews still found in possession of
weapons without valid licenses are threatened with the severest punishment.1
On the evening of Nov. 9, Adolf
Hitler, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and other Nazi chiefs planned the
attack. Orders went out to Nazi security forces: "All Jewish stores are to
be destroyed immediately . . . . Jewish synagogues are to be set on fire . . .
. The Führer wishes that the police does not intervene. . . . All Jews are to
be disarmed. In the event of resistance they are to be shot immediately."2
All hell broke loose on Nov. 10:
"Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples." "One of
the first legal measures issued was an order by Heinrich Himmler, commander of
all German police, forbidding Jews to possess any weapons whatever and imposing
a penalty of twenty years confinement in a concentration camp upon every Jew
found in possession of a weapon hereafter."3 Thousands of Jews
were taken away.
Searches of Jewish homes were
calculated to seize firearms and assets and to arrest adult males. The American
Consulate in Stuttgart was flooded with Jews begging for visas: "Men in
whose homes old, rusty revolvers had been found during the last few days cried
aloud that they did not dare ever again return to their places of residence or
business. In fact, it was a mass of seething, panic-stricken humanity."4
Himmler, head of the Nazi terror
police, would become an architect of the Holocaust, which consumed six million
Jews. It was self evident that the Jews must be disarmed before the
extermination could begin.
Finding out which Jews had firearms
was not too difficult. The liberal Weimar Republic passed a Firearm Law in 1928
requiring extensive police records on gun owners. Hitler signed a further gun
control law in early 1938.
Other European countries also had
laws requiring police records to be kept on persons who possessed firearms.
When the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939, it was a simple
matter to identify gun owners. Many of them disappeared in the middle of the
night along with political opponents.
Imagine that you are sitting in a
movie house in Germany in May 1940. The German Weekly Newsreel comes on to show
you the attack on Holland, Belgium, and France.5 The minute
Wehrmacht troops and tanks cross the Dutch border, the film shows German
soldiers nailing up a poster about 2½ by 3 feet in size. It is entitled
"Regulations on Arms Possession in the Occupied Zone"
("Verordnung über Waffenbesitz im besetzen Gebiet"). The camera scans
the top of the double-columned poster, written in German on the left and
Flemish on the right, with an eagle and swatiska in the middle. It commands
that all firearms be surrendered to the German commander within 24 hours. The
full text is not in view, but similar posters threatened the death penalty for
violation.
The film shows artillery and
infantry rolling through the streets as happy citizens wave. It then switches
to scenes of onslaughts against Dutch and Belgian soldiers, and Hitler's
message that this great war would instate the 1000-year Reich. A patriotic song
mixed with the images and music of artillery barrages, Luftwaffe bombings, and
tank assaults compose the grand finale.
France soon fell, and the same
posters threatening the death penalty for possession of a firearm went up
everywhere. You can see one today in Paris at the Museum of the Order of the
Liberation (Musée de l'Ordre de la Libération). A photograph of the poster is
reproduced here, including a translation in the sidebar.
There was a fallacy to the threat.
No blank existed on the poster to write in the time and date of posting, so one
would know when the 24-hour "waiting period" began or ended. Perhaps
the Nazis would shoot someone who was an hour late. Indeed, gun owners even
without guns were dangerous because they knew how to use guns and tend to be
resourceful, independent-minded persons. A Swiss manual on armed resistance
stated with such experiences in mind:
Should you be so trusting and turn
over your weapons you will be put on a "black list" in spite of
everything. The enemy will always need hostages or forced laborers later on
(read: "work slaves") and will gladly make use of the "black
lists." You see once again that you cannot escape his net and had better
die fighting. After the deadline, raids coupled with house searches and street
checks will be conducted.6
Commented the New York Times about
the interrelated rights which the Nazis destroyed wherever they went:
Military orders now forbid the
French to do things which the German people have not been allowed to do since
Hitler came to power. To own radio senders or to listen to foreign broadcasts,
to organize public meetings and distribute pamphlets, to disseminate
anti-German news in any form, to retain possession of firearms--all these things
are prohibited for the subjugated people of France . . . .7
While the Nazis made good on the
threat to execute persons in possession of firearms, the gun control decree was
not entirely successful. Partisans launched armed attacks. But resistance was hampered
by the lack of civilian arms possession.
In 1941, U.S. Attorney General
Robert Jackson called on Congress to enact national registration of all
firearms.8 Given events in Europe, Congress recoiled, and
legislation was introduced to protect the Second Amendment. Rep. Edwin Arthur
Hall explained: "Before the advent of Hitler or Stalin, who took power
from the German and Russian people, measures were thrust upon the free
legislatures of those countries to deprive the people of the possession and use
of firearms, so that they could not resist the encroachments of such diabolical
and vitriolic state police organizations as the Gestapo, the Ogpu, and the
Cheka."9
Rep. John W. Patman added: "The
people have a right to keep arms; therefore, if we should have some Executive
who attempted to set himself up as dictator or king, the people can organize
themselves together and, with the arms and ammunition they have, they can
properly protect themselves. . . ."10
Only two months before the Japanese
sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress enacted legislation to authorize the
President to requisition broad categories of property with military uses from
the private sector on payment of fair compensation, but also provided:
Nothing contained in this Act shall
be construed--
(1) to authorize the requisitioning
or require the registration of any firearms possessed by any individual for his
personal protection or sport (and the possession of which is not prohibited or
the registration of which is not required by existing law), [or]
(2) to impair or infringe in any
manner the right of any individual to keep and bear arms . . . .11
Meanwhile Hilter unleashed killing
squads called the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe and Russia. As Raul Hilberg
observes, "The killers were well armed . . . . The victims were
unarmed."12 The Einsatzgruppen executed two million people
between fall 1939 and summer 1942. Their tasks included arrest of the
politically unreliable, confiscation of weapons, and extermination.13
Typical executions were that of a
Jewish woman "for being found without a Jewish badge and for refusing to
move into the ghetto" and another woman "for sniping." Persons
found in possession of firearms were shot on the spot. Yet reports of sniping
and partisan activity increased.14
Armed citizens were hurting the
Nazis, who took the sternest measures. The Nazis imposed the death penalty on a
Pole or Jew: "If he is in unlawful possession of firearms, . . . or if he
has credible information that a Pole or a Jew is in unlawful possession of such
objects, and fails to notify the authorities forthwith."15
Given the above facts, it is not
difficult to understand why the National Rifle Association opposed gun
registration at the time and still does. The American Riflemen for February
1942 reported:
From Berlin on January 6th the
German official radio broadcast--"The German military commander for
Belgium and Northern France announced yesterday that the population would be
given a last opportunity to surrender firearms without penalty up to January
20th and after that date anyone found in possession of arms would be
executed."
So the Nazi invaders set a deadline
similar to that announced months ago in Czecho-Slovakia, in Poland, in Norway,
in Romania, in Yugo-Slavia, in Greece.
How often have we read the familiar
dispatches "Gestapo agents accompanied by Nazi troopers swooped down on
shops and homes and confiscated all privately-owned firearms!"
What an aid and comfort to the
invaders and to their Fifth Column cohorts have been the convenient
registration lists of privately owned firearms--lists readily available for the
copying or stealing at the Town Hall in most European cities.
What a constant worry and danger to
the Hun and his Quislings have been the privately owned firearms in the homes
of those few citizens who have "neglected" to register their guns!16
During the war years the Rifleman
regularly included pleas for American sportsmen to "send a gun to defend a
British home.17 British civilians, faced with the threat of invasion,
desperately need arms for the defense of their homes." Indeed, the New
York Times carried the same solicitations. After two decades of gun control,
British citizens now desperately needed rifles and pistols in their homes, and
they received the gifts with great appreciation. Organized into the Home Guard,
armed citizens were now ready to resist the expected Nazi onslaught.
With so many men and guns sent
abroad to fight the war, America still needed defending from expected invasions
on the East and West coasts, domestic sabotage, and Fifth Column activity.
Sportsmen and gun clubs responded by bringing their private arms and
volunteering for the state protective forces.18
Switzerland was the only country in
Europe, indeed in the world, where every man had a military rifle in his home.
Nazi invasion plans acknowledged the dissuasive nature of this armed populace,
as I have detailed in my book Target
Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II (Rockville
Center, N.Y.: Sarpedon Publishers, 1998).
Out of all the acts of armed citizen
resisters in the war, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 is difficult to surpass
in its heroism. Beginning with just a few handguns, armed Jews put a temporary
stop to the deportations to extermination camps, frightened the Nazis out of
the ghetto, stood off assaults for days on end, and escaped to the forests to
continue the struggle. What if there had been two, three, many Warsaw Ghetto
Uprisings?
The NRA trained hundreds of
thousands of Americans in rifle marksmanship during the war. President Harry
Truman wrote that NRA's firearms training programs "materially aided our
war effort" and that he hopped "the splendid program which the
National Rifle Association has followed during the past three-quarters of a
century will be continued."20 By helping defeat the Nazi and
Fascist terror regimes, the NRA helped end the Holocaust, slave labor, and the
severest oppression.
Those tiny pacifist organizations of
the era which called for gun registration and confiscation contributed nothing
to winning the war or to stopping the genocide. Their counterparts today have
nothing to offer that would enable citizens to resist genocide.
Individual criminals wreak their
carnage on individuals or small numbers of people. As this century has shown,
terrorist governments have the capacity to commit genocide against millions of
people, provided that the people are unarmed. Schemes to confiscate firearms
kept by peaceable citizens have historically been associated with some of the
world's most insidious tyrannies. Given this reality, it is not surprising that
law-abiding gun owners oppose being objects of registration.
1. New York Times,
Nov. 9, 1938, 24.
2. Gerald Schawb, The Day the Holocaust Began (New York:
Praeger, 1990), 22.
3. New York Times,
Nov. 11, 1938, 1, 4.
4. The Holocaust, Vol. 3, The Crystal Night Pogrom, John Mendelsohn, ed. (New York: Garland, 1982), 183-84.
5. Die Deutsche Wochenschau,
No. 506, 15 May 1940, UfA, Ton-Woche.
6. Major H. von Dach, Total Resistance (Boulder: Paladin
Press, 1965), 169. Earlier published as Dach, Der Totale Widerstand
(Biel: SUOV, 2nd ed., 1958).
7. New York Times,
July 2, 1940, 20.
8. New York Times,
Jan. 4, 1941, 7.
9. 87 CONG.REC., 77th Cong., 1st Sess., 6778 (Aug. 5, 1941).
10. Id. at 7102 (Aug. 13, 1941).
11. Property Requisition Act, P.L. 274, 77th Cong., 1st Sess.,
Ch. 445, 55 Stat., pt. 1, 742 (Oct. 16, 1941). See. Halbrook,
"Congress Interprets the Second Amendment," 62 Tennessee Law
Review 597, 618-31 (Spring 1995).
12. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews
(New York: Homes and Meir, 1985), 341, 318, 297.
13. Yitzhak Arad et al. eds., The Einsatzgruppen
Reports (New York: Holocaust Library, 1989), ii.
14. Id. at 233, 306, 257-58, 352-53, 368.
15. Reichsgesetzblatt,
I, 759 (4 Dec. 1941).
16. "The Nazi Deadline," American Rifleman,
February 1942, at 7.
17. American Rifleman,
Nov. 1940.
18. E.g., Report
of the Adjutant General for 1945, at 23-24 (Richmond, Va., 1946); U.S.
Home Defense Forces Study 58-59 (Office of Ass't Sec. of Defense 1981).
19. See Rotem
(Kazik), Simha, Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter, (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1994), 118-19; David I. Caplan, "Weapons Control Laws:
Gateways to Victim Oppression and Genocide," in To Be a Victim:
Encounters with Crime and Injustice, eds. Diane Sank and David I. Caplan
(New York: Plenum Press, 1991), 310.
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