Theodor Eicke (1892 – 1943) was a German SS officer (SS-Obergruppenführer) and commander of the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf. He played an important role in the establishment of concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Along with Michael Lippert, Eicke executed SA Chief Ernst Röhm two days after the Night of the Long Knives, which was the purge carried out within the Nazi Party on June 30, 1934.

In 1940, Theodor Eicke was appointed commander of the Waffen-SS 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf", leaving the concentration camps post. In 1941, he was transferred along with his unit to the Eastern Front. The Totenkopf Division became one of the most effective fighting formations of the Waffen-SS. During Operation Barbarossa, Eicke’s division fought ferociously against the Red Army. On February 26, 1943, Theodor Eicke was killed, when his plane (a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch) was shot down behind enemy lines, while performing a battlefield reconnaissance during the opening stages of the Third Battle of Kharkov.

Originally, the Freikorps were voluntary armies organized in the German states and principalities in the middle of the 18th century onwards. They were recruited by Frederick II of Prussia to keep law and order when the regular soldiers were busy fighting in the Seven Years War. The original Freikorps did not constituted professional regular armies, and they were formed in periods of emergency for secondary duties to keep order in time of war. Early in the 19th century, Freikorps were organized to fight against the French invaders that plundered the German villages and farms during the Napoleonic Wars. "Freikorps" is a German word which means "Free Corps" in English.

By the end of World War I, new Freikorps organizations were formed by army officers and soldiers, who had fought in the war, to put down the riots during the German Revolution of 1918. They volunteered to join these rightist paramilitary armies to fight against armed communist activists who attempted to seize power in Germany and set up a Marxist regime, similar to the one established in Russia in 1917. German communists and anarchists were organized around the Marxist Spartacist League. With the support from Minister of Defense Gustav Noske, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, of Weimer Republic, the Freikorps managed to quell the communist uprisings. In May 1919, the Freikorps overthrew the illegal Soviet government of Bavaria, which had been established by force by the communists. Later, many Freikorps members, such as Ernst Röhm, Reynhard Heydrich, Adolf Hitler, and Wilhelm Keitel, would join the German Workers Party, which was later renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP, Nazi.

The German Revolution of 1918-1919 was a series of riots and violent civil clashes which erupted in Germany at the end of World War I. This social and political strife began in early November 1918 with the sailors mutiny and ended with the establishment of the Weimar Republic in August 1919. The revolution led to the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II.

The most violent riots were those carried out by the communists, who wanted to implement extreme radical reforms, such as those undertaken in Russia in 1917. Hordes of red vandals destroyed business, shops ,cars and other private property in a blind hatred of upper classes. Nevertheless the communist ideas failed because of the resistance of the Social Democratic Party of Germany leadership in January 1919. Fearing an all-out civil war they, in line with the middle-class parties, did not have in mind to completely strip the old imperial elites of their power. Instead they sought to reconcile them with the new democratic conditions. In this endeavour they made an alliance with the Supreme Command and had the army and Freikorps quell the communist and anarchist uprising by force. It was the intervention of the Freikorps, which was a nationalist militia composed of World War I battle-hardened veterans, who saved Germany from falling in communist hands.

Wilhelm Mohnke (1911 – 2001) was a SS officer and an original memeber of the SS-Staff Guard (Stabswache) "Berlin", created in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler’s last remaining faithful generals. Mohnke was born in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on March 15, 1911. When he was young he worked in a porcelain factory. In 1931, he enrolled in the Nazi Party and two months later he joined the SS.

On May 9, 1945, Mohnke was flown to Moscow as a prisoner for interrogation, and then, without a trial, he was kept four years in solitary confinement. In 1949, he was transferred to the Generals’ Prison in Woikowo, where he was kept in captivity until October 10, 1955. After his release, he went back to Germany, settling in Barsbüttel, where he worked as a dealer in small trucks and trailers. Wilhelm Mohnke died in Damp, Schleswig-Holstein, on August 6, 2001, at the age of 90.

The annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Third Reich took place on March 12, 1938, with the help of many Austrian supporters, who were part of a unionists movement known in German "Heim ins Reich" movement. In German the annexation of Austria is known as the "Anschluss", which means connection, or link up. The main rationale for the annexation was based on the centuries-old historical and cultural links between the Germany and Austria which dated back from the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which began in the year 962 AD with Otto I. This empire was regarded by the Nazi as the First Reich, which was made up of territories now occupied by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Louxenbourg. From the 15th century on, when the Habsburg dynasty took the throne, the capital of Holy Roman Empire was Vienna. Germany and Austria not only shared a commun history, but their people also spoke the same language.
Prior to March 12, 1912, Hitler had provided support for the Austrian Nazi Party in its bid to seize power from Austria’s Austrofascist leadership. The Chancellor of Austria, Kurt Schuschnigg, wanted his country to remain independent and tried to hold a referendum to ask the Austrian people whether they wished to remain independent or merge into Germany. Schuschnigg expected Austria to vote in favour of maintaining autonomy, but a well-planned coup d’état orchestrated by the Austrian Nazi Party took place on March 11, before the referendum was held. Once the Austrian Nazi members had seized power, they quickly transferred it over to Germany. Then, on March 12, 1938, Wehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the Anschluss. The Nazis held a plebiscite, asking the Austrian people whether they wanted to be part of Germany. The result of the plebiscite was 99.73% of the vote favored an integration with Germany.