(NSFO; "National Socialist Leadership Officers") were

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

tasked with teaching

Nazi ideology Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was freque ...

to soldiers. It was regarded as important that some officers should have the responsibility of both military command and political instruction in the spirit of Nazism. In this respect, NSFO were similar to

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

political commissars of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. The (National Socialist leadership staff) of the

OKW The (; abbreviated OKW ː kaːˈveArmed Forces High Command) was the supreme military command and control staff of Nazi Germany during World War II, that was directly subordinated to Adolf Hitler. Created in 1938, the OKW replaced the Re ...

was created by Adolf Hitler's directive of the 22 December 1943 and was put under the overall control of General Hermann Reinecke. His officers had to bring soldiers closer to the Nazi worldview through lectures and discussion. The goal was to instill ideological conviction in order to reinforce combat morale and turn the tide of the war. NSFO were regular officers, but they had to be approved by a commission created by the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery

Martin Bormann Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and a war criminal. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler ...

. This commission, presided by Wilhelm Ruder, had to check whether the men were "flawless" in the Nazi sense. Ruder explained in a speech that, in the opinion of the Party Chancellery, the instruction of "political soldiers" and of the management had been neglected and correcting this would stabilize the Wehrmacht. By the end of the year 1944, about 47,000 secondary NSFO and 1,100 primary NSFO participated in central training courses. In

regiments A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service, or specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted in one ...

and

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

s, officers took NSFO-functions as side duties. Up to the Division level, NSFO were provided to

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

s and placed under their authority. At the

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

level, unit commanders took up the function of NSFO. NSFO teaching courses indoctrinated hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of men drafted in the with

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

: for example, the idea of Jews as

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s to be wiped out.

Saul Friedländer Saul Friedländer (; born October 11, 1932) is a Czech-born Jewish historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA. Biography Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He was raised in France and lived thr ...

: ''Die Jahre der Vernichtung. Das Dritte Reich und die Juden. Erster Band. 1933–1939''. C.H. Beck, München 1998, S. 799.

Literature

* Waldemar Besson: ''Zur Geschichte des nationalsozialistischen Führungsoffiziers.'' In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 9 (1961), H. 1, p. 76–116
ifz-Archiv
(PDF) * Andreas Kunz:'' Wehrmacht und Niederlage. Die bewaffnete Macht in der Endphase der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944–1945.'' Schriftenreihe des Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamtes, Bd. 64, München 2005, ISBN 3-486-57673-9, p. 240–248. * Peter Joachim Lapp: ''Hitlers NS-Führungsoffiziere 1944/45. Die letzten Propagandisten des Endsiegs'', Helios, Aachen 2019, ISBN 978-3-86933-238-3.

References

{{Authority control Wehrmacht Nazism Nazi Germany Military history of Germany Political communication Nazi propaganda