The "Nice" Nazis

If there is one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that Nazis are bad; between the Holocaust, and the whole starting a war that killed over 70 million people business, it’s fair to say that they have earned their place as the undisputed ultimate villains of history.

And yet, they were not all equal in their evil. Some of them in fact, were good, decent, and moral, despite their horrendous convictions and the vile genocidal war machine that they served.

Such a thing is difficult to believe – it goes against every preconception we rightly hold against Nazis and Nazism, but it is exactly because of this that these exceptional cases are so interesting and worth learning about.

So, join us today, and learn exactly what a ‘good’ Nazi looked like!

Heinz Heydrich

Heinz Heydrich was the younger brother of the notorious SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the Chief Architect of the Holocaust. Nazis didn’t come much more fanatical than Heinz… well, apart from his brother anyway. He had joined both the SS and the Nazi Party itself in 1931, before the party had even taken power, and immediately began leveraging his skills as a journalist in service to the cause, becoming Lead Editor of the pro-Nazi soldier’s newspaper Die Panzerfaust.

This continued until June 1942, when reality sucker punched him in the face and destroyed his commitment to the Nazi cause in an instant. His brother had been assassinated in Prague a month earlier, after which he had come into possession of his brother’s personal effects, including a plethora of personal files which had come from Reinhard’s office at the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin. Being the nosy sort, Heinz naturally began leafing through these files, and soon enough came upon a brown envelope, one that was outwardly as dull and mundane as the rest he had pried through.

Appearances can be deceiving however, because in this envelope wasn’t anything dull like an expenses sheet or a dusty old duty roster. Instead, what was in that envelope was a full detailed breakdown of the ongoing Holocaust: contracts for the building of the death camps, records for the deportation of ethnic minorities, and “kill tallies” of the various Einsatzgruppen death squads then deployed across the Nazi Empire.

The regret was instant and hit Heinz like a train. He had been fully awakened to the true horrors of Nazism, of which he had been so wilfully ignorant previously. He set about burning the documents as he considered his next move, and after several days of emotional numbness he rendered his verdict – he would use his position as Lead Editor of Die Panzerfaust to help Jews and other minorities escape persecution.

His approach to this was twofold. Firstly, he would use the printing facilities of his magazine to create highly passable forgeries of identity cards, travel documents, really anything paper based that may help someone flee into hiding. Then, he used his powers as an SS Officer to track down local resistance networks, whom he would then give the documents to use how they saw fit.

We wish we had more information we could tell you about how he actually conducted his operation and the numbers of people he might have saved, but unfortunately, such information simply hasn’t survived through to the present day. Chiefly, this is because his was a one man organisation. The only people who knew of his activities were the various disparate peoples he had made contact with, none of whom had any awareness of his wider operation – they just saw a Nazi having second thoughts who would bring them bundles of handy documents from time to time.

Heinz himself wouldn’t even survive the war to give his own account. In November 1944, the Gestapo started sniffing around Die Panzerfaust to investigate what they claimed were… ‘paper supply shortages.’ Believing he was about to be exposed, he opted to protect his family from reprisal in the only way he could think of – by killing himself. If only he had known there was no bluff, and the Gestapo really were just investigating supply chain disruption.

Albert Battel

Our next ‘good’ Nazi is one Albert Battel, who was an officer with the German Army.

As far as Nazi fanaticism goes, Albert was pretty low down on the scale – still on it make no mistake, but far from the top. He was one of the sorts who had some general right-wing and nationalistic tendencies before the Nazis came to power, and finding their platform agreeable enough, had no hesitations about joining to further his career and social standing. So not exactly a true believer, but certainly a willing and happy cog in the machine.

Much like Heinz Heydrich, he had originally maintained an intentional ignorance of the Holocaust. He was no fool, and was fully aware what was going on, but early on it simply hadn’t been his problem – he wasn’t Jewish, his friends weren’t Jewish, so whatever, he reasoned. But this changed in dramatic style in 1942, when he discovered that the SS were coming for the Jews of Przemyśl’s Ghetto, with the intention of transporting them off to Belzec Death Camp.

Upon learning this plan, he found himself at a moral fork in the road. He still considered himself a German patriot make no mistake, but this: brutal acts of torture, callous acts of cruelty, and wanton murder… he simply could no longer go forward and conflate these barbaric acts with true patriotism. And so, he made a bold decision: he wasn’t going to let the SS into the ghetto.

On the morning the SS were due to descend on the Ghetto, Battel had the 40 or so men under his command block the only way into the Ghetto, a single bridge crossing the River San, by having them park their two trucks across its length and throwing some hastily pre-prepared barriers down. Then he and all his men hunkered down behind anything solid they could find, and waited…

A few hours later the SS convoy appeared over the horizon, bound straight for the Ghetto as per their plan, and came to a halt 50 or so feet in front of the roadblock. An Officer soon appeared out of the lead staff car, scanned the scene for the Officer in command, and upon sighting Battel, made a beeline straight for him, furiously demanding that they clear the way so they could get on with the task at hand.

Battel kept his cool, informing the Officer that he had no intention of allowing his troops into the Ghetto, and that he was willing to back that up with deadly force were he to continue to insist. Not taking the hint, the Officer got only irater; waving his arms around and demanding to be let through… but he soon got the message when Battel had his men cock their weapons and take aim at the convoy, before then proceeding to run back to his staff car shouting various veiled threats as he beat his retreat, taking his convoy out of the town.

Knowing that the clock was now ticking before the SS returned in force, he and his men then proceeded to transport several hundred Jews out of the Ghetto before their return, ferrying them over to a local Army barracks where they could be protected from the wicked hand of the SS. Those who couldn’t be evacuated in time weren’t so lucky… they were all transported to Belzec and were dead within a week of the standoff.

The SS were incensed by Battel’s act of resistance, and immediately launched an investigation into his conduct. What they found shocked them – a long and drawn-out history of Battel occasionally treating Jews like human beings, perish the thought! They found that he had given a loan to a Jewish colleague in 1938, and in early 1942, he had even been caught shaking hands with Jewish leaders in the Ghetto… truly disgusting stuff to the warped sensibilities of Nazism.

The investigation ended up going right the way to the top, eventually landing on the desks of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, and Martin Bormann, head of the Party Chancellery, with the decision being made to arrest Battel the moment the war ended and he had outlived his usefulness.

Battel himself survived the war and passed away in 1952 at the age of 61. Eventually, in 1981, he was posthumously honoured as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” an honourific bestowed by the State of Israel to honour non-Jews who risked their own lives in order to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Karl Plagge

Next, we have Karl Plagge, another German Army officer. Interestingly, despite having joined the Nazi Party in 1931, long before they came to power, his commitment to Nazism was wavering at best, as he was consistently reprimanded for failing to fully embrace the racial aspects of the ideology. Eventually, after butting heads repeatedly with local party leadership, he ceased party activities altogether in 1935, and eventually left the party following the outbreak of WWII.

But despite his moral objections to Nazi racial ideology, when his call up papers came in 1940, he did not try to shirk out of being conscripted. Once again he submitted himself to being a willing cog in the Nazi hate machine – finding himself posted to Vehicle Maintenance Unit 562.

Eventually, come Operation Barbarossa, Plagge bore witness to multiple Nazi atrocities, including the murder of an entire town in rural Lithuania, after which he pledged to do something about it in whatever capacity he could muster. His first action was to use his unit to shield as many Jews as possible, finding any and every excuse to issue inmates of the Vilna Ghetto the precious ‘essential worker permit’ that would protect them from the regular SS sweeps across the Ghetto. In total he issued 261 work permits, which, given its extension to the worker, his wife, and up to two of his children, saved up to 1,044 people from certain death.

Eventually, he found himself in command of HKP 562, a forced labour camp established to provide his unit with a steady supply of labour. He opted to convert it into a sanctuary for the Jews interned there, establishing various facilities such as a rabbit farm, a nursery, and a carpenter’s shop, all of which he hoped would both increase the living standards of his prisoners, and allow him to blag everyone interned as being ‘essential labour.’

Sadly, his attempts weren’t always successful. His running of the camp was marked by a delicate balancing act between passive resistance and survival. While he strived to protect his Jewish workers, he had to avoid direct confrontations with the SS that could jeopardize the entire camp’s safety. However, this tactic also meant that he sometimes had to acquiesce to certain SS demands to maintain the illusion of compliance, such as when he had to loan trucks and drivers to the SS for transporting Jews to execution sites, an act that weighed heavily on his conscience.

As the war neared its end and the Red Army approached Vilnius, Plagge delivered a cryptic warning to his Jewish workers about an impending SS operation, hinting at the need to hide. This warning enabled approximately 150 to 200 Jews to survive the final SS sweep in July 1944, during which 500 Jews were executed. This group of survivors constituted the largest single group of Jewish survivors in Vilnius.

After the war, Plagge was tried in a denazification court but was not found guilty of active Nazi collaboration, primarily due to testimonies from Jews he had saved. He then lived out the rest of his days in quiet peace before passing away of a heart attack in 1957 at the age of 59.

Survivors of HKP 562 were keen to see him honoured as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” in the years after the war, and first petitioned to have him recognised as such in 2002. The judicial committee however was unconvinced, not seeing a clear risk to his own life in his actions, but following further lobbying by those he saved, he was eventually bestowed the honour in 2004.

John Rabe

When it comes to ‘good’ Nazis, John Rabe is truly leagues above the rest, because not only is he by far and away the single most moral Nazi ever to have donned that wicked uniform, but he may well just be history’s greatest ever humanitarian, period.

Born all the way back in 1882, in Hamburg, his early life was relatively unremarkable; he grew up in a typical middle-class German family and pursued a career in business. Eventually, in 1908, an opportunity with Siemens AG led to him relocating to China, where after a few years spent hopping across the country, he eventually settled in Nanjing, the location for the extraordinary events that would later define his legacy.

As for his Nazi credentials, there can be no doubt that Rabe was a true believer. He happily joined the party in 1931, fully supporting its nationalistic ideals and hoping that its fragrant disregard for the Treaty of Versailles would return Germany to being a prosperous and mighty power. For him, there was none of the reluctance or sudden realisations that the other people had regarding their Nazism. As, when it came to his ideology, he thought, and we quote: “I believe not only in the correctness of our political system but, as an organizer of the party, I am behind the system 100 percent”… and that just makes what happened next all the more baffling.

In 1937, Nanjing faced a brutal assault by the Japanese Imperial Army, and after the city surrendered, Japanese soldiers descended upon it like animals, unleashing a torrent of violence, both sexual and physical, so horrendous that it would become known as the Rape of Nanjing. The scale was simply staggering. Historians estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically murdered, with methods of execution involving beheadings, live burials, burnings, and drowning. As for the sexual violence, no women were spared – young, old, fit, infirm… every single woman the Japanese got their hands on was violated in ways too barbaric to describe, with some placing the figure for those violated as high as 80,000.

In the face of this unspeakable terror, John Rabe, despite being a devout Nazi, decided to take a stand and protect the non-European native peoples of Nanjing, establishing the “Nanjing Safety Zone” – a neutral ground in which any Chinese people inside would be shielded from Japanese brutality.

The personal risks Rabe undertook in this endeavour were immense. As a European and a member of the Nazi Party, Rabe was initially insulated from the violence that plagued Nanjing. However, his decision to intervene placed him in direct opposition to the Japanese forces. He often found himself confronting Japanese soldiers to prevent acts of violence, using his Nazi Party badge as a shield and a symbol of authority.

Rabe’s actions were not without consequences. He faced constant threats and the possibility of retaliation from the Japanese army. Moreover, his extensive documentation of the atrocities and his efforts to communicate them to the outside world put him at further risk, both during and after the massacre.

Despite these dangers, Rabe remained steadfast in his commitment to the Safety Zone and its inhabitants, and it is estimated that he saved upwards of 250,000 people, a figure that easily puts him in the running to be history’s single greatest humanitarian. And again, because we feel we can’t stress this paradox enough, this was despite him being a rabid Nazi. Historians have racked their brains for years trying to explain this, and frankly, we don’t have an answer either – answers in the comments if you have an explanation!

After the massacre, Rabe returned to Germany, carrying with him the harrowing evidence of the atrocities in Nanjing. He hoped to use his position and connections within the Nazi Party to bring attention to the Japanese war crimes and sought an audience with Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately, his efforts were largely ignored, and the Nazi-Japanese solidarity remained unshaken.

In the post-war years, Rabe’s life took a turn for the worse. His affiliation with the Nazi Party led to his interrogation by the Allies, and his attempts to speak out about Nanjing were largely suppressed during the Cold War era, a time in which Japan became a valuable landing strip for American forces wanting to strike at the Eastern Soviet Union. Rabe lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity and poverty, surviving only on the generous gifts the many people he saved sent to him back in Germany.

It was not until many years after his death in 1950 that Rabe’s contributions were recognized. Survivors of Nanjing began to shed light on his actions, leading to a re-evaluation and veneration of his legacy. Today, he is celebrated in both China and Germany, with memorials and exhibitions dedicated to his life and the lives he saved having been erected in both countries.

Key Takeaways

• Heinz Heydrich forged identity documents and supplied them to resistance networks after discovering Holocaust evidence in his brother’s files.
• Albert Battel blocked SS access to a ghetto with armed soldiers, evacuated hundreds of Jews, and was later named Righteous Among the Nations.
• Karl Plagge issued work permits saving over 1,000 Jews and ran a forced labor camp as a sanctuary, enabling 150-200 to survive a final SS sweep.
• John Rabe, a devoted Nazi, established the Nanjing Safety Zone and directly confronted Japanese soldiers, saving an estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians.
• All four men were Nazi Party members who ultimately chose humanitarian action over ideology, though Rabe paradoxically remained a true believer throughout.

Sources

• Original Side Projects video: The “Nice” Nazis
• Hero image source by Jaeger & Goergen, Munich, Nazi Germany; Friedrich Goergen (1866-1926) was the proprietor of the photography studio ‘Jaeger & Goergen’ located in Munich 51, starting from the year 1897. No known copyright restrictions. / openverse, by-sa.

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