member_of_political_party karl-otto koch
Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945 , when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the ___MASK100___ ( NSDAP ). Under Hitler ' s rule , Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the ___MASK100___ took totalitarian control over nearly all aspects of life . The official name of the state was " Deutsches Reich " from 1933 to 1943 and " Großdeutsches Reich " (" Greater German Reich ") from 1943 to 1945 . The period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period ( abbreviated as " NS - Zeit "). The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945 , ending World War II in Europe . Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a ___MASK82___ ( or other uniformed service ) training establishment or academy . This usage is common in English - speaking nations . In some countries it may be a ___MASK82___ or police rank . It is also often used to refer to the commander of a ___MASK82___ prison or prison camp ( including concentration camps and prisoner of war camps ). The Workers ' and Peasants ' ___MASK23___ Army (: RKKA , frequently shortened in Russian to ; KA , in English : ___MASK23___ Army also in critical literature and folklore of that epoch - ___MASK23___ Horde , Army of Work ) was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist ___MASK19___ , and after 1922 the ___MASK42___ of Soviet Socialist Republics . The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution ( ___MASK23___ October or Bolshevik Revolution ). The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the ___MASK82___ confederations ( especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army ) of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War . Beginning in February 1946 , the ___MASK23___ Army , along with the Soviet Navy , embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces ; taking the official name of " Soviet Army ", until its dissolution in December 1991 . The General Government  sometimes also referred to as General Governorate (, ) was a German zone of occupation established by Adolf Hitler after the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet ___MASK42___ in 1939 at the onset of World War II . The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones : the General Government in its centre , Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet ___MASK42___ in the east . The territory was expanded in 1941 to include the District of Galicia . The National Socialist German ___MASK71___ ( abbreviated NSDAP ), commonly referred to in English as the ___MASK100___ , was a political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945 and practised the ideology of Nazism . Its precursor , the German ___MASK71___ (" Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; DAP ), existed from 1919 to 1920 . World War II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second World War , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing ___MASK82___ alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in history , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and ___MASK82___ resources . Marked by mass deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history . Majdanek or KL Lublin was a Nazi extermination camp established on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II . Although initially purposed for forced labor rather than extermination , the camp was used to kill people on an industrial scale during Operation Reinhard , the German plan to murder all Jews within their own General Government territory of Poland . The camp , which operated from October 1 , 1941 until July 22 , 1944 , was captured nearly intact , because the rapid advance of the Soviet ___MASK23___ Army during " Operation Bagration " prevented the " SS " from destroying most of its infrastructure , but also due to ineptitude of commandant Anton Thernes who failed in his task of removing incriminating evidence of war crimes . Therefore , Majdanek became the first concentration camp discovered by Allied forces . Also known to the " SS " as " Konzentrationslager Lublin ", Majdanek remains the best preserved Nazi concentration camp of the Holocaust . Hermann Wilhelm Göring ( or Goering 12 January 1893  15 October 1946 ) was a German politician , ___MASK82___ leader , and leading member of the ___MASK100___ ( NSDAP ). A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace , he was a recipient of the coveted " Pour le Mérite ", also known as the " Blue Max ". He was the last commander of " Jagdgeschwader " 1 , the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen . Karl - Otto Koch ( German : ( k ) ; August 2 , 1897 -- April 5 , 1945 ) , a Standartenführer ( Colonel ) in the German Schutzstaffel ( SS ) , was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen . From September 1941 until August 1942 , Koch also served as the first commandant of the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland , stealing vast amounts of valuables and money from murdered Jews . His wife , Ilse Koch , also took part in the notorious crimes at Buchenwald and Majdanek . Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps ( KZ or KL ) throughout the territories it controlled before and during the Second World War . The first Nazi camps were erected in Germany in March 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor and his ___MASK100___ was given control over the police through Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick and Prussian Acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring . Used to hold and torture political opponents and union organizers , the camps initially held around 45 , 000 prisoners . Germany , officially the Federal ___MASK19___ of Germany , is a federal parliamentary ___MASK19___ in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous member state of the European ___MASK42___ . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . Germany ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . Wilhelm Frick ( 12 March 1877  16 October 1946 ) was a prominent German politician of the ___MASK100___ , who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in the Hitler Cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . After the end of World War II , he was tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed by hanging . Ilse Koch ( née " Margarete Ilse Köhler "; 22 September 1906  1 September 1967 ) was the wife of Karl - Otto Koch , commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald ( 1937  1941 ) and Majdanek ( 1941  1943 ). In 1947 , she became one of the first prominent Nazis to be tried by the U . S . ___MASK82___ .