what groups was hitler involved in?
German Workers' Party Nazi Party
entailment
 Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers , Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hans Ludin , in late 1930 . Both were charged with membership in the NSDAP , at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel . The prosecution argued that the NSDAP was an extremist party , prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify . On 25 September 1930 , Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections , which won him many supporters in the officer corps . 

entailment
 Hitler and the Nazi Party held mass meetings and rallies in Munich and elsewhere during the early 1920s , attempting to gain supporters in a bid for political power . Inspired by Benito Mussolini 's March on Rome , the Nazis attempted to seize power on 8 – 9 November 1923 in a failed coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch . Göring , who was with Hitler heading up the march to the War Ministry , was shot in the leg . Fourteen Nazis and four policemen were killed ; many top Nazis , including Hitler , were arrested . With Carin 's help , Göring was smuggled to Innsbruck , where he received surgery and was given morphine for the pain . He remained in hospital until 24 December . This was the beginning of his morphine addiction , which lasted until his imprisonment at Nuremberg . Meanwhile , the authorities in Munich declared Göring a wanted man . The Görings — acutely short of funds and reliant on the good will of Nazi sympathizers abroad — moved from Austria to Venice . In May 1924 they visited Rome , via Florence and Siena . Göring met Mussolini , who expressed an interest in meeting Hitler , who was by then in prison . 

entailment
 On Hitler 's behalf , Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps . As facilitator and overseer of the concentration camps , Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews , between 200 @,@ 000 and 500 @,@ 000 Romani people , and other victims ; the total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people . Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens . 

entailment
 Early followers included Rudolf Hess , former air force ace Hermann Göring , and army captain Ernst Röhm . Röhm became head of the Nazis ' paramilitary organisation , the Sturmabteilung ( SA , " Stormtroopers " ) , which protected meetings and attacked political opponents . A critical influence on Hitler 's thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung , a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early National Socialists . The group , financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists , introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy , linking international finance with Bolshevism . 

entailment
 Nazi Germany 's actions included the formation of the multitasking Condor Legion , a unit composed of volunteers from the Luftwaffe and the German Army ( Heer ) from July 1936 to March 1939 . The Condor Legion proved to be especially useful in the 1936 Battle of the Toledo . German efforts to move the Army of Africa to mainland Spain proved successful in the war 's early stages . German operations slowly expanded to include strike targets , most notably – and controversially – the bombing of Guernica which , on 26 April 1937 , killed 200 to 300 civilians . Germany also used the war to test out new weapons , such as the Luftwaffe Stukas , hold secret to the nationalists , and Junkers Ju @-@ 52 transport Trimotors used also as Bombers , which showed themselves to be effective . 
