It is said that when the National Socialists took power in Germany they confiscated all the guns so that no one could challenge their power. I have often heard that story from American gun owners, but never from anyone else. My father, a Major in the 159th Field Artillery Battalion, took part in the initial occupation of Germany at the end of World War II. He heard that story too, but did not believe it because, he said, at the end of the war German civilians had a whole lot of firearms which he, personally, seized and impounded.   He said, when the Army impounded a peasant's shotgun, the peasant would often request that some soldiers come down and shoot his rabbits to keep them from eating up the crops.

I studied German history at an advanced level, but didn't focus on the Nazis. I knew several people who did, and went on to write books about them.   Not one of them ever mentioned any confiscation of guns. I lived three years in Germany, but I never heard that story, or anything like it, from a German. Does anyone know whether (1) there is any factual basis for this story, or (2) where it came from?

To me, it sounds like a classic urban legend.