Occult figures undoubtedly played a significant role in the formation of the NSDAP, but it is equally obvious that leading Nazis later denounced and persecuted occult groups. Occult "true believers" in the party ranks were frequently marginalized and persecuted as the Nazi Party gained prominence and power after 1919. In any case, a surprising number of people in the Third Reich were open to occult beliefs and practices, including senior figures like Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and Gestapo. Without a widespread propensity for paranormal thinking, which Hitler and the Nazi Party rushed to capitalize on and was exacerbated by military defeat and social crisis, the Third Reich would have been highly improbable. The National Socialist movement was not the first to use religious sentiment for political gain. However, Hitler's NSDAP was far more successful than other parties in appealing to a generation traumatized by war, violence, and sociopolitical upheaval by appealing to a supernatural imagination.