the police state

• the SS (protection squad)

  • led by himmler
  • responsible for the removal of opposition
  • became the main means of intimidating germans into obedience
  • by 1934= 50,000+ members
  • by 1939= 250,000 members
• the gestapo (secret police)

  • set up in 1933 by goering
  • 1936= came under control of himmler + SS
  • could arrest + imprison those suspected of opposition without trial
  • only had the power to send political opponents to concentration camps
• concentration camps

  • 1933= nazis created concentration cams to detain political prisoners
  • ran by SS
  • prisoners were classified into different categories, each denoted by wearing a different coloured triangle
  • by 1939= more than 150,000 people
• CONTROL OF LEGAL SYSTEM

  • wanted to ensurre that all laws were interpreted in a nazi fashion
  • set up the National Social League for the Maintenance of law
  • all judges had to join
  • meant that nazi views were upheld in the courts
• new peoples court

  • hear all cases of treason
  • offences against the state
  • held in secret
  • sometimes hitler imposed sentences
  • 1934-39= 534 sentenced to death
• October 1933- Germans Lawyers Front was established

  • had to swear that they would 'follow the course of the Fuher'
  • 10,000 members at the end of the year
• NAZI POLICES TOWARDS CHURCHES

  the catholic church:

  • hitler was determined to reduce the influence of the catholic church
  • because people owned their first loyalty to pope not hitler
  • 1933- hitler signed a concordat
  • agreeing not to interfere with catholic church, in return they agreed to stay out of politics
  • within 1 year, hitler broke the agreement and attacked the catholic church

  catholic schools= abolished

  priests harassed + arrested

  • ended in concentration camps
  • catholic youth groups= banned
• THE PROTESTANT CHURCH

  1933- protestant groups who supported nazis formed the Reich church

  leader= ludwig muller

  • first Reich bishop in september 1933

  many protestants opposed nazis

  • believed they conflicted with christian beliefs

  led by pastory neimoller

  • dec 1933- set up Pastors' Emergancy League for those who opposed nazis