Germany

• Treatment of workers in Nazi Germany (January 1933)

  • Over 6 million Germans unemployed when Hitler came to power
  • Hitler promised his voters 'work and bread'
  • Nazis set up organisations to get Germans back to work
• Organisations to get Germans back to work- German Labour Front (DAF)

  • DAF replaced trade unions
  • Beauty of Labour- aimed to improve working environments [installed better lighting, sports facilities, safety equipment]
  • Strength through joy (KDF)- aimed to reward workers [offered cheap holidays, theatre trips]
  • cruise ship built to reward hardest workers
  • over 7 million people participated in sports events by KDF
• National Labour Service (RAD)- set up in 1933, compulsory in 1935

  • all men between 18 and 25 spent 6 months in RAD
  • planted forests, mended hedges
  • wore uniforms and lived in camps
  • given free meals
  • lived under control, earned little money
• Public Work Schemes

  • June 1933- Nazis ordered the creation of motorways
  • gave work to nearly 100,000 people
  • new schools and hospitals were built
• Rearmament

  • Hitler ordered the building of new tanks, battleships, planes and guns
  • Thousands of jobs created

  Conscription introduced

  • 1935- compulsory for males 18-25 forced to join army for 2 years
  • in 5 years army grew [100,000- 1.4 million]
• Reducing unemployment figures

  • woman who gave up work to have a family didn't count
  • part-time workers counted as full-time
  • Nazis sacked people (Jews) creating new jobs
  • Jan 1933- 6 million unemployed
  • Jan 1939- 302, 000
• Impact of Depression on Germany- Wall Street Crash

  • October 1929- start of worldwide economic depression
  • American banks closed down
  • American banks demanded repayment of loans they gave Germany since 1924
• Nazis and the Depression

  • support for Nazis grew
  • 1928- 12 seats in Reichstag
  • 1932- 230 seats
• Effects of Depression on Germany

  • working and middle class lost savings in the bank
  • government- weak and helpless
  • poverty
  • mass unemployment- government cannot afford to pay out unemployment benefits
  • American loans called in
  • cannot trade abroad
  • people turn to extremist parties (Nazis)
• when Hitler was in prison, the Nazi party operated in secret
• February 1924- ban on the Nazi party lifted

  • Hitler created the SS and Hitler Youth
• Nazi party growth

  1925 27,000 members

  1928 100,000 members
• Why did the Nazis gain votes?

  Great Depression- 6 million unemployed, 'Work and Bread' promised

  Propaganda- Goebbels in charge, Nazis owned 120 newspapers

  SA- beat up communists, marched through towns in uniform

  Hitler's Promises- get rid of ToVs
• 30th January 1933

  Hitler became Chancellor
• Reichstag Fire- 1 week before Hitler's election

  February 1933- Reichstag building set on fire

  • Nazis arrested a Dutch communist
  • Hitler said communists were trying to takeover Germany
  • Nazis allowed to imprison communists, banned their newspaper
  • 288 seats in Reichstag (not a majority)
• March 1933- Hitler passed the Enabling Bill

  • communists couldn't vote
  • anyone absent counted as voting in favour for the Bill
  • SA intimidated members who entered the Reichstag
• Hitler could make laws without the Reichstag for 4 years

  • banned opposing parties
  • leaders put in concentration camps
  • banned trade unions
• Night of the Long Knives:

  Rohm (SA leader) wanted the SA to join the army (scared Hitler)

  June 1934- Hitler had Rohm and 400 SA leaders shot by the SS
• Hindenburg died in August 1934

  Hitler became Fuhrer and made the army swear an oath of loyalty to him
• Women's lives:

  • forced to leave jobs to become mother's
  • Kinder, Kuche, Kirche "children, cooking, church"
  • encouraged to have large families to increase birth rate
  • medals awarded to women with lots of children
  • discouraged from wearing makeup, smoking and dieting
• Lebensborn set up

  donate baby to the Fuhrer by getting pregnant by racially pure SS men
• Young People- Hitler Youth

  • salute swastika
  • sing Nazi songs
  • Boys- trained to be soldiers
  • Girls- trained to be mothers
• Education under the Nazis

  Geography- learning about Greater Germany

  PE- a lot of lessons to stay fit

  Biology- recognising the Aryan race

  History- books rewritten without German defeat
• 1938- Jewish students had to leave German schools
• 1939- Hitler Youth made compulsory

  1 million/ 7.5 million children refused
• Propaganda

  • posters, films, art exhibitions
  • Hitler's speeches broadcasted on radios
  • newspapers censored (Nazis checked what was in them)
• 1936- the Olympic games showed how advanced Germany was
• Concentration camps

  • run by the SS
  • homosexuals, Jews and gypsies taken
  • often people were worked to Death
• Loyalty to the Nazis:

  • Gestapo made sure people were being loyal
  • in a block of 30 houses, 1 Nazi would keep an eye on families and ensure they followed rules
  • Hitler Youth expected to spy on their parents
• Race:

  • Aryans were the master race
  • Hitler believed he should destroy Jews (blamed for Depression, ToVs and hyperinflation)
  • blacks and mentally ill were sterilised
• Treatment of Jews

  1933- SA boycotted Jewish shops

  1934- Jews banned from public places

  1935- Nuremburg Laws banned Jews from marrying Germans
• Kristallnacht 1938

  • attack on Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues
  • killed 100 people
  • many Jews sent to concentration camps
  • survivors given a 1 million Reichsmark bill
  • Jews banned from German schools
• Hitler controlling churches

  1933- signed Concordat with the Pope

  • Protestant church > National Reich Church, was given Nazi bishops
  • Mein Kampf replaced Bible, swastika replaced cross
• 1935- Ministry of Churches set up. Hitler Youth replaced Youth groups
• 1937- Pope attacked the Nazi System for abuse of human right with "burning anxiety"

  • 400 Catholic priests were sent to concentration camps
• 1939- rationing, 2/5 Germans followed a healthier diet
• 1939- women needed in industry

  6.2 million women working

  Jan 1943- women conscripted into workforce
• 1942- Germans began to experience bombing raids on major cities from Britain and America
• 1943- Albert Speer became Reich Minister form Armaments

  • controlled war economy
  • factories began to produce items needed for war
• 1939- 1944

  munitions output increased by 60%