Repression and the police state

• Repression and the police state

  • The vast majority of Germans supposedly supported Hitler and the Nazis throughout the 1930s
  • Hitler's appearances attracted huge crowds of adoring supporters
  • It was clear that many Germans were pleased with what he was doing with the country
  • What is difficult to judge is just how many people were against what he was doing
  • This is because the Nazis allowed no opposition; killing or imprisoning all opponents
  • People were too sccared to speak out
• The police state

  • Hitler was the Fuhrer, the all-powerful supreme leader of Germany, also known as a dictator
  • He felt that if people didn't accept Nazi ideas and beliefs willingly, then they would be forced to accept them
  • All dictators need a large police force to both protect them and make sure people do what they are told, and Nazi Germany was no exception
  • Under Hitler, Nazi Germany was a police state, a country where the police are very powerful
• Fear and terror: Concentration camps


  • Lots of these camps were set up as soon as Hitler took power
  • They were large prisons where any 'enemies of the state' could be held for any length of time
  • They were set up to 'correct' people who were not doing what the Nazis wanted
  • Anyone the Nazis didn't like was sent there - Jews, Roma and Sinti, political opponents and anyone who criticised Hitler
  • Inmates were forced to work hard and some were even tortured or worked to death
• Fear and terror: Himmler


  • All police forces were put under the control of Himmler, the Head of the SS
  • He personally reported to Hitler and was a loyal Nazi
• Fear and terror: The SS


  • Set up in 1925, the blackshirted SS were originally Hitler's personal bodyguards
  • Gradually, the group, led by Himmler, was built up over the years to become the most feared organisation in the country
  • SS members were tall, strong, athletic, and totally loyal to Hitler
  • Over time, the SS were divided into three sections:
  • The SD looked after 'security' - they could arrest anyone for any reason, search homes and seize property. They even spied on and policed the Nazi Party itself
  • The Waffen SS were an elite unit in the army
  • The Death's Head Units ran the concentration camps, and later, the death camps
• Fear and terror: The Gestapo


  • The secret police were known as the Gestapo
  • They didn't wear uniforms, and spied on people they thought might be a threat
  • They tapped telephone calls and opened mail
  • They had the power to arrest, imprison without trial, and torture anyone
  • They set up a huge network of 'informers' who would report their parents or teachers
  • In fact, they were not that many Gestapo officers, but because people didn't know who they were, many German people informed on each other because they thought the Gestapo would probably find out anyway
• Fear and terror: The regular police and the law courts

  • The ordinary police continued their regular work, but ignored crimes committed by Nazis
  • All the top jobs in the ordinary police went to Nazis
  • The law courts and judges were under Nazi control too
  • New laws meant that people faced prison for smuggling banned books into Germany, telling an anti-Hitler joke or listening to a foreign radio station