Nazis in Power

Created by

Amelie Viney

Cards (34)

What were Nazi aims?
> A strong Germany: Hitler blamed Germany’s problems on weak leadership. Wanted strong leadership and strong Germans
> A racially pure Germany: Hitler believed in Aryan supremacy and blamed the Jews for Germany’s problems
> A people’s community: Nazis wanted people to give their hearts and minds to Hitler.
The Gestapo: 
> Secret state police: commanded by Heydrich
> Had sweeping powers: could arrest citizens and send them to concentration camps without trial
> Believed to have a network of informers
-> created fear, caused people to inform on eachother
The SS:
> After virtually destroying the SA in 1934, the SS grew into a huge organisation, had 1 million staff by 1944
> SS were aryan men, highly trained and loyal to Hitler
> Under Himmler the SS were responsible for crushing opposition and carrying out Nazi racial policies
Subdivisions:
SD: internal security service, investigate disloyalty within armed forces
The Death’s Head units: responsible for concentration camps
The Waffen-SS: armoured regiments that fought alongside regular army
Concentration camps:
> First camps set up when Hitler took power in 1933
-> makeshift prisons in disused warehouses
> Jews, socialists, communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else brave enough to criticise the Nazis ended up in these camps
> Historians estimate 1.3 millions Germans spent at least some time in these camps between 1933-39
The Police and the courts:
Top jobs given to high ranking Nazis
-> under strict instruction to ignore crimes committed by Nazi agents
The Nazis controlled the magistrates, judges and the courts
-> opponents of Nazis rarely received a fair trial
Who was Himmler? 
leader of the SS
Who was Heydrich? 
commander of the Gestapo
The Nuremberg rallies:
> Rally which took place in summer each year
> Organised by Goebbels
> Included bands, marches, flying displays and Hitler’s speeches
> Reminded people of the power of the state
> One of the Nazis’ main attractions was that they created order out of chaos so the rallies emphasised order
> Convinced people that ‘every other German’ fully supported the Nazis
Control of media: Books
No books could be published without Goebbels’
approval
In 1933: Goebbels organised a high profile book burning. Nazi students publicly burned books that included ideas unacceptable to the Nazis
Control of media: Music and Cinema
> Hitler banned jazz music because it was ‘Black‘ music
> All films had to cary a pro-Nazi message
> The newsreels before each film told of Hitler’s achievements, evidence that Germans avoided these by arriving late
> Goebbels censored all foreign films coming into Germany
Control of Media: Radio
> Made cheap radios available so all Germans could buy one and he controlled all radio stations
-> listening to the BBC was punishable by death
> Goebbels placed loudspeakers in streets
-> Hitler’s speeches and those of other Nazi leaders were broadcasted over and over again until they were deemed as normal
The 1936 olympics:
> Holding the games in Berlin was a great propaganda opportunity and showcase for their doctrine that the Aryan race was superior to all others
> There was international pressure to boycott the games due to the Nazis anti-Jewish politics, so the Nazis included 1 token Jew in their team
> Stadium built to hold 100,000 people, no expenses spared to show Germany was a modern, civilised and successful nation
-> Many foreign visitors were appalled by blatant propaganda and fanatical devotion to Hitler
The Nazis and the Churches
> Hitler signed a concordat with the Catholic Church in 1933 agreeing to leave the church alone and keep control of their schools if they stayed out of politics
> Most churchgoers either supported the Nazis or stayed out of politics
> However, the Catholic bishop Galen criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930s. In 1941 he led a popular protest against the Nazis killing of mentally ill and physically disabled people
-> Nazis thought it too risky to silence him and temporarily stopped
Persecution of minorities:  
> 100,00 gay people arrested, 50,000 of which were sent to prison
> ‘euthanasia programme’ was begun in 1939. 5000 babies and children killed between 1939 and 1945
> ‘asocials’- alcoholics and homeless people sent to concentration camps
The Persecution of the Jews:
> One reason for the persecution of Jews was they were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ
> Hitler blamed Jewish businessmen and bankers for Germany’s defeat in WW1
Early measures against the Jews: 
> These began as soon as Hitler took power in 1933
> They were banned from the civil service
> SA and SS troopers organised boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses
> In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws took away their German citizenship
> Propaganda bombarded German children and families with anti-Jewish messages
> Jewish children were segregated in schools
Kristallnacht:
> In November 1938, a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris
> The Nazis used this as an excuse to launch a violent revenge on Jews
-> Plain clothes SS troopers were issued with pickaxes and hammers and the addresses of Jewish businesses
> 91 Jews were murdered, 20,000 were taken to concentration camps
> Most German people were horrified but hardly anyone protested
Political opposition to Nazi rule: 1933-39 
> The Nazis had not imprisoned or killed all socialists
-> some still met secretly but they had lost their leaders and were divided
> However, there was some sabotage of factories, railways and army stores
-> In 1936, the Gestapo broke up 1000 opposition meetings and seized 1.6 millions anti-Nazi leaflets
Social opposition to Nazi rule: 1933-39 
> Widespread apathy towards parades and propaganda:
-> local party officials increasingly had to bully people to attend Nazi rallies, and had to use ‘radio wardens’ to force people to listen to Hitler’s speeches
> Some National church leaders publicly criticised the Nazis:
-> Joseph Fath hung his own flag in his church, Pastor Grueber risked his life helping Jews escape the Nazis
> Private grumbling was very common: the Nazis had not won the hearts and minds of the people, just silence them
Life for young people in Nazi Germany: School 
> Teachers were approved and trained by the National Socialist teacher’s alliance
> Taught about the History of Germany and how the German army was ‘stabbed in the back’ by weak politicians and that the Hardships of the 1920s were caused by the Jews
> Biology would teach about the Aryan race
> Most students did not expect to go to university
-> between 1933 and 1938, university places fell from 128,000 to 58,000
Life for young people in Nazi Germany: The Hitler Youth
> From a very young age children were encouraged to join the Hitler Youth
> Boys were encouraged to join the Hitler Youth, and girls, the league of German maidens
> Most people were attracted to the Nazi youth movements by the leisure opportunities
> They were not compulsory but all other youth organisations had been absorbed or made illegal
> By 1936: the Hitler Youth had 6 million members
What were Nazi attitudes to Women?
> Very traditional view of the role of the German Woman: men and women agreed
> There was resentment towards working women in the early 1930s since they were seen as keeping men out of jobs
> Gertrude Scholz-clink was the head of the Nazi Women’s Bureau though she was excluded from any important discussions
> Many working class girls and women gained the opportunity to travel and meet new people through the Nazi women’s organisation but opportunities for women were limited and discrimination against women applicants for jobs was encouraged
Economic recovery and rearmament in Nazi Germany:
> Hitler was fortunate that by 1933 the worst of the Depression was over
> Dr Schacht organised Germany’s finances to fund a huge programme of work creation. The National Labour service sent men on public works projects to build a network of motorways, or autobahns and railways, as a result, Unemployment fell steadily
> In 1935: Hitler reintroduced conscription for the German army to reduce unemployment further
-> In 1936: he announced a four year plan under Goering to get the German economy ready for war
The Nazis and the workers: 
> Hitler lowered unemployment which gained him important popularity among industrial workers
> Strength through Joy: gave workers cheap cinema tickets and organised courses, trips and sports events
> The Beauty of Labour movement: improved working conditions in factories, introduced rarer features such as washing facilities and low cost canteens
> However: workers lost their trade unions and had to join the DAF which meant they could not strike for better pay
Nazis and the Farming communities:
> Set up the Reich food estate: gave peasant farmers a guaranteed market and guaranteed prices
> Reich Entailed farm law: banks could not seize their land if they could not pay loans or mortgages
However: some more efficient farmers were held back by having to work through the same processes and only the eldest child could inherit the farm
-> As a result many children of farmers left for better pay in Germany’s industries: Rural depopulation ran at 3% per year- the opposite of Nazi aims
Big businesses and the middle classes  
> Many middle class businesses were grateful to the Nazis for eliminating communist threat and the order that the Nazi party brought
> However: small shops struggled as large department stores were taking business away despite Hitler’s promises
> Big businesses benefited: no longer had to worry about trade unions
Impact of WW2 on Germany:  
> From 1941: the German people found their lives increasingly disrupted
> Goebbels redoubled his censorship efforts and tried to maintain support for the war by asking people to make sacrifices: they donate 1.5 million coats to the Germany army in Russia
> From 1942: Albert Speer directed Germany’s war economy: all efforts went to the war
> All postal services were suspended and places of entertainment were close except cinemas
> Women were drafted into the labour force
> With defeat looming: Germans stopped declaring food they had and avoided Nazi rallies
The Swing movement: 
Middle class teenagers
They went to parties where they listened to English and American music
They danced American dances such as the jitterbug to banned jazz music
The Nazis issued a handbook helping the authorities to identify them
The Edelweiss Pirates: 
> Working class teenagers
> Taunted and attacked the Hitler youth
> In December 1942: the Gestapo broke up 28 groups containing 739 adolescents
> The Nazis needed future workers so the nazis reacted uncertainly, sometimes ignoring them
> In 1944 in Cologne: they helped to shelter escaped prisoners
> They took part in an attack during which the Chief of the Gestapo was killed: the Nazis publicly hung the ‘ringleaders‘
The ’Final Solution’ 
In January 1942: senior nazis met in Berlin to discuss what the called the ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’
Himmler was put in charge of the systematic killing of all Jews within Germany and German occupied territory
Young children and the sick were killed immediately
6 million Jews and 500,000 Gypsies, political prisoners and homosexuals were gassed, worked to death or shot
Did the war increase Nazi opposition? Organised resistance groups emerged:
The White rose run by Hans and Sophie Scholl
They published and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets
The Scholls were executed in Feburary 1943
Did the war increase Nazi opposition? Church leaders: 
Catholic bishop Clemens Galen openly criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930s
In 1941: he led a protest against the Nazis killing of disabled people
This gained so much support that the nazis decided it was too risky to silence him
Did the war increase Nazi opposition? Army leaders: 
> The only group that had a chance of overthrowing the Nazis was the army
> General Von Fritsch and Feild-Marshall Von Blomberg argued against Hitler’s plans to invade Germany’s neighbours, Hitler had them removed
> As the war progressed the army became increasingly indivisible from the Nazi regime
-> despite this there were 5 failed attempts to assassinate Hitler between 1940 and 1943
Why was there not more opposition to the Nazis?
Terror: the Nazi police state was designed to scare people into submission. Even at the end of the war, the Gestapo hung some saboteurs who had blown up a railway track
The Hitler Myth: Propaganda had made Hitler seem god like, people respected Hitler personally and did not blame him for some of the things Nazis officials did
Divided opposition: Communists and social democrats were not prepared to work together. They were leaderless and divided
Propaganda and Censorship: Only stories of Nazi achievement were spread