Germany in War KT4

• When the Second World War broke out, there was huge fear in Germany. People stocked up on food, sandbags were given out, air raid sirens sounded, and blackout regulations were issued.
• War economy in Germany

  1. Expenditure on the military increased dramatically from 1939 to 1940

  2. Goods linked to the military increased from 23% of the economy in 1939 to 47% in 1941

  3. By 1941, 55% of the German workforce was employed in war-related work

  4. Albert Speer appointed as minister of armaments and war production in 1942

  5. Policies to focus factories on single products, employ more women, use concentration camp prisoners as workers, and exclude skilled workers from military service
• The first winter of World War II was the coldest in living memory in Germany. Factories not engaged in war production received no coal supplies, and civilians struggled to heat their homes.
• Rationing was introduced in Germany, with a complex system of color-coded ration cards. German Jewish people were given lower rations and could only shop at certain times.
• The Nazi leadership was divided over the role of women. Albert Speer wanted women to work in factories, but Hitler wanted them to stay at home as wives and mothers.
• The RAF began bombing industrial areas in northern Germany in 1940. Germany introduced an evacuation program called KLV, but only 40,000 of 260,000 eligible children in Berlin participated.
• The July 1944 bomb plot, led by Colonel Klaus Graf Von Stauffenberg, was an attempt to assassinate Hitler and initiate a military takeover. The plot failed, and the plotters were executed.
• Cardinal Galen, a Catholic bishop, publicly criticized Nazi policies in 1941, including the murder of disabled people. His campaign helped stop the Nazi euthanasia program.
• The White Rose, a group of students in Munich, produced a series of anti-Nazi leaflets in 1942-1943. The group's leaders, Hans and Sophie Scholl, were executed for their resistance.
• In February 1943, the Rosenstrasse protest in Berlin led to the release of Jewish men who had been rounded up and were considered part-Jewish.
• Sophie and Hans both tried to take full responsibility to protect the others but in the end the most prominent members of the group including Sophie and fans face The People's Court and a day later execution by the guillotine
• Sophie and Hans shall uh well remembered for their very brave and determined resistance against the Nazis
• The Rosen Strasser was another example of opposition
• The last years of Berlin were rounded up, a group of men was taken to the welfare office of the Berlin Jewish community and say the rosenstrasse

  27th of February 1943
• The men taken to the rosenstrasse were considered to be part Jewish and many had Aryan wives
• The Aryan wives of these Jewish men gathered at the rosenstrasse to protest
• The protests led to the men being released in March 1943 with the Nazis claiming they never intended to deport them
• Deportation of all other Jews to the death camps continued
• Gad was part of the group of men at the rosenstrasse protests in 1943
• Gad was Jewish and gay, he survived the entire duration of Nazi rule living in Berlin
• Gad made the decision to resist the Nazis and took a leading role in the true chaluzi Jewish resistance group for the rest of the war
• Otto and Elise hampel hand wrote 200 postcards urging people to refuse military service and not donate to the Nazis
• Nearly all of the postcards were handed to the Gestapo which shows the fear of the public have of objects and resistance
• There was an increase in passive resistance during the second world war such as refusing to do the Nazi salute, telling anti-nazi jokes, and reading anti-nazi leaflets
• Opposition remained a minority within Nazi Germany during World War II
• Most people had little direct experience of Nazi brutality so it was difficult to know the full scale of their crimes
• The harsh punishments for opposing the Nazis made opposition really challenging
• Nazi propaganda was very effective in winning over the German people and selling them the myth that Hitler would be their savior
• There was an increase in propaganda when Hitler was nearly killed in the July bomb plot, which led to an increase in support for Hitler
• Some Nazi successes, such as Hitler's foreign policy and welfare schemes, also convinced people to support the Nazis
• The defeat of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front led to the Nazis moving to Total War


  February 1943
• The Total War speech by Goebbels was about galvanizing the German people to support the war effort
• The impact of Total War included the mobilization of women into the war effort, the elimination of anything not contributing to the war, and increased propaganda
• Allied bombing raids intensified massively after 1943, causing massive destruction in cities like Hamburg and Dresden
• The Allied and Soviet advances through Nazi-occupied countries increased pressure on German resources and led to military defeats
• The shock of the July 1944 bomb plot actually increased Hitler's popularity and led to a purge of the German Army
• Goebbels was made Reich trustee for Total War in July 1944, leading to further mobilization and the creation of the Volkssturm militia
• By 1945, Germany was in chaos, facing starvation and destruction, as the Allies and Soviets advanced rapidly
• Hitler took his own life on 30th April 1945 and Germany surrendered on 2nd May 1945
• The bombing of Dresden in February 1945 was particularly devastating, killing 25,000 people