Life in Nazi G

• When was the Reichstag fire and who destroyed what?


  - 27th February 1933

  - dutch communist (van der Lubbe) confessed to destroying the Reichstag building
• What were the consequences of the Reichstag fire?


  - NZs seized the opportunity to destroy communist opposition as it was announced that van der Lubbe was part of a communist anti-gov plot

  - H used the fire to attack Comms & increase his own personal power

  - on night of fire 4,000 Comm leaders arrested

  - H persuaded Hind to pass a new emergency decree that gave the police the power 2 search homes & imprison anyone they arrested w/o trial

  - police were able to ban meeting & close newspapers

  - Goering (new NZ chief of police) used the decree to take over the state radio station
• What steps did H take b4 the March 1933 election?


  - Goering began to replace cops w NZ supporters & recruited 50,000 SA member to be 'police auxiliaries' - H effectively in control of police now " SA violence was not stopped

  --- during election campaign, political violence led to 70 deaths

  - 1000s of member of Comm party & Social Democratic Party were arrested & sent to conc camps

  - SA broke up election meetings by opposition parties

  - newspapers that didn't support NZs were closed

  - H secured funds from industrialists to help NZ election campaign

  ----they gave generously bc NZs promised to destroy Communism & ensure stability

  - NZs issued huge quantities of propaganda
• What were the results of the March 1933 election?


  - NZs won 288 seats

  - other parties won 359 seats

  - meaning NZs didn't have majority so their measures could be voted down by other parties

  - disapointed H as he had hoped for 2/3 of the seats to allow him to make changes to the constitution
• What law did H want to bring in?

  - Enabling Act

  - would give H unlimited powers & allow him to pass laws w/o asking the Reichstag
• How did H persuade other parties to support his new law?


  - used the emergency powers to ban Communist party

  - Nationalist Party agreed to support him bc many of their beliefs were similar to NZs

  - won support from Centre party by promising to protect the Catholic Church
• What were the consequences of the enabling act?


  - end of Weimar Constitution & democracy in G allowing H to make laws & sign treaties with foreign powers w/o the approval of Reichstag

  - original act lasted for 4 years but it was renewed in 1937.

  - for rest of H's time in power, Reichstag only met 12 times & no longer had a decision making role (instead listened to H's speeches)
• What were 2 effects of the Enabling Act?

  1. wanted to weaken trade unions bc they had communist sympathies & many workers were loyal 2 their union not NZs

  - NZs also wanted to win the favour of big businesses which were keen to see trade unions reduced

  MAY 1933: NZs broke into trade union offices & arrested leaders then created German Worker's Front & forced workers to join

  2. wanted to remove political parties

  MAY 1933: Social Democrats & Communists were suspended & NZs occupied their offices & took their funds

  JULY 1933: H created a law which banned all political parties except NZ party
• Why did Hitler want to reduce the power of the SA?


  - SA becoming very powerful (1934 had over 2 mill members) & leader Ernst Röhm was a possible rival to H as leader of NZ party

  - some SA members continued to use violence & intimidation (there were frequent fights between members) & this was an embarrassment to H as they lost the support of many conservative Germans

  - Röhm had ver diff views to H - wanted to take measures against big businesses & adopt socialist policies - also lots of the NZ party were offended by Röhms homosexuality & believed he was corrupting hitler youth

  - influence of SA affects NZs relations with army & when H made plans to rearm G & increase the size of the army:

  1934 - SA units began stopping army convoys & confiscating their weapons
• When was the Night of Long Knives?

  30th June 1934
• What happened on the Night of Long Knives?


  - members of SS arrested around 200 SA officers

  --- taken to Munich & many executed (including Röhm)

  - H also took revenge on von Kahr & Schleicher & removed possible rival for NZ leader, Gregor Straser

  - H claimed he was defending G against a plot that was going to be led by Röhm
• When did Hitler become Fuhrer?

  2nd August 1934
• What was the name of G's empire that H was know firmly in control of in 1934?

  Third Reich
• What happened to the army when H became Fuhrer?

  their army loyalty oath was made to him directly, rather than to G

  - meant that the army swore to obey him personally if there was a struggle for power, rather than accepting the orders of their military commanders
• indoctrination meaning:


  forcing people to accept certain ideas by offering no alternatives
• what is a police state?

  a totalitarian state controlled by a police force which watches people to make sure they do not oppose the government
• Who were the Gestapo?


  secret police whose role was to find enemies of the Nazi state

  - responsible for state security

  - huge no.s of informers reported to them & they often handed suspects over to the SS to be tortured
• Who was Himmler & what did he believe in?


  - commander of the SS & Gestapo when they were brought together in 1936

  - strong believer of 'racial and moral purity'

  --- 1933-35 he dismissed 60,000 SS members for being homosexuals, alcoholics or 'morally corrupt'

  ------- this showed the power of the Nazi police state
• How many Germans were imprisoned for showing supposed opposition to Nazi rule?

  over 200,000
• How did the Nazis censor Newspapers?


  - strictly controlled

  - papers opposing NZs were shut down

  - all owners, editors & journalists had to be members of Reich Press Chamber

  ---- no-one w unacceptable views could become a member of this chamber
• How did the Nazis censor literature?


  - ministry of propaganda mad e list of unacceptable literature

  --- Gestapo had power to search bookshops/libraries & seize any banned publications

  - minions of books were burned in NZ organised rallies

  - authors who were anti-nazi, communist or jewish were banned
• How did the Nazis censor the radio


  - strictly controlled

  - 1934: all radio stations in G were brought together under Reich Radio company

  - G radios could not pick up foreign broadcasts
• How did the Nazis censor art?

  - all writers, actors, musicians had to join Reich Chamber of Commerce

  --- if their work was considered unsuitable in any way they couldn't work

  - any music influenced by American culture were banned, as well as Jazz due to it being views as black music " inferior & unsuitable for Aryans

  - art showing NZ values - including Aryan Germans - were encouraged, while other forms (e.g. modern art) were banned
• What were the key messages of NZ propaganda?

  - supremacy of Aryan race & inferiority of Jews/other races

  - tremendous work being done by the nZs to deal w the evils of communism

  - the diff roles of men & women in society & the importance of family

  - the fact that all citizens had a duty to suffer for the good of the nation
• How did H use the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin? (& what was his disappointment)


  - used it as an opportunity to show the world the supremacy of the Aryan race

  --- @ this time G schools emphasised the importance of sport & this was reflected in the fact that G won more medals than any other country

  
  

  - however the star athlete of the games was Jesse Owens - a black American who won four gold medals
• How was school curriculum changed to emphasise NZ ideas?

  - Race Studies: taught that Aryans were superior & Jews were lowest racial type

  - more time given to PE to prepare boys to be soldiers & girls to be mothers

  - History: learned about rise of Nazi Party

  - Domestic Science: taught to girls only to prepare them for their futures as wives & mothers
• What law was passed in 1936 surrounding the Hitler Youth?

  - Hitler Youth Law passed

  --- all eligible young people had to belong to a NZ youth organisation

  - this law got stricter in 1939 when membership became compulsory
• What were the expectations for women in Nazi Germany?

  - to wear traditional dress & promote racial purity (make-up discouraged)

  - removed from paid employments - pushed them back into domestic roles

  - to have large families ( women who had lots of children were rewarded with the Honour Cross medals)

  --- NZs made contraception & abortion illegal

  - to keep themselves healthy so they could produce lots of kids - smoking & drinking seen as unladylike
• What were the problems with the Nazis policies towards women?

  - created economic problmes

  - as rearmament policy grew, there was need for more workers (especially as more men joined the army)

  - NZs had to relax the limits on women working & encourage them back into work

  - by 1939 the no. of women working was 50% higher than it had been in 1933
• How did H take control of the Catholic Church in the 1930s?


  - in schools Christian symbols were replaced with pics of H

  - Catholic newspapers were censored & propaganda began to hint at financial corruption in the church

  - the reason for this was bc catholics were loyal to the Pope as head of the Catholic Church, but H wanted all Germans to see him as the supreme head of state
• When Pope Pivx XI made a statement that attacked the NZ criticism of the Catholic Church in 1937, how did the NZs react?

  - membership of the Catholic League was made illegal

  - start funding for the Church was cut & property of some monasteries was seized

  - Gestapo/SS agents began to spy on Church organisations

  - Catholic Church schools were closed & turned into community schools

  - Catholic priests who spoke out against NZs were arrested (some held Conc. camps)
• How did H take control of the Protestant Church in the 1930s?

  - organised all the diff parts of the church into one organisation (Reich Church) & Ludwig Miller (supporter of NZs) was made Bishop
• What resistance was there to the reorganisation of the Protestant Church?


  1934: grp of pastors set up the Confessional Church

  - grew until it had 5,000 members & became a rival to official Reich Church

  - this church objected to NZs trying to interfere in matters of religious faith & believed Church should remain independent from NZ political powers

  - as a result 100s of protestant clergy were sent to conc. camps
• What changes did the NZs make to remove those who were considered a burden on society?

  - 1933: Sterilisation law passed which allowed NZs to sterilise people with illnesses such as 'simple-mindedness'

  -- from Sep, tramps & beggars were also sterilised & it is believed up to 70,000 people were sterilised

  - from 1936: juvenile delinquents, tramps, homosexuals, Jews are sent to conc. camps

  - from 1939: people with mental illnesses were put to death (first by starvation or lethal injection - later gas chambers) bc they believed it was hereditary

  --- policy was abandoned in 1941 following public protests (however 70,000 people had already been killed)
• What happened between 1933-35 for Jews?

  - 1933: NZ gov organised a nationwide boycott of Jewish shops/businesses & Jews were banned from gov employment, medicine, teaching & journalism

  - 1935: Jews banned from public places e.g. parks, cinemas, swimming pools, & were also banned from the army
• What laws were introduced in September 1935?


  Nuremberg Laws:

  - Reich Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour stated that Jews & Aryans could not marry - those already married were encouraged to get a divorce (or they would both be treated in law as Jews)

  - Reich Law on Citizenship said only people of G blood were G citizens - Jews could no longer vote in elections or hold a G passport
• When did the NZs ban emigration?

  1941

  - however almost 2/3 of G jews had fled the country

  - the remaining 160,000 were unable to leave
• What happened to Jews from 1938?


  - all their possessions had to be registered with the gov (meant NZs could take whatever they wanted from the Jews)

  - were made to carry identity cards at all times - had to present them whenever asked

  - Jewish professionals, including doctors/lawyers, were not allowed to take on work for non-jews
• What happened in NOV 1938:


  a German official in the Paris Embassy was murdered by a Jewish man - gave the NZs an eschew to launch a campaign of terror & murder aimed at Jews in G
• What happened on the night of 9-10 NOV 1938?

  - over 800 shops owned by Jews were destroyed

  - 191 synagogues were vandalised or set on fire

  - many Jewish homes attacked & property damaged/stolen

  - 91 Jews killed & 30,000 arrested