Terror state

• All Lander police forces unified into a national force under Himmler


  1936
• SS members - 1939

  240k across various organisations
• Gestapo


  Relied heavily on informants and denunciations. Thei role was to investigate crimes against the Third Reich and sent thousands to concetration camps without trial. As racial legislation increased their role grew
• SD


  They were responsible for security of the Third Reich. They relied on an extensive netwrok of informants. They focused on information gathering and also carried out investigations on public opinion and investigated enemies of the Reich. Led by Reinhard Heydrich
• SS


  Main instrument of terror. Organised extermination camps and controlled much of Germnay's conquere territory in WW2
• SS- Sax(1992)


  'The SS was not merely a police, surveillance, and paramilitary organisation. Its main objective...was to make great the racially pure Volksgemeinshcaft.
• Getsapo - Robert Gellately (2001)


  Gellately has sampled Gestapo case files from three different regions in Germany. He found that 73% of cases concerning listening to foreign radio (an illegal activity) originated with reports from the population. Poeple's reason for denouncing was more often instrumental(for personal gain) e.g. one woman informed on her sister's husband because he was abusive
• Loyalty to Hitler


  Judges took an oath of loyalty.

  German armed forces took an oath of loyalty
• Pope criticism


  In 1937, the Pope publicly criticised Germany for harassing priests, breaking concordat and idolatry of german race and state
• Political opposition - SPD + KPD


  Gestapo reported in 1936, SPD + KPD were using word of mouth, cells in factories, sports clubs etc. to encourage opposition
• Getsapo propaganda report


  In 1937, Getsapo eported propaganda was having some success
• Kreisau circle


  Formed in 1933 form army officers and aristoracts, it was a small circle of conservative monarchists who opposed Hitler
• Denunciation statistics


  50% - 80% of investigations wer ebecause of denunciations
• Opposition - Hiden (1996)


  Hiden argues that 'the persecution of hundreds of thousands of Germans [illustrates] that dissent and nonconformity must have been widespread.
• Opposition - Peukert


  Peukert argues that 'active resistance was only a minority affair...[it] mobilised tens of thousands of people...but remained decentralised...and...ineffectual.
• Opposition - Hillenbrand (1994)


  Hillenbrand argues that 'many people found in the telling of such jokes only means to protest against the police state in which they live.
• Gestapo report - Behaviour


  Decline in recorded dissident (opposition to official policy) behaviour after 1937
• 1938 - Totalitarianism


  Hitler became commader of all armed forces as well
• Gleichschaltung


  Nazi influence present in alomost all aspects of daily life and society
• Not toatlitarian -Mallman and Paul (1994) - Own statistics


  - 'Although the Nazi regime's aspirations were totalitarian, the reality was not.'

  - Gestapo activities shows it often relied upon denunciations the German people as it did not have sufficient staff. At most there were 30,000 Gestapo officers for 65,000,000 people.
• Small-scale opposition - Politics, youth groups, religion, military


  - KPD + SPD porpaganda effective after 1936

  - Eldeweiss priates and swing groups

  - Confessional church broke away from Naiz church, Catholic Church criticised regime openly, euthanasia programmes kept secret.

  - 100 generals dismissed in 1938
• German radio system unified - date + statistics


  - April 1934

  - 70% Germans owned these radios by 1939
• Control of printed word


  Books burned, including jewish authors, lef-wing, liberals. Any book that denigrated(criticised) the German volk. Eher verlag took over most local newspapers and by 1939 owned 69% of newspapers.
• Nuremburg rallies - dates


  Rallies were filmed and showed on newsreels. Key dates included 30 Jan (Nazi siezure of power), 20 April (Hitler's birthday) and 9 Nov (the Munich putsch)
• Olympics


  1936 Berlin olypmics were an international propaganda opportunity
• Film propaganda - statistics + key examples


  - 1/6 of feature films were propaganda

  - Leni Riefenstahl was the most famous producer. She also made films of festivals, rallies like Triumph of the Will (1935) about the Nuremberg Rally and Olympia (1938) about the 1936 Berlin Olympics
• Propaganda - Paul corner (2009)


  Corner argues that authoritarian regimes had to 'legitimate themselves through results.' There would always be a gap between the image of life projected by propaganda and the reality of life in Nazi Germany but the real material rewards that the Nazis were able to give the German people helped them to reconcile this 'gap'.