Nazi Government (1933-45)

• Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda - Goebbels, spread Nazi ideology through all forms of media.
• Access to Hitler became very hard, he spent a lot of time in his mountain retreat in Bavaria
• His government is regarded as 'polycratic chaos' where there was no constitution, he just set up ministries and agencies as he pleased.
• Leaders often competed to impress Hitler and be accepted into his inner circle.
• The first concentration camps were not extermination camps, but between 1933-39, 225,000 were convicted of political crimes and a further 162,000 were placed in a protective custody in a prison without trial.
• Between 1933-39, around 1.3 million Germans were sent to concentration camps.
• The Red Orchestra was an organised resistance network that gathered information to send to the USSR but was broken up in 1942.
• Niemoller was put in a concentration camp in 1937.
• Catholic opposition grew as they begin to close down churches, schools and youth groups, the Popes response in his encyclical led to lots of press campaigns against the Catholics.
• Hitler's war minister and commander-in-chief were critical of Hitler's war plans. Both were dismissed. Hitler therefore combined roles of war minister and superior commander. Keitel was given title of Chief working as administrator under Hitler's direct control.