Hitler & Nazis

• Womens lives in Nazi Germany

  women lose job opportunities and freedom, lebensborn movement
• What did Hitler tell Women to do when birth rate lowered (in early 1900's)

  Stick to the 3 K's (Kinder, Kirche, Kuche / Kids, Church, Kitchen)
• What was banned/discouraged for women because it was 'unladylike'

  Smoking, trousers, diet
• Law for the prevention of diseased offspring


  Women with history of mental illness or anti social behaviour were forcibly sterilised
• Why were divorces made easier

  so women can remarry and have more kids
• What was given to newly weds

  loans - the more kids they had the more money they could keep
• Lebensborn movement


  contraception & abortion was banned, SS were told to impregnate aryan (supreme race) women
• Germans women's league


  it taught women childcare and how to cook and clean
• Why did restricting womens education become a problem

  Germany needed women in higher positions during the rearmament programme
• Nazis believed they were more powerful than ....

  the church
• What church did Hitler create

  Nazi church
• Who went against the Nazis when the Nazi church was created

  The Pope
• Why were pastors arrested

  The spoke out against Hitler and refused to put up swastikas in their church
• What church groups did hitler ban

  Catholic ones
• When were Nuremberg laws signed

  september 1935
• What were the Nuremberg Laws?

  They EXCLUDED Jews from German citizenship and FORBADE marriages between Jews and Non-Jews
• When were eugenics taught in German schools

  1933
• Eugenics


  race studies
• What did eugenics teach

  That the aryan race was superior and how to spot jews
• When was Kristallnacht?


  November 1938
• Kristallnacht


  (Night of the Broken Glass) when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and synagogues and terrorized Jews.
• How were Jews discriminated against?

  Kristallnacht, kids banned from school, sent to concentration camps, propaganda against them, burned their property
• Final Solution


  exterminating all Jews
• where was final solution devised

  Wansee conference
• Minister of propaganda


  Joseph Goebbels
• Head of SS


  Heinrich Himmler
• Jewish Resistance


  some fought soldiers, blew up railways
• White Rose Group


  Sophie and Hans Scholl distributed leaflets expressing dislike. Leaders were killed
• July Bomb Plot


  1944 German military leaders tried to bomb Hitler at a conference to change germany for the better.
• why did people support nazis

  • Image - a charismatic personality, patriotic
  • Propaganda - nazi ideology was spread through radio, posters
  • Army - 1921, Hitler set up his private army called SA or Brownshirts - many made up of Freikorps
  • Depression - Hitler and the Nazis claimed they were the only party to stare Germany out of the depression. Support began to grow for the Nazis
• Who supported the Nazis?

  • Farmers - hit hard by the depression. Nazis promised higher prices for crops. spread fear of communism - communism would mean their land would be taken
  • middle class - they feared that communism would ruin their way of life
  • Young people - youth wanted to be a part of the new germany
  • Upper class - wanted a strong powerful nation - nazis would fight the communists
• 1932 Franz Von Papen was elected as chancellor and was very unpopular.

  In the next election, the nazis won 230 seats and became the largest party in the Reichstag.

  Hitler demanded to become chancellor

  Hindenburg refused and called another election - nazis did well again

  Papen resigned
• Hitler became chancellor


  january 1933
• How did Hitler consolidate his power?

  Political parties banned - Hitler used the enabling act to form the law against the new formation of parties

  Article 48 - emergency powers

  Reichstag fire - Feb 1933 the Reichstag building burned down - Van Der Lubbe (a communist) was caught - Hitler claimed it was the start of a communist plot against Germany

  Oath of loyalty by the army

  Long knives (night) - Killed the SA

  Enabling act - Hitler had power for 4 years to make laws without approval - effectively making Hitler a dictator
• The law for the protection of the people and the state


  the decree abolished most civil liberties, including the right to speak or protest, and the nazis had control over the media. Using the decree, the Nazis declared a state of emergency and began a violent crackdown against their political enemies
• Night of Long Knives: 1934


  the SA or brownshirts helped Hitler gain power

  Rohm, SA leader and nazi member, also wanted to take over the national army which was a threat to Hitler

  Hitler arranged a meeting with the SA leaders including Rohm in June 1934 - they were arrested and shot by his new bodyguards, the SS

  Hitler then executed many other SA leaders
• consequences of the night of long knives?

  -many close people to Hitler who were considered thread are dead

  -the SS, led by Himmler, emerged as the group now responsible for Hitler's security along with the Gestapo, the SS formed the basis of the police state that Germany had become.

  -Hitler was very open about what he had done he established murder as a part of what the Nazi government did

  -President Hindenburg died soon after. Hitler was quick to join the powers of the president and Chancellor together to become a Fuhrer or leader of Germany
• leader of SS


  Heinrich Himmler
• How did the nazis use terror to control Germany?

  • Gestapo - the secret police - protect public safety and order - this meant murder and imprisonment of any opposition
  • Concentration camps - after 1933 - held political prisoners - later turned into death camps
  • block wardens - people who supervised people in flats did what they were told to - members of the public were encouraged to report disloyalty
  • changes to the justice system - enabling act allowed the government to search mail and listen to phone calls and judges were told to make decisions in line with nazi policies and not fairness.
• How did nazis use coodination to control Germany?

  they wanted to make sure they wone over the hearts and minds of the German public

  • social groups such as youth, choirs, football and sports clubs
  • culture such as music, art, films, newspapers, books and education