INTIMIDATION - KEEPING PEOPLE SUPPORTING THE NAZIS

• Concentration camps were used to imprison anyone who went against the Nazis. These were run by the SS.

  In the camps, people are expected to work to benefit Germany.

  They were often worked to death with very long hours and not a lot of food.
• The Gestapo (secret police) would go round checking that people would be loyal to the Nazis.

  People who weren’t would often be taken in the middle of the night for torture or to a concentration camp.
• The legal system also helped control Nazi Germany. All judges had to become members of the Nationalist Social League of the Maintenance of Law.

  This meant they had to be members of the Nazi party who would uphold Nazi views in law courts.

  Judges knew that the minister of justice would check if he had been lenient and sometimes Hitler would alter sentences if he thought they were too soft.
• Germany was subdivided into tiny blocks of about 30 to 40 houses.

  Each block would be a Nazi living there who would keep an eye on all the families and report to the police and the Gestapo if they noticed Anti- Nazi behaviour.
• Children in the Hitler Youth were expected to spy on their parents and neighbours too.
• People were too scared to go against the Nazis.