14 - The 'Terror State' Flashcards
1
Q
Nazi view of the law
A
- Introduced some new laws to deal with political offences and forced the existing justice system to adapt and bend to their will.
- Introduced new courts and police organisations to ensure that political opponents were dealt with.
- The legal principles on which German law had been based in the Weimar period no longer applied.
- The law was applied in an arbitrary and inconsistent fashion.
2
Q
The police system
A
- Created a system of party-controlled, political police forces answerable to Hitler.
- Proliferation of forces created confusion and competition.
Following forces existed: - The SS (controlled by Himmler)
- The SD (intelligence gathering offshoot of the SS)
- The SA (controlled by Rohm)
- Gestapo (secret State police force)
3
Q
Competition and rivalry
A
- Competition and rivalry between Himmler, Rohm and Goering for control over the police.
- Himmler’s power was strengthened by the Night of the Long Knives.
- 1939: creation of the Reich Security Department Headquarters (RHSA) which placed all party and State police organisations under one organisation supervised by the SS.
4
Q
Himmler
A
- Was the leader of the SS.
- Under his command the SS established military units and its own industrial conglomerate.
- Himmler was appointed as a military commander to organise the fight against the Red Army’s advance, but his lack of military experience caused Hitler to relieve him.
- Led Himmler to betray Hitler by attempting to negotiate a secret peace deal with the Allies.
5
Q
The SS
A
- Hitler’s bodyguard.
- After the Night of the Long Knives it became the police role of the SS was expanded and became the main organisation involved in the arrest of political prisoners.
- After Himmler had been appointed chief of the German police, the SS controlled the entire Third Reich police system and concentration camps.
- Himmler intended the SS to be strictly disciplined, racially pure and unquestioningly obedient.
- SA had engaged in terror and violence through undisciplined street brawls but SS operated in a more systematic way.
- SS concentration camp guards were deliberately brutalised to remove any feelings of humanity they might feel towards their prisoners.
6
Q
Concentration camps
A
- Essentially prisons in which the inmates were forced to work.
- First one was set up at Dachau in 1933.
- Majority of early prisoners were communists, socialists and trade unionists.
- Torture and brutality had made the majority of prisoners unwilling to continue resistance and many were released.
- After 1936 dealt with ‘undesirables’: habitual criminals, asocials and non-Aryans.
7
Q
The SD
A
- Led by Reinhard Heydrich.
- Was established in 1931 as the internal security service of the Nazi Party.
- Was set up to investigate claims that the party had been infiltrated by its political enemies.
- After 1933, the SD’s role was intelligence gathering.
- One of its important roles was to monitor public opinion and identify those who voted ‘no’ in plebiscites.
- By 1939, the SD had 50,000 officers
8
Q
The extent of opposition and non-conformity
A
- There was a strong base of support for the regime.
- Through propaganda and Gleichschaltung, they were able to gain acceptance from the majority.
- The SS was presented as an instrument to protect the majority against the corrupting influence of minorities.
- There was very little active opposition.
- Life in Germany became depoliticised; there was no open and free debate about the regime or its policies.
- Most Germans subscribed to the view that the Third Reich was preferable to the disorder of the final Weimar Republic years.
9
Q
Political resistance
A
- The SPD and KPD were expected to mount the stiffest resistance.
- Hitler feared that the unions, which were linked to SPD, would stage a general strike just as they had done in 1920 to defeat the Kapp Putsch.
- Ultimately, the left did not pose a serious threat because it was bitterly divided.
10
Q
The SPD
A
- Not equipped to organise resistance to a regime that did not respect the law.
- Continued to campaign openly for the election campaign in March 1933 and suffered SA violence as a result.
- By the end of 1933, thousands of SPD activists had been murdered or placed into ‘preventive custody’ and the leadership fled into exile.
- Established small, secret cells of supporters in factories.
- Some city-based groups such as the Berlin Red Patrol.
- Propaganda pamphlets were smuggled in.
- Priority was to survive rather than mount a serious challenge.
11
Q
The KPD
A
- Much better prepared than the SPD for engaging in underground activity.
- Was the first party to be banned.
- About 10% of the party was killed by the Nazis during 1933.
- Established an underground network in some German industrial centres.
- Revolutionary unions were set up in Berlin and Hamburg to recruit members and publish newspapers.
- All these networks were broken up by the Gestapo.
- Factory cells were established and contact was confined to word of mouth.
12
Q
Resistance by workers
A
- After the Nazis came to power, the trade unions were absorbed into the DAF.
- In September 1935, 37 strikes were reported in Rhineland-Westphalia, Silesia and Wurttemberg
- In the whole of 1937, a total of 250 strikes were recorded.
- Of the 25,000 workers who participated in strikes in 1935, 4000 spent short period in prison.
- Expressed dissatisfaction also through absenteeism as a reaction against the pressure to work longer hours.
- In 1938 new labour regulations were introduced laying down severe penalties for ‘slackers’.
- Some workers deliberately damaged their machinery.
- Made ‘sabotage’ a criminal offence and there were an increasing number of prosecutions in 1938-39.
13
Q
Resistance by the churches
A
- Christian churches were the only organisations in Nazi Germany that retained an alternative ideology, independent of the regime.
- At times they felt it necessary to draw a line under Nazi efforts to force them into conformity and this led them into resistance.
- Response of the churches was complex and fluid and varied over time and also from one priest or pastor to another.
14
Q
The Protestant Church
A
15
Q
Martin Niemoller
A
