14. The 'Terror State' (S4)

Question 1

Name 3 of the key individual state authorities of the German police system under Hitler’s rule.

Answer 1

• The SS
• The SD
• The SA
• The Gestapo

The People’s Court

Question 2

What was the main function of the SS? What other roles did they have?

Answer 2

Created in 19256 as Hitler’s personal bodyguards. After TNOFTL they became the main Nazi branch of police (although there was also a police force).
Ideological- Seen as role models in Volksgemeinschaft
Military- received paramilitary training
Economic-SS owned several companis and employed slave labour in concentration camps

Question 3

Who was the appointed chief of the German police and leader of the SS?

Answer 3

Henrich Himmler

Question 4

Name 2 of the requirements needed to be part of the SS.

Answer 4

• Strictly disciplined
• Racially pure
• Unquestionably obedient
• No disabilities

Question 5

What was the role of the SD?

Answer 5

They were the internal security service of the Nazi Party

Question 6

Who were the SD staffed by?

Answer 6

Amateurs who were committed Nazis.

Question 7

What was the role of the Gestapo?

Answer 7

They were the secret state police.

Question 8

How many Gestapo officers were there in 1939?

Answer 8

Just 20,000 for the whole country.

Question 9

Name 2 disadvantages the Gestapo actually had?

Answer 9

• Small in numbers
• Agents were mostly office based
• They relied on information supplied by informers
• Most informers were motivated by personal grudges

Question 10

Who presided over the Nazi People’s Court?

Answer 10

Three Nazi judges and no juries.

Question 11

What nickname were People’s Courts secretly given?

Answer 11

Kangaroo courts- since the trail was over so quickly before the next trial began.

Question 12

What was the name of the Protestant resistance group?

Answer 12

Pastors Emergency Group (1933) which developed into the Confessional Church (1934).

Question 13

Why did some protestant churches refused to follow the requests of the Nazi church? Give 2 reasons.

Answer 13

• They were trying to protect the independence of the Protestant Church from the Nazi regime
• They were resisting the attempt to impose the Aryan paragraph on the church (preventing Jewish conversions)
• They were trying to defend Lutheran theology, which was based purely on the Bible

Question 14

Name two factor which allowed the Nazis to control the newspapers?

Answer 14

Many newspapers were closed after the Reichstag Fire Emergency Decree

The Nazi brought out 27 daily newspapers

News agencies that supplied the press with information were all merged into one controlled by the state

Question 15

Name 3 methods the Nazis used as propaganda.

Answer 15

Newspapers

Radios

Films

Parades

Art

Book burnings

Posters

Question 16

What was the Hitler myth?

Answer 16

The way in which propaganda was created in order to present Hitler in a flattering light and as the savour of Germany.

Question 17

Name 3 characteristics that the Hitler myth presented to the public?

Answer 17

• Hard working
• Uncompromising in fighting the nations enemies
• A political and military genius
• Dynamic and forceful
• Lived a simple traditional life
• Almost god-like

Question 18

In reality, name 3 negative facts about Hitler’s leadership.

Answer 18

• Hitler liked people to compete for his attention
• He was usually never involved in decision making
• He was very lazy and slept in- often through meetings
• He disliked reading official documents
• His official often had difficulty in getting him to make decisions

Question 19

Name 2 strengths of the Gestapo

Answer 19

• Monitor and root out opponents
• Prevents opposition and deals with it
• Known for being ‘all knowing’
• Quick to eliminate others

Question 20

Give 3 pieces of information about the SS

Answer 20

• Created in 1926

- They took up other roles

Question 21

Name 3 facts of concentration camps

Answer 21

-Prisoners forced to work
The first was set up in Dachau near Munich in 1926
-Six more opened before September 1939
-In the early years the majority of prisoners were communists, socialists & trade unionists.
-They became under SS control in 1936
-After 1936, ‘undesirables’, non-Aryans and asocial made up the prison population.
-Increase in violence and brutality in Dachau with there being 69 deaths out of 2,200 inmates in 1937.
-A lot of the inmates were freed

Question 22

What were the Special Courts?

Answer 22

They were created in every part of Germany and no jury or defendants had the right to appeal

Question 23

How many people had been tried at the Nazi people’s court between 1934-1939.

Answer 23

Around 3,400 people were tried, most were members of the KPD or SPD. Many were given the death penalty which was given by axe up until 1936 when the it was replaced by the guillotine

Question 24

How did the Nazis change the justice system in order to strengthen their control of the German people? Name 3 points

Answer 24

• Merged Judges and lawyers together with the Leagye of National Socialist Lawyers, creating the front in German law in April 1933
• Judges and Lawyers career prospects depended heavily on their doing on the regime’s bidding
• Introducing new courts: Peoples Court (1933) and the Special Court (April 1934)
• The justice system had no power to interfere with Nazis’ use of terror