1939-45

Question 1

what was the conference in 1942?

Answer 1

• the Wannsee conference in 1942 organised the final solution of the jewish problem
• Jews would be brought to poland and those fit enough would be worked to death and those who werent would be exterminated
• Auschwitz murdered 2.5 million jews alone

Question 2

what happened under Speer (economics minister)?

Answer 2

• the production miracle resulted in ammunition increasing 6 fold
• non essential metals now used for weapons

Question 3

how significant were the shortages?

Answer 3

-towards the end of the war, bread rations became a third of what they were at the start of the war.

Question 4

what was the significance of the area bombing?

Answer 4

• air raids switched to area bombing in 1942. 50% were civillian buildings and only 12% were industrial
• 7.5 million left homeless
• 300,000 killed
• Hamburg 75% damaged

Question 5

how did food consumption fall wit

Question 6

how did food consumption decrease with the shortages?

Answer 6

-food consumption fell 25% by 1941

Question 7

how many german refugees were there?

Answer 7

11 million

Question 8

how did opposition grow throughout the war?

Answer 8

-in 1944, Stauffenberg attempted to assasinate hitler

Question 9

what was the extent of the treatment of the Jews during the war?

Answer 9

• as well as the holocaust, the Nazis contained the jews in Ghettos
• the Warsaw Ghetto had 400,000 jews alone
• 100,000 jews were sent to poland
• in the ghettos, 95% of the wooden shacks they lived in had no running water

Question 10

what youth opposition groups were there throughout the war?

Answer 10

• the Edelweiss Pirates were fond of singing anti-Nazi songs.
• in 1942, over 700 of them were arrested
• in 1944, 12 members were publically hanged after the Pirates in cologne killed the Gestapo chief
• the White Rose Group formed by students at a Munich Uni in 1943 published anti-Nazi leaflets and marched through the city in protest. their leaders were eventually guillotined

Question 11

How much did Speer increase ammunitions production by

Answer 11

97%

Question 12

How much did Speer increase war production

Answer 12

Between 1942-44, German war production trebled

Question 13

How much did Speer increase productivity by

Answer 13

About 60% in munitions

Question 14

What was an example of an Ersatz product

Answer 14

Coffee, which couldn’t be imported, was made out of roasted barley

Question 15

What happened to rations in 1942

Answer 15

The allied bombing hindered domestic production, so meat and bread rations were reduced

Question 16

How did the blackout policy arguably fail at first instance

Answer 16

• there were more deaths caused by the dark than bombings from the British at first
• crime rate also increased under darkness

Question 17

When did the air raids start?

Answer 17

May 1942, where RAF bombers deliberately targeted civilian buildings at Lubeck

Question 18

What happened in 1943 with air raids

Answer 18

In June 1943, the first 1,000 bomber raids in Cologne and Essen took place

Question 19

How many were estimated to be killed by bomber raids

Answer 19

Around 400,000

Question 20

What was the extent of bombing in Berlin

Answer 20

In November 1943 alone, 400,000 were left homeless in Berlin by air raids

Question 21

How did control of media increase during the war

Answer 21

Harsh sentences were threatened to people who listened to foreign radio broadcasts

Question 22

How did repression increase during the war?

Answer 22

The number of death sentences imposed by the ordinary courts rose from 139 in 1939 to 4000 in 1944