2 - police state & terror Flashcards
Establishment of Nazi Dictatorship & Its Domestic Policies: Feb 1933 - 1939
1
Q
Nazi courts
A
- judges instructed to issue harsher sentences
- new laws regarding political offences
- ‘people’s courts’ established to try enemies of the state
- from 1939 - judges had to study Nazi beliefs (or else were removed)
- Nazis replaced senior officials
- SS group leader was appointed minister of justice
2
Q
the SS
A
- originally an elite bodyguard for Hitler in 1925
- ‘state within a state’, responsible only to Hitler
- dominated police state & preserved Nazi regime
- created ‘New Order’
3
Q
Heinrich Himmler
A
- became head of SS (1929)
- created SD (1931)
- took control of police, including Gestapo in Prussia (1934)
- in control of all police & Gestapo powers (1936)
- became ‘commissioner for consolidating German nationhood’ (responsible for resettling ethnic Germans from conquered territories, & elimination of certain groups)
4
Q
the SD
A
secret intelligence wing of the SS
5
Q
RSHA
A
Reich Security Office (1939) - brought together all police & security organisations
6
Q
When were all police organisations amalgamated into the RSHA?
A
1939
7
Q
What was the SS made up of?
A
SD, Gestapo, Kripo, Waffen SS
8
Q
In what year did the SS become an elite force that only Aryans could join?
A
1935
9
Q
roles of the SS
A
- policing
- intelligence gathering
- military functions
- responsible for: security, ideology & race, economy, military issues
10
Q
‘New Order’
A
term describing the economic, political & social integration of Europe under Nazi rule
11
Q
the Gestapo
A
- secret state police
- small organisation (only 20,000-40,000)
- many agents were little more than office workers relying on informers & block wardens for information
12
Q
role of the Gestapo
A
find opponents of Nazism & arrest them (could be sent to concentration camps without trial)
13
Q
role of wardens
A
- responsible for 50 houses or apartments
- ensured Nazi flags were displayed & rallies were attended
- around 2 million block wardens
- unpopular in working-class areas (sympathy for communists & socialists)
14
Q
impact of war on the police state
A
- role of policing & security expanded
- military increased - 3 divisions to 35
- ‘New Order’ created in occupied lands
- process of exterminating & resettling people based on race & ideology put in place
15
Q
concentration camps in 1933
A
when Himmler took control = only 3000 inmates (successful in silencing opponents)
