3.2 the police state

Question 1

What is a police state?

Answer 1

when a government uses the police to control everyone’s lives

Question 2

How did the nazi form a police state?

Answer 2

through the SS, SD and the Gestapo

Question 3

Why did Hitler set up his own security forces?

Answer 3

because he realised not all the existing German police supported him

Question 4

What was the SS, when was it set up, who was it led by and what did they wear?

Answer 4

protection squad/ personal bodyguard for Hitler

1925

led by Heinrich Himmler

black uniforms

Question 5

What was the job of the SS?

Answer 5

they controlled all Germany’s police and security forces

they acted outside the law

they ran the concentration camps

members had to marry “racially pure” wives

Question 6

How many SS men were there during the 1930s?

Answer 6

240,000

Question 7

What was the SD, when was it set up, who was it led by?

Answer 7

a security force for the Nazi Party to monitor its opponents

set up by Heinrich himmler in 1931

led by Reynhard Heydrich

Question 8

What did the SD do?

Answer 8

they spied on all opponents of the Nazi Party, both home and abroad

Question 9

What was the Gestapo,

when was it set up,

who was it led by and what did they wear?

Answer 9

secret police force

set up by Herman Goering in 1933

led by Reynhard Heydrich

wore plain clothes

Question 10

What did the Gestapo do?

Answer 10

they spied on people, prosecuted people for speaking out against the Nazis and sent people to concentration camps and used torture

Question 11

How many people in 1939 were arrested for political offences by the Gestapo?

Answer 11

160,000 people

Question 12

What was the main weapon of the Gestapo and why?

Answer 12

Fear:

German people feared the Gestapo because they could not tell them apart from other members of the public

many offenders that the Gestapo arrested could be imprisoned without trial

when rumours leaked about the conditions in the concentration camps, fear of the Gestapo grew even more as many offenders were put there

Question 13

Give an example of how effective the Gestapo was in terms of numbers?

Answer 13

There were never more than 30,000 Gestapo to police a population of about 80 million

Question 14

who were the concentration camps run by?

Answer 14

ss and the SA

Question 15

When and where did the first concentration camp open?

Answer 15

Dachau

1933

Question 16

what were features of concentration camps (where did they tend to be and how were people treated)

Answer 16

• located in isolated areas away from the city and public gaze
• inmates were treated badly and forced to do hard labour

Question 17

Who were the inmates in concentration camps?

Answer 17

• undesirables (like prostitutes and homosexuals)
• minority groups, such as Jews
• political prisoners

Question 18

How did Hitler control the judges?

Answer 18

• all judges must be members of the National socialist league for the Maintenence of the Law,
  * this way, Hitler could ensure that all judges would support Nazi ideas
• All judges had to favour the Nazi party in any decision

Question 19

How did Hitler control the law courts?

Answer 19

• he abolished trial by jury- only judges could decide who was innocent or guilty
• He set up a People’s court to hear all treason cases. Trials were held in secret and judges were hand-picked.

Question 20

Between 1934 and 1939 how many people were sentenced to death for political offences?

Answer 20

534

Question 21

Between 1930 and 1932 how many people were sentenced to death for political offences?

(this is before Nazi rule, therefore compare it with other figures)

Answer 21

8