A Police State Flashcards
Policing under the Nazis:
Hitler set up his own security system nationwide -> he could not trust that the already existing police would support him -> these forces were run by the Nazi Party, and were separate from the government, at most times allowing them to act unlawfully -> their main weapon was fear and violence.
SS - Heinrich Himmler
controlled Germany’s police and security forces -> often acted outside of the law -> members were obliged to marry “racially pure” wives and were encouraged to have children -> this sometimes included allowing SS members to rape young racially pure women -> they also ran the concentration camps
SD - set up by Heinrich Himmler
They wore uniforms and they were almost like a spy network that kept records in all opponents of the Nazi Part both at home and abroad.
Gestapo - Secret Police
They wore plain clothes -> small Gestapo to public ratio however, because they were undercover, people were scared at all times -> any one could have been a Gestapo, so everyone lived their lives among the neat lines that the Nazis drew out for them -> if they were to step out of line, it was very probable that they would be arrested or sent to a concentration camp -> the Gestapo persecuted Nazi opposition such as Jews and communists, and aimed marginalise such groups from society -> they were also given permission to torture people, whether they were innocent or not in order to oppress opposition and enhance the power of the Police State over the views of people -> people were very intimidated by this and since the greatest weapon was fear this was also a method of deterrence.
The LEGAL system: Nationalist Socialist League for the….
Maintenance of Law -> all judges had to belong to this
The LEGAL system: All judges had to favour the…
Nazi party in any decision
The LEGAL system: Abolished…
trial by jury -> only judges were able to decide if someone was innocent or guilty and this worked in favour of the Nazis at all instances because the judges were intimidated and manipulated -> they were part of the League and had to swear and oath.
The LEGAL system: Trials were held in…
secret -> all injustices in court were kept behind closed doors so that no one could object
The LEGAL system: Judges who refused to become a part of the Maintenance of Law League were…
arrested and prevented from practising.
Where was the first concentration camp built?
Dachau
The first camp built in Dachau was created so that they could…
isolate and house the exceedingly large, growing number of prison inmates.
Camps were built in isolating areas so that…
no one could see what was going on.
Initially, the concentration camps were used for political opponents i.e. communists and members of opposition parties, however, during the Nazi regime, the concentration camps became an integral part of the Nazis execution and persecution of undesirables ->
prostitutes
homosexuals
Jews
Black people
and even Catholics
