Chapter 3: the impact of war and defeat on Germany 1939-49

Question 1

What was the total war economy?

Answer 1

1) military capabilities: armaments - tanks and weapons

2) effective workforce

3) food production and rationing

Question 2

military capabilities 1939-41

Answer 2

actions they took
-december 1939: economic decrees issued which outlined vast programmes for war production
-war was declared in 1939 when a number of key projects were not due to be finished until 1942
-Ministries of Armaments, Economics, Labour and finance all continued to function in their own way

Question 3

military capabilities 1939-41successes

Answer 3

German military expenditure more than doubled between 1939-41

no. of planes increased from 8290 in September 1939 -> 10780 in June 1939

Question 4

military capabilities 1939-41 failures

Answer 4

armaments production remained low

plane increase was disappointing

not enough tanks made (only 800 tanks when it invaded the USSR in 1941 compared to when it invaded the West in 1940)

production = hit by inefficiency and poor co-ordination

differing interests of diff. departments => low production

armed forces: ‘quality over quantity’ failed to reach desired levels of armaments production by USSR invasion

Question 5

labour 1939-41

Answer 5

labour force was mobilised for war so that by 1941 55% of workforce worked on war-relayed projects

forcibly recruited foreign workers in order to overcome labour shortages (from southern and central Europe)

called up women into the workforce

Question 6

labour 1939-41 successes

Answer 6

September 1939: women = 37% of WF (increased more than Britain)

Question 7

Labour 1939-41 failures

Answer 7

by 1940 only 20.5 million men employed in economy as opposed to the 24.5 million in May 1939

foreign workers had to be policed and there was to be no undesirable racial contact between German and non-German workers (absorbed potential workforce)

did not mobilise married women enough

Reich Labour Ministry tried conscription of married women in 1940 but unpopular

Question 8

Rationing 1939-45

Answer 8

introduced early in the war with many more items rationed than in Britain (amount of meat and dairy limited)

clothes were rationed as was soap

toilet paper not available and hot water only allowed 2 days a week

food rations increased in 1942 following Russian campaign of 1941

plundered goods from other countries

declaration of total war (sweet shops closed, clothes rationing ended because no cloths being made)

Question 9

rationing successes

Answer 9

Germans becoming healthier

as early years of war went well, goods in Germany were bolstered by large amounts of plundered goods from conquered countries

Question 10

rationing failures

Answer 10

as defeat became likely, gov. became more chaotic
- ration cards no longer honoured
- people had to rely on black market

Question 11

What happened after 1942?

Answer 11

Goebbels, Speers and total war

Question 12

military capabilities 1942-45

Answer 12

Rationalisation Decree in December 1941 which was intended to reform the economy and eliminate waste.

Feb 1942: Speer appointed Minister of Armaments and used close relationship with Hitler to cut through conflicting interests and implement industrial self-responsibility to ensure mass production

Central Planning Board established in April 1942 and broad supported by range of committees to represent diff. parts of the economy. Speer now about to coordinate the process and ensure resources were properly exploited

after surrender @ Stalingrad in Feb. 1943 Goebbels called for total war in famous speech in Berlin
-> total commitment of all human resources into waging war

Question 13

military capabilities 1942-45 successes

Answer 13

Speer able to co-ordinate process and make sure resources were properly exploited

within Speers first 6 months in office production of tanks rose by 25% ammunition by 97% and total arms production by 59%

Question 14

military capabilities 1942-45 failures

Answer 14

economy could have produced more and was handicapped by a number of factors (influence of party Gauleiters, SS exploiting land for personal gain, territories conquered were plundered not exploited and Allied binging prevented arms production)

people did not adhere to the Rationalisation Decree due to external failures/ pressure so never produced enough to meet demands
-> fall behind goods

Question 15

labour 1942-45

Answer 15

used concentration camp prisoners as workers

employed women in armaments factories

ended conscription of skilled workers into armed forces

eliminated things that did not contribute to war production (e.g ending professional sport and closing magazines and inessential business)

Question 16

labour 1942-45 successes

Answer 16

increased labour production and focus on war

Question 17

labour 1942-45 failures

Answer 17

slave labour not always effective

Question 18

War economy evaluation

Answer 18

1942/43 Winter was a major turning point (loss at the Battle of Stalingrad = beginning of the end)

economy not prepared for long war it has to fight

never totally achieved a total of war economy

Question 19

Bombing had an impact on the economy

Answer 19

many Germans moved to rural areas

1943 Hamburg raids -> 30,000 dead
1945 Dresden raids -> 150,000 dead and 70% of property destroyed
overall 600,000 civilians were killed
-> all prevented production levels rising

industrial destruction and communications disrupted so production had to go into underground sites instead of increase => prevented the achievement of total war production

Question 20

Bombing had an impact on morale

Answer 20

soldiers returned home and told stories etc. which lowered morale because people began to realise the true horrors of war and scales of defeat (long-term war so injured soldiers returned home)

people thought binging was consequence of racial policy towards Jews

last phase of war: rise in violence by Nazis against civilians as Allied forces advanced (local Nazi officers killed deserters etc. who showed signs of a wanting to surrender)

death marches = visually disturbing and hellish

end of war: more concerned with personal survival than fighting (little gov. support)

Hitler myth began to break down (fewer people saw soldiers dying for the fuhrer)

Question 21

bombing did not have an impact on morale

Answer 21

regime acknowledged set-backs and used them to rally people and encourage better fighting efforts

shared suffering brought people closer together and increased resentment of enemy

May 1945: people still willing to carry on fighting

many Germans kept fighting because they shared Hitler’s vision of the future, the establishment of the 1000 year Reich and Hitler coming up with a solution (V1 & V2 rockets)

Question 22

Assessing morale

Answer 22

Difficult to know what people actually thought (no surveys etc)

guess about morale based on context of time (public support for war, collective response to binging created unituy - support generated due to nationalistic views and love of furher not Nazi party, death rates - rebellions squashed, mass collective suppression, deeper want to fight for fuhrer

morale lowered as defeat became more obvious (not about bombing but defeat and fear of Russians)

Question 23

Why did Nazi youth policy loose support?

Answer 23

leaders were called up to fight (organisation was consequently run by younger people) and the emphasis on military affairs put many off and encouraged them to look for alternatives

(Swing Youth and Edwlweiss Pirates)

Question 24

Swing Youth aims

Answer 24

listen to ‘swing’ music in the swing clubs that appeared in most cities

(especially Hamburg)

Question 25

Edelweiss Pirates aim

Answer 25

umbrella term containing other groups like Rowing Dudes’ and the ‘Navajos’

organised weekend hikes and camping trips and also hoped to beat up Hitler Youth groups

Question 26

How strong were the resistance groups

Answer 26

both were strong because they showed some level of resistance to the Nazi Regime.

Edelweiss Pirates sheltered some who escaped concentration camps, attacked military targets/ Nazi officials and killed the head of the Cologne Gestapo

Question 27

Why were the youth resistance groups weak?

Answer 27

they were caught/ killed

both groups only had minimal impact with no ability to topple the regime

Question 28

The White Rose

Answer 28

group in Munich who printed leaflets encouraging people not to help in the war effort and attacking Nazi policies towards Jews

Question 29

Successes and failures of the White Rose group

Answer 29

strong; brave and showed resistance to Nazi regime, encouraging people to do the same by going beyond dissent.

however: limited because they achieved very little and were caught/ executed

Question 30

How did the church show opposition?

Answer 30

Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn’t believe Christianity could accept Nazi racial polices so he was therefore part of a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Question 31

What happened to Bonhoeffer?

Answer 31

In October 1942 he was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in prison.

when Hitler became concerned about more plots to kill him, he was moved to a concentration camp before people pit on trial and hanged.

Question 32

Why was Bonhoeffer a threat?

Answer 32

-portion meant he was influential and able to encourage people to join in resistance

-he was plotting to physically remove Hitler

Question 33

Why was Bonhoeffer not a threat?

Answer 33

-he was arrested/killed once he started to show opposition (regime too powerful)

-he was very late to show opposition

Question 34

Were the church an active threat?

Answer 34

no

they were more concerned with self-preservation than publicly condemning the policy to Jews

Question 35

Who were the upper classes who showed opposition?

Answer 35

they were the most influential and active group

military

people particularly from the civil service and officer corps who had originally been sympathetic to Hitler’s initial appointment as chancellor

Question 36

What encouraged opposition?

Answer 36

the military failings of winter 1942/43 caused opposition to grow within the army and lead to Kreisau Circle being formed.

Question 37

What was the Kreisau Circle?

Answer 37

most significant opposition to the regime as its members were potentially influential figures with the possibility of army support

Question 38

What were the aims of the upper classes?

Answer 38

conservative opponents hoped to form a gov. that might have been acceptable to the Western Allies.

they wanted to end the war in the West but continue to fight the communists in the East, reflecting their anti-communist views

main concern was to rid themselves of a populist dictator rather than restore democracy

Question 39

why was army support a threat?

Answer 39

they had accesses to arms and had never been fully coordinated into the Nazi regime

Question 40

Operation Valkyrie

Answer 40

army began plot to assassinate Hitler (leadership challenge) - threat

General Ludwig Beck
Colonel von Stauffenberg
Dr Carl Goerdeler

failed => Hitler not killed bc bomb was moved and did not execute plan effectively enough (bomb did not work), 7000 plotters killed

Question 41

Weaknesses of upper class opposition

Answer 41

lacked any real popular support and it is not certain that the allies would have abandoned their policy of unconditional surrender even if Hitler had been overthrown

opposition = not united

Question 42

Reasons for the lack of resistance

Answer 42

-people believed the Nazis were linked to the survival of the nation (opposition = treachery)

Gestapo hunted them so resistance became hard to operate as a result

Germans accepted different levels of resistance

Regime was suppressed by relatively low numbers of Gestapo

Question 43

Functionalist theory

Answer 43

The Final solution was the result of war

Military pressures of expansion and invasion

Military infrastructure in place to facilitate mass movement of people

Failure of full invasion of Russia

Question 44

Internalist theory

Answer 44

The Final solution wasn’t the result of war

Nazi ideology and the creation of a totalitarian state by 1939

Pre-war anti-Semetic policy and the increasing violence

Question 45

Lebensraum

Answer 45

space for Aryan race to sustain itself at the expense of the ‘lower races’

Question 46

Warsaw ghetto

Answer 46

centre of Jewish pop. in Europe

concentrated, dirty, fights, narrow

overcrowded (500,000 people by 1941)

dependent on insufficient rations and forced to smuggling

self-help organisations like soup kitchens set up

Cultural activity

Question 47

Impact of the invasion of Poland

Answer 47

invasion in 1939 focused the spotlight on the ‘Jewish question’ becuase it brought 3 million Jews under Nazi control (prev. only few hundred)

the resettlement of these millions of Jews placed a strain on food and transport -> ghettos

Question 48

Impact of the invasion of France in 1940

Answer 48

opened up another possibility for resettlement policies in French owner Madagascar (majority would die on way/from disease - ‘natural death’)

-> could not happen bc Britain didn’t make peace and controlled Indian Ocean so plan fell through

Question 49

Impact of the invasion of Russia

Answer 49

The invasion of Russia was a turning point in Nazi policy because it brought another 3 million Jews under German control

By the spring of 1942 over 500,000 Jews had been murdered by the SS Einsatzgruppen

-> allowed to launch their radical and ideological war aimed at destroying Jewish Bolshevism (paved the way for the Holocaust & organised systematic extermination of Jews to take place

Question 50

Functionalist theory about Holocaust

Answer 50

NOT PLANNED

argue extermination became likely once it became clear the war would not be won quickly and the resettlement would create huge organisational problems for the regime and get in the way of equipping the army to fight

Question 51

Internal dot theory about the Holocaust

Answer 51

PLANNED

argue Hitler = committed to policy from early in career and gradually increased pressures on the Jewish population, less of ultimately to extermination

Question 52

Why was the Final Solution implementation haphazard?

Answer 52

Various options were considered during the autumn of 1941 (resettlement, ghettos)

When Russia continued it became clear that resettling in large numbers was not possible and a clear programme was subsequently developed at Wannsee Conference

Question 53

Wannsee Conference

Answer 53

Drew up plans to conscript Jews into labour gangs in Eastern Europe in which it was expected a large number would die and the rest would be dealt with accordingly

In 1942 extermination camps were built (e.g Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobidor) in Poland.

They were run by Death Head Units of the SS and Jews were transported from the ghettos to the camps, where most were immediately killed in gas chambers

Industry was created

Question 54

Who was responsible for the Final Solution?

Answer 54

Humans (no one is exempt from inhumane actions)

Hitler

Germans

Question 55

Hitler’s role in the Final Solution

Answer 55

Not cleaner bc no written order from Hitler has been found where he orders the killing of the Jews.

In Jan. 1944, however, Himmler claimed the Fuhrer had given him permission to prioritise the Solution to the Jewish question

Role is clear though due to nature of his authority/ dictatorship (do what fuhrer tells you) He had also been clear about his ideological vision and so even if it was a result of administrative failures/ circumstances, he is not any less responsible and would have approved

Question 56

German’s role in the Final Solution

Answer 56

People, like Goldhagen, argue that the German people were willing executioners who carried out the policy because German culture had developed a murderous form of anti-Semitism

Others argue many in the squads were not violently anti-Semitic but carried out the tasks as a result of peer pressure, alcohol, co arrive and for promotion (exaggerated by brutality of the war on the Eastern Front)

Question 57

Other victims of the Holocaust

Answer 57

23,000 Gypsies were sent to Auschwitz in 1934 and 1944

political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, asocials and Soviet prisoners of war were also imprisoned
=> most died through starvation, disease, overwork or were shot or beaten

Question 58

Problems caused by the bombing of Dresden

Answer 58

-thousands made homeless and millions more= refugees having been PofW, slave labourers or evacuees

-12 million German civilians from east of River Oder who fled west to escape Red Army

-refugee houses often unable to cope and many were traumatised

when Allies entered Germany in Sept 1944
-> 20% of housing destroyed and 30% more damaged
-> Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg etc. = badly damaged and refugees created housing crisis
-> food shortages with av. calories consumption down to half at 1000 per day
-> fuel shortages added to problem of transporting what food remained

Question 59

Bombing did cause serious economic problems

Answer 59

-much of infrastructure had broken down at the end of the war

-state was in massive debt and inflation was rising

-growth of wartime black market

Question 60

Bombing did not cause serious economic problems

Answer 60

-gov. authorities and the civil service still existed and there was a well-established banking system (despite inflation)

-Germany had an industrial base and pot. for productivity

Question 61

The bombing caused serious social problems

Answer 61

-many men = killed/ injured and some prisoners in USSR remained captive till 1950s.
-> pressure put on women (also been badly mistreated by Soviet troops in East => 1 in 3 Berlin women been raped by Red Army)

Question 62

Bombing did not cause serious social problems

Answer 62

-no complete breakdown in social order and law and order soon restored

-church/faith offered support to Germany’s Protestant and Catholic community (BUT scale of death and destruction undermined faith - esp. in East so return to faith = difficult)

Question 63

Bombing did cause serious political problems

Answer 63

-German state ceased to exist and following Hitler’s suicide a new gov. made under Admiral Karl Donitz

However, the signing of the unconditional surrender on 8th May 1945 meant gov. = dissolved and taken over by Allied who controlled Germany

Question 64

Why was Germany divided?

Answer 64

UK, USA and Soviet Union agreed to split Germany into 4 regions
-> east 1/3 = Soviet
-> western 2/3 = Britain, America and France

-Berlin also split in half

Question 65

What did the occupying Allies do in Germany?

Answer 65

had no choice but to take over the administration of the German areas they occupied

Temp. agreements ensured law and order, prevented resistance and tried to meet the needs of the people. These we’re divided between the 3 occupying powers in the West and the USSR.

Question 66

Why could the occupation zones not be merged into a united Germany?

Answer 66

The East-Weet ideological divisions (this was not clear until 1945 when long-term discussions started)

Question 67

The Cold War

Answer 67

the tension between the West and the USSR went back to the Russian Revolution and Bolshevik seizure of power

there were also delays due to the Wests delay in opening a second front to ease pressure on Soviet forces.

The differing ideologies also added to the tension (capitalism and democracy vs communism and totalitarianism)
=> only been united in opposition to Hitler

Question 68

Stalin

Answer 68

leader of Soviet union in 1928

FP = pragmatic, making an agreement with Germany in August 1939 since Soviet Union = unprepared for war

after Germany invaded SU, it allied with Britain and USA (SU suffered greatly in war and this influenced policy in 1945)

Aims: may have been to gain control of Germany and Western Europe after defeating the Nazis (but also weakened in the war and could not challenge west)

Question 69

Why did the USSR view Germany with trepidation?

Answer 69

Because they had been invaded by them twice in the past 30 years and brutality of war led to large numbers of Soviet troops and civilians being killed.

Due to this, the gov. wanted to make sure it would not happened again and began their advances into Eastern Europe in 1944 in order to establish a series of buffer states.

Question 70

West view of buffer states

Answer 70

saw them as a way to spread communism and continue the policy of ‘world revolution’. The USA was fearful of a development and wanted to prevent it in order to ensure that Germany’s economy recovered in order to make it a valuable trading partner. The West also believed that without prosperity restored, communism would spread

Question 71

Yalta conference

Answer 71

Feb. 4th-11th 1945
Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt
Crimea

Objectives:
Britain: free, democratic Poland
USSR: buffer states
USA: Japan and Russia’s help

Question 72

What did the Yalta conference do?

Answer 72

-Led to the division of Europe and the Cold War

-All united in the unconditional surrender of Germany

-decided to divide Germany in four

-United Nations with SU and USA (with complete vito power)

-Stalin ‘agrees’ to holding free democratic elections

Question 73

What was the purpose of the Yalta conference?

Answer 73

Draw up plans for the ending of the war in Europe and Asia. It also planned to draw up plans for peace and the occupation of Germany, which Churchill insisted had to include France.

They established the UN

Clear the Allied powers were going to occupy Germany instead of allowing them independence as the victors had done after WW1

Question 74

Potsdam

Answer 74

17th July - 1st August 1945

Roosevelt replaced by Truman (not as cooperative) => believed USSR to be a major threat

Churchill replaced by Atley on 26th July (also mistrusted Stalin)

16th July 1945: US first deviation of atomic bomb
-> Truman = confident, Stalin = fearful

decided to dearm, demilitarised and de-Nazify Germany. Freedom of speech to be restored and decentralisation of political system

USSR wanted $10 billion reparations but UK and USA knew German economic recovery = good for Western Europe

Soviet’s were given a part of Poland

Division of east and west (not friendly atmosphere created)

Question 75

What happened at the Potsdam conference?

Answer 75

The Allied powers agreed at Yalta that once Hitler had been defeated, Germany and Berlin would be divided into four zones.

Question 76

Why were the Soviet’s in a stronger position by the Potsdam conference?

Answer 76

In 1945 the Red Army was established in Eastern Europe, giving them a better negotiating position.

Question 77

Why did the Allies want Soviet help?

Answer 77

The Allies were currently fighting Germany’s ally Japan and Truman expected it to be long and expensive war so wanted Soviet help (but the Japanese surrendered after the use of two atom bombs)

Question 78

How did the dropping of the nuclear bomb cause tension to USSR and USA relationship?

Answer 78

gave America military superiority and SU had not been told, despite being an ally