Control and Opposition

Question 1

What is a Police State?

Answer 1

It is where those in power have TOTAL and ABSOLUTE control over its citizens

Question 2

What can a Police State do?

Answer 2

Citizens are spied on
Terror used to ensure loyalty
Citizens can be jailed without a fair trial

Question 3

What is the SD?

Answer 3

This was the intelligence within the SS led by Heydrich Himmler. It monitored Reich security

Question 4

Who was Heinrich Himmler?

Answer 4

He became the SS leader in 1929 and was committed to the idea of racial purity

Question 5

What areas did the SS take responsibility for?

Answer 5

Police, security, intelligence, and enforcing Nazi race rules

Question 6

What was the Kripo?

Answer 6

Day to day police work. General work e.g. stop and search

Question 7

What was the Gestapo?

Answer 7

This was the Nazis’ secret state police. They could do what they want and imprison anyone without trial. The 1936 Gestapo law placed them above the law.

Question 8

What did the members of the SS have to be?

Answer 8

Racially pure and clean e.g. no alcoholics or homosexuals

Question 9

What were the Nazi law courts?

Answer 9

They had Nazi judges without a defence lawyer nor a jury and defendants were simply accused and not allowed to defend themselves. 250,000 Germans had been sentenced to 600,000 years in prison.

Question 10

What were the concentration camps?

Answer 10

They allowed Nazis to place opponents in ‘protective custody’ in them. First one was opened in March 1933 and those imprisoned had to endure extremely harsh conditions

Question 11

What impact did the police state have in German lives?

Answer 11

Germans feared the Gestapo and worried that their neighbours would report them. The Nazis sought to create a people’s community (Volksgemeinschaft). The Nazis also believed in Clan responsibility

Question 12

Was the Police state seen as successful?

Answer 12

In short, yes as nearly all opposition within Nazi Germant was crushed. People lived in constant fear

Question 13

What is propaganda?

Answer 13

It is political advertising (sending messages). Its aim is to make a large number of people think what you want them to think

Question 14

Who was Joseph Goebbels?

Answer 14

He control propaganda as he was the ‘Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda’. He established the Reich Chamber of Culture, it both promoted Nazi culture and halted what was deemed as harmful culture

Question 15

How did the Nazis control the press?

Answer 15

Newspaper editors were all Aryan
Editor’s law meant all editors were held accountable for what went into their papers.
Goebbels controlled what was printed

Question 16

How did the Nazis control the radio?

Answer 16

Mass produced radios called the people’s receiver were sold cheaply.
Loudspeakers were erected in streets, factories and cafes

Question 17

How did the Nazis use rallies and campaigns?

Answer 17

An annual rally was held at Nuremburg, lasting a week. Brought together hundreds of thousands of people. Hitler’s birthday was also a rally

Question 18

How did the Nazis control culture?

Answer 18

Whisper propaganda - planting false info by chain letters, children’s schoolbooks were rewritten.
‘Law against Malicious Gossip’ banned anti Nazi and Hitler jokes were punishable by death.

Question 19

What is censorship?

Answer 19

Removing unsuitable information e.g. Jewish composers were banned such as Mendelssohn and Nahler and Jazz music was banned and films were censored

Question 20

Where did opposition still lie in Nazi Germany?

Answer 20

Rural Protestant areas
Lower-middle classes
Urban working classes
The young

Question 21

Reasons why German churches supported the Nazis

Answer 21

They preferred strong, authoritarian government
The Nazis said they supported the family and old fashioned values.
Disliked Judaism in theological grounds

Question 22

What was the Concordat?

Answer 22

Hitler and the German Catholic Church signed it and it includes things like: freedom of the church to continue their services, pastoral rights of the ministry and in return the church agreed to stay out of politics and Hitler also used their support to get the Enablin Act through

Question 23

How did Hitler control the Roman Catholicism church?

Answer 23

He stated a concerted attack on the catholic chirsh arresting priests who were suspected of being anti-Nazi. Catholic youth organisations were banned because many parents preferred to send their children to catholic youth instead of Hitler youth.

Question 24

How did Cardinal Galen oppose the Nazis?

Answer 24

He publicly attacked Nazi policies as early as 1934 and in 1941 he revealed that the Nazis were secretly killing mentally and physically handicapped people

Question 25

How did the Protestant church oppose the Nazis?

Answer 25

It was a collection of churches and made it easier to deal with and agreed with the Nazi emphasis on family life. The main church was Lutheran and Ludwigshafen Muller acted as a ‘Minister if Religion’ and went on to lead the German Christian church

Question 26

What was the Confessional Church

Answer 26

They were ones who opposed the views of Muller. The most famous wee Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were were arrested who opposing Hitler

Question 27

How did Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose the Nazis?

Answer 27

They refused to live according to what the government said and most of them ended up in concentration camp,s

Question 28

What was the German faith movement?

Answer 28

It’s where the Nazis set up their own church and based it on adulation of Hitler as a new god. The symbol was the swastika and the altar was to carry Mein Kapf

Question 29

Who were the edelweiss Pirates?

Answer 29

They refused to join the Hitler Youth, go on mixed camping trips and dressed very casually. It was mainly working class boys and existed in different places with different names. They also gathered on street corners and committed acts of vandalism.

Question 30

Who were the Meuten?

Answer 30

They were gangs of working class teens and young adults and were frequently attacked by the Nazis. They were similar to the Edelweiss Pirates, but coming from more organised and socialist or communist traditions.

Question 31

What was Swing Youth?

Answer 31

They were 14-18 boys and girls, most of them middle or upper class students. They grow their hair long, danced to jazz music and welcomed Jews at their clubs. They opposed the National-Socialist ideology

Question 32

What was the White Rose group?

Answer 32

One of the most famous youth movements founded by University students Hans and Sophie Scholl. Members openly campaigned against Hitler and the continuation of WW2. Scholl wrote a leaflet openly criticised the regime.