Democracy 2 Flashcards
Reich entailed food law
Reich entailed food law
Introduced because the Nazis believed that farmers were the basis of the
Aryan race.
As a result, their way of life had to be protected.
+ Farmers were protected.
+ They would never lose their land or job.
+ Eldest child gets the farm - stays in the family.
- Banks may not always get paid.
- Eldest child does not get a choice.
Reich food estate 1933
Reich food estate 1933
A government body set up in Nazi Germany to regulate food production.
+ Farmers are going to make money.
- Farmers profit wouldn’t be much because the central board is also getting some money.
Strength through joy
+ People would want to work.
+ Try their best to go places.
- Costs money
- People who couldn’t work miss out on the opportunity,
- Some rewards weren’t accessible to everyone
Beauty of labour
+ Have better working conditions.
+ More facilities.
+ Want to work
-Losing money.
Volkswagen factory
+ New jobs.
+ People would get cars.
- Costs money.
- Hitler may not pay workers enough.
- Bad for the environment.
Car saving scheme
+ New jobs.
+ People would get cars.
- Expensive
- Had to wait a long time.
- Money could be used elsewhere.
- Turned out to be a scam.
Conscription
Conscription
Hitler openly began to rearm Germany in 1935 and introduced conscription.
+ The country would upgrade their weapons.
+ Prepared for war.
+ More jobs.
- Conscription meant war.
- Might not want to be part of it for moral reasons.
- Breaking the ToV.
Healthcare: alcoholics and smoking
Alcoholics: humiliated by having their heads shaved and sent to concentration camps.
Smoking: The Nazi government were the first in the world to recognise that smoking caused cancer and the first to introduce regular screening of women for breast cacer.
Unemployment
Nazi employment schemes resulted in the number of people unemployed in Germany falling from 6 million in 1933 to just 302,000 by 1939.
(Part timers were counted as full time).
Hitler did not include:
- Women (believed they should be at home)
- Jews (believed they weren’t humans)
Self sufficiency
Hjalmar Schacht was a respected banker.
Hitler appointed him as minister of economics in 1933.
He made deals with other countries because he needed raw materials which weren’t in Germany for making weapons.
Hermann Goerig replaced Schacht.
He was also Hitlers oldest and most loyal colleague.
The four year plan was to get Germany ready for war.
It was to increase military production - also created jobs.
Steel and explosives productions were very successful.
Oil production was not.
After 3 years, they realised that they were not ready for war.
Farmers were important to Nazi’s as they wanted to be self sufficient.
Farmers looked after crops and animals - milk, eggs and wool.
30% of the population were farmers.
How did Germany become self-sufficient?
- Grow their own crops
- Made their own things
- Made jobs (less unemployment)
- Started making weapons.
- Found alternatives.
Impact of WWII
September 1939 - Germany successfully invaded poland.
September 1940 - Germany invaded Holland, Belgium and France.
Summer 1940 - The Battle of Britain didn’t go according to plan and abandoned the plan.
April 1941 - Nazi’s focused on Balkans - hitler saw them as inferior.
June 1941 - Germany invaded Russia.
1941 - 1943 - German troops fought against Russian troops.
Feb 1943 - battle at stalingrad. 80,000 Germans died and admitted defeat.
Jan 1945 - allied troops invaded Germany.
1945 - Hitler committed suicide and Nazi’s were forced to surrender.
Bombing of dresden
Dresden was bombed because it had industrial importance (weapons).
Most of the city was bombed about 70%.
It is estimated that Allied bombing throughout the war left
- half a million German civilians dead
- 750,000 injured
- 7.5 million were made homeless.
Bombing of Hamburgh
Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany, was bombed by Britain and America because of its naval importance and because it was strategically close to Britain. carpet bombing of the city resulted in half the city being destroyed and 45,000 civilians killed.
Reasons:
- Ship building
- Port city
- Close and convenient
- 2nd largest city.
Consequences:
- Incendiary bombs caused fires
- 45,000 people were killed.
- Almost half the city destroyed,
- 1 million refugees fled Hamburg.
Bombings
In East Germany, 3 million civilians were fleeing from the advancing Russian army, but they received no help from the retreating German army. With no transport easily available (priority was given to German troops), many were forced to walk hundreds of miles, with attendant cold, hunger and disease. Over half a million civilians died making the journey to the west. When they reached their destination, they found cities devastated by bombing and chronic food shortages.
Rationing
With Britain bombing German ships carrying food and goods into the country, the country was experiencing severe food shortages.
Consequently, clothes, soap, toilet paper, meat, paper, coffee and sugar were rationed.
Hot water was limited to two days per week and people were limited to one egg per week.
Clever alternatives were used:
- Coffee made of roasted barley and acorns.
- Instead of soap, they would boil pine leaves and bathe with the water.
- Bread was made of leaves, rye grains, sugar beets and saw dust.
