Did the Nazis achieve a social revolution by 1939? Flashcards
When was the Hitler Youth set up?
1926
Why did the Nazis specifically target young people?
Thousand Year Reich.
Name a youth opposition group:
White rose group.
(2 points)
What are the aims of the Nazis for young people (men and women)?
- Teach boys how to fight/prepare them for war.
- Teach girls how to be good housewives and mothers.
What does Indoctrinate mean?
Inculcating and imposing a set of ideals (brainwashing).
What club did boys ages 6-10 join?
Pimpfen (Cubs).
What club did boys ages 10-14 join?
Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys).
What club did boys ages 14-18 join?
Hitlerjugend (HJ) – the Hitler Youth.
What club did girls ages 10-14 join?
Jung Mädel (JM) – Young Girls.
What club did girls ages 14-18 join?
Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) – League of German Girls.
What club did girls ages 18-21 join?
Glaube und Schönheit – Faith and Beauty.
What two things could boys join once they were 18+?
- Reich Labour Service (RAD).
- Wehrmacht (Army).
What could girls join once they were 18+?
NS Frauenwerk (NSF) – National Socialist Women’s Organisation.
What 3 things could women and men join once they were 18+?
- German Labour Force (DAF).
- NSDAP (Nazi Party).
- German Student’s League (overwhelmingly male).
(3 points)
Who were the The Edelweiss Pirates?
- Loose collection of subgroups.
- Rooted in working class.
- The earliest recorded groups existed in 1934.
(3 points)
How much of a threat were The Edelweiss Pirates?
- Membership = 2,000 by 1939.
- Mainly rebellious youngsters trying to escape the intrusive Nazi system.
- Some groups = highly politicised creating links with the KPD and beating up Hitler Youth patrols.
(3 points)
How were The Edelweiss Pirates punished?
- Response of authorities = harsher over time – warnings initially issued with some raids and arrests.
- December 1942 = Gestapo arrested 739 ~ heads shaven, detained or sent for corrective education or to labour camps.
- Some tried and executed ~ 1944 = hanged.
(2 points)
Who were The Swing Youth?
- Group of apolitical jazz and swing lovers and were mainly upper-middle class youths.
- Many = members of the Hitler Youth, but they rejected the ideas.
What did The Swing Youth do?
Jazz music = offensive to Nazi ideology ~ events organised by the ‘Swing Youth’ mocked Nazis, military and Hitler Youth.
What happened to The Swing Group?
Non-Aryan = became even more dangerous to be associated with swing crowd by November 1938, during and after Kristallnacht. Many half-Jews were persecuted before others.
Who were The White Rose group?
Non-violent students from Munich University.
(2 points)
What did The White Rose group do?
- Distributed anti-Nazi leaflets among the populace.
- Their sixth and final leaflet was used as propaganda by the British – “The Manifesto of the Students of Munich”.
What happened to The White Rose group?
Six core members were captured and executed in February 1943.
How much of a threat were The White Rose group?
Became a symbol of resistance in Germany after Allied use of their propaganda.
How the Nazis control the school system - What did the 1934 Law do?
Control of the education system was taken from regional states ~ centralised under Reich Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, led by Reich Minister Bernhard Rust ~ ministry able to adapt existing system to suit Nazi purposes.
What did the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (NSLB) - National Socialist Teacher’s Association do?
Teachers were required to join ~ trained to follow the Nazi curriculum ~ if weren’t considered loyal to Nazi cause their students were encouraged to report them to the Gestapo.
What were girls taught?
Domestic skills and eugenics – where they were educated on how to pick a husband.
What was promoted over intellectualism for boys and why?
Fitness ~ Nazi regime sought to raise future soldiers of Germany.
Where would exceptional boys go and what did they do? What did they achieve after this?
Where would the best pupils go and what did they do? What did those who survived often become?
- “Adolf Hitler Schools” ~ tough physical training and achieved positions in the Wehrmacht, SS or went to University.
- Best pupils went to “Order Castles” where they played war games with live ammunition. Some pupils died; those who survived often became high ranking members of the Wehrmacht and SS.
By 1937, the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (NSLB) - National Socialist Teacher’s Association included what percentage of teachers?
97% of all teachers.
By 1937, what amount of the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (NSLB) - National Socialist Teacher’s Association procession had been on a special month-long course on Nazi ideology?
Two-thirds.
What does Volksgemeinschaft mean?
People’s community.
(3 points)
Certain people were not allowed to be part of the Volksgemeinschaft in the Third Reich…
Who were these people?
- Ideological opponents.
- ‘Biologically inferior’ (Untermenschen/subhuman).
- Asocials.
Who were an example of a Ideological opponent and what happened to them?
Communists ~ sent to concentration camps.
(3 points)
Who were examples of ‘Biologically inferior’ (Untermenschen/subhuman) and what happened to them?
- Gypsies, Jews, the mentally and physically disabled.
- Nazis wanted a pure Aryan race ~ remove any ‘inferior’ blood ~ The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring enforced compulsory sterilisation.
- 1938 ~ Hitler initiated the Euthanasia programme which was presented as ‘Mercy Deaths’ - Operation T4.
What did Hitler initiate in 1938 to try and remove the ‘Biologically inferior’ (Untermenschen/subhuman)?
Euthanasia programme which was presented as ‘Mercy Deaths’ - Operation T4.
Who were examples of Asocials and what happened to them?
Used broadly to cover anyone whose behaviour was not viewed as acceptable e.g. alcoholics, prostitutes, workshy ~ sent to compulsory labour camps.
What year does it become clear that the Nazis are going to try and violently attack Jewish people?
1935 ~ seems to be a clear plan/esculates.
Who were Asocials?
Group of people who did not conform to their social norms.
(5 points)
What happened to Jews?
- Sterilization.
- Final Solution 1942.
- SS Doctors were assigned to death camps in Poland, as code name of T4 ~ their presence = to legitimise the Nazis activities there.
- Used as slave labour - died of exhaustion, disease or starvation.
- Children under 12 sent straight to gas chambers.
(6 points)
What happened to the Disabled?
- Doctors believed that they should be eradicated ~ Hitler agreed ~ 1939 plan for the Euthenasia Campaign.
- 6 asylums and hospitals far from the public eye ~ gas chambers ~ patients were sent from hospitals ~ more than 70,000 Germans and Austrians were gassed.
- Lethal injection and starving to death.
- Sterilization.
- Experiments conducted ~ they were seen as ‘useless’ and not contributing to the Volk.
- 1941 = Hitler ordered the gassing of disabled people - dress rehearsal for Final Solution.
(5 points)
What happened to Associals?
- Sterilisation medical experiments to reduce fertility of non Aryans trialled.
- Josef Mengele - medical experiments in block 10 at Auschwitz - wanted to increase Aryan German fertility.
- Didn’t know about genetics at this point, so results were inaccurate.
- When the Soviets got close to Auschwitz medical documents were destroyed to hide evidence.
- Sent to compulsory labour force.
(3 points)
What happened to Twins in concentration camps?
- Josef Mengele = experimented on them.
- Controlled tests ~ one twin tested on, the other not.
- Wanted the German people to multiply as much as possible ~ experimented on twins and their mother.
(4 points)
What happened to Gypsies?
- Imprisoned.
- Forced labour.
- Sterilisation.
- Experimented on.
What happened to Homosexuals?
- Imprisoned.
- Sent to concentration camps.
What happened to the Mentally ill?
Law for Protection of the Hereditory Health of the German Nation in 1935 ~ prevented marriage.
What was the April Boycott of shops 1933?
- Lasted one day.
- SA intimidated people so not widely supported.
What did the Law for prevention of Hereditary and Defective Offspring 1933 do?
Allows forced sterilisation of Gypsies, people with mental and physical disabilities, black people and others considered ‘inferior’ or ‘unfit’.
(6 points)
What was Kristallnacht in 1938?
- 1 night of violence across Germany and Austria.
- 91 Jews murdered.
- Synagogues burned.
- Sacred objects were desecrated.
- Shop windows smashed.
- 20,000 men rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
How long did Kristallnacht in 1938 last?
1 night.
How many men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps on Kristallnacht in 1938?
20,000.
How many Jews were murdered on Kristallnacht in 1938?
91.
What did the Nuremberg Laws 1935 do?
Jews lost their right to vote and were no longer citizens of Germany ~ beginning of major persecution.
(3 points)
What happened in 1935 to Jews?
- Rabbis and other Jewish leaders = stopped from preaching or speaking publicly.
- Jewish newspapers and magazines = suspended.
- Jewish writers and editors = arrested.
(2 points)
What happened in 1939 to Jews?
- Could be evicted without notice or reason.
- Not allowed to leave their homes after 8pm.
(2 points)
What happened to Jews in 1938?
- Passports stamped with ‘J’.
- Jewish men = ‘Israel’ as middle name, Jewish women = ‘Sara’.
What happened to Jews in 1934?
Jews were forced out of jobs in the theatre.
(2 points)
What happened to Jews in 1936?
- Jews no longer allowed to be vets.
- No longer allowed to own electrical and optical equipment, bicycles, typewriters or records.
What happened to Jews in 1937?
Not allowed to be pharmacists.
Name one change that had occurred for women in the Weimar era:
Right to vote.
Why were women a key group for the Nazi Party to focus their policies on?
Lost about a million men in WW1/population was decreasing ~ encouraging women to have children ~ population growth = important for the Nazis master race and Hitler needed people for war.
Can you define what KKK stands for in relation to women?
Kitchen, Children, Church.
What were women taught?
Their role was as a good wife and mother and their place was in the home: kinder, kuche, kirche.
Who was Frau Gertrud Scholtz-Klink?
Nazi women’s leader.
What did the 1934: 10 commandments for choice of spouse encourage?
People fitting the German Ideal to marry and keep race pure.
What did the Law of Encouragement of Marriage do?
Gave newly married couples loans of £2,000/1,000 marks ~ didn’t have to pay back after 4 children ~ encouraged them to have children.
What did the 1933 Reich’s Mother Service do?
Train women about their great duties.
What was the Mutterkreuz/Motherhood Cross?
Medals for women who had more than 4 children.
4 = bronze, 6 = silver, 8 = gold.
What did Lebensborns enable women who were racially desirable to do?
Have children away from social stigma ~ encouraged unmarried women to have children.
(2 points)
How was the breeding programme controlled?
- Banned contraception and abortion.
- Sterilised racially ‘impure’.
(3 points)
What happened to women and employment?
- Women taken out of the labour market.
- 1934 - Women dismissed from the professions.
- 1936 - Women could not be judges or sit on jury.
How did the employment of women figures change over time?
1933 = 11.48 million employed, 1936 = 11.7 million employed, 1939 = 12.7 million employed ~ employment numbers increased.
(5 points)
What were the Physical Constraints that women were expected to follow?
- Not allowed to wear make-up, have hair dyed or have perms.
- Only to wear flat shoes and no trousers allowed.
- No slimming as thought unhealthy and would upset child-bearing.
- No smoking ~ seen as ‘un-German‘.
- Long hair or put in bun or plaits.
What did increase in births suggest?
Women embraced the need for population increase.
What did the First Hitler Youth Law do and when was it?
December 1, 1936 - membership = mandatory for all eligible German youths.
What did the Second Hitler Youth Law do and when was it?
March 25, 1939 - German children must join Hitler Youth at age 10 until 18. Penalties are provided for guardians who don’t comply, including confinement. Gives officials the authority to require participation.
What did the Third Hitler Youth Law do and when was it?
1941 - Apparently designed to limit exemptions granted and to make the compliance for evasion more severe.
What does the fact that three Hitler Youth Laws were passed show?
Lack of conviction from young people about joining the Hitler Youth.
(2 points)
How many members of the Hitler Youth were there in 1933 and 1934?
- 1933 = 100,000.
- 1934 = 4 million.
(2 points)
Membership of the Hitler Youth was increasing however…
- Membership of the Hitler Youth became compulsory ~ doesn’t show whether people were convinced or forced.
- Other youth groups were banned ~ pushed children to Nazi groups.
