Exams Flashcards
Germans Affected by Nazi Rules
Nazi Members Ordinary People Women Youth Opposition Untermensch
Nazi Members
Positive Effects
- given best houses
- preferential treatment
- good jobs in the government sector
- power over other people
Ordinary People
The positive effects included; - full employment - financial security - fun and holidays - law and order - hope, pride - improved transport The negative effects included; - wages fell - freedom was lost - strikers were shot
Women
The positive effects included;
- Law for the Encouragement of Marriage gave newly weds a loan of 1000 marks and allowed them to keep 250 for each child
- Mothers who had more than eight children were given a gold medal*
The negative effects included;
- Job discrimination
- Anti-Feminist
- Women weren’t allowed to serve in the armed forces
- Mothers who had more than eight children were given a gold medal*
Youth
The positive effects included;
- Nazi culture was very youth-orientated
- HJ provided exciting activities for boys
- HJ and BDM treated men and women as if they were special
The negative effects included;
- Girls were unhappy with the emphasis on the three C’s
- True Aryan girls and boys were sent off to breed for the ‘new race’
- Towards the end of the war youth gangs rebelled against HJ and Nazi cultre (drinking, dancing to American Jazz and Swing in public)
- In Cologne 1944 they sheltered army deserters and attacked the Gesta Po; if they were caught they were hung
Untermensch
The positive effects included;
- Many Germans approved of this, or at least turned a blind eye otherwise
The negative effects included;
- Jews eg. Anne Frank forced into walled ghettos, put into concentration camps or used for medical experiments
- Eighty fiver percent of Gypsies in Germany were killed, black people were sterilized and killed, five thousand mentally disabled babies from 1939-1945 were killed and seventy two thousand mentally ill patients were killed from 1939 to 1941
- Physically disabled people or families with hereditary illness were sterilised
- Three hundred thousand men and women were from 1939-1945
- Beggers, homosexuals, prostitutes, alcoholics, pacifists, hooligans and criminals were also regarded as anti-social and if caught they were sent to concentration camps
Why People Voted For Hitler
- Promised a strong and exciting government; the existing one was weak
- Promised to get rid of the Treaty of Versailles and conditions imposed on them
- Hitler’s propaganda made people believe that the Weimar Republic had stabbed them in the back in the end of the war
- Jailed in 1925 for leading a violent uprising against the government which he gained good publicity from
- Time in jail changed his ideas and outlook on becoming leader; used the democratic system to be legally elected
Appealed to all classes; - Aristocrats (Wealthy); who hated communists wanted rearmament
- Middle Class; wanted law and order, and feared communists
- Working Class; wanted jobs and Hitler promised to end unemployment
- Church; supported Hitler because communists were atheists
Hitlers Appeal - One Party State
- Enabling Act 1933 allowed for a one party state; banning all other parties and imprisoning leaders of them
- Offensive to belong to another party
- Nazi Members were allocated the best houses, jobs and other luxuries over the others
Hitlers Appeal - Terror
- Nazi’s controlled police
- Set up Gestapo (police) and SS (secret police)
- Encouraged to report grumblers and oppositions
- Jewish, communists, homosexual, Jehovah witnesses, gypsies, alcoholics, prostitutes were sent to concentration camps
Hitlers Appeal - Propaganda
- Everything was organized that the people were always grateful to Hitler and his decisions
- Mass rallies and posters were used to attract
Hitlers Appeal - Youth
- Girls and boys joined Hitler Youth
- Exciting activities and war games
- Girls were taught to be good mothers
- Anti-Nazi teachers were sacked
- Had to teach a set curriculum; racist lessons
Hitlers Appeal - Workforce
- Trade unions banned
- Wages went down
Hitlers Appeal - Religion
- Agreement to not interfere with the church
- Pope agreed to not criticize Nazi’s
Reichstage Fire – 27th of February 1933
- The Reichstag (German Parliament) burned down, and Dutch communist van der Lubbe was caught with matches and fire lighting materials; so he was blamed
- Hitler used this to arrest many Communist opponents, and as a major election campaign of March 1933
- Many believe that the fire was so convenient that the Nazi’s burnt it down and blamed the Communists
General Election – 5th of March 1933
- Hitler held a general election, appealing to the German people but only forty four percent of the people voted Nazi
- This didn’t give him the majority in Reichstag, so he arrested eight one communist deputies; which gave him the majority
- Goering became Speaker of the Reichstag
Enabling Act – 23rd of March 1933
- The Reichstag voted to give Hitler the power to make his own laws
- Nazi stormtroopers stopped the opposition deputies from going in and beat up anyone against it
- The Enabling Act made Hitler the dictator of Germany, with power to do anything he wanted
Local Government – 26th of April 1933
- Nazi’s took over local government and police
- Replaced anti-Nazi teachers and University professors
- Hitler introduced the Gestapo (secret police)
- Encouraged Germans to report opposition members or ‘grumblers’
- Tens of thousands of Jews, Communists, Protestants, Jehovas Witnesses, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Alcoholics and Prositutes were arrest, killed or sent to concentration camps for things such as; writing anti-Nazi graffiti, possessing a band book or saying that business was bad
Trade Unions Banned – 2nd of May 1933
- Trade Union offices were close, their money was confiscated and their leaders were put in prison
- In place, Hitler put the German Labour Front which reduced workers pay and took away the right to strike
Political Parties banned – 14th of July 1933
- The Law against the Formation of Parties declared the Nazi Party the only political party in Germany
- All the others were banned; their leaders imprisoned
Night of Long Knives - 30th of June 1933
- By 1934 there were more than million SA members who helped Hitler come to power
- Hitler was in power in 1934, and had no opposition left and ordered the SS to kill over four hundred SA members – who he believe were plotting against him
Fuhrer – 19th of August 1934
- After Hindenburg died, Hitler took his place as President and Leader of the Army
- Soldiers had to pledge allegiance to die for Hitler personally)
- Hitler called himself Fuhrer
Path to War - Night of Long Knives
- Hitler was Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of Germany’s fascist government but there were rumblings of revolt
- On the 29th of June, Hitler ordered the SS to execute SA members
- German Army had to swear allegiance to Hitler; cementing his place as undisputed leader
Path to War - Anti-Comintern Pact - November 1936
- Germany and Japan sign an Anti-Comintern Pact
- Italy joined in 1937
- Known as ‘Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis’
- Italy has a fascist government
- Japan has a military dictatorship
Path to War - USA directly threatened – 12th of December 1937
USA directly threatened – 12th of December 1937
- Japan attacks US gunboat in Panay and three ships in Nanking, China
- US President Roosevelt appeals to congress for more military funding
Path to War - Austria Annexed – 13th of March 1938
- Hitler summoned Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg and informed him of his intention to annex Austria
- Recognising Austria had no chance, he agrees
- Britain and France choose not to intervene, choosing appeasement
Path to War - Korean Border – August 1938
orean Border – August 1938
- On Korean border, a skirmish between Japan and Soviet troops threatened to cause war between the two nations
- Truce ended conflict
- Japan had invaded Manchuria (in 1931) and conquered the eastern third of China
Path to War - The Munich Crisis – 12-30th of September 1938
- The Sudeten Party (representing Sudentenland), the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia pushed for union with Hitler
- Czechoslovakia refused and Hitler asked Britain and France, who sign a pact of appeasement – giving it to him
- Six months later, on March 15 1939 Germany invades and takes whole of Czechoslovakia
Path to War - Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) – 9th of November 1938
- Jews living in Germany were targeted at night by German soldiers
- Over forty eight hours almost one thousand Jewish churches (synagogues) were set alight, seven thousand Jewish businesses looted, one hundred killed or seriously injured and thirty thousand sent to concentration camps
- Germanys Jewish communities ordered to pay a billion dollars in compensation for non Jewish affected by the violence
Path to War - Italian Expansion – 7th of April 1939
- Benito Mussolini (Italian Army) invades Albania
- Invaded Abyssinia October 1935
- Albania was one step away from Greece; which was Italy’s goal
- Britain promises to help Greece if ever attacked
Path to War - German-Russian Expansion – 23rd of August 1939
- Germany and Russia sign the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact; guarantee’s Hitler access to Poland without fear of reprisal by Soviet Army
- Soviet Union plans on invading the eastern half of Poland and Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland
- 31st of March 1939 Britain promises to protect Poland if ever attacked
Causes of World War Two
- Treaty of Versailles
- Worldwide Economic Depression
- Nationalism
- Militarism
- Rise of Fascism
- Rise of Totalitarianism
- Great Depression
- Appeasement
- American Isolation
- Absent of Authority, League of Nations
- Germany Remilitarises
- Japanese Expansion