Germany And The Occupied Territories During The Second World War

Question 1

Jewish Ghettos

Answer 1

• Germany invaded Poland in 1939: war started
• 3 million Jews in Poland alone - changed policy to ghettoisation
• 3.5 meter walled off area topped of with glass and barbed wire, crammed into poor housing, restricted supplies, starvation and disease, crowded, Jewish community paid for wall
• January 1941 - July 1942: 4,000 Jews died each month from disease and starvation

Question 2

The Final Solution, Jewish Persecution and Death Squads

Answer 2

• July 1941, Germany invaded Soviet Union, sending death squads to confiscate valuable and kill all Jews, over 1.2 million civilians in the ussr killed by 1943
• first concentration became extermination in January 1942
• In July 1942, final solution announced: Warsaw Jew ‘resettled’ in east Poland
• over 250,000 Jews transported to camps here and killed/ forced into labour
• over the next 4 years, 6 million Jews killed, 5 million non-Jews killed in camps like Auschwitz
• huge showers - gas chambers - 2000 at a time, medical experiments, the fit did labour
• German public were shown propaganda, but by April 1943, Warsaw uprising, Jews found out: 56000 Jews arrested, 7,000 shot

Question 3

Effects of War in Germany

Answer 3

• first rationing began august 1939: bread meat diary soap, & from Nov, clothing, with allocated food stamps, the stealing of which was a criminal offense
• coal and shoe shortages in the winters 1939-41
• May 1942, government cut rations, half a loaf of bread per person, 40g of meat
• 3 million Germans from the east fled to cities from red army, increasing starvation
• 2.5 million evacuated children because of allied bombing from 1942 to rural areas like Bavaria at part of the KLV programme, placed in 1 in 9000 Hitler Youth camps
• Hitler disapproved of women working so numbers dropped between 1939-41, but in June 1941 woman with no children ordered to work, in 1943, 17-45 age: 1/2 million extra women were working in industry so that by the end of the war women made up 60% of German labour force, 1945 age limit to 50
• thousands of Woman killed, starved, made homeless, lost family, lived in fear, raped, attacked and committed suicide 

Question 4

WW2 Soviet Fighting & Total War

Answer 4

• June 1941: Operation Barbossa into Soviet Union - by November, threatening Moscow
• temperatures dropped, no supplies, Soviet soldier had destroyed useful resources ‘ scorched earth policy’, advance halted, 2 million Germans died in battle
• February 1943 - ‘total war’ announced: all resources used for war:
• Oct 1943, Russian prisoners slave labour, 1944, 7 mill prisoners working German industry
• jan 1943, 16-65 men, 17-45 women register for work, small businesses shut
• aug 1944, ban on holidays for workers - working week increased to 60hrs, sports and entertainment locations shut down, postal services reduced, 12 yo boys in Volkssturm- home guard

Question 5

Effects of Allied Bombing

Answer 5

• august 1940, British raf first bombed military and industrial targets, but since the impact on German production was minimal, from 1942 Britain and USA began bombing civilian areas to destroy German morale.
• between March and July 1943, 43 cities were bombed, raids on Hamburg killed 42, 600 German civilians, and 1 million fled
• The government set up welfare organisations and stories of bravery and determination but the morale was low even though most people tried to continue on with their lives
• from 1944 bombings from the Allies were on railway lines, bridges and motorways so that industries suffered significantly, however German production was only reduced by 1% but the Allied raids on the reveille in 1944 reduce metal production by 40%
• in 1944, the bombings affected transport of war goods

Question 6

Groups against the Nazis

Answer 6

• Swing Youth: and middle-class Germans you wanted to listen to allies’ jazz/swing music
• Edelwiess Pirates: working-class, anti-establishment Germans, who hated Hitler youth and conscription, never really a threat but: gave shelter to army deserters and escaped prisoners from concentration camps, stole food and supplies, derailed train cars full of ammunition
• White Rose Group: lead by Hans and Sophie scholl with students from Munich university, produce leaflets, campaigned about the war and treatment of Jews and painted anti-Nazi messages before being caught and executed
• German communist party, 100 underground cells infiltrated by gestapo
• overall 11 attempts of Hitler life like…
• July Bomb Plot (1944): 20 July, General Ludwig Beck, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, Dr Carl Goerdeler: Bomb in briefcase, Stauffeenberg left room, briefcase moved, 4 killed, Hitler survived. Himmler arrested 7000 to do with plot, 6000 of these killed