Germany at War

Question 1

What were the three main impacts on German people?

Answer 1

Air bombing
Total war
Employment

Question 2

What was the result of air bombing in Germany?

Answer 2

It total: 800,000 civilian deaths and 50% of bombs fell on residential areas. Many people fled to the country side, people had to share homes and lack of doctors led to high levels of civilian casualties and deaths

Question 3

What is total war?

Answer 3

All economic activity is focused on the task of winning the war and everything else would cease

Question 4

Who implemented total war?

Answer 4

Albert Speer (Minister for armaments and production) ensured that all factories in Germany focused on production to support the war

Question 5

How did employment affect Germany during war?

Answer 5

13.7 million German men served in the army during the war, and this created a huge labour shortage on the home front. The Nazis had to conscript women into the work force. 6 million were employed mainly in factories

Question 6

How did the onset of war alter the Jewish problem for the Nazis?

Answer 6

The number of Jews led the Nazis to decide that previously used methods to control them would be no longer efficient

Question 7

Who were the einsatzgruppen?

Answer 7

Around 31,000 men during 1939-1942 who used mass shootings and mobile gas vans as methods

Question 8

How were mass shootings used?

Answer 8

Jews were rounded up and taken to execution sites where trenches had been dug up

Question 9

How were mobile gas vans used?

Answer 9

The exhaust fumes smothered victims sealed inside them. These models would be uses early on as part of the final solution

Question 10

What were the purpose of ghettos?

Answer 10

They essentially imprisoned Jews in a part of a city e.g. Warsaw ghettos. The Nazis surrounded the ghettos with walls and guards. The Nazis used ghetto Jews as forced labour in their factories

Question 11

What was the final solution?

Answer 11

Wannsee conference in Jan 1942 in Berlin. They decided to establish death camps to deal with the ‘Jew problem’

Question 12

Who ran the death camps and what were they?

Answer 12

Ran by SS death’s head units and gas chambers were constructed in them e.g. Auschwitz, the gas chambers were even bigger in them and it was possible to fit 700-800 Jews in one gas chamber