Germany: Chapter 5 [Germany and the Occupied Territories] Flashcards
1
Q
NAZI POLICIES TOWARDS JEWS
A
- 1930s: Jewish life grew harder
- 1000s sent to camps
- 1941: 200,000 Jews in Germany but growing empire meant Jewish population kept increasing
- 1939: occupation of Poland resulted in additional 3 million Jews
- 1942: persecution turned to genocide
2
Q
GHETTOS
A
- “Jewish Quarters”
- poor housing, starvation and disease [typhus]
- Warsaw Ghetto surrounded by 3.5m wall built by German company but forcibly paid for by Jews
- Jan 1941 - July 1942: 4000 Jewish deaths monthly
- July 22 1942: Final Solution [250,000 Jews to Eastern-Polish camps]
- only those working for Germans, Jewish Council and Hospital allowed to stay
- each only allowed 18kg of valuables
- escape attempts and resistance resulted in shooting
3
Q
DEATH SQUADS
A
- June 1941: invasion of USSR meant more Jews
- Einsatzgruppen = special units to round up Jews, Communists and Gypsies, confiscate their valuables and clothes, force them to march into outskirts of town, shoot or gas them and throw them into mass graves
- by 1943: 1.2 million Soviet civilians killed
4
Q
FINAL SOLUTION [JULY 1941]
A
- concentration camps in Poland for forced Jewish labour
- 1942: Wannsee Berlin turned from concentration to extermination camp
- Holocaust over next 4 years
- 6 million Jews and 5 million others killed
- Jews sent to Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor
- split into 2 groups
- those who lived forced to work till weak and used in medical experiments
- others killed by gas showers because shooting was too slow [2000 sent in at a time for “delousing” and hair, glasses and gold teeth removed off bodies after gassing and bodies burnt in ovens]
5
Q
KEEPING IT SECRET
A
- propaganda films discouraged opposition and encouraged continued Jewish effort to help “resettlement”
- Jews soon realized
- April 1943: uprising in Warsaw Ghetto
- May 1943: 56,000 Jews arrested of which 7,000 shot and others sent to camps
- when defeat was clear, Nazis dug up railway lines and destroyed records
- upon camp liberation in 1945, Allies shocked
- Rudolph Hoess [commandant of Auschwitz] hung in 1947 for war crimes
6
Q
EVACUATION
A
- German children evacuated from cities
- 1942: mass evacuation to areas like Bavaria
- Kinderlandverschickung: 2.5 million children evacuated
- 9,000 evacuation camps supervised by Hitler Youth
7
Q
RATIONING
A
- Aug 1939: meat, bread and dairy rationing began
- Nov 1939: clothing
- food stamps issued and their theft was a criminal offence resulting in labour camp
- winters of 1939, 1940 and 1941 had shoe and coal shortage
- May 1942: rations cut to a half a loaf and 40g meat per person per day
- 3 million Germans fled east where Allied bombing had left destruction and food shortage
- many areas experienced starvation in last months of war
8
Q
TOTAL WAR [FEB 1943]
A
- June 1941: Operation Barbarossa - invasion of USSR
- rapid advance initially reaching Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev by Nov 1941
- BUT temperatures dropped and food and winter equipment shortage caused hault
- Soviets had adopted ‘Scorched Earth’ Policy amid retreat
- 2 million Germans died
- Feb 1943: Goebbels announced Total war
- labour shortage
- workers recruited from occupied countries
- Oct 1941: Russian prisoners used as slave labour
- 1944: 7 million prisoner workers
- Jan 1943: men (16 - 65) and women (17-45) required to register available for work
- small business closed and employes reallocated
- Aug 1944: holidays banned and 60 hour work weeks introduced
- professional sports and entertainment shut down
- postal services reduced [fuel saving]
- by end of war, 12 year old boys forced to join Volkssturm [Home Guard] to protect Germany from invasion
9
Q
EFFECTS OF ALLIED BOMBING
A
- Aug 1940: RAF bombing military and industrial targets but effects on production were limited
- 1942: GBR and USA began bombing civilian areas to destroy morale
- March - July 1943: 43 cities bombed
- 1943: Summer Hamburg raids killed 42,600 and forced 1 million to flee
- gov. set up welfare, food, drink and accomodation organizations
- 1944 onwards: strategic targets [railways, bridges, motorways] reduced war time production to only 1%
- 1944: Allied Ruhr raids reduced metal production by 40%
- transport of war goods affected
- 600,000 deaths
10
Q
CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN
A
- 1936: women returned to work to support rearmament
- but female workers in 1939 still less than in 1929
- Hitler’s opposition further reduced number
- BUT June 1941: Goering demanded all previous, childless female workers to register for work again
- 1943: all women 17 - 45 required to register
- Nov 1943: Hitler rejected requested to push age to 50
- had to accept this by 1945 though
- 60% of labour force were women by end of war [operated searchlights and anti-aircraft guns]
- East Prussian and Berliner women raped by Soviets
11
Q
GROWTH OF OPPOSITION
A
- 1930s: opposition dealt with by SS and Gestapo
- German invasion of USSR led to 100+ Communist underground cells which Gestapo infiltrated
- Roman Catholic Church, Protestant Confessional Church and Kreisau Circle all opposed Nazism in their own way
- Germans lost will to resist Allied advance and just wanted fighting to cease by end of war
- BUT remained loyal to gov till very end [no uprisings]
- opposition clearest in youth
12
Q
SWING YOUTH
A
- middle-class
- liked British and American ‘swing’ music [e.g. Jazz]
- in many major towns and leaders arrested and sent to camps
13
Q
EDELWEISS PIRATES
A
- began in 1937 Rhineland
- working class
- anti-establishment
- beat up Hitler Youth
- objected to conscription and military training
- dressed and listened ‘Anti-Nazi’
- produced anti-Nazi and anti-war graffiti
- provided shelter, supplies and food to army deserters and escaped prisoners
- derailed ammunition trains
- 1944: Barthel Schink [of Cologne Pirates] arrested and executed for planning to bomb Gestapo Building
14
Q
THE WHITE ROSE GROUP
A
- Hans and Sophie Scholl
- Munich University students criticizing war and Nazi treatment of Slavs and Jews
- 1942 - 1943: published 6 anti-Nazi leaflets
- painted anti-Nazi messages on Munich buildings
- 18 Feb 1943: arrested
- 22 Feb 1943: executed
15
Q
THE JULY BOMB PLOT [1944]
A
- despite fanatical military support for Hitler, some opposed his brutality and anti-Semitism
- General Ludwig Beck, Colonel Stauffenberg and Dr. Goerdeler [planned Chancellor if successful]
- 20 July 1944: Stauffenburg took bomb briefcase into Hitler’s East Prussian Military HQ
- briefcase moved and 4 died but Hitler survived
- Stauffenberg and Beck tried to take Berlin [failed]
- Beck allowed to commit but failed so shot
- Stauffenburg shot
- Goerdeler hanged
- Himmler tasked with rounding up planners
- 7,000 arrested 6,000 of who were executed
