Germany Unit 5 - Germany and the occupied territories during the Second World War Flashcards
1
Q
Ghettos
A
- Germany began policy of ghettoization - all Jews forced to move to ghettos in cities in Poland - called ‘Jewish Quarters’
- Ghettos - walled off areas where Jews were crammed into poor housing & food restricted - starvation was common
- Conditions crowded & diseases like typhus spread rapidly
- Warsaw - Jewish ghetto surrounded by 3.5m high wall topped w/ barbed wire & broken glass
- Wall built by Germany company but local Jewish community forced to pay for construction
- Jan 1941 - July 1942 - average of 4,000 Jews died a month from disease & starvation- 250,000 Jews transported to eastern Poland due to ‘Final Solution’
2
Q
Death Squads
A
- June 1941 - Germany invaded USSR - quickly conquered most of west of the country & thousands more Jews came under Nazi control
- Special units - Einsatzgruppen - followed German army and put Jews to death
- Death squads rounded up all Jewish men, women & children & Communist Party leaders & Gypsies - confiscated any valuables they owned
- Victims forced to remove clothing & march to fields & forests on outskirts of towns - Jews shot or gassed & bodies thrown into mass graved
- Thought 1.2 million civilians in USSR killed by 1943
3
Q
The ‘Final Solution’
A
- Developed July 1941
- Concentration camps built in eastern Poland & Hews sent to camps for forced labor
- Conference in Wansee Berlin Jan 1942 - Nazis decided to convert some concentration camps into extermination camps
- 6 million Jews put to death over next 4 years - known as holocaust
- Believed another 5 million non-jews died in camps
- Jews sent divided into 2 groups - fit to work were given jobs until to weak to perform - some became forced to do medical experiments - rest were killed
- Germans used poison gas - huge showers built for up to 2,000 Jews at a time sent
- Poison releases, victims died, useful by-products e.g. gold teeth removed and burned
4
Q
Keeping the holocaust a secret
A
- Propaganda films made showing resettlement camps were no more than labor camps - videos showed Germans being treated well w/good living conditions
- Stopped Germans from reacting negatively & Jewish helped to resettle fellow Jews
- April 1943 - uprising in Warsaw Ghetto against transportation to camps - month of fighting - remaining 56,000 arrested & sent to camps + 7,000 of them shot
- Nazis tried to hide what happened when they were clearly losing the war
- Dug up railway lines & destroyed records
- Rudolph Hoess - commandant of Auschwitz camp - hung for war crimes at Auschwitz in 1947
5
Q
Evacuation in Germany
A
-Germans made a plan to evacuate children from major centers of population
-Families chose not to send children but ally bombings increased in 1942
- Mass evacuation began w/sending children to rural areas e.g. Bavaria
- 2.5 million children evacuated as a part of KLV program
- Children placed in 1 of 9000 camps supervised by Hitler youth leaders & teachers
6
Q
Rationing in Germany
A
- August 1939 - first rationing of food & products - became clothes in November
- Food stamps issued to civilians
- Theft of stamps - criminal offense that led to forced labor camp
- Had to pay for your meal in a restaurant but had to have enough stamps for amount of food
- Rations sufficient for basic level of nutrition
- Many shortages - toilet paper non-existent, tobacco rare, coal, shoes in winters of 39-40 and 40-41
- Goods shipped back from other countries to solve shortages in early part of war
- May 1942 - government cut rations - bread was equal to half a loaf a person a day, meat to 40g
- Over 3 million in east Germany fled west to escape USSR army - found cities destroyed by allied bombings - arrival added to problem
- Starvation in last months of the war
7
Q
Total war
A
- June 1941 - Operation Barbarossa - invasion of USSR - Germans advanced rapidly & threatened Moscow, Leningrad & Kiev by November however temperatures dropped & Germans halted
- Soviet forces had a scorched earth policy and destroyed anything useful to Germans
- Germans caught in prolonged battle - 2 million German soldiers died
- Feb. 1943 - Goebbels told German people they were involved in ‘total war’ - all resources & people committed to fighting for victory
- Saw a shortage of labor to work in factories
- solution attempted with recruiting workers from occupied countries - started in oct 1941 with Russian prisoners - led to over 7 million by 1944
- jan. 1943 - All men 16-65 & women 17-45 had to be available to work - small businesses closed & employees taken into army
- August 1944 - ban on holidays for workers & working week went to 60 hours
- 1943 - labor shortage so serious Hitler allowed women to help
- Professional sports teams and places of entertainment (except cinemas) shut down
- Postal services reduced to save fuel
- Home guard formed to protect Germany from invasion - boys as young as 12 forced to join
8
Q
Effects of allied bombing
A
- August 1940 - British RAF carried out bombing attacks on German cities - bombed military & industrial targets but effect was minimal
- 1942 - British & Americans bombed civilian areas to destroy morale
- March to July 1943 - 43 German cities bombed
- Raids of Hamburg in summer of 1943 - killed 42,600 German civilians & forced 1 million to flee the city
- Government tried to reduce impact w/stories of bravery & determination - set up welfare organizations to provide food & drink & find accommodations for people
- Bombing had a negative effect on morale but people did try to carry on w/normal lives
- 1944 - Allies focused on railway lines, bridges & motorways - only reduced production by 1%
- Raids on Ruhr Valley 1944 reduced metal production by 40% - and affected transportation of war goods e.g. 1945 allies bombed railway line to stop tanks in a railway yard in Munich
9
Q
The changing role of Women
A
- Women could work but Hitler’s opposition made number of female workers drop from 1939-1941
- June 1941 - Goering ordered any women previously paid in employment w/no children to register for work
- Women from 17-45 had to register due to ‘Total War’ in 1943 - led to an extra half a million by mid-1943
- November 1943 - Hitler turned down request to raise age to 50
- End of war - women were 60% of Germany’s work force & were auxiliaries in armed forces operating searchlights & anti-aircraft guns
- Lived under constant fear of losing children & husbands + being taken over by USSR
- Millions were raped in East Prussia & Berlin and tens of thousands died from attacks or committed suicide to avoid being attacked
10
Q
Growing opposition to Hitler
A
- Main long-term opponents were the Communist party - set up more than 100 underground cells across Germany but gestapo infiltrated
- Roman Catholic Church opposed policies towards disabled & Protestant Confessional Church criticized treatment of Jews
- Kreisau circle met during 1942/3 to discuss Nazi opposition - Gestapo found out & broke it up
- Increase in opposition during WW2 - increased sabotage - many Germans lost will to resist invasion
11
Q
The Swing Youth
A
- Members generally middle-class Germans who liked British & American swing music - liked Jazz which nazis thought was ‘degenerate’ due to a link w/black culture
- Swing Youth groups started in many major German towns & Nazis took steps to remove them - some leaders arrested & served short sentences in concentration camps
12
Q
The Edelweiss pirates
A
- The Edelweiss Pirate movement started in Rhineland in 1937 before spreading
- Members hated Hitler Youth & bullied or beat its members
- Objected to conscription & training for military service
- Members mainly of the working class and strongly -anti-establishment
- Suspected of producing anti-Nazi and anti-war graffiti
- Gave shelter to army deserters & escaped prisoners from concentration camps
- Stole food & supplies from stores or freight trains
- Derailed train cars full of ammunition & suppled adult resistant groups w/explosives
- 1994 0 Barthel Schink (member of Cologne Pirates) executed for plan to blow up Gestapo building in Cologne
13
Q
The White Rose Group
A
- Group founded by Hans & Sophie Scholl
- Most members students at Munich University
- Group criticized treatment of Jews & Slavs & campaigned against continuation of war
- 1942-3 - published 6 leaflets criticizing Nazis
- Painted anti-Nazi messages on buildings in Munich
- Scholls were caught & executed
14
Q
July Bomb Plot
A
- Some army leaders who were opposed to Hitler’s brutal methods & anti-Semitic policies decided to act when Germany began to lose the war
- Group led by General Ludwig Beck, Colonel Claus Con Stauffenberg & anti-Nazi politician Dr. Carl Goerdeler - plan was to make Goerdeler the chancellor once Hitler was killed
- July 20, 1944 - von Stauffenberg took a bomb in a briefcase into a meeting at Hitler’s military headquarters in East Prussia - then said he had an urgent call & had to leave the meeting
- One of the army leaders moved the briefcase - 4 killed by Hitler survived
- Stauffenberg & Beck tried to seize control of Berlin but failed - Beck allowed to commit suicide but had to be shot, Stauffenberg shot, Goerdeler hung
- Himmler put in charge of rounding plotters - 7,000 arrested & 6,000 executed
- Some hung w/piano wire
15
Q
Extent of Nazi opposition
A
- October 1944 - uprising in Cologne against Gestapo & Nazi officials - dozens of Germans publicly hanged
- 11 attempts on Hitler’s life
- Opposition was never a real threat to Hitler’s rule
- Some policies e.g. euthanasia led to protest
16
Q
The End of the Third Reich
A
- 1945 - Germany close to defeat
- Allies forced advanced from west & Soviet Red Army from the east
- Allies increased bombings on cities
- Believed more Germany soldiers died in last 4 months of the war than from 1942 & 1943
- Huge numbers of refugees fled cities to avoid bombings & red Army advances
- 1 million civilians dies from hunger, disease and cold
