Government in wartime, 1939-45 - Problems of the growing Reich Flashcards
What is Lebensraum?
living space
- land taken from other countries to provide G with the farmland + natural resources that the Germans needed
(gained lots going East)
What was the role of the SS in new Lebensraum?
clearing out ‘undesirables’
What was the role of the Reichsgau?
11 new Reichsgau had the task of:
- allocating the Lebensraum to incoming Germans
- Lebensraum as Part of Germany
What is the Reichsgau
regional governments
- run by Reichstatthalter
Where was the most heavy-handed of Germanisation programmes in Lebensraum?
Poland - as army swept through H made it clear that all poles were untrustworthy + to be used for hard labour only + polish leaders to be shot (so not a focus for resistance)
What did Southern Poland become?
treated as a colony called the General Government - Hans Frank = governor general
- used as a dumping ground for all Poles + other undesireables, they lived in appaling conditions and used as slave labour
What happened to the rest of Poland (not south) ?
abosbred into the Third Reich + Germanised
Where in Poland did lots of Germans move to as part of Germanisation + what happened to the Poles that lived there?
over 1/2 million ethnic Germans moved to the Warthegau area of Western Poland
+
similar number of Poles that originally lived there deported east to make room for them
What was the problem w G’s growth?
much more land to govern + centralised gov became harder - meant Gauleiters became increasingly more powerful
Evidence of Gauleiters becoming more powerful bc of expanding G?
1942 (start of Br bombing raids) = Gauleiters given control of:
- all civil defence measures incl. firefighting, bomb damage clearance, rehousing, rationing
- and using various Nazi Party Orgs. e.g. NSV welfare org
When was the decree ‘For the Implementation of Total War Mobilisation’ passed + what was it?
August 1944
gave Gauleiters control over the local bureaucracy not just Nazi Party officials + gave them signif powers over local businesses