Hitler and Germany Flashcards
What were the SA (Brownshirts, or storm troopers)?
- Original Paramilitary wing of the Nazi party
- played a key role in Hitler’s rise of power
- provided protection for nazi rallies, disrupted opposing party meetings, and intimidated Jews and others.
- the SA were superseded after Hitler ordered the blood-purge of 1934 (the night of the long knives)
What was the night of the long knives?
The Night of the Long Knives, ordered by Hitler in June 1934, saw the wiping out of the SA’s leadership and others who had angered Hitler in the recent past in Nazi Germany. After this date, the SS, lead by Heinrich Himmler, was to become far more powerful in Nazi Germany.
The Night of the Long Knives not only removed the SA leaders but also got Hitler the army’s oath that he so needed.
What is Gleichschaltung?
The complete coordination of all activity by the national socialist regime.
Every element of life for every German was affected by this with no exceptions or opposition.
This became the base for Nazi totalitarian rule.
What were the SS (Schutztaffel)?
- Hitler’s secret police, responsible for many of the crimes against humanity in WWII.
- declared a criminal organization along with the Nazi party and banned in Germany by the International Military Tribunal.
- Placed above the law in 1936
How did Hitler become the unchallenged leader of the Reich?
After taking out most of the SA officials, and other officials during the night of the long knives, President Hindenburg died a couple weeks later and Hitler immediately took over the presidency using the title leader and reich chancellor, and every German soldier swore a personal oath to hitler and became the unchallenged leader of the Reich; with full legal power, the backing of a loyal army, and complete political authority. The nazi’s could then turn Germany into a totalitarian state
How did Germany overcome its economic problems?
The Nazis:
- mobilized labour
- vigorous programs of public works (housing, super highways, bridges)
- rearmament (planes, etc.)
Nazi schemes:
- German Labour Front (DAF) - National socialist trade union, it’s aim was “to create a true social and productive community”
Drafted young Germans for years of compulsory public labour so as to learn discipline, become fit, and serve Germany with a pickaxe - Promised every German worker with a car, (Volkswagen, etc.) but the war intervened before anyone got them
- Also began a rearmament program which:
- became major factor in economic recovery, reduced unemployment, revitalizing heavy industry, and offering all Germans an increase in economic activity, and a surge in national pride
The Nazi economic policy Autarky means…?
Self sufficiency
Nazi organizations for many people, like:
Nazi teacher organization Nazi student organization Nazi doctor organization Nazi gardener organization Nazi farmers/fisherman organization National Reich church
Nazi youth organizations:
- Absorbed every other youth organization
- Every German youth was expected to join
- made Hitler look like a father figure
- Women were encouraged to study home ec, motherhood, and racial purity. Encouraged women to become housewives and raise a loyal German family
Propaganda used by Hitler:
- Hired Joseph Goebbels to be in charge of propaganda, who was soon in charge of most types of cultural life, (ex. Music, art, theatre, film, literature, even sports)
- nazi clubs came up for every sport
- films were made to show how great Hitler and the Nazis were
- Nazi party rallies made headlines around the world
- round the world zeppelin flights also made headlines
- all of this used to create a sense of German superiority
Opposition used by Nazis
- writing “traitor” on shop and house walls
- Fear of the SS
Nuremberg race laws (1935):
- Set in place at the annual Nuremberg rally at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Bavaria
- Deprived German Jews from their citizenship
- Forbade Jews to marry “good” Germans (non-Jews)
- After these laws were set in place, Jews were required to register their properties which were then “aryanized” and taken over by non-Jews
- Jews were also now required to have a red “J” stamped on their identification card or change their middle names to something recognizably Jewish if their first names weren’t, so that the police could recognize them more easily
- resulted in the “final solution” of putting Jews into concentration camps
- Later, these laws were extended to others, such as gypsies, negroes, and their offspring
Jews defined as:
- anyone who had three or four grandparents that were defined as a Jew, regardless of whether or not they identified themselves as a Jew or belonged to a Jewish community
- if you had 1 or 2 Jewish grandparents, you were classified as a Mischling, or cross-breed, of mixed blood
- if you were not classified as Jewish, you were “racially acceptable”
Lebensraum means…?
Definition - Living space
This became a new catch cry in Germany, when in 1936 Hitler ordered his army to reoccupy the Rhine lands, then in 1938 he ordered them into Austria and declared their union, then they occupied the Sudetenland, then in 1939 they invaded Czechoslovakia. A few months later they invaded Poland and started WWII.
