Impact of WW2 on Germany - YK

Question 1

When was food rationing introduced?

Answer 1

August 1939

Question 2

Name two ethnic groups whose rations were prioritised differently and how

Answer 2

Aryans prioritised over Jews

Question 3

Name three food items that made up most of the diet

Answer 3

Bread, potatoes, and preserves

Question 4

When did area bombing start?

Answer 4

1942

Question 5

How many German cities were area bombed?

Answer 5

61 cities over 3 years

Question 6

Give the number of people killed, wounded, and made homeless by area bombing

Answer 6

300-400K deaths, 800K wounded, 7.5 million homeless

Question 7

Where did German refugees flee from and to at the start of the war?

Answer 7

From Western bordering regions (e.g. Saar) eastward, although many returned after a lack of immediate fighting with France

Question 8

Where did area bombing create a refugee problem?

Answer 8

The Ruhr (industrial area), thousands of refugees

Question 9

Why did civilians flee West in 1944-45?

Answer 9

To avoid the brutality of the invading Soviet army

Question 10

How many people served in the army during the war and why was this a problem?

Answer 10

13.7 million, caused a shortage in workforce

Question 11

How many slave labourers remained after the war and what happened to them?

Answer 11

8 million (from Eastern Europe), along with other ‘displaced persons’, became refugees in Germany

Question 12

How many ethnic Germans became refugees and why?

Answer 12

11 million, expelled from countries surrounding Germany in the East

Question 13

Who were the Edelweiss Pirates and what were two things they did?

Answer 13

Working class boys from West Germany (eg. Rhineland); sung anti-Nazi songs, attacked Hitler Youth

Question 14

Who formed the White Rose and what was one achievement?

Answer 14

Hans and Sophie Scholl (Munich Uni students), published thousands of anti-Nazi leaflets

Question 15

What did the “Swing Movement” do in opposition to the Nazis?

Answer 15

Drank alcohol and listened to jazz, which Nazis believed was degenerate and ‘Negro music’

Question 16

What percentage of Sinti and Roma sent to concentration camps died?

Answer 16

85%

Question 17

Between 1939 and 1941 over 100,000 Germans were secretly killed for what reason (often without family permission)?

Answer 17

Physical and mental disabilities

Question 18

How many Polish Jews were put in camps or ghettos during the 1939 invasion, and how many died?

Answer 18

3 million, 600,000

Question 19

During the invasion of the USSR in 1941, what method was used by the Einsatzengruppen (special SS units following the army) to execute Jews, communists, and Russian officials, how many were executed in this way, and why was this stopped?

Answer 19

Rounding up the persecuted, taking them to the edge of the village/town, having them dig mass graves, shooting them, and burying them; By end of 1941 1.2 million killed this way (including 1/2 million Jews); too expensive and time-consuming

Question 20

When was the “Final Solution” decided on, how many camps were built for this, what was the largest (name and death toll), and how did it work?

Answer 20

January 1942, 6 camps built specifically for extermination, Aushwitz-Birkenau 2.5 million Jews; people arrived on trains, split up into working, sent to be worked to death, and not working group (mostly elderly, women, and children), sent for immediate execution in “showers” with Zyklon B (cyanide pellets)

Question 21

Roughly how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust, what percentage of Polish Jews were killed, and what are three other groups who faced mass extermination?

Answer 21

6 million; 88%; gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses

Question 22

Did Nazi pressure on churches increase or decrease, and why?

Answer 22

Increased early on in war but decreased in 1941 for popularity as service attendance increased and many churches denounced attacks on their freedom

Question 23

Name one prominent anti-Nazi Christian Minister and an accomplishment of theirs against the Nazis

Answer 23

von Galen (Archbishop of Munster) ended euthanasia of mentally disabled in 1941; Dietrich Bonhoffer (Protestant confessional church pastor) linked to 1944 bomb plot and executed in 1945

Question 24

When did Hitler survive a planted bomb, who planted it, and what were the consequences?

Answer 24

July 1944, Colonel Stauffenberg, the Colonel was executed along with 5,000 others in a crackdown on opposition