Life In Nazi Germany Flashcards
What was the SS?
Highly trained and very loyal Must be Aryan Unlimited powers Organised concentration camps Intimidation and violence Hitlers personal bodyguards Had their own courts e.g. Waffen SS and Deaths Head Division
What were the concentration camps like in 1933?
Crude and makeshift but backs more purpose built in rural areas
Anyone sent there at first mainly political prisoners e.g. KPD
Re-education programmes
Hard labour
Limited food
Slaves
When were the first concentration camps set up?
February 1933
How were the police and courts controlled?
Chief of police supported the Munich putsch
Police always liked the nazis
All lawyers and judges nazi controlled
No hope for a fair trial
Name 4 stick methods used by the Nazis to control the people of Germany
SS
Concentration camps
Informers/Gestapo
Police and Courts sworn oath to Hitler
When is conscription re introduced by the nazis?
1935
Who is in charge of the Gestapo?
Heydrich
Who are the Gestapo?
Secret police
Use informers
Climate of fear
Root out potential enemies (anyone who doesn’t conform to the regime)
Germany subdivided into into blocks of 30-40 houses each block has a nazi who keeps an eye on any anti nazi behaviour
How many concentration camps are there by 1939?
Six
Who ran the SS?
Himmler
Give 5 examples of crimes punishable by death in nazi Germany
Breaking into the house of a soldier during the war
A mugging committed by someone with a criminal record or from a family of criminals
Stealing things from an air raid depot
Having a sexual relationship with a Jew
Telling anti nazi jokes
How did the nazis help the economy?
Rearmament and conscription gave employment to many
Agricultural production increased and imports decreased
Public works projects e.g. Autobahn provided employment
Volkswagens
What had happened to unemployment by 1939?
It had fallen to 100 000
What was the German labour front?
Replaced trade unions Strikes illegal Wages low Working day longer Persuaded employers to improve working conditions in factories
When is rearmament carried out openly (it was started in 1933)?
1935
What incentives are there for the farmers in nazi Germany?
Reich food estate - guaranteed food prices and markets
Reich entailed farm law - protected farmers form being shut down by banks
What were the problems for farmers in nazi Germany?
Shortage of workers
Nazis more interested in industry
Nazis meddled endlessly
What incentives were there for the working class?
Kraft Durch Freude - strength through joy - provided Volkswagens, cheap holidays - discount from cruises, cheap theatre tickets, skiing holidays
“Beauty of labour” improved working conditions in factories and industry
What were the incentives for the middle classes and big businesses?
Management salaries on the rise No trade unions causing trouble No more ToV Communist threat gone Lots of cash
What was the four year plan and when was it?
Goering ordered to get Germany ready for war
1936
Name 7 examples of propaganda used by the nazis to control the German public
Cheap Nazi produced radios
Nuremberg Rallies
1936 Olympics
Book burnings
Pro nazi messages and newsreels played before the film at cinema
Newspapers banned or censored
Loudspeakers in public areas playing nazi views
How were cheap nazi produced radios used to control German citizens?
Foreign radio stations banned (BBC)
Hitler and other Nazi speeches broadcasted over and over
No foreign influence
Only access nazi radio channels
How did the Nuremberg Rallies help control the German citizens?
Brought colour and excitement into people’s lives
Sense of belonging
Order and sense of greatness
Fun
How were the 1936 Munich Olympics used by the Nazis as propaganda?
International propaganda opportunity to show the superiority of the aryan race
Shows Germany to be modern, civilised and strong
Pride
How did book burning help the nazis control German citizens?
Any unacceptable ideas burnt
Sense of community
Getting rid of foreign influences
Only access to nazi ideas
How many people were in the SS by 1935?
Over 200 000
What is nazi ideology (give 7 examples)?
Volksgemeinschaft - national community of racially pure aryans
Lebensraum - “living space” for expansion of Germany
Strong Germany
Fuhrer
Social Darwinism - aryan superiority
Autarky - self sufficiency
Germany in danger from communists and Jews
Name 3 groups important to the nazis
Factory workers
Children/ young people
Women
Why are factory workers important to the nazis?
Highly value because of industrial production
Make weapons for rearmament
Why are children important to the Nazis?
The next generation of committed nazis and loyal soldiers
Why are women important to the nazi regime?
Provide the next generation of nazis
Baby machines
Meant to be the traditional housewife
Why are religious people tolerated?
In case they uprise
How was the Protestant church changed by the nazis?
Reorganised into the Reich Church and given new nazi bishops
Protestant pastors who opposed sent to concentration camps
What was the faith movement?
Set up by the nazis as an alternative to Christianity - based on pagan rituals
How was religion prevented from infecting the youth?
Christmas carols and RE phased out of schools
Church schools closed
What did the children do in the hitler youth movements?
4 different groups -2 for boys, 2 for girls
Boys trained to be soldiers, marching, camping, weapons training, fitness training
Girls trained to be good mothers, domestic training, fitness training
Trained in utter loyalty to hitler and encouraged to report on their parents and neighbours
What was the section of hitler youth for the girls called?
German league of maidens
When did membership for the hitler youth become compulsory?
1939
How was the children’s curriculum controlled?
Maths questions promoted messages of war and getting rid of minorities
Biology focused on “race science”
History books rewritten without German defeats
Story books warned of dangers from Jews
Lots of PE - keep them fit to be mothers and soldiers
Teachers had to join Nazi Teachers Association or lose their jobs
When were Jewish children banned from schools?
1938
Why did Germany benefit from the nazi rule?
Beauty of labour improved working conditions
Public works projects provided employment
Unemployment dropped from 5 million to under 1 million in 6 years
Improved German roads
National pride boosted
Why didn’t Germany benefit from nazi rule?
Some people lived in fear from speaking out against the government
Workers had low wages
Workers lost trade unions
Workers standard of living still lower than before the depression
Why were the nazi policies towards the youth successful?
Girls became hysterical at nazi rallies and parades
In 1945 members of the hitler youth were armed and prepared to die for their country
Brainwashed by the curriculum - artificial control on what they’re shown at young influential ages
The nazi curriculum is fun and appealing
Why weren’t the nazi policies towards the youth appealing?
Hitler youth had to be made compulsory because attendance was barely 25%
Opposition groups such as edelweiss pirates defied the nazi regime
What were the nazi policies towards women?
Based on 3Ks (Kinder, Kirche, Kuche) encouraged to stay at home and have children
Laws forced women out of jobs and employers encouraged to only employ men
Motherhood cross system gave medals and to women with lots of children (8= gold)
Marriage loans reduced each time a child was born
Dis-encouraged from wearing make up, smoking and dieting
When were the Nuremberg laws introduced and what were they?
1935
Removed all German citizenship from Jews and their rights
Banned from marrying or having sex with Germans
What happened to the Jews in 1934?
Banned from public places
What happened in November 1938?
Kristallnacht
What was Kristallnacht?
Attacks on Jewish homes, shops and synagogues after a nazi diplomat assassinated by a Jew in Paris
100 Jews killed
Over 20 000 put in concentration camps
1 billion reichsmark fine
What happened to the Jews in 1939?
All Jews in areas the nazis invaded were forced to live in ghettos
In the summer of 1941 what did himmler order?
SS “special action” groups
All soviet Jews killed
What happened at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942?
The “Final Solution” decided
All Jews in Europe decided to be exterminated
What happened as a result of the final solution?
Extermination camps built in Eastern Europe e.g. Auschwitz
Six million Jews died in the holocaust
Why did the nazis persecute the minorities?
They didn’t fit in with their idea of aryan superiority
What did the nazis do to: 1 Homeless 2 Homosexuals 3 Blacks and mentally ill 4 Gypsies?
1 Taken to camps re-educated and taught how to work so they become useful citizens
2 sent to concentration camps
3 sterilised or killed
4 sent to concentration camps and exterminated
Name 3 opposition groups of young people
Edelweiss pirates
Swing youth
White rose movement
Who were the edelweiss pirates?
Working class movement who beat up the hitler youth and helped concentration camp escapees In Cologne 1944 6 members hung
Who were the swing youth?
Middle class movement who listened to jazz and went clubbing
Who were the white rose movement?
Munich University students who distributed anti - nazi propaganda anonymously and urged German citizens to not support ww2
Organise demonstrations and wrote anti - nazi slogans on walls
Leaders guillotined in 1944
What did the communists and social democrats do to oppose the nazis?
Set up underground organisations publishing anti nazi leaflets and organised industrial sabotage
What opposition did the nazis face from the churches?
Protestants set up Confessional Church - anti nazi
Protestant pastors e.g. Dietrich Boenhoffer spoke out against the nazis and sabotaged
What happened in July 1944?
July bomb plot to assassinate hitler
Colonel Von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate hitler with a bomb in a suitcase
What happened to the army as the war went more and more badly?
Opposition grew
In 1937 who did the gestapo stop protesting?
Dietrich Boenhoffer
When was rationing introduced?
Food - September 1939
Clothes - November 1939
Who protested against the nazis killing the mentally ill in 1941?
Bishop Galen
Why was Dietrich Boenhoffer arrested in 1942 and what did this lead to?
Contacting the allies and asking for peace terms
His hanging in April 1945
How many civilians had died by 1945?
3.5 million
When did the bombing on major German cities happen?
1942
When was the Dresden bombing?
February 1945
150 000 killed
How many handicapped children were killed from 1939-45?
5000
How many mentally ill were gassed from 1939-41?
72 000
How many compulsory sterilisations were there from 1939-45 to stop hereditary illness?
300 000
When was divorce the only possible option?
If the coupes was infertile
What was an incentive for women to not work whilst their married?
Loans for women who agreed not to have jobs when married
800 000 took them up
