Life in Nazi Germany

Question 1

Explain what the SS did and was.

Who?

Led by?

Key role?

Sub-units?

Answer 1

Who: highly trained and completely loyal Aryans.

Led by: Heinrich Himmler.

Key role: destroying opposition, carrying out Nazi racial policies.

Sub-units: ‘Waffen-SS’ fought alongside army, ‘Death’s Head’ responsible for concentration camps.

Question 2

Explain who and what the Gestapo was.

What?

Led by?

Key role?

Informers?

Answer 2

What: Secret police.

Led by: Reinhardt Heydrich.

Key role: Sweeping powers of arrest= no evidence or trial needed.

Informers: known as blockleiters, 1:100 people.

Question 3

Explain how the police and courts were part of the Nazi terror state.

Who?

Led by?

Key role?

‘People’s Court’?

Answer 3

Who: high ranking police officers replaced with loyal Nazis.

Led by: Heinrich Himmler.

Key role: act as informers, ignore crimes of Nazi officials.

‘People’s Court’: set up to “try enemies of the state”.

Question 4

Explain what concentration camps were.

Run by?

Key purpose?

Answer 4

Run by: ‘Death’s Heads’ unit of SS.

Key purpose: to detain political prisoners and ‘subhumans’.

Question 5

What were the aims of Nazi propoganda?

Answer 5

1. Maintain support of people.
2. Win support for particular policies.
3. Indoctrinate (brainwash) the people.

Question 6

Who controlled the ‘Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propoganda’?

Answer 6

Josef Goebbels.

Question 7

How did the Nazis control newspapers, radio and films?

Answer 7

Newspapers: censored October 1933.

Radio: powerful because by 1939 70% households owned one.

Films: controlled content of German made and imported films.

Question 8

How did religious people oppose the Nazis?

Who?

Why?

What?

Nazi response?

Answer 8

Who: Protestant pastors Neimoller and Bonhoeffer led an anti-Nazi religious organisation.

Why: Against racial policies and violence, especially Aktion T4.

What: Galen led protest against Aktion T4, Bonhoeffer helped Jews escape.

Nazi response: Niemoller arrested, Bonhoeffer murdered.

Question 9

How did the youth oppose the Nazis?

Who?

Why?

What?

Nazi response?

Answer 9

Who: ‘Edelweiss Pirates’ or for middle class, ‘Swing Youth’.

Why: opposed to being controlled by Nazis.

What: Swing Youth= alternative dress sense, taste in music, Edelweiss Pirates= beat up Hitler Youth member, anti- Nazi graffiti.

Nazi response: Swing Youth largely ignored, Edelweiss Pirates arrested, 12 hanged.

Question 10

How did the army oppose the Nazis?

Who?

Why?

What?

Nazi response?

Answer 10

Who: opposition group led by Count von Stauffenberg.

Why: Sure WW2 was lost, Hitler leading them into further ruin.

What: Planned to kill Hitler, took bomb but failed.

Nazi response: Stauffenberg executed, in total 5,000 killed.

Question 11

How did the White Rose Movement oppose the Nazis?

Who?

Why?

What?

Nazi response?

Answer 11

Who: students at Munich Uni.

Why: Christian and didn’t support Nazi anti-Jew ideas.

What: Non violent=anti-Nazi posters, graffiti.

Nazi response: arrested, tortured and beheaded.

Question 12

What was the ‘Nazi Terror State’ made up of?

Answer 12

1. SS.
2. Gestapo.
3. Police and courts.
4. Concentration camps.

Question 13

How were workers worse off under the Nazis?

Answer 13

❌Many workers never got the Volkswagen.

❌The daily wage was not enough to buy a beer.

❌The day started at 04:45 and finished at 22:00.

❌’Voluntary’ contributions were automatically deducted from wages.

❌Sleeping conditions and food were terrible.

❌Ten days of holiday per year.

Question 14

How were workers better off under the Nazis?

Answer 14

✅Workers could do many more leisure activites➡️Films, sports.

✅Unemployment went from 5,603,000 to 119,000.

✅Volkswagen were available for workers to start paying towards one.

✅People given hope➡️Off the streets and Germany becoming strong.

Question 15

Were farmers better or worse off under the Nazis?

Answer 15

✅More profits.

✅Nazis supported them.

❌Nazis were controlling.

Overall: Mixed.

Question 16

Were unskilled workers better or worse off under the Nazis?

Answer 16

✅Given jobs.

✅Cheap flats.

❌No unemployment benefit.

❌No ‘strength through joy’.

Overall: Negative.

Question 17

Were small businesses better or worse off under the Nazis?

Answer 17

✅Less competition (Jews shut down).

✅More profits.

✅No large department stores.

❌Taken over by big businesses.

Overall: Positive/ Mixed.

Question 18

Were big businesses better or worse off under the Nazis?

Answer 18

✅Workers no longer an issue.

✅Made lots of money.

❌Government controlled their business.

Overall: Positive.

Question 19

How did the Nazi party try to control and gain support of young people?

Answer 19

1. Hitler Youth.
2. Education.

Question 20

How did the Nazi party control and gain support using the Hitler Youth?

Answer 20

• Used to indoctrinate young people.
• Other youths groups shut down 1933-6➡️1939 compulsory.
• Separate for boys and girls➡️Girls less important, boy prepared for military service.

Question 21

How did the Nazi party control and gain support using education?

Answer 21

• Control over teachers➡️Those who didn’t teach Nazi beliefs were sacked.
• Teachers’ camps focussed on indoctrination and physical training➡️97% joined Nazi Teacher’s Association.
• PE=15% school time.
• History concentrated on rise of Nazi, injustice of T.O.V and evils of communism and Jews.
• Biology explained Nazi ideas about race.
• Geography taught about need for lebensraum.
• Girls studied differently➡️Domestic science and eugenics.

Question 22

What were Nazi attitudes towards women?

Answer 22

• Work➡️Shouldn’t have jobs, women’s role is in the home.
• Appearance➡️Beauty, Aryan, Broad, Plain.
• Fashion➡️No jewellery, flat shoes, simple clothing.
• Public persona➡️Role is confined and committed to home.
• Children➡️A woman’s battlefield, rewards for having children.

Question 23

Why did the Nazis persecute different groups?

Answer 23

• Aryan race➡️persecuted:gypsies, blacks, A-socials, gays.
• Not committed to Nazi Germany➡️persecuted A-socials, political opposition, gays, gypsies, Jews, religious opposition.
• Jealousy and Suspicion➡️persecuted:Jews.
• Blame➡️persecuted: Jews, political opposition.

Question 24

How were homosexuals persecuted under the Nazis?

Answer 24

1936: Homosexuality enforced as criminal offence.

In total, 15,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Question 25

How were A-socials persecuted under the Nazis?

Answer 25

1933: Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring➡️made sterilisation of individuals with different conditions (including alcoholism) compulsory.

Question 26

How were gypsies persecuted under the Nazis?

Answer 26

1935: Nuremberg laws forbade them marrying Aryans and removed their German citizenship.

500,000 gypsies killed.

Question 27

How were Jehovahs’ Witnesses persecuted under the Nazis?

Answer 27

Whole families arrested, in total as many as 5,000 may have been killed.

Question 28

How were the disabled persecuted under the Nazis?

Answer 28

1933: Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring➡️1934-5=350,000 sterilised.
1939: Aktion T4= mercy killings➡️200,000 murdered including 5,000 mentally ill babies and children killed through lethal injection or starvation.

Question 29

Briefly give a timeline of Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Answer 29

1933: One-day boycott of Jew shops, doctors and lawyers.
1935: Nuremberg Laws 9-10.
1938: ‘Night of Broken Glass’ or Kristallnacht.
1939: Jews in Poland placed into ghettos.
1941: German Jews made to wear Star of David.
1942: ‘Final solution’➡️Systematically kill all Jews.

Question 30

How did the Nazis control the Church?

Answer 30

1933: Christian-Germans➡️Adopted Nazi-style uniforms, etc.
1936: Nazis ran campaigns pressuring children not to attend Church schools.
1937: Xmas carols and nativity plays banned in schools.
1938: Priests stopped from teaching religious classes in schools.
1939: Church schools abolished.

Question 31

Give 5 advantages to life in Nazi Germany.

Answer 31

✅All workers made equal by the Nazis.

✅Reduced unemployment.

✅SdA made factories nicer places to work.

✅Many new buildings and grand designs.

✅Olympic Games held in Berlin 1936.

Question 32

Give 8 disadvantages to life in Nazi Germany.

Answer 32

❌Nazi judges made fair trials impossible.

❌No freedom of speech.

❌Children encouraged to inform on parents.

❌Censorship increased.

❌Working hours increased.

❌Jews excluded from jobs and education.

❌One party meant no choice who to vote for.

❌Boys and girls taught different subjects.

Question 33

How successfully did the Nazi Party influence young people?

Answer 33

Nazis aimed to indoctrinate young people: boys➡️good soldiers and girls➡️homemakers.

✅90% young people had already joined before HY made compulsory.

❌Not complete support e.g: Edelweiss Pirates.

Question 34

How successfully did the Nazi Party influence women?

Answer 34

Nazis aimed to make all women mothers and stay at home/no job.

✅Birth rate increased.

❌1937- ‘Duty year’ where women had to work for war effort.

Question 35

How successfully did the Nazi Party influence workers?

Answer 35

Nazis aimed to get rid of unemployment and control workers, who typically supported socialists and communists.

✅Significant fall in umemployment and improved worker’s lives.

❌Conditions got worse, long hours and lost a lot of freedoms➡️Gestapo.

Question 36

How successfully did the Nazi Party influence the economy?

Answer 36

Nazis aimed to make Germany self-sufficient and reduce unemployment.

✅Significant reduction in unemployment.

❌Never achieved self-sufficiency (autarky).