Nazi control Section A

Question 1

Terror

Answer 1

• The SS expanded from 52,000 in 1933 to 250,000 in 1939 and became an effective and fearful force against opposition and non-Aryans as they were responsible for creating ‘New Order’, and running concentration camps.
• The Gestapo was set up by Goering to find opponents and arrest them, upholding the regime through surveillance and repression the Gestapo were renowned for their brutality
• Evidence of the extreme reaction of the Nazis to opposition, was the response to members of the Edelweiss youth group murder of a Gestapo officer, which resulted in 12 public hangings of those involved

Question 2

Terror Summary

Answer 2

Terror was an incredibly effective method in controlling the population as the climate of fear meant that the public were too afraid to not comply.

Question 3

Censorship

Answer 3

• establishment of the Reich Broadcasting Corporation in 1933 - monitored the content of broadcasts and saw to the purging of 13% of radio staff on racial and political grounds
• in 1933 the decree for the Protection for the People and the State was introduced, which allowed the Nazi party to ban publications which did not adhere to Nazi values
• through the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1933 and the Degenerate Art exhibition, anti-Nazi books and artwork were destroyed and only pro-regime exhibits shown

Question 4

Censorship Summary

Answer 4

Censorship removed any chance of any opposing ideology being spread which meant that the public had no alternative to the ideology of the Nazis and were therefore under the control of the regime.

Question 5

Indoctrination + propaganda

Answer 5

• the implementation of the Nazi radio company, the People’s Receiver, which became a medium of mass communication, controlled by the regime to indoctrinate Nazi values of Volksgemeinschaft and patriotism in Germany
• Loudspeakers were installed in public areas, making them venues for collective listening of Nazi propaganda, promoting Hitler and his ideologies, suggesting that these Nazi publications in Germany were inescapable
• Inevitably, the extent of indoctrination increased widespread support for the regime and reduced opposition, as it convinced people that Hitler was in fact the saviour of the nation, as Propaganda Minister Goebbels portrayed
• Indoctrination in schools - curriculum changed completely to solely teach Nazi ideology to children, a method of indoctrination by brainwashing young minds.

Question 6

Indoctrination + propaganda Summary

Answer 6

Indoctrination brainwashed individuals from an early age to only accept Nazi ideology which was supported by propaganda and censorship.