Nazi Germany 1933-1945 Flashcards
How did Hitler benefit from the Reichstag fire?
- he used it as evidence of terrorism,and used the Emergency Decree to ban the communist party and arrest possible terrorists.
- this meant Hitler got more votes
Who was blamed for the Reichstag fire of
A communists called Van Der Lubbe
How many seats did Hitler get in the new election?
288, not the majority
Because of this he joined with the nationalists
What was the Enabling act?
It meant that Hitler could make laws without consulting the reichstag
What did Hitler use the power of the enabling act to do?
- he banned all opposing parties and put leaders into concentration camps.
- banned trade union
- put nazis in charge of all state governments
- used fear to make sure people didn’t challenge him
What was the ‘night of long knives’?
The SA under the rule of Röhm, became a threat due to their numbers and military training, so Hitle had 400 leaders of the SA shot.
What did Hitler do when Hindenburg died?
He made himself chancellor and president combined and gave himself the new title of ‘Führer’
The army were made to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler
How did the Nazis use terror to control Germany?
- concentration camps were set up for anyone who went against them, they were run by the SS
- the Gestapo (secret police) went around checking people’s loyalty to the Nazis, if people weren’t they were secretly taken for torture or put in camps.
- German was sectioned into tiny blocks of 30-40 houses with a nazi living there to keep an eye
- children in the hitler youth were expected to spy on close adults
What happened in the hitler youth movements?
- 4 different groups 2 for girls and 2 for boys
- boys were trained to be soldiers, they were taught to fight, marching, camping, weapon skills and fitness training
- girls were taught to be good mothers, domestic training and fitness training
- both groups have complete loyalty to Hitler, listening to mein kampf, saluting the swastika, singing Nazi songs and reporting anti-nazi behaviour
How did Hitler change education ?
- he set a new curriculum. Maths promoted messages of war and getting rid of minorities, history focused on the Nazi party, and geography focused on “greater Germany” and biology focused on the Aryan race
- history books were rewritten and stories about Jews being dangerous were released.
- boys were educated to be soldiers and girls to be mothers
- there was lots of sport lessons to keep fit
- teachers had to join the Nazi teacher association or lose their jobs.
- Jewish students were persecuted and had to leave German schools in 1938
How successful was Hitlers change to the lives of young people?
- membership of the Hitler youth became compulsory in 1939. About 7,500,00 children were members and about 1,000,000 refused.
- some young people chose to join anti-nazi groups such as the swing movement and the eidelweiss pirates
- some enjoyed his power, while some rebelled against it
What were two opposition groups to the Nazis?
The swing movement, and the Eidelweiss Pirates
How did hitler change the lives of women?
- women were expected to be mothers, and many left work
- medals were awarded to women who had large amounts of children
- people were encouraged to get married and have children by being offered marriage loans which were reduced every time a child was born
- women were discouraged from wearing makeup smoking and dieting
How successful were Hitlers changes to the lives of Women?
- the birth rate did increase
- by 1939 women were needed to go back to work to support the war effort so had to go against ‘kinder kurche kutche’
What did Hitler do to change the lives of workers?
- unemployment was tackled by projects such as the building of the autobahns and the Olympic stadium.
- men aged 18-25 were made to join the RAD for 6 moths doing work such as digging ditches
- all workers joined the RAD
- The strength through job programme was introduced
- the government took control of wages, prices, profits
- Jewish businesses were shut down giving business to Germans
