Nazi Germany and Its People - The Nazi Police State

Question 1

What was the Nazi police state?

Answer 1

A police state is one in which the police have absolute power to arrest and punish anyone. In Nazi Germany, the SS had absolute power and could arrest, imprison and execute people without trial.

Question 2

When was the Nazi police state created?

Answer 2

Hitler began to create the Nazi police state as soon as he became chancellor in January 1933.

Question 3

Why was the Nazi police state created?

Answer 3

The Nazi police state was created to control the population to ensure their compliance. It used fear to ensure people did not oppose the Nazi government.

Question 4

What was the structure of the Nazi police state?

Answer 4

• The SS, or Schutzstaffel - German for ‘protection squad’ - who ran the secret police and the concentration camps.
• The Gestapo, or Secret State Police, that dealt with any opposition to the Nazis or the government.
• The SD, or Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers, which was Nazi Germany’s security service. It spied on opponents and critics of the Nazis.
• The concentration camps, which were used as prisons for anyone who opposed the Nazis or did something the Nazis disliked.
• The legal system, which included the judges, courts and lawyers.

Question 5

What was the SS?

Answer 5

The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was created as Hitler’s personal bodyguard. Its powers were expanded as Hitler created the Nazi dictatorship and it was responsible for key parts of the Nazi police state. Its members were known as the ‘Blackshirts’ because of their uniform.

Question 6

When was the SS set up?

Answer 6

The SS was set up in 1925.

Question 7

Who was the leader of the SS?

Answer 7

The original leader of the SS was Julius Schreck who was appointed in March 1925. However, the best-known leader of the SS is Heinrich Himmler, who was appointed in January 1929.

Question 8

How many members did the SS have?

Answer 8

In 1925, there were 250 members of the SS. This figure increased to 240,000 men during the 1930s. The SS had grown to 1 million by 1944.

Question 9

Who joined the SS?

Answer 9

Members of the SS had to fit 2 main criteria:
- They had to be examples of the perfect Aryan with blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and physically strong.
- They had to be loyal to Hitler because they were his private army.

Question 10

What was the role of the SS?

Answer 10

• The SS was in charge of Germany’s police force, including the Gestapo. It had the power to search people’s property and send them straight to prison without trial.
• Death Heads - elite groups within the SS - ran the concentration camps and later the death camps.
• The Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (SD), or Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS, looked after security.
• The Waffen-SS were an elite unit in the army. They were armed regiments that aimed to protect superiors in the SS division.
• It was in charge of racial policies.
• It investigated disloyalty to Hitler in the Nazi Party and the army

Question 11

What was the Gestapo?

Answer 11

The Gestapo was Hitler’s secret police and was established by Hermann Göring. In 1934, the SS was put in charge of the Gestapo. It was an instrument of terror led by Reinhard Heydrich.

Question 12

When was the Gestapo founded?

Answer 12

The Gestapo was initially founded on 26th April 1933, and transferred to Himmler in April 1934.

Question 13

What was the Gestapo’s purpose?

Answer 13

• It spied on German citizens.
• It prosecuted anyone who spoke out against the Nazi regime.
• It created fear. Germans were terrified of the Gestapo because they did not know who its members were.

Question 14

How many people were in the Gestapo?

Answer 14

There were only about 32,000 Gestapo. The Gestapo relied on informants to spy on their behalf.

Question 15

What was the SD?

Answer 15

The Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (SD), or Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS, was the Nazi Party’s intelligence and security service.

Question 16

What was the role of the SD security service?

Answer 16

The SD spied on Nazi opposition, both in Germany and other countries.

Question 17

Who was the leader of the SD security service?

Answer 17

It was set up in 1931, by Heinrich Himmler, who appointed Reinhard Heydrich as leader in 1939.

Question 18

What were concentration camps?

Answer 18

Concentration camps were places where a large number of people were imprisoned and kept in terrible conditions. Nobody could see what happened in the camps as they were in isolated, and often forested, areas.

Question 19

When did the Nazis set up concentration camps?

Answer 19

The first concentration camp was set up in 1933.

Question 20

Where were the concentration camps?

Answer 20

The concentration camps were in isolated places all over Germany. The first camp was in Dachau.

Question 21

Why were the concentration camps built?

Answer 21

• Initially, they were used to imprison political opponents to control opposition to the Nazi government.
• They were used as a method of control over the population through fear.
• They were used for free labour for the economy. This was particularly important during the Second World War.
• They were used for the mass murder of specific groups of people after 1940 during the Second World War. For example, the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

Question 22

What were conditions like in the concentration camps?

Answer 22

Prisoners were badly treated, forced to undertake hard labour and ultimately millions were murdered. Those who were unfit to work were sent to the gas chambers during the Second World War.

Question 23

Who was sent to the concentration camps?

Answer 23

• ‘Asocials’, which included alcoholics, homeless people, prostitutes and the ‘work-shy’.
• Political prisoners such as communists, socialists and political writers.
• Religious people including Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses and eventually Catholics and Protestants.
• Ethnic groups such as the Jews, Roma or gypsies and, when the Second World War began, Poles and other Slavs.
• Homosexuals.

Question 24

What work did prisoners do in the concentration camps?

Answer 24

Within the concentration camps prisoners were made to do hard labour in often freezing conditions.

Question 25

What methods did the Nazis use to control the legal system?

Answer 25

The Nazis took over the legal system by controlling judges, courts and lawyers.

Question 26

How did the Nazi regime control the judges in the legal system?

Answer 26

• Every judge had to be a member of the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law.
• All judges had to put the interests of the Nazis above the law and swore an oath of loyalty.
• Any judge that did not become a member of the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law or conform to their expectations, was sacked.

Question 27

How did the Nazi regime control the courts in the legal system?

Answer 27

• Trial by jury was ended so that judges alone decided whether someone was innocent or guilty and determined the punishment.
• The People’s Court was set in 1934 to hear all cases that were ‘crimes against the state’. Anyone opposing the Nazi government could not expect to have a fair trial.

Question 28

How did the Nazi regime control the lawyers in the legal system?

Answer 28

All lawyers had to join the Nazi Lawyers’ Association.

Question 29

What happened to the death penalty in the Nazi legal system?

Answer 29

The number of crimes punishable by the death penalty rose from 3 to 46.