Nazi Germany - Changing Lives

Question 1

What is Übermenschen

Answer 1

Nazis took inspiration from 19th century German philosophers and scientists, believing the most dominant race was the Aryan race.

Saw Aryans as super humans from North Western Europe

Question 2

What is Untermenschen

Answer 2

Beloved that non-aryans were inferior and called them Untermenschen (sub humans)

Question 3

Hw would you be defined as Jewish

Answer 3

Have 3 or 4 grandparents who were Jewish even if you didn’t have Jewish beliefs.

Beloved Jews and Gypsies had large noses and so measured them precisely

Question 4

Give an example of Jews being put in a bad light to children

Answer 4

‘The Toadstool’. It describes Jews as poisonous mushrooms and told children that just a single ‘poisonous mushroom’ can kill a whole family.

Question 5

What was the most extreme case of violence against the Jews

Answer 5

Kristallnacht - November, 1938 (two days)

Question 6

What happened in Kristallnacht

Answer 6

A 17 year old German Jew assassinated a German embassy official in Paris.

When the news hit Germany there was widespread anger at the Jewish population.

The Nazi leaders met to decide how to respond, Goebbles announced that no action would be taken by the Nazis but any spontaneous events by the public will not be stopped.

267 Synagogues were destroyed
7,500 Jewish owned commercials had their windows smashed and their contents looted.
At least 91 Jews were murdered

The SS and the Gestapo arrested up to 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to concentration camps

Question 7

What were the top 4 anti-semitic legislations

Answer 7

March 1933 - Jewish lawyers banned from conducting legal affairs in Berlin

April 1933 - Aryan and non-Aryan children were forbidden for playing together

July 1933 - Jews were excluded form the German chess federation.

September 1933 - Race studies became part of the school examination syllabus.

Question 8

What happened in September 1935

Answer 8

Jews no longer ‘citizens’ they were just subjects with no rights

Question 9

What happened on August 1938

Answer 9

Jewish men had to add ‘Israel’ to their name and female Jews ‘Sara’ to their fist names

Question 10

How did the Nazis infiltrate schools

Answer 10

Political unreliable teachers were forced to resign

Jewish teachers were banned from teaching in non-Jewish schools

Nazi teachers league was set up to make teachers learn the latest nazi ideology and do military exercises

Pupils acted as spies in the classroom and reported the name of any teacher who still dared to tell a anti-Nazi joke or teach anon-Nazi material to the gestapo

Question 11

When did you have to join the Hitler youth group

Answer 11

1936

Question 12

When did you have to attend weekly meetings within the Hitler youth group

Answer 12

1939

Question 13

By 1939, unemployment had officially been reduced to…….men of a total of 25 million men

Answer 13

35,000

Question 14

How many were unemployed in 1932

Answer 14

6 million

Question 15

How did the Nazis improve the lives of small craftsmen

Answer 15

In 1933, the law to Protect Retail Trade was introduced which put increased taxes on large stores to protect small businesses. However they still could not compete.

Question 16

How did the Nazis try to help peasants

Answer 16

May 1933 - Reich Entailed Farm Law was passed. This was done to strengthen Germany’s farms by forcing owners to pass the land on to the eldest son rather than divide it up or sell to large scale landowners. Unfortunately this tied peasants to the land and stifled innovation.

Question 17

How dis the Nazis try and help industrial workers

Answer 17

46% population

The Nazi’s obsession for re-arment for war meant made industrial jobs plentiful and employment rates soared.

By 1936, the average wage was 36 marks per week, ten times more than the dole money received by the 6 million unemployed.

However wages were frozen a 1933 levels so rising prices meant that they were still not enough to easily feed a family

Question 18

What is the DAF

Answer 18

German Labour Front

Set up to replace the abolished trade unions

1939 - 29 million members

Question 19

What is Strength Through Joy

Answer 19

Created to organise workers leisure time.
This included cheap holidays, cheap theatre tickets, touring orchestras and gym evenings.

Each of these activities included delivered ideological content - cruise ship received political lectures

75% discount on trains and 50% discount on hotels

Question 20

Give 3 other branches the DAF created

Answer 20

• Beauty of Labour = Aimed to improve workplaces. New toilets, changing rooms and showered built at factories nationally
• The Reich labour Service = set up to tackle unemployment by providing cheap labour for bug projects like motorways. From 1935, all men aged between 18 - 26 had to serve for at least 6 months.
• Volkswagen Scheme = 1938 - workers could pay 5 marks a week and eventually earn a car. Many paid into the scheme but none ever received because WWII stopped all production.

Question 21

Give some Nazi views on how Women should live by

Answer 21

Not smoke, as lead to higher chance of miscarriage

Appear natural and not wear make-up

Dress in traditional German clothes and not show sexuality overtly

Women should not be thin but physically robust

Question 22

Give 3 ways in which the Nazis tried to encourage motherhood

Answer 22

Loans to encourage women to marry and have children -
Loans offered to Aryan couples who wanted to get married. Takes 8 years to pay of loan, so increased time women can stay at time having children Loan was reduced by a quarter for every child they had.

Making divorces and marriages more easy

Reducing opportunities for women in higher education

Question 23

How much did marriages increase by

Answer 23

516,000 in 1932 - 772,000 in 1939