Nazi Opposition, Repression & Censorship

Question 1

What is active resistance?

Answer 1

Acts that were intended to overthrow the regime.

Examples include the White Rose Group and unsuccessful assassination attempts on Hitler.

Question 2

What was the White Rose Group, and what was the Nazis’ response to them? - AR

Answer 2

The White Rose Groups were a small group of Munich University students who actively opposed the Nazis by publishing anti-Nazi leaflets, putting up posters and painting graffiti on walls informing people of the bad treatment of Jewish people in the concentration camps.

Nazi response: The sibling leaders of the group, Hans and Sophie Scholl, were found and executed, leading to the end of the White Rose Group’s resistance.

Question 3

What was the Stauffenberg bomb plot? - AR

Answer 3

An assassination attempt on Hitler initiated by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg in June 1944.

The bomb detonated but Hitler survived.

Question 4

What was the Kreisau Circle? - AR

Answer 4

A group that planned the future of Germany post-Nazism and supplied information to the Allies.

Members included Catholic and Protestant priests and elites like Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, a lawyer who leaked details about Nazi death camps to Allies.

Question 5

What is the difference between active resistance and protest?

Answer 5

Active resistance aims to overthrow the regime, while protest seeks to alter specific Nazi policies.

Protests were not aimed at ending Nazism or replacing Hitler.

Question 6

What victory did the Catholic Church achieve in 1935? - P

Answer 6

The reversal of the government’s decision to ban crucifixes from classrooms.

• This was a significant success for Catholic protests.

Question 7

Which figure protested against the Nazis’ T4 programme? - P

Answer 7

Bishop Galen protested - he argued that all life is sacred and that it was murder.

His attacks on the Nazis were secretly published and as a result of Hitler not wanting to lose the support of the German Catholics, he announced the suspension of the programme, but in reality it continued with greater secrecy.

Question 8

What type of strikes did communists initiate all over Germany between 1933-35? - P

Answer 8

Wildcat strikes - there were 400 illegal strikes which remained focused on improving pay and conditions, rather than broader political goals.

Question 9

What did communist workers continue to print after its ban in 1935? - P

Answer 9

Anti-Nazi literature, using material printed abroad and smuggled into the country.

Question 10

What is non-conformity in the context of Nazi Germany?

Answer 10

Acts that diverged from Nazi standards, such as telling anti-Nazi jokes or refusing the Nazi salute.

Non-conformity was widespread and considered political defiance.

Question 11

What was the role of the Edelweiss Pirates? - NC

Answer 11

They rejected the militarism of official youth culture and helped deserters.

They included both young men and women who rejected gender segregation of Nazi youth groups and sang pre-1933 folk songs.

Question 12

Who were the Swing Youth and how did they reject Nazi policy? - NC

Answer 12

The Swing Youth declared their dislike of Nazi ideas and policies by listening to jazz music which they had initially outlawed in 1939 and banned from radios in 1935.

The Nazis rejected jazz music as degenerate having originated from African American roots that they did not support under their racism ideas.

Question 13

What did ‘Machtergreifung’ stand for? - R

Answer 13

The ‘seizure of power’ referring to methods the Nazis used against their opponents.

It included various forms of repression and control.

Question 14

How did the Reichstag Fire Decree (1933) result in a loss of legal protection? - R

Answer 14

It suspended individual rights and allowed imprisonment without trial.

The government was given power to put people in prison without charging them with a specific crime, to confiscate property and to intercept post and phone calls.

Hitler’s government was given the right to enforce law and order in German states.

Question 15

What could the SS and SA do as a result of the Reichstag Fire Decree? - R

Answer 15

Beat or kill whoever they chose

Question 16

How did Goebbels’ propaganda justify the Reichstag Fire Decree? - R

Answer 16

By arguing that the Communist plot was extremely serious and could lead to all kinds of terrorist activities and that the Communists were planning a revolution and therefore the Decree was necessary to ensure survival of the German state.

He also argued that these measures were only temp.

Question 17

Following the Reichstag Fire Decree, how many KPD members were arrested? - R

Answer 17

10,000
- Short-term: Around 1/2 of the prisoners were released a month later.

Question 18

How did the Reichstag Fire Decree begin to remove political opposition from the Nazis? - R

Answer 18

• Communist party wasn’t banned until later in the year but terror tactics meant the party was driven underground by early March.
• SPD funds and assets were seized in May which meant that the SPD could no longer campaign or organise effectively.

Question 19

What was the Night of Long Knives? - R

Answer 19

A purge of SA leaders and others seen as threats to Hitler’s power in 1934.

It resulted in the deaths of 74 people, including Ernst Röhm and the decline of the SA.

Question 20

What caused the Night of Long Knives? - R

Answer 20

Röhm’s criticism of Hitler’s willingness to compromise with the traditional aristocracy - the SA was more representative of the working class section of the Nazi Party.

Röhm’s goal to replace the traditional aristocracy with a new elite made up of people who had served the front line in WW1. He wanted a second revolution and a “people’s army”.

Hindenburg’s death meant that the army lost its powerful ally that defended them from radicals in the Nazi movement. So, the army began discussing a new government with von Papen which would end Hitler’s power and Röhm’s vision of a second revolution.

Himmler’s rivalry with Röhm - he wanted to grow the SS into becoming the most important organisation in Germany.

Rumours of von Papen’s new government forced Hitler to act on the tensions surrounding Röhm which led to Hitler making a deal with the army in return for their support after Hindenburg’s death.

Question 21

What was the impact of the Night of Long Knives on the SA? - R

Answer 21

The SA’s membership declined from 1.6 million to 1.2 million by 1938.

It led to a significant reduction in their power.

Question 22

What was the secret police’s focus from 1933 to 1936? - R

Answer 22

Dealing largely with political opposition.

Their focus shifted to enforcing conformity from 1936 to 1939.

Question 23

What was the role of the Gestapo during wartime? - R

Answer 23

Involved in the Final Solution and targeted behaviours undermining the war effort.

They relied heavily on public denunciations which took up 90% of their surveillance.

Question 24

What was the impact of the Special War Penal Code? - R

Answer 24

Allowed execution of anyone obstructing the war effort.

This increased the repression of non-conformity during the war.

Question 25

What did all journalists have to be apart of in order to write for newspapers and magazines? - C

Answer 25

The Reich Chamber of Press

Question 26

What agency merged various news agencies, placing them under government control and restricting journalists to only one source for their information? - C

Answer 26

The DNB (German News Agency)

Question 27

What was the Editor’s Law of October 1933? - C

Answer 27

Required editors to censor their own publications to avoid punishment.

This led to a dramatic increase in Nazi-owned newspapers.

Question 28

By what % did newspaper sales drop as a result of the Editor’s Law (1933)? And why? - C

Answer 28

German newspapers became very dull and boring and there was a 10% drop in newspaper sales between 1933-39.

The points of view available to German people were very limited.

Question 29

What was the requirement for radio and theatre shows during the war? - C

Answer 29

Radio and theatre shows had to reflect the grave circumstances of war. Radio stations played sombre music and theatres cancelled comedies.

Question 30

When was listening to foreign radio stations criminalised? - C

Answer 30

September 1939
- The secret police had to prosecute all who listened to services like the BBC.

Question 31

Why did the demand for newspapers increase during WW2? - C

Answer 31

Due to the German people’s desire for news of the war.

Question 32

What did paper shortages during the war result in? - C

Answer 32

The news of the German defeat at Stalingrad being suppressed and newspapers never mentioning the Final Solution or the T4 Programme.

Question 33

What did the Germans’ realisation of newspapers being war propaganda mean? - C

Answer 33

This meant Germans started putting more faith in rumours than the press which Goebbels wasn’t able to control through censorship policies.

Question 34

What KPD newspaper was banned in 1933? - C

Answer 34

‘Red Flag’

Question 35

What is an example of a film used to spread Nazi propaganda? - C

Answer 35

Kongo Express (1939): celebrated Germany’s lost empire, emphasising the superiority of the Aryan culture to the cultures of Africa.

Question 36

Fill in the blank: The Nazis justified their policies by claiming they were a continuation of policies used by previous governments, including _______. - C

Answer 36

Article 48.

Question 37

What Nazi policy did the Weimar’s ‘Article 48’ justify? - L

Answer 37

The Enabling Act: allowed Hitler to act without the support of the Reichstag.

Question 38

Which figure’s government justified the Nazis use of concentration camps? - L

Answer 38

The Kaiser’s government had authorised the creation and use of concentration camps in Africa.

Question 39

What group justified the SA’s beating up and imprisonment of Communists on the street? - L

Answer 39

Ebert had used the army and the Friekorps against communist rebels in the early 1920s.

Question 40

What 1921 law justified Hitler’s creation of the ‘Law Against the Foundation of New Parties’ (1933)? - L

Answer 40

The Law for the Protection of the Republic (1921) was a precedent for banning other political parties

Question 41

What did combatting non-conformity include dealing with? - NC

Answer 41

• Prolonged absences from work
• Anti-government jokes
• Defeatist comments
• Expressing sympathy for German enemies
• Giving false information to government officials
• Political passivity - not enough enthusiasm for the war effort.