Nazi terror

Question 1

Who ran the SS by 1929?

Answer 1

Heinrich Himmler

Question 2

What colour uniform did the SS wear and why?

Answer 2

Black

To distinguish it from the SA ‘brownshirts’

Question 3

What role did SS officers play during the Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 3

Murdered SA leaders

Question 4

How many men were in the SS during the 1930s?

Answer 4

240,000

Question 5

What role were the SS expected to play in the future of Germany?

Answer 5

Creating ‘racially pure’ Germans for the future by marrying ‘racially pure’ wives

Question 6

What happened to 60,000 members of the SS between 1933 and 1935 and why?

Answer 6

Expelled

Suspected of being gay or alcoholics

Question 7

What was the purpose of the SD?

Answer 7

To act as a security force for the Nazi Party, monitoring its opponents

Question 8

Who was made leader of the SD?

Answer 8

Reinhard Heydrich

Question 9

What was kept in the SD’s card index?

Answer 9

Details of everyone it suspected of opposing the Nazi Party or the German government, at home or abroad

Question 10

Where was the SD’s card index kept?

Answer 10

At the Nazi Party’s headquarters in Munich

Question 11

Why could ordinary Germans not tell the Gestapo apart from other members of the public?

Answer 11

They did not wear a uniform

Question 12

Who became leader of the Gestapo in 1936, replacing Himmler?

Answer 12

Reinhard Heydrich

Question 13

The Gestapo set up networks of ordinary people to identify suspects. What name was given to these people?

Answer 13

Informants

Question 14

How many people did the Gestapo arrest for political offences in 1939 alone?

Answer 14

160,000

Question 15

What did a new law in 1936 say about the Gestapo?

Answer 15

They could operate outside the control of the courts

Question 16

Give THREE things that the Gestapo could do to offenders

Answer 16

Any three from:

• Spy on them
• Arrest them early in the morning
• Imprison them without trial
• Send them to concentration camps

Question 17

How was the Gestapo’s power over prisoners ‘limited’ in 1937?

Answer 17

They were only allowed to beat/whip prisoners 25 times, and a doctor had to be present

Question 18

How many people were in the Gestapo at their maximum?

Answer 18

30,000

Question 19

What did it mean to be locked up ‘under protective arrest’ in Nazi Germany?

Answer 19

You had been locked up for being an opponent of the Nazis, not for committing a criminal act

Question 20

How many people were ‘under protective arrest’ in Germany by 1939?

Answer 20

150,000

Question 21

When and where was the first Nazi concentration camp opened?

Answer 21

1933, Dachau

Question 22

Where was the first concentration camp for women opened in 1933?

Answer 22

Moringen

Question 23

Why were concentration camps located in isolated areas?

Answer 23

To keep prisoners away from the public

Question 24

Give THREE examples of people who could be put in a concentration camp

Answer 24

1) Members of ‘undesirable’ groups (including gay people)

2) Minority ethnic groups (e.g. Jewish people)

3) Political prisoners (especially communists)

Question 25

What organisation did Hitler set up for judges?

Answer 25

National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law

Question 26

What would happen to any judge who refused to join the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law?

Answer 26

They could not be a judge

Question 27

Which was more important for judges’ decision-making: the law, or the interests of the Nazi Party?

Answer 27

The interests of the Nazi Party

Question 28

What was abolished in the law courts by Hitler?

Answer 28

Trial by jury

Question 29

What court was set up to hear all cases of treason (offences against the state)?

Answer 29

The People’s Court

Question 30

How many death sentences were there for political offences in:

1930-32
1934-39

Answer 30

1930-32: 8

1934-39: 534