Section 3: The impact of war and defeat on Germany, 1939-49

Question 1

How had Germany defied the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 1

• Creation of an air force and conscription in 1935.
• Remilitarised in Rhineland in 1936.
• Anschluss with Austria with 1938.

Question 2

What events were significant in the turn of the tide?

Answer 2

• Loss of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943.
• America joining the War in 1941.
• Defeat at the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Question 3

How long did it take for Germany to defeat the Low Countries and France?`

Answer 3

6 weeks.

Question 4

What tactics did the German’s use to win quick victories?

Answer 4

Blitzkreig or Lightning War

Question 5

What was the codename for the German invasion of Russia?

Answer 5

Operation Barbarossa

Question 6

When did Hitler kill himself, and when did Germany surrender?

Answer 6

• 30th April 1945.

- 7-8th May 1945.

Question 7

What did Hitler issue in December 1939?

Answer 7

War Economy Decrees, expanding projects for submarines and aircraft.

Question 8

(i) What military expenditure, % wise, did Germany have out of their GNP in 1941
(ii) “ for Britain in 1941.

Answer 8

• Germany - 47%

- Britain - 60%

Question 9

What percentage of Germany’s workforce was involved in war-related projects in 1941?

Answer 9

55%

Question 10

How many aircraft were being produced in Germany in 1939 and 1941, and how did this compare to Britain?

Answer 10

(i) Germany = 8290 –> 10,780

(ii) Britain = more than trebled to 20,100.

Question 11

When did Hitler expect to go to war?

Answer 11

1940s at the earliest

Question 12

Who was Fritz Todt?

Answer 12

Minister of Arnaments 1940-42 until his death

Question 13

What Ministries existed alongside the one of Armaments?

Answer 13

1) Economics
2) Finance
3) Labour

Question 14

Who replaced Todt?

Answer 14

Albert Speer.

Question 15

What was the Central Planning Board?

Answer 15

Established in 1942, it was a number of committees each representing one vital sector of the economy.

Question 16

What things did Speer introduce that increased efficient war output?

Answer 16

• Prisoners in concentration camps were used as workers.
• Women were employed in arms factories.
• Skilled workers were not lost to conscription.
• Anything that did not contribute to the war effort was eliminated;
  = non-essential businesses, professional sport in 1943.

Question 17

Were Speer’s policies successful?

Answer 17

1) Tank production rose 25%.
2) Ammunition production rose 97%.
3) Total arms production rose 59%
4) By 1944, there had been a threefold increase in war materials since 1942.

Question 18

(i) Who gave the total war speech
(ii) In what year was it
(iii) Where was it

Answer 18

(i) Goebbels
(ii) 1943
(iii) Sports palace.

Question 19

What did SD reports say about the ‘Total War’ speech

Answer 19

• People appreciated the honesty and felt motivated for their people and army.

Question 20

How were Speer’s policies handicapped?

Answer 20

1) Gauleiters used their own influence to prevent more efficiency.
2) SS did as they wanted and exploited their lands for their own gains.
3) Conquered territories were not exploited economically.
4) Allied bombing

Question 21

How many died as a result of the attack on Hamburg in 1943?

Answer 21

30,000.

Question 22

How many people died from the Dresden bombings in 1945?

Answer 22

30,000-40,000

Question 23

Impact of bombing?

Answer 23

• Economic production figures didn’t slow down.

- Stopped them from reaching their full economic potential?

Question 24

What group followed the army and rounded up Jews? Give an example of what they did.

Answer 24

SS Einsatzgruppen

- 33,771 Jews killed in 2 days at Babi Yar.

Question 25

When was the first ghetto established and where?

Answer 25

1940 in Lodz, Poland.

Question 26

When was the ‘final solution’ believed to have been decided?

Answer 26

At the Wannsee Conference in 1942.

Question 27

Give 3 examples of death camps set up by the Germans

Answer 27

Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor.

Question 28

How many Jews were killed by the Nazis?

Answer 28

6,000,000+

Question 29

What were the consequences of the established ghettos?

Answer 29

• Food was in short supply = malnutrition.
• Disease such as typhus and TB was rampant.
• Heating limited = death during harsh Polish winters.

Question 30

Of the 3 million Jews that were alive at the start of the war, how many were believed to have survived?

Answer 30

Only 4000

Question 31

What other groups did the Nazis exterminate apart from the Jews?

Answer 31

Gypsises, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, political opponents.

Question 32

How did the war affect workers?

Answer 32

• Always in high demand, especially from 1942 onwards.
• Working hours increased from 52 hours (1940) to 60in 1944.
• Due to conscription, foreign workers were mobilised to work.

Question 33

How did the war affect the peasantry?

Answer 33

• Young men conscripted, creating shortage of agriculture labour.
• Peasants were transported from Eastern Europe.
• Largely self-sufficient and did not suffer the same toll of bombs as cities did.

Question 34

How did the war affect women?

Answer 34

• Less incentive to work as wives of conscripted soldiers received benefits.
• Conscription for women aged 17-45 introduced in 1943.
  = exemptions however.
• Nazi’s caught in contradictions of their own ideology in theory and practical necessity.
• By 1945, nearly 60% of workers were women.

Question 35

How did the war affect youth?

Answer 35

• Decline in education and academic standards.
  ; Exams ceased in 1943, teaching in school petered out by 1944.
• HJ imposed a particular focus on militarism.
• Age of military service 17 in 1943 and 16 in 1945.
• Militarism polarised youth; creating groups like Edelweiss Pirates who were hanged in Cologne.

Question 36

What did an SD report after the news of the defeat at Stalingrad had became public knowledge?

Answer 36

• Vulgar jokes had increased massively against Fuhrer.

Question 37

How did the Communists oppose the Nazis during the war?

Answer 37

• Operated underground after it became illegal.
• e.g. Home Front in Hamburg.
• Most famous was the Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) - a spy network operating within the government.
  = destroyed in 1942.

Question 38

Why did German communists fail?

Answer 38

1) Took orders from Stalin and were tainted by Stalin’s party purges.
2) Compromised by Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939-41.
3) Resistance groups still massively isolated even when war started.

Question 39

Give 2 examples of Christian opposition to the Nazis?

Answer 39

1) Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
- always opposed Nazis
- got into contact with Kreisau Circle after being banned from preaching; helped Jews emigrate
- picked up by Gestapo in 1943.

2) Bishop von Galen of Munster:
- nationalist, anti-communist.
- delivered sermons against the Nazi euthanasia programme in 1941 = programme stopped and he wasn’t arrested

Question 40

What did the White Rose group do?

Answer 40

• Student group who opposed the Nazis.
• Led by brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl.
• Started in Munich Uni but spread to many towns
• Condemned Nazism and its doings.
• All leaders were executed.

Question 41

What was the Kreisau Circle?

Answer 41

An opposition group made up of conservative elites who met at the estate of Helmuth von Moltke.

Question 42

When was the Stauffenberg Plot, and what was it?

Answer 42

• A bomb plot of July 1944.
• Army officers such as Beck and Tresckow schemed to assassinate Hitler.
• Briefcase moved moments before it went off, leaving Hitler with only minor injuries.
• The Generals in Berlin hesitated, allowing the Nazis to re-establish order.
  = 5000 supporters of the resistance were killed in the aftermath.

Question 43

Why did the elites fail?

Answer 43

1) Only recognised resistance in late 30s, early 40s. By then, Nazism was too well established.
2) Army tied by Oath to Hitler.
3) Other elites blinded by early German victories.
4) Many elites didn’t want to co-operate even when it was evident Germany were going to lose.
5) Planning and organisation fraught.