social policy and practise in Nazi germany C8

Question 1

how did the Nazis control schools

Answer 1

• teachers had to join the German teachers league and teach what the Nazis wanted, or be sacked
• every subject was used to put forward Nazi propaganda and beliefs. in history they were taught how badly Germany was treated in the first world war
• textbooks were rewritten to present Nazi beliefs as facts
• race studies was taught. students were taught that the Aryan race was superior to the others
• PE became very important to prepare boys for the army

Question 2

how did the Nazis control universities

Answer 2

• had to change their courses to reflect what the Nazis believed
• top uni professors were hand-picked by the Nazis
• many lecturers were sacked, either for racial or political reasons, by 1939 over 3000 had been dismissed
• all students had to train as soldiers for a month a year

Question 3

describe the timeline for the Hitler youth

Answer 3

• 1922- Hitler youth founded
• 1933- all other youth groups banned, of 7.5 million members, 2.3 million were aged 10-18
• 1939- membership made compulsory. of 8.8 million members, 7.2 million were aged 10-18

Question 4

how did the Nazis control German boys lives

Answer 4

• boys went to Hitler youth meetings several times a week after school, and to special weekend camps every month
• they learned how to march, fight with knives, fire a gun and keep fit
• activities were based on competition, struggle, heroism and leadership
• the Nazis wanted to prepare the boys for their future roles as soldiers

Question 5

how did the Nazis control German girls lives

Answer 5

• for girls the emphasis was on how to keep fit, cook good meals and care for babies, to prepare for motherhood
• they also went of though marches and attended weekend camps

Question 6

how did the Nazis control German women’s lives

Answer 6

• the Nazis were worried about the declining number of births, they felt that a low birth rate and a smaller population didn’t fit with their plans to expand Germany’s territory and settle Germans in other areas of Europe
• the Nazis felt it was a women’s patriotic duty to stay at home, have lots of children and support their husbands
• women should stick to the 3 Ks ‘Kinder, Kirche and Kuche’ ( children, church and cooking )

Question 7

what were women’s lives like in Weimar Germany

Answer 7

• in the 1920’s German women had many rights and freedoms that women in other countries did not have, they could vote and if they worked for the government their pay was equal to men
• many women attended university and became lawyers and doctors
• the birth rate fell as more women worked, in 1900 their had been over 2 million births per year, in 1933 their were under 1 million

Question 8

what were the 5 Nazi policies against women

Answer 8

• work
• behaviour
• organisations
• sterilisation
• family

Question 9

what was the Nazi work policy towards women

Answer 9

• many female doctors, teachers, layers and judges were sacked
• working was discouraged as it might hinder producing children

Question 10

what was the Nazi behaviour policy towards women

Answer 10

• in many cities, women were banned from smoking because it was ‘unladylike’
• wearing trousers or high heels was also frowned upon for the same reason
• slimming was also discouraged because it might make it harder to get pregnant

Question 11

what was the Nazi organisations policy towards women

Answer 11

• the German women’s league coordinated all adult women’s groups, and representatives travelled around giving advice on cooking, childcare and diet
• the Nazi women’s organisation was an elite female group dedicated to Nazi beliefs and ideas

Question 12

what was the Nazi sterilisation policy towards women

Answer 12

• the Nazis thought that some women were infit to be mothers
• the ‘law for prevention of diseased offspring’ allowed forcible sterilisation of women with a history of mental illness hereditary diseases or antisocial behaviour

Question 13

what was the Nazi family policy towards women

Answer 13

• contraception and abortion were banned
• generous loans were given to newly married couples to encourage them to have children
• the motherhood medal was awarded to women with the most children
• mothers with 8 children received the ‘gold cross’

Question 14

what were the impacts of the policies towards women

Answer 14

• thousands of women were prevented from following their chosen career path
• the birth rate increased, around 970,000 babies were born in 1933, rising to 1,413,000 by 1939
• when the second world war started in 1939, their was a labour shortage as men were joining the army. thousands of women were needed to work in factories for the war effort, taking on the joint role of main wage earner and mother, unlike in Britain where women were still not called up to work

Question 15

who were German Christians

Answer 15

• there were 2 main Christian groups in Germany
• around 20 million were Catholics
• around 40 million were protestants
• traditional Christianity did not prosper under German rule

Question 16

describe the beliefs of Nazism

Answer 16

• Nazis thought strength and violence were glorious
• hated the weak and vulnerable
• believed some races were superior to others
• Hitler was a god like figure

Question 17

describe the beliefs of Christianity

Answer 17

• most Christians believe in love and forgiveness
• help the weak and vulnerable
• believe all people are equal in Gods eyes
• believe in God and the teachings of Jesus Christ

Question 18

why did some Christians support the Nazis

Answer 18

• the Nazis believed in the importance of marriage, the family and moral values, so did Christians
• Hitler had sworn to destroy communism, this appealed to Christians because communism was anti-religious
• Hitler promised to respect the church

Question 19

describe what happened with the Nazis and the Catholic church

Answer 19

• Hitler cooperated with catholic leaders at first, a 1933 concordant with the pope said that the catholic church and Nazis would not interfere with each other
• Hitler soon broke this agreement, catholic priests were harassed and arrested and catholic youth clubs and schools were closed down
• in 1937 the pope issued his ‘with burning anxiety’ statement, read out in catholic churches across Germany. this said that Nazis were ‘hostile to Christ and his church’
• the Nazis continued to persecute catholic priests
• in August 1941, catholic archbishop Galen ( one of Germany’s best known religious leaders) openly criticised the Nazis, he was put under house arrest until the end of the war

Question 20

what happened to the protestants who admired Hitler

Answer 20

• they were known as the ‘German Christians’, who wanted to see their church under Nazi control
• their leader, Ludwig muller, became the first ‘Reich Bishop’ of the German Christians in September 1933
• they often wore Nazi uniforms and used the slogan ‘the swastika on our chests and the cross in our hearts’

Question 21

what happened to the protestants who were opposed to the Nazis

Answer 21

• some protestants were totally opposed to the Nazis, pastor Martin Niemoller formed the confessional church, which openly criticised the Nazis
• the Nazis arrested around 800 pastors of the confessional church
• Nielmoller was sent to a concentration camp and the confessional church was banned

Question 22

what were the other religious groups in Nazi Germany

Answer 22

• Jehovah’s Witnesses were pacifists who refused to serve in the army, one third of Germanys Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in concentration camps
• members of other groups - the salvation army, Christian scientists and the seventh day Adventist church - were also persecuted
• Jewish people suffered relentless persecution in Nazi Germany

Question 23

what was Hitlers racial policy and persicution

Answer 23

• Hitler believed that Germans were the superior ‘master race’ - Aryans - with the right to dominate inferior races and groups of people, he feared that such groups would mix with Aryans and wanted to rid Germany of them, he had a particular obsessive hatred of Jews

Question 24

describe Hitlers persecution of racial groups

Answer 24

• the Nazis classed Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, black Indian people as inferior
• Hitler wanted to cleanse Germany of these people
• the Nazis began to persecute and, later, murder members of these groups
• over half a million Gypsies and over 6 million Jews from across Europe dies in death camps in the years up to 1945

Question 25

describe Hitlers persecution of ‘undesirables’

Answer 25

• ‘undesirables’ was Hitlers term for people with mental and physical disabilities and those who did not, in his view, contribute to society
• he believed they weakened Germany and he wanted to get rid of them to strengthen the nation
• around 350,000 physically and mentally disabled people were forcibly sterilised by the Nazis , from 1939, the Nazis began to kill them. about 200,000 people including 5000 children, were murdered in specially built ‘nursing homes’
• around half a million homeless people, beggars and alcoholics were sent to concentration camps in 1933. many were worked to death. thousands of prostitutes, homosexuals and ‘problem’ families were sent to the camps to

Question 26

what were the 5 early Nazi polices against Jews

Answer 26

• shops
• school
• laws
• work
• Kristallnacht

Question 27

how were shops an early Nazi policy against Jews

Answer 27

• from January 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with a yellow star of David or the word Juden ( German word for Jew) soldiers stood outside shops turning people away

Question 28

how were schools an early Nazi policy against Jews

Answer 28

• Jewish children were forced out of German state schools and ‘Eugenics’ (race studies) was introduced in schools

Question 29

how were laws an early Nazi policy against Jews

Answer 29

• the Nuremburg laws on 1935 banned marriages between jews and non-jews
• German citizenship was also removed

Question 30

how was work an early Nazi policy against Jews

Answer 30

• from march 1933, all Jewish lawyers, judges and teachers and doctors were sacked

Question 31

how was Kristallnacht an early Nazi policy against Jews

Answer 31

• in November 1938 Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses were attacked all over Germany and Austria
  about 100 Jews were killed and 20,000 sent to concentration camps

Question 32

what was the journey of the ‘final solution’

Answer 32

• when war broke out in 1939 the persecution of Jews intensified
• Jews were rounded up in some of the countries under Nazi occupation and forced to live in ghettos in major cities, or sent to work in labour camps
• execution squads went out into the countryside and shot or gassed Jews

Question 33

what were death camps

Answer 33

• at the Wannsee conference in 1942, Nazi leaders planned what they called a ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question: the mass murder of every Jew in Nazi controlled territory
• Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS oversaw the ‘final solution’
• 6 death camps were to be built, they contained gas chambers to carry out the murders, and large crematoriums to bun the bodies
• Jews from all over German-occupied Europe were transported to these camps, in total around 6 million were killed
• the Nazis’ attempt to wipe out the Jewish race is called the holocaust
• thousands of Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, the disabled and any other groups whom the Nazis considered unfit to live were also killed in the camps

Question 34

what was the Jewish resistance

Answer 34

• some Jews fought back, they formed resistance groups, attacked German soldiers and blew up railway lines that Germans were using
• in some ghettos there was resistance - the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943 lasted 43 days
• there were occasional rebellions in death camps, in Treblinka camp in 1943, 15 guards were killed and 150 prisoners escaped