The Police State Flashcards
Describe the Features of the Police State
-The German State which Hitler create after 1933 was a police state.
-This was a state in which the Nazi government used the police, often the secret police, to control what people did and what they said.
-People who did or said anything to harm the state or the Nazi party were punished. The police state was a means of keeping control.
Describe the Development of the Police State
-When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Germany already had a police force. It was controlled by the central government, but run by local authorities in German states and towns.
-In January 1933, Hitler’s control of government was still weak, so he realised that his control of the police state was also weak. Hitler therefore set up his own police and security forces.
-These were not run by the government. They were run by the Nazi Party and accountable to Hitler. Their role was to protect and support the Nazi Party.
Describe the Structure of the Police State
-The SS (Protection Squad) was led by Heinrich Himmler. They wore black uniforms. By 1936, the SS controlled all of Germany’s police and security forces.
-The SD (Security Service) was led by Reinhard Heydrich. They were uniformed. They spied on all known opponents and critics of the Nazi Party and the government.
-The Gestapo (Secret State Police) was led by Reinhard Heydrich. They had no uniforms. They prosecuted anyone who said or did anything critical of the Nazis.
-The Gestapo relied mainly on informants and were feared by the general public.
Describe the Role of the SS (Schutzstaffel or Protection Squad)
-The SS was originally a military group of 240 men, set up in 1925 as a personal bodyguard for Hitler. From 1929, it was run by Heinrich Himmler.
-In 1932, it was given its famous black uniforms, to distinguish it from the ‘brownshirts’- the stormtroopers of the SA.
-In the early 1930s, the main role of the SS was as the Nazi Party’s own private police force. They were totally loyal to Hitler and Himmler.
-It was the SS who warned Hitler about Rohm in 1934 and Hitler used SS officers to murder SA leaders during the Night of the Long Knives.
Describe the Membership of the SS
-During the 1930s, the SS was expanded to 240,000 men and put in charge of all other police and security services.
-Himmler did not believe that the SS were obliged to act within the law.
-Himmler was very particular about recruitment to the SS.
-He wanted examples of perfect German manhood; they were expected to marry ‘racially pure’ wives to create ‘racially pure’ Germans for the future.
Describe the Role of the SD (Security Force)
-The SD was originally formed in 1931 by Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, as a security force for the Nazi Party to monitor its opponents. He made Reinhard Heinrich its leader.
-The SD kept a card index with details of everyone it suspected of opposing the Nazi Party or the German government at home or abroad.
-These were not kept at any government building, but at Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Munich.
Describe the Role of the Gestapo (Secret State Police)
-The Gestapo was Hitler’s non-uniformed secret police force. They were set up in 1933 by Hermann Goering. However, in 1934, it was placed under SS control and in 1936, Heydrich became its leader.
-The main aim of the Gestapo was to identify anyone who criticised or opposed the Nazi government. They spied on people, tapped their phones and used networks of informants to identify suspects.
-In 1939 alone, 160,000 people were arrested for political offences. The Gestapo were officially given permission to use torture when questioning suspects or gaining confessions.
Explain how the Gestapo Used Fear to Control the German People
-Germans particularly feared the Gestapo because they could not tell them apart from other members of society.
-The gestapo often arrived early in the morning to take suspects away, offenders could be imprisoned without trial and many families received letters saying their relatives had died in custody.
-Many were sent to concentration camps, which were large prisons with often inhumane conditions.
-When rumours leaked about conditions in the concentration camps, fear of the Gestapo grew even more.
Describe the Membership of the Gestapo
-Arguably, fear of Hitler’s police forces was even more powerful than the police force themselves.
-Germans particularly feared the Gestapo because they could not tell them apart from other members of society.
-There were never more than 30,000 Gestapo to police a population of about 80 million.
-In some large towns, such as Hamburg, there were fewer than 50 officers, and most of these were clerical staff.
Describe the Role of Concentration Camps
-By 1939, 150,000 people were ‘under protective arrest’ in prisons. This means they had not committed criminal acts such as stealing.
-Instead, they were locked up for doing things that the Nazis disapproved of, such as voicing views opposed to Hitler and the Nazis.
-To cope with the growing number of people who were arrested, new prisons were created, which were run by the SA and the SS- concentration camps.
Describe the Development of Concentration Camps
-The first Nazi concentration camp was opened at Dachau in 1933. later that year, the first camp for women was opened at Moringen.
-Camps were located in isolated areas, away from cities and public gaze.
-‘Undesirables’ such as prostitutes or homosexuals were inmates there. Minority groups, such as Jews, of whom the Nazis disapproved, were also kept in concentration camps.
-The camps also housed political prisoners- people whom the Nazis feared would undermine their control of Germany, including intellectuals, communists or political writers.
Describe Hitler’s Control Over Judges
-Hitler set up the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law.
-He insisted that all judges must be members If any judges displeased the Nazis, they were denied membership. This way, Hitler could ensure that all judges would support Nazis ideas.
-Judges were instructed that in any conflict between the interests of the Nazi Party and the law, the interests of the Nazi Party were more important.
Describe Hitler’s Control Over Courts
-Hitler abolished trial by jury. Judges decided innocence, guilt and punishments.
-Hitler set up a new People’s Court, to hear all cases of treason. Judges for this court were hand picked and trials were held in secret. Hitler sometimes imposed sentences himself.
-There was no right to appeal against the verdict of the People’s Court.
-Between 1934 and 1939, 534 people were sentenced to death for political offences. Between 1930 and 1932, only eight people had been sentenced to death in this manner.
Describe the Problem of the Catholic Church
-One third of Germany’s Christians were Catholic. There were obvious sources of friction between Catholicism and Nazism.
-On social issues, Catholics owed their first allegiance to the Pope, rather than Hitler.
-Catholics also had their own schools, which taught values different from Nazi state schools.
Describe Hitler’s Agreement with the Catholic Church
-Trying, at first, to reach an agreement with the Catholic Church, in July 1933, Hitler reached a concordat with the Pope.
-Hitler agreed to confirm freedom of worship for Catholics and not interfere with Catholic schools in Germany.
-The Catholic Church agreed that its priests would not interfere in politics and ordered German bishops to swear loyalty to the National Socialist regime.
Describe the Breakdown of the Concordat
-Hitler did not keep his promise to the Catholic Church.
-Catholic priests were harassed and arrested. Around 400 were eventually imprisoned in the priests’ block at Dachau concentration camp.
-Catholic schools were brought in line with state schools or closed.
-Catholic youth activities, such as the Catholic Youth League, were banned.
-By 1937, Pope Pius XI realised that the concordat was worthless. He issued a stinging criticism of the Nazi regime in a statement known as ‘Mit Brenneder Sorge’ (‘With Burning Anxiety’).
Describe the Creation of the Reich Church
-At first, some Protestants were so grateful that Hitler had protected them from the anti-Christian Communists, that they worked with the Nazis.
-The Protestant churches which favoured working with the Nazis combined in 1936 to form a single Protestant church called the Reich Church.
-Its leader was Ludwig Muller. Hitler made Muller the Reich Bishop of Germany.
Describe the Agreements Made Through the Reich Church
-Protestant pastors who supported Hitler’s views were allowed to continue providing church services.
-Some Protestant pastors even allowed the Nazi swastika to be displayed in their churches.
-The Nazis insisted that Jews should not be baptised into the Reich Church and that the Jewish teachings in the Old Testament should be excluded from Christian teaching.
Describe Opposition From Protestant Churches
-Not all Protestants accepted the Nazi state. A few even spoke out against Hitler, The most famous of these was Pastor Martin Niemoller.
-In 1933, he was one of the Protestant pastors who set up the Pastors’ Emergency League (PEL) to campaign against Nazi actions.
-However, in 1937, Niemoller was sent to a concentration camp and the PEL was banned.
Describe the Extent to Which Hitler’s Police State was a Success
-Hitler tried at first to work with the Christian churches. However, he ended up in conflict with them and tried to make them conform to Nazi ideas.
-Just like the police and the courts, they became ‘Nazified’.
In all areas where Hitler tried to control Germans, there were some who opposed him.
-As a result of all this, Germany was gradually becoming a totalitarian state.
