The ‘Terror State’

Question 1

What is a totalitarian state?

Answer 1

One where there is total obedience to the state/leader

Question 2

What is a ‘terror state’?

Answer 2

A state where everyone is living in fear

Question 3

Who overall controlled the police system in the Third Reich and what were the main factions?

Answer 3

Himmler
Main factions: SS, SD and Gestapo

Question 4

What was the SS, what did it do and when was it expanded?

Answer 4

Main Nazi organisation involved in identifying and arresting political prisoners
. Its role expanded after the NOTLK

Question 5

How powerful were the SS by 1936?

Answer 5

. Full control over police system
. Tightened their control
. Increased repression
. There were more concentration camps than ever, showing how brutal the SS were

Question 6

What were Himmler’s intentions for the SS members as chief of German police?

Answer 6

. Strictly disciplined members
. Racially ‘pure’
. Unquestionably obedient

Question 7

How did the SS operate more systematically than the SA’s street brawls?

Answer 7

. Actions of violence and murder were up to the state powers decision and were carried out without any reference to moral standards (brutal)
. The SS concentration camp guards were brutalised so they didn’t feel any sympathy towards prisoners and they wouldn’t move out of line out of fear of being brutalised further (more evidence for ‘terror state’)

Question 8

When was the SD created?

Answer 8

1931

Question 9

How did the role of the SD develop?

Answer 9

. Initially just an internal security service of Nazi party
. By 1933, it became an intelligence gathering system

Question 10

Why was the SD set up?

Answer 10

To investigate claims over the Nazi Party being threatened/infiltrated by political enemies

Question 11

How did the SD gather out its intelligence gathering role from 1933?

Answer 11

. Monitored public opinion
. Identified ‘no’ voters in plebiscites (small elections)

This information was reported back to Hitler

Question 12

How important was the SD and how is this seen?

Answer 12

Had an important role in the Nazi Party as it reached 50,000 officers by 1939
- clearly the Nazi’s felt they needed to completely disintegrate political enemies, and such a large membership contributes to the idea of living in fear

Question 13

How was the SD different to the Gestapo?

Answer 13

. SD staffed by amateurs committed to Nazis but Gestapo were professional police officers
. Gestapo was a state organisation but SD was working closer to Nazis

This meant they caused overlap and confusion as they were independent of each other while carrying out similar roles

Question 14

How did the Nazis develop the Gestapo initially?

Answer 14

Extended its operations from only Prussia to all of Germany

Question 15

What was the belief vs reality of the Gestapo in the eyes of ordinary Germans?

Answer 15

Belief: Gestapo agents were in every pub, workplace and gained a reputation of being all knowing

Reality: in 1939, there were only 20k officers for the whole country, it was a small organisation

However, as the Gestapo still caused the ordinary Germans to live in fear, this myth about the Gestapo helped the Nazis establish a terror state without needing extreme membership in the Gestapo

Question 16

What is the truth about the agents of the Gestapo?

Answer 16

. They weren’t typically Nazi members
. Their work was more office-based, relying on informers to do field/investigative work
. They were really professional police with a role to serve the State

Question 17

How did the Gestapo get their information?

Answer 17

. Nazi party activists were asked to spy on workmates and neighbours
. There was a ‘block leader’ in every block of flats and residential street that would resort suspicious activity.
. Voluntary denunciations from ordinary Germans

Question 18

How was it clear that there were too many alleged crimes for the Gestapo to deal with?

Answer 18

They increasingly used arbitrary arrest (without reason) and protective custody

Question 19

What was the main reason for voluntary denunciations to the Gestapo?

Answer 19

To settle personal grudges, not because of political commitment

Question 20

How did the Gestapo impact ordinary German people?

Answer 20

. Instilled fear and suspicion despite small size
. The Nuremberg Laws of 1926 worked to get more Jews in concentration camps as ordinary Germans denounced the Jewish people to divert suspicion from themselves
. Political debate and criticism of the Nazi party went away out of fear
. Myth that Gestapo were everywhere forced people in line with Nazi principles

Question 21

How is torture methods of Gestapo seen with Richard Krebs (communist)?

Answer 21

Arrested by the Gestapo and wrote about his conditions under arrest:
. Whipped and beaten for several weeks while being questioned
. Chained to a cot in his cell, couldn’t wash
. His wife was arrested as a threat which made him give in info

Question 22

After Richard Krebs agreed to provide info to Gestapo, what did he actually do?

Answer 22

Became a double-dealer, secretly providing the communists with Nazi info

Question 23

Who was Jacques Delarue and what were his views on the Gestapo?

Answer 23

Member of the French resistance
- made the Gestapo seem like they were in complete control of German society using effective methods to terrorise citizens
- he chose this view as he wanted the French resistance to seem less weak by portraying Germany as an almost indestructible force

Question 24

What was the true average size of the Gestapo from 1934 onwards?

Answer 24

Around 32,000 in a 65 million population
= around 1 Gestapo for 2000 people (not significant control)

Question 25

What did a Whittenburg survey show on where cases to the Gestapo came from?

Answer 25

57% cases were voluntary denunciations
0.5% were observations by Gestapo agents

Question 26

What was the problem with ordinary citizens voluntarily denouncing to the Gestapo to move suspicion away from them or settle personal grudges?

Answer 26

The denunciations were taken extremely seriously by the Gestapo as the brutality was certainly there

Question 27

Which part of the Gestapo’s methods isn’t extremely exaggerated?

Answer 27

The brutality and torture methods:
. Murder
. Beatings
. Press censorship
. Dismissal from jobs
. Execution
. Concentration camps

Question 28

How was the state of the January 1933 justice system against the Nazis?

Answer 28

. Few judges and lawyers were part of Nazi party, and many were conservative
. Lawyers and judges couldn’t be politically interfered with, they had to be put into line

Question 29

What was the Nazis problem with judges and lawyers being free from political interference?

Answer 29

Meant SS and SA activities were illegal and prosecutions against stormtroopers started to happen as judges wanted to uphold law
- Hitler was annoyed that only one defendant in the Reichstag Fire case in Supreme Court was punished

Question 30

How did Hitler ‘coordinate’ the justice system?

Answer 30

. Nazi regime dismissed some judges and state prosecutors
. April 1933: League of National socialist lawyers and various professional associations of judges and lawyers merged into the Front of German Law
. New courts introduced

Question 31

How were the professional associations of lawyers and judges in the Front of German Law threatened?

Answer 31

Their career prospects depended on doing the Nazi regimes bidding

Question 32

What two new courts did the Nazis introduce and when?

Answer 32

. 1933: Special Courts
. April 1934: People’s courts

Question 33

How did the Nazi’s new courts help them solidify the ‘terror state’?

Answer 33

. Dealt with political crimes in a biased manner
- 3 Nazi ‘judges’ and two professional judges
. No juries
. Defendants had no rights to appeal against sentences

There was basically no point in appealing to a trial

Question 34

Who were most likely to be tried by the People’s courts?

Answer 34

Former communists and socialists

Question 35

How did the role of concentration camps change through the Third Reich?

Answer 35

At the start, used to house political prisoners
Later housed asocials (people that didn’t fit into the Third Reich)

Question 36

How did the Nazis overall change the justice system to establish a terror state?

Answer 36

. Made sure the system had no power to interfere with Nazi terror
. Old court system still existed and many non-Nazi judges kept judges, but their careers were dependent on how well they served the Nazi regime

Question 37

How was the brutality of the People’s courts seen from 1934-39?

Answer 37

Around 3400 people were tried, and most were given the death penalty