the 'terror state' Flashcards
What was Hitler determined that the Nazi regime wouldn’t be bound by?
The law and legal systems.
Why was Hitler’s word seen as law?
He was a ‘man of destiny’ who’d been chosen to lead the Third Reich Germany and express the will of the people.
What did the Nazis do instead of drawing up a completely new constitution and legal system?
They introduced new laws to deal with political offences and forced the existing justice system to adapt.
How did Nazis ensure that political opponents were dealt with?
They introduced new courts and police organisations.
How had the Nazis changed the legal principles of German law that had been applied in Weimar Germany?
Citizens were no longer equal before the law.
Judges were not allowed to operate independently of the government.
Individuals could be arrested and imprisoned without trial and evidence.
How were the police forces ran in Weimar Germany?
By individual state authorities.
How did the Nazis adapt the way the police forces were controlled and what did this gradually do?
They kept the separate police forces but established a party-controlled, political police force answerable to Hitler.
This meant the Nazis gradually gained control over the entire police system.
What were the types of police forces that existed?
- The SS
- The SD
- The SA
- The Gestapo
Who controlled the SS?
Heinrich Himmler.
What were the SD?
An intelligence gathering offshoot of the SS.
Who controlled the SA in 1933 and what powers did they acquire?
Ernst Rohm.
Acquired police powers to arrest and detain political prisoners.
What was the Gestapo and who was in charge of it?
The secret State police force in Prussia.
Goering was the Minister-President
Why was there tension between Himmler, Rohm and Goering between 1933 and 1936?
They were fighting for control over the police.
How was Himmler’s power strengthened in 1934?
By the Night of the Long Knives in which Rohm was eliminated and the SA’s power was released.
How was the issue of the fight for control over the police force partially resolved in 1936?
When the SS, SD and Gestapo were placed under Himmler’s command.
How was Himmler’s victory of the police force secured in 1939?
Through the creation of the Reich Security Department Headquarters (RHSA), which placed all party and State police organisations under control of one organisation supervised by the SS.
What happened to the SS once the Nazis came to power and after the Night of the Long Knives?
It became the leading Nazi Party organisation involved in the arrest of political prisoners.
What did the SS control by 1936?
The entire Third Reich police system and the concentration camps.
How did Himmler intend the SS to be?
Strictly disciplined, racially pure and unquestioningly obedient.
What were the key values of an SS member?
Loyalty and honour, defined in the terms of commitment to Nazi ideology.
What did the increase of concentration camp inmates in 1936 show?
That there was a tightening of control and repression from the SS.
How did the SS and SA differ in the way that they operated?
The SA engaged in violence and terror, but the SS was much more systematical.
Violence and murder were instruments of State power, to be employed ruthlessly.
What had happened to SS concentration camp guards?
They’d been deliberately brutalised to remove any feelings of humanity they might feel towards their prisoners.
What were concentration camps?
They were prisons in which inmates were forced to work.
When and where was the first concentration camp set up?
At Dachau, near Munich, in 1933.
How many temporary camps had there been in 1933?
Around 70.
Who were the majority of prisoners in the early months of the concentration camps?
Communists, socialists and trade unionists.
How many prisoners in concentration camps were there in May 1934, and why had this declined?
1/4 of the number there’d been the previous year.
This was due to many of the temporary camps being closed down.
Why had many concentration camp prisoners been released?
The torture and brutality that they’d suffered was enough to render most unwilling to resist the Nazis again.
What happened once the concentration camps had come under control of the SS in 1934?
The treatment of the prisoners became systemised, seeing an increase in violence and brutality within them.
Who did the Nazis target after the communists and socialists had been crushed by 1936?
The concentration camp regime turned towards dealing with ‘undesirables’, as they tried to purify the race.
Why had increased violence in concentration camps been validated by the Nazis?
Himmler had given camp guards immunity from prosecution.
When and why was the SD established?
In 1931 as an internal security service of the Nazi Party.
What was the SD set up to investigate?
Claims that the party had been infiltrated by political enemies.
Who led the SD?
Reinhard Heydrich.
What was the SD’s role after 1933?
Intelligence gathering.
What was an important role of the SD?
To monitor public opinion and report back to Hitler.
They’d investigate to who voted ‘no’ in plebiscites.
How many officers did the SD have by 1939 and what did this show?
50,000.
This showed how important its role was considered to be and the success of Heydrich in establishing his own power base.
How did the SD and Gestapo differ?
The Gestapo was a State organisation where as the SD was a Nazi Party organistation.
What were the Gestapo?
Secret State Police.
Where was the Gestapo originally set up?
Just in Prussia, but under the Nazis their operations were extended to the entirety of Germany.
What reputation did the Gestapo gain?
One for being all-knowing. Germans believed that they were everywhere and so adjusted their behaviour accordingly.
How many officers did the Gestapo have?
Only 20,000 in 1939, which were to cover the entire country.
In reality, it was a relatively small organisation.
Who worked in the Gestapo?
They were generally not Nazi Party members but professional police officers who saw it as their duty to serve the State.
How did the Gestapo gather their information?
Through the information supplied by informers.
These were people such as Nazi activists who’d been asked to spy upon their neighbours and workmates, but most were people voluntarily giving information out of spite.
