Tools of control:Terror

Question 1

What did the Nazis use to enforce terror?

Answer 1

Courts
The SS
The Gestapo
Concentration camps

Question 2

Why were courts significant?

Answer 2

They enabled the regime to remove its opponents while giving the appearance of legality to Nazi actions

Question 3

How did the Nazis control courts so they created terror?

Answer 3

Judges instructed to issue harsher sentences (hoped this would discourage others)
New laws regarding political offences were brought in
Judges who didn’t carry out Nazi wishes were removed
Senior court officials were replaced by Nazis
Meant it was increasingly difficult for opponents of the regime to receive fair trial

Question 4

Who was Heinrich Himmler?

Answer 4

Head of the SS
Put in charge of concentration camps after Night of Long Knives
1936 in charge of Gestapo

Question 5

Why was the SS crucial in upholding the regime?

Answer 5

It was a key part of the police state
It played a leading role in terror by its role in running concentration camps and its power of arrest and detention of people in ‘protective custody’ even if they had served official sentences

Question 6

What did the SS include?

Answer 6

The Waffen-SS

The SS-Totenkopfverbände

Question 7

What was the SS-Totenkopfverbände?

Answer 7

Death’s Head Units
Ran the concentration camps
Young peasants recruited to treat inmates cruelly

Question 8

What was the Waffen-SS ?

Answer 8

An armed military unit that played an increasing role in WW2

Question 9

What were the roles of the SS?

Answer 9

Included policing, intelligence gathering, security, ideology, race, economy and some military issues

Question 10

What were the SS responsible for?

Answer 10

The creation of the ‘New Order’
Resettling ethnic Germans from conquered territories
The elimination of groups eg Jews and Gypsies

Question 11

What happened to all police and security organisations by 1939?

Answer 11

All police + security organisations had been combined under the Reich Security Office (RSHA)

Question 12

What was included in the RSHA?

Answer 12

Kripo: the criminal police who were responsible for maintaining law + order
Gestapo
SD = the Party Security Agency
SIPO = State security

Question 13

What was the reason that the power of the SS expanded and developed?

Answer 13

The war and conquer of land in 1939 and the creation of the New Order that the Nazis imposed on occupied Europe

Question 14

What were the main aims and functions of policing in Germany up to 1939?

Answer 14

Intelligence gathering
Policing
Discipline
Military

Question 15

How did the policing achieve their aim/function of intelligence gathering?

Answer 15

Created the SD (led by Heydrich) in 1931 as a special security service to act as the party’s own internal security police
It gathered information on people the Nazis considered as a threat

Question 16

How did the policing achieve their aim/function of policing?

Answer 16

the Kripo dealt with general law + order
Volksgemeinschaft excluded those who were ‘socially unfit’
The Gestapo was the key policing organisation-detained people without trial, used public denunciations to gather info on opponents

Question 17

How did the policing achieve their aim/function of discipline?

Answer 17

SS were responsible for punishing those who opposed the Nazis through repression + torture

Question 18

How did the policing achieve their aim/function of military?

Answer 18

Created the Waffen-SS as the armed wing of the SS

Took the best soldiers + prepared them for war

Question 19

Who were the Gestapo?

Answer 19

The State Secret Police

Small organisation with 20,000 to 40,000 agents

Many were little more than office workers, relied on informers and block wardens for info

Question 20

What was the role of the Gestapo?

Answer 20

To find opponents of the Nazis and arrest them

People arrested could be sent to concentration camps without trial

Question 21

What point could you argue for the gestapo not being effective/ terror?

Answer 21

Only a small organisation
Given this numerical weakness it appears unlikely that they were able to impose a regime of terror, even if fear of them acted as a powerful deterrent

Question 22

CV-Gestapo was effective?

Answer 22

However, a study of the Rhineland has suggested that it focused on specific enemies, such as socialists and the Jews, with the majority of the population accepting this persecution in return for being left alone

Question 23

What were concentration camps used for?

Answer 23

To question, torture, re-educate and inflict hard labour on so-called enemies of the state

Question 24

How many were housed in concentration camps when Himmler took over them?

Answer 24

In 1934, they held only 3000 inmates

Question 25

From 1936 until the outbreak of war, who did concentration camps house?

Answer 25

Those who didn’t fit into the Nazi ideal

eg asocials, beggars, gypsies and long-term unemployed people

Question 26

What was life like in the Concentration camps?

Answer 26

Brutal
woken at 4 in the morning + hard manual labour
Had to stand to attention in bitter cold for hours on end at end of the day
beaten with canes/dog whipped, sent to solitary confinement

Question 27

How many inmates were there by 1939?

Answer 27

21,000

Question 28

What happened to concentration camps during the war?

Answer 28

Expanded greatly, by 1945 there were 714,211 inmates
More foreigners sent to camps
In Poland from 1942 onwards they were used to exterminate Jews on a large scale

Question 29

Reasons that terror was effective in keeping the Nazis in power?

Answer 29

Major factor in consolidating power as it dealt with political opposition, could then move onto dealing with enemies of the National Community

Despite there only being a few Gestapo agents and only 6 camps, they cast a threat and shadow over the population + acted as a warning to people because of their reputation

Question 30

Reasons that terror was ineffective in keeping the Nazis in power?

Answer 30

Still faced opposition/resistance eg White rose group

Not completely successful, some groups could block out Nazi policies eg Christians

Not just terror, other factors kept the Nazis in power eg full employment, foreign policy success, national unity led to popularity