World War Two Flashcards
What 3 stages were there to the war for Germany?
- Victory from 1939 to 1941
- Stalemate in 1942
- Defeat from 1943 to 1945
What victories did Germany experience from 1939 to 1941?
- They quickly conquered Poland, Belgium, Holland and France
- They forced the British army to retreat and leave France
- The first few months of the invasion of the USSR was successful
What tactic did the German army use to quickly invade countries, and how did it work?
- Blitzkrieg
- Areas would be bombed to damage the military as much as possible
- Tanks would then deal with any resistance left, and would be followed by the army
What happened in 1942?
- The Germans failed to make significant gains in Russia
What happened from 1943 to 1945?
- The German army faced big defeats in Russia
- In 1944 and 1945, Russian troops advanced from the east while British and American troops advanced from the west
- Germany had to surrender in May 1945
What were 3 key features of the Nazi government during the war?
- Administrative chaos
- The growing power of the SS
- Lawlessness and radicalisation
Why was there administrative chaos during the war?
- Hitler increasingly withdrew from daily administration as the war progressed
- The chaos that already existed in the government therefore worsened
Give 2 examples of chaos in the government during the war.
- Bormann used his power to refuse Göring and Goebbels access to Hitler
- Even in the last days of the war, Bormann and Goebbels used their influence over Hitler to turn him against Himmler and Göring
What were 4 reasons why the SS became more powerful during the war?
- It took over more of the government administration
- Its members increased from 240,000 in 1939 to over a million in 1944
- The SS took over the administration of occupied areas
- The SS built and ran death camps
Why was there increased lawlessness during the war? Give an example of this.
- The fact that the country was at war was used to justify actions with no legal basis
- Secrecy was increased
Give 2 examples of radicalisation during the war.
- The Final Solution (killing all of Europe’s Jews)
- The SS carried out a racial war against Poles, Slavic and Roma people
In what 2 ways was governmental control maintained during the war?
- Gauleiters were given additional powers
- The Nazis tried to set up some bodies to govern
List 3 extra powers given to Gauleiters during the war.
- They were given the role of Reich Defence Commissioners, which gave them more control over the people
- They ran the Home Front, including rationing and the Volkssturm (Home Guard)
- In 1944 they were given control over the local bureaucracy
Give an example of Nazis trying to set up bodies in order to govern the country effectively.
- The Committee of Three brought together senior figures from the government, the party and the army
What happened to the Committee of Three?
- Hitler himself limited its power as he disliked group meetings
Give 4 details on how the regime treated Poland once they had taken over it.
- The people were used for slave labour
- Polish leaders were shot so they would not become a focus for resistance
- There were Germanisation programmes
- Half a million ethnic Germans from the USSR and the Baltic states went to Western Poland, and Poles were deported east to make space for them
What were 2 reasons why people continued to support the Nazis throughout the war?
- The German army quickly conquered parts of Europe
- The Nazis ensured that there was enough food so that rations were big enough
What was the turning point in the war for Germany? What were 2 reasons why?
- Turning on the USSR
- When the Red Army did not lose as quickly as they had predicted, Germany had to fight a war on two fronts
- This was worsened even further when the USA joined the war in December 1941
What were 3 reasons why support for the Nazis decreased during the war?
- Defeats
- Living conditions deteriorated
- Allied bombing destroyed cities
Once Germany was losing the war, what were 5 aspects of life for regular Germans?
- Large numbers of boys as young as 16 were conscripted from 1944
- Rationing was introduced (before Germany had been taking food from occupied territories)
- Children were evacuated from cities
- Shops that did not contribute to the war effort were banned
- The myth that the army was invincible was starting to disappear, and resistance was starting to grow
How well could Nazi government function in 1945? Give 2 details.
- Central ministries had to leave Berlin due to bombing, which made it harder for them to do their job
- From April 1945, the destruction of roads and power supplies made it hard for different parts of the government to communicate
What did Hitler do towards the end of the war?
- After the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944 and started to move towards Berlin, he moved into his bunker along with trusted staff, Eva Braun and the Goebbels family
- He married Eva Braun on 30th April 1945, and they committed suicide on the same day
- Goebbels and his family committed suicide the following day (committing suicide to avoid capture by the Allies was common amongst the Nazis)
- Russian troops had control of Berlin soon after, which meant that the Nazi regime was over
What happened to the German government after Hitler’s death?
- He was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who attempted to negotiate peace with Britain and the USA
- However, the Allies continued to fight as they wanted an unconditional surrender
- Unconditional surrender was agreed to on 7th May 1945
What was the German economy like in 1939?
- It was very inefficient and unable to support a war
What happened as a result of the poor state of Germany’s economy from 1939 to 1941?
- In 1940 Germany was unable to replace the planes lost in the Battle of Britain, and therefore could not take Britain out of the war
How was it possible for the failures of the German economy in the early stages of the war to be overlooked?
- The Nazis were able to economically exploit the countries they had rapidly invaded
List 3 reasons why the German economy could not support a war in 1939.
- Chaotic nature of government
- Göring was unable to effectively control the economy
- Impossible nature of Nazi military plans
In what 2 ways did the polycratic government prevent the economy from working effectively?
- The Office of the Four Year Plan, the Ministry of Economics, the army, navy, airforce and War Ministry were all organising war production
- In 1940, Hitler appointed Fritz Todt as minister of arms and munitions (to organise war production)
- Todt needed centralised control and wanted to reorganise, but couldn’t force the other Nazis to accept this
What were 2 reasons why Göring couldn’t effectively control the economy?
- He held multiple important positions, but refused to delegate work as this could have weakened his position
- He was also in charge of the Luftwaffe, so favoured it when allocating resources
Give an example of a target that Hitler had that was practically impossible.
- He wanted to increase the size of the Luftwaffe to 21,000
- The most planes it ever reached was 5000
Who replaced Todt, and when?
- Albert Speer
- 1942
What did Speer do differently to his predecessors?
- He persuaded Hitler to pass a decree that made arms production the top economic priority, which gave him full authority over the economy
List 6 measures introduced by Speer.
- He set up a Central Planning Board to distribute raw materials
- He introduced modern production methods like production lines
- He made greater use of the employment of women
- He used more concentration camp labour
- He prevented the conscription of skilled workers
- He standardised ammunition
Give 2 figures on how successful Speer was.
- He tripled production between 1942 and 1944
- Ammunition production increased by 97%
List 4 problems the German economy faced as Germany continued to lose the war.
- Allied bombing destroyed infrastructure
- Land that had provided the economy with raw materials was being lost
- Damage to electricity, gas and water supplies
- Sabotage by foreign workers
What happened as a result of the damage to German infrastructure during the war?
- By the end of 1944, it was no longer possible for the economy to produce enough armaments
- Economic production began to collapse in 1945
What 3 things were censored during the war?
- The defeat at Stalingrad (the turning point in the war for Germany)
- The Final Solution
- The T4 euthanasia programme
How effective were newspapers during the war? Give 2 details.
- The government maintained production of them until the end of the war (2 days before Hitler’s suicide) to try to keep morale high
- By 1943, the people could tell that the stories in them had very little resemblance to the truth, and so they relied on rumours instead
