Government in wartime, 1939-45 - Problems of the growing Reich

Question 1

What is Lebensraum?

Answer 1

living space
- land taken from other countries to provide G with the farmland + natural resources that the Germans needed
(gained lots going East)

Question 2

What was the role of the SS in new Lebensraum?

Answer 2

clearing out ‘undesirables’

Question 3

What was the role of the Reichsgau?

Answer 3

11 new Reichsgau had the task of:

• allocating the Lebensraum to incoming Germans
• Lebensraum as Part of Germany

Question 4

What is the Reichsgau

Answer 4

regional governments
- run by Reichstatthalter

Question 5

Where was the most heavy-handed of Germanisation programmes in Lebensraum?

Answer 5

Poland - as army swept through H made it clear that all poles were untrustworthy + to be used for hard labour only + polish leaders to be shot (so not a focus for resistance)

Question 6

What did Southern Poland become?

Answer 6

treated as a colony called the General Government - Hans Frank = governor general
- used as a dumping ground for all Poles + other undesireables, they lived in appaling conditions and used as slave labour

Question 7

What happened to the rest of Poland (not south) ?

Answer 7

abosbred into the Third Reich + Germanised

Question 8

Where in Poland did lots of Germans move to as part of Germanisation + what happened to the Poles that lived there?

Answer 8

over 1/2 million ethnic Germans moved to the Warthegau area of Western Poland
+
similar number of Poles that originally lived there deported east to make room for them

Question 9

What was the problem w G’s growth?

Answer 9

much more land to govern + centralised gov became harder - meant Gauleiters became increasingly more powerful

Question 10

Evidence of Gauleiters becoming more powerful bc of expanding G?

Answer 10

1942 (start of Br bombing raids) = Gauleiters given control of:
- all civil defence measures incl. firefighting, bomb damage clearance, rehousing, rationing
- and using various Nazi Party Orgs. e.g. NSV welfare org

Question 11

When was the decree ‘For the Implementation of Total War Mobilisation’ passed + what was it?

Answer 11

August 1944

gave Gauleiters control over the local bureaucracy not just Nazi Party officials + gave them signif powers over local businesses