7. Impact of the War on the German people

Question 1

What was the Blitzkrieg Economy?

Answer 1

This was the economy of the early WWll (1939-1942) where Germany was doing well in the war.

Question 2

Why was there a lack of rationing in the early war, what were the early rations Germans had to take in 1939 and what did the Nazis do in 1940?

Answer 2

At first the war had little effect on the
population as the quick takeover of other
countries meant there were little
shortages.

However, there was some early rationing;

● From 1939 clothes and footwear
was rationed, as was soap.

● In 1940 children were evacuated
from Berlin in fear of allied
bombing.

Question 3

What is Total War and when was in place in Nazi Germany?

Answer 3

Albert Speer became Minister for
Armaments and production after Fritz Todt’s death in 1942.

Speer reorganised the economy to ensure
all factories focused on production of
the war effort. This ensured an increase
in industrial productivity. Total War.

Question 4

When was the Nazi Germany economic collapse and why did it happen?

Answer 4

With the invasion of the allies into
Germany in 1945 the German economy
collapsed. The German people face
genuine shortages and starvation.

Question 5

What does the acronym RARE stand for?

Answer 5

Rationing
Area Bombing
Refugees
Employment

Question 6

What did the German diet become?

Answer 6

The Germans’ diet
became more monotonous,
with lots of bread, potatoes
and preserves.

Question 7

Why were there meat shortages and how much meat were the German people allowed per week?

Answer 7

There were meat
shortages due to lack of
imports from the USA. Meat
rations dropped from 750
grams per week in 1939 to 250
grams per week in 1945.

Question 8

What did the Nazis do to produce more food?

Answer 8

Parks and gardens
were dug up to make
vegetable patches.

Question 9

Who were extra rations given to and why?

Answer 9

Extra rations were
given to people considered
important to the war effort, such as workers in heavy
industries. There was also
extra food for pregnant
women and blood donors.

Question 10

What did rationing lead to and what did it provide?

Answer 10

Rationing led to a
flourishing black market.
Luxury clothes and perfume
were readily available for the
rich.

Question 11

What did the Nazis stop producing in 1943?

Answer 11

In 1943 the
production of non-military
clothing stopped completely.

Question 12

What did the Allies start doing to try and break German morale and when?

Answer 12

From 1942 allied bombing
began to target cities and
civilian areas to try and
break German morale.

Question 13

What date was the first British ‘thousand bomber raid’ launched on and which German city was it launched on?

Answer 13

On 30 May 1942, the
first British ‘thousand bomber
raid’ was launched against
Cologne.

Question 14

How many main times was Hamburg targeted by the allies in 1943, how many people were killed and how many buildings were destroyed?

Answer 14

Hamburg was
targeted on two main occasions in 1943; thousands
died and the majority of
buildings were destroyed.

Question 15

When was Dresden attacked, how many buildings were destroyed and how many people were killed?

Answer 15

Dresden was
attacked in 1945. ¾ of its
buildings were destroyed and
150,000 people were killed.

Question 16

Overall, how many: homes were destroyed; people made homeless; people killed in the raids and people wounded as a result of the war in Germany?

Answer 16

Overall, in Germany 3.6
million homes were
destroyed, 7.5 million people
were made homeless and
300,000 – 400,000 civilians
were killed in the raids.
800,000 people were
wounded.

Question 17

Why were there huge numbers of displaced Germans, especially towards the end of the war?

Answer 17

This was caused by a
combination of allied
bombing that destroyed
housing and the advance of
allied forces after 1944. This
was especially in the east as
thousands fled the brutality of
the Red Army.

Question 18

How many slave labourers, other displaced persons, ethnic Germans were refugees or had been removed from countries surrounding Germany?

Answer 18

At the end of the war, eight
million slave labourers and
other displaced persons
became refugees inside
Germany. In addition, 11
million ethnic Germans were either refugees or had been
expelled from the countries
surrounding Germany in the
East.

Question 19

How many German men served in the army during the war and what did this create on the home front?

Answer 19

13.7 million German men
served in the army during
the war, and this created a
huge labour shortage on
the home front.

Question 20

How many women were at work in Germany before the war broke out?

Answer 20

Even before the war broke out six million women
were at work.

Question 21

In what year, what age range of women had to register for work in Germany and how many eligible women registered for work?

Answer 21

In 1943, women from
17-45 had to register for work.

However, only 1 million out of 3 million of those eligible did so.

Question 22

By 1944 how many German women were at work and how much did women represent of the workforce?

Answer 22

By 1944 40% of
German women were at work
representing half the
workforce.

Question 23

Who did the Nazis have to rely on for work?

Answer 23

The Nazis
had to rely on foreign and
slave labour as their current workforce was not enough.

Question 24

What was compulsory for unmarried women under 25 in the war?

Answer 24

There was compulsory agricultural labour service for unmarried women under 25.

Question 25

How many Jews were exterminated by the end of WWll?

Answer 25

By the end of the war, six million European Jews had been exterminated, including over three million
from Germany.

Question 26

How much of Germany’s Sinti and Roma died in concentration camps?

Answer 26

85% of Germany’s Sinti and Roma died in concentration camps.

Question 27

How many Germans with physical and mental disabilities were killed between 1931 and 1941?

Answer 27

Between 1939 and 1941, over 100,000 Germans with physical and mental disabilities were killed in
secret, without the consent of their families.

Question 28

Where were Jews brought to, and what was the biggest of the places they were brought to in WWll?

Answer 28

In Poland, the Jews were herded into overcrowded ghettos in towns such as Lodz, Riga, and Minsk.

● The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War Two.

Question 29

What were conditions like in the Ghettos?

Answer 29

Conditions were appalling.

● It had 400,000 Jews crammed into an area covering approximately 1 square mile.

● 95 per cent of the wooden shacks they lived in had no running water or sanitation.

● Food was scarce and there was a deliberate policy of starving the population.

Question 30

How many Jews died of starvation and disease in the Ghettos and give an example of a disease they got?

Answer 30

Hundreds of thousands died of starvation and disease, such as typhus.

Question 31

Where were Jews moved to from ghettoes as the war continued?

Answer 31

As the war continued, the Jews were often moved from the ghettos to concentration camps.

Question 32

By the end of 1941 what was happening because of the number of Jews sent to the ghettoes and camps?

Answer 32

By the end of 1941, the ghettos and camps were overwhelmed by the number of Jews being sent to them.

Question 33

Why did many Jews never arrive at the camps?

Answer 33

● Many Jews never even arrived at the camps because they were simply murdered instead.

Question 34

What was the Einsatzgruppen and what did they do?

Answer 34

● Four specially created SS units totalling 3,000 men, called Einsatzgruppen, had been set up to follow
behind the German army during its invasion of the USSR.

● They were to round up Jews, communist officials and Russian army officers, and execute them.

Question 35

Who did the Einsatzgruppen initially target, when and who was it extended to?

Answer 35

Initially, they targeted Jewish men, but in August 1941 the policy was extended to the entire Jewish
population.

Question 36

What did the Einsatzgruppen make victims do and what did they do to them?

Answer 36

● The victims were taken to the edge of towns and villages, forced to dig mass graves and then shot and
buried in huge numbers.

Question 37

What happened in September 1941 and how many Jews were killed?

Answer 37

In September 1941, in a two-day massacre at Babi Yar, Kyiv, nearly 34,000 Jews were killed.

Question 38

How many Jews were killed by the Einsatzgruppen by the end of 1941 and how many were killed overall by the Einsatzgruppen?

Answer 38

By the end of 1941, 500,000 Jews had been murdered by the Einsatzgruppen and in total the victims of
Einsatzgruppen numbered around 1.2 million.

Question 39

What was Hitler demanding for by the end of 1941?

Answer 39

At the end of 1941, Hitler demanded an “aggressive policy” to rid Germany of Jews.

Question 40

What happened on 20 January 1942 in the Wannsee suburb of Berlin and what was agreed?

Answer 40

On 20 January 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, the Head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD),held a conference in
the Wannsee suburb of Berlin to discuss what the new aggressive policy should be.

● At this meeting, it was agreed that all Jews under German occupation would be brought to Poland,
where those fit enough would be worked to death and the rest exterminated.
This was the Final Solution.

Question 41

What happened as a result of the Final Solution?

Answer 41

This led to the horror of the Nazi death camps, six of which were built specifically to murder those
brought to them.

Question 42

What were the camps built throughout Eastern Europe?

Answer 42

Some were solely extermination camps and
others were labour and extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Question 43

What did Jews arrive at the camps on and what were the two groups they were separated into?

Answer 43

Jews arrived at the camps on trains, where they were separated into two groups: those fit enough to
work and those to be killed immediately – usually women, children and the elderly.

Question 44

What happened to the Jews not deemed fit to work by the Nazis in the camps?

Answer 44

They were ushered into what they thought were showers, where they were gassed to death
using pellets of cyanide known as Zyklon B.

Question 45

How long did it take for victims of gassing to die and what happened to their bodies after?

Answer 45

It took up to 30 minutes for victims to die. Their bodies were then burnt in huge ovens.

Question 46

How many attempts were there to remove Hitler during the war and when was the one that came closest?

Answer 46

There were various efforts to remove Hitler during the war; the one that came closest to succeeding happened towards the end, when it was becoming clear that Germany would be defeated.

Question 47

What was Operation Valkyrie?

Answer 47

In July 1944, a group of army officers tried to assassinate Hitler and replace him with a government led by General Ludwig Beck, who had resigned from a senior military leadership position in 1938 due to his opposition to Hitler’s foreign policy.

Question 48

What happened in Operation Valkyrie and what were the consequences of it?

Answer 48

A bomb was planted by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg at a meeting attended by the Führer.

It exploded, but Hitler survived because a thick leg of the table shielded him from the worst of the blast.

The great German military leader Field Marshal Erwin van Rommel was accused of being involved in the plot and was forced to commit suicide as punishment for his involvement.

Retaliation was swift and decisive.

Stauffenberg was shot the same day and 5,000 people were executed in the crackdown on opposition that followed.