8C Flashcards
(9 cards)
What were the Gestapo?
The secret state police, commanded by Reinhard Heydrich. They had sweeping powers, could arrest citizens and send them to concentration camps without trial or explanation. They were believed to have a network of ‘informers’ listening in on people’s conversation, and they were the organisation the most feared by the German citizens, as they believed the Gestapo were more powerful than they actually were. Therefore, they informed on each other as they believed the Gestapo would find out anyway.
What were the SS?
They were a huge organisation, especially after the SA was virtually destroyed in 1934, who were led by Heinrich Himmler. They were Aryan men who were highly trained and loyal to Hitler, and their main responsibility was crushing opposition and carrying out Nazi racial policies. The SS set up its own courts which sent around 200,000 Germans to concentration camps. There were 3 main sub-divisions, the SD (the internal security service, who investigated potential disloyalty within armed forces or politically sensitive cases like crimes committed by senior Nazis), the Death’s Head units (were responsible for concentration camps and the transport and murder of Jews), and the Waffen-SS (armoured regiments that fought alongside the regular army)
How were the police and the courts controlled by the Nazis?
Top jobs in police forces were given to high-ranking Nazis reporting to Himmler, political ‘snooping’ was added to their normal law-and-order role, they were told to ignore the crimes committed by Nazi agents. The Nazis controlled the magistrates, judges, courts, and they appointed judges and sacked those they disapproved of. This led to self-imposed control, as the magistrates knew what they were expected to do and did it, meaning opponents of Nazism rarely received a fair trial.
What forms of propaganda were used by Joseph Goebbels?
Nuremberg rallies: organised each summer, included bands, marches, flying displays, and Hitler’s brilliant speeches. They brought colour and excitement and a sense of belonging to a great movement, showed Germans the power of the state and convinced them that everyone else fully supported the Nazis. They emphasised order to create an impression of ‘creating order out of chaos’
Books: no books were published without Goebbels’ permission, the bestseller in Germany was Mein Kampf. A high-profile ‘book burning’ was organised in 1933, of books with unacceptable ideas
Art: only Nazi-approved painters could show their workers, which was mainly paintings and sculptures of heroic-looking Aryans, military figures, or images of the ideas Aryan family
Newspapers: Jewish editors and journalists lost their jobs, anti-Nazi newspapers were closed down. The remaining newspapers weren’t allowed to print anti-Nazi articles. They became dull reading, and circulation fell by about 10%
Cinema: all films had to carry a pro-Nazi message, newsreels that told of the greatness of Hitler and the achievements of Nazi Germany played before the films, meaning Germans started arriving late. Foreign films coming into Germany were censored
Music: jazz music was banned for being ‘Black’ music, by an inferior race
Posters: these would be seen by people who missed radio broadcasts, they were plastered all over Germany and proclaimed the successes of Hitler and attacked their opponents
Radio: Goebbels saw the potential of radio broadcasting, he loved new technology, he made cheap radios available and controlled all radio stations. Listening to BBC broadcasts was punishable by death, loudspeakers were placed in streets and public bars. Hitler’s speeches were played over and over again until the ideas came to be seen as normal by the German people.
What was the relationship between the Nazis and the Churches like?
There was some cooperation in the beginning, a Concordat was signed in 1933, in which Hitler agreed to leave the Catholic Church alone an let them keep control of their schools in return for the Church staying out of politics. Hitler tried to get the Protestant Churches to come together under one official Reich Church, which was headed by Bishop Ludwig Müller, however many Germans felt their true loyalties lay with their original Churches. Hitler encouraged a pagan German Faith Movement as an alternative religion. Many churchgoers either supported or did little to oppose the Nazis, however Catholic Bishop Galen criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930s, and in 1941he led a popular protest against the Nazi policies of killing mentally and physically disabled. This forced the Nazis to temporarily stop, as Galen had such strong support they felt it was too risky to try to silence him. Protestant ministers also resisted the Nazis, such as Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was one of the most high-profile critics in the 1930s, forming an alternative Protestant Church, the Confessing Church, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Niemöller spent the years 1938-1945 in a concentration camp for resisting the Nazis, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached against the Nazis until the Gestapo stopped him in 1937.
Which groups were persecuted by the Nazis and how?
Gays and lesbians: they threatened Nazi ideas about family life, organisations were shut down, since homosexuality was already a crime, the Nazis exploited anti gay prejudice. Books by gay authors were banned, 100,000 gays were arrested and 50,000 were sent to prison. 5,000 to 10,000 ended up in concentration camps, and they were forced to wear a pink triangle to mark them out.
Mentally disabled: they threatened Nazi ideas about Germans being a perfect master race. A ‘euthanasia programme’ began in 1939, 5,000 babies and children were killed between 1939 and 1945, either by injection or starvation. 72,000 patients with mental health conditions were gassed between 1939 and 1941 before a public outcry ended the extermination.
Roma: 5 of 6 Roma in Germany in 1939 were killed, which caused no outcry
asocials: alcoholics, homeless, prostitutes, and beggars were rounded up off the streets and sent to concentration camps, which similar caused little to no complaint
Jewish people: they were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ, and Hitler was jealous that they had better jobs, which offended the idea of Aryan superiority. Hitler also blamed Jewish businessman and bankers for Germany’s defeat in the First World War, believing they had forced the surrender of the German Army.
What were the Nuremberg Laws?
In September 1935, Hitler announced 2 new anti-Semitic laws at the annual Nuremberg Rally, the ‘Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour’ made it illegal for Jews to marry or have sec with Aryans, and the ‘Reich Citizenship Law’, which classified Germans into different racial groups; Aryans of pure German blood, Mischling or mixed race, and non-Aryans; only Aryans were given full German citizenship
What was the Night of Broken Glass/Kristallnacht?
In November 1938, a young Jewish man killed a German diplomat. The Nazis used this as an excuse to launch revenge on the Jews, plain-clothed SS troopers were given pickaxes, hammers, and the addresses of Jewish businesses. Jewish shops and workplaces were smashed up, 91 Jews were murdered, 20,000 were taken to concentration camps, hundreds of synagogues were burned. Most Germans were concerned but there was no protest, and any protesters were brutally murdered. Jews were fined 1 billion marks for any German owned damaged property. Nazi policies towards Jews got harsher; Jewish kids were banned from German schools, Jewish businesses were confiscated, and they had a red ‘J’ stamped on their passports to make it easier for authorities to identify them.
What opposition to the Nazis was there?
Political opposition: socialists met secretly, but they had lost their leaders and weren’t united, therefore they only carried out small-scale activities, such as sabotaging factories, railways and army stores. The Gestapo reported breaking up 1000 opposition meeting and 1.6 million anti-Nazi leaflets were seized in 1936 alone.
Social opposition: local party officials reported they increasingly had to bully people into attending Nazi rallies, ‘radio wardens’ had to be used to force people into listening to Hitler’s speeches, and there was increased complaining in bars, trains, and other public places. People refused to give the Heil Hitler salute and contribute to party funds, and there were jokes told about Hitler and the Nazis.
