Core Study: Power and Authority 1919-1946

Question 1

Name some of the conditions that enabled dictators to rise to power in the interwar period

Answer 1

• Post-war peace treaties
• Economic impacts (The Great Depression, Germany’s struggle post-war)
• The failures of democracies
• The failure of the League of Nations to stop conflicts in the interwar period

Question 2

What were the main dictatorships in the interwar period?

Answer 2

• Imperial Japan - Hideki Tojo
• Fascist Italy - Benito Mussolini
• Soviet Union - Joseph Stalin
• Nazi Germany - Adolf Hitler
• Fascist Spain - Francisco Franco

Question 3

Who were the “big four” of the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 3

• US: Woodrow Wilson
• Britain: Lloyd George
• France: Georges Clemenceau
• Italy: Vittorio Emanuele Orlando

Question 4

When was the Treaty of Versailles signed?

Answer 4

June 28, 1919

Question 5

Where was the Treaty of Versailles held?

Answer 5

The Palace of Versailles 20 km southwest of Paris

Question 6

What were the territorial provisions of the ToV?

Answer 6

• Alsace-Lorraine returned to France
• Anschuss (meaning union) with Austria was forbidden
• Poland was given Posen and Upper Silesia
• Germany lost land to Belgium and Denmark
• Outside of Europe, Germany lost all of its colonies
• Saar and Danzig regions placed under the control of the League of Nations

Question 7

What were the military provisions ot the ToV?

Answer 7

• The German army reduced to 100 000 men; no air force, no submarines, no tanks allowed
• The Rhineland region to be demilitarised

Question 8

What were the financial provisions of the ToV?

Answer 8

• Germany to pay US$33 billion (132 billion gold marks) in reparations to the allies
• Locomotives, machinery, shipping to be given to the allies

Question 9

What was the War Guilt Clause?

Answer 9

Article 231, the opening article of the reparations section of the Treaty of Versailles, which laid total blame on Germany for the war and its destructiveness.

Question 10

When was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 10

3rd March 1918

Question 11

When did WW1 end?

Answer 11

11 November 1918

Question 12

What areas did Russia recognise the independence of + give to Germany/Austria-Hungary after Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 12

Independence:

• Ukraine
• Georgia
• Finland

Given to Germany/Austria-Hungary:

• Poland
• Baltic states of: Lithuania,
• Latvia and
• Estonia

Question 13

What was the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye?

Answer 13

Between Austria and the Allied Powers

• Established the Republish of Austria, recognised that Austria and Hungary would now be separate nations
• Austria lost land to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and Italy
• reparations + armed forces reduced
• forbidden from unifying with other nations including Germany

Question 14

When was the Treaty of Saint-Germain?

Answer 14

10th September 1919

Question 15

What were the main post-war treaties?

Answer 15

• Brest-Litovsk 3 March 1918 (Russia/Germany)
• Versailles 28 June 1919 (Germany)
• Saint-Germain 10 September 1919 (Austria)
• Neuilly 27 November 1919 (Bulgaria)
• Trianon 4 June 1920 (Hungary)
• Sevres 10 August 1920 (Ottoman Empire)

Question 16

When was the Treaty of Sevres?

Answer 16

10 August 1920

Question 17

What was the Treaty of Sevres?

Answer 17

Between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied Powers

• Turkey had most of their European-held territory confiscated, which resulted in the break up of the Ottoman Empire
• Most of the Ottoman Empire territories went to britain and France to be governed as mandates of the League of Nations
• Because of this, the Arab peoples of the Middle East could not rule themselves in one united nation as they had hoped, which still has ramifications today.

Question 18

What were the conditions that gave rise to dictatorships in Germany (prior to 1920s)

Answer 18

• World War I had a devastating impact on German social and political life, with almost 2 million dead, a million more missing in action, and hardly any family in Germany unaffected. The atmosphere was one of enormous bitterness and disappointment.
• The social tensions in Germany had grown during the war, reaching revolutionary proportions beginning during the Kiel Mutiny in November 1918.
• The 1920 Kapp Putsch was an attempt to overthrow the government by forces of the right, triggered by the government’s desire to meet the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.
• German nationalism after World War I was based on restoring pride and prestige back to the German Empire.
• Germany had suffered humilitation by the TOV, causing bitterness amongst the German people.
• The Weimar Republic was blamed for the treaty by the German people.
• A large number of Germans were determined to one day restore the German Empire.

Question 19

What was the Kiel Mutiny in Germany?

Answer 19

A sailors’ mutiny in the northern German city of Kiel in November 1918, in resistance to an apparent suicide mission in the final days of World War I. The mutiny grew and spread around Germany, eventually leading to the abdication of the Kaiser and the German Revolution.

Question 20

What is a diktat?

Answer 20

Dictated peace. An order or decree imposed by someone in power without popular consent.

Question 21

What were the Freikorps?

Answer 21

Groups consisting largely of World War I veterans, right-wing paramilitary militias (semi-militarised forces that are not part of the state formal armed forces, but function through tactics, organisational structure and subculture)

Question 22

What were some of the conditions leading to the growth of nationalism in Italy?

Answer 22

• the TOV also affected Italy.
• Italian Nationalism was also a result of the disappointment from the Treaty, with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando being sidelined by the other Big Four members at the Versailles Peace Settlement.
• Italians felt that they had been cheated as they were denied the territorial gains that the Western Allies had originally promised.
• Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando feared that if Italy was to gain what it was promised, then a civil war could be sparked in Italy, driven by the radical movement of right-wing nationalists.
• There was a great sense of bitterness in Italy as the economy was experiencing serious problems such as unemployment, inflation and high budget deficits. In fact, Italian fascism would inspire the German Nazis to imitate many of the features and characteristics within their organisation.

Question 23

What is Fascism?

Answer 23

A political ideology and mass movement of extreme militaristic nationalism and the breakdown of democratic principles.

Question 24

Quote: Benito Mussolini on Fascism

Answer 24

“The Keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its function, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and group relative.”

Question 25

Quote: Martin McCauley (The Soviet Union Since 1981, p.103) on Stalin’s cult of personality

Answer 25

“Stalin becomes the father of the nation, he is above the party, indeed he is above everyone. In this new guise, he is acclaimed as the fount of all wisdom … he is the most learned of men.”

Question 26

Summary of Fascist Italy

Answer 26

• Benito Mussolini established the right-wing Fascist Party in Italy in 1919.
• The party strongly advocated Italian nationalism, and they adopted black shirts as part of their uniforms, becoming known as the ‘Blackshirts’ (a name that would later also be used for Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS)).
• The Blackshirts would brutalise and murder their political opponents in the streets, and the violent way in which the party came to power in 1922 would serve as a model for dictators across the world.

Question 27

What was the March on Rome?

Answer 27

An organised mass demonstration to establish Mussolini and his Fascist Party as the key political party in Italy in 1922; the Fascists violently attacked their opponents on the street in order to seize power.

Question 28

What was the domestic policy of Mussolini’s Italy?

Answer 28

Italy under Mussolini included a strong penal code, a secret police, and a prohibition of all opposition. Once Mussolini was able to secure his power through economic and social improvements, he turned his attention to foreign policy.

Question 29

What were the key characteristics of Mussolini’s Fascism?

Answer 29

Basic principles

• Authoritarian
• The state was more important than the individual
• Mussolini was the charismatic leader

Social dimension
* Fascist system supported the middle class, the military and the industrialists

Political dimension

• Government controlled by the supreme leader
• Nationalist
• One-party rule

Cultural dimension

• The dictatorship was known for its censorship
• Methods of indoctrination
• The important role of the secret police

Question 30

What was the foreign policy of Mussolini’s Italy?

Answer 30

Foreign policy was an important component of Mussolini’s dictatorship. As part of building a strong Italy, Mussolini had ambitions to make the Mediterranean an Italian lake and to create a second Roman Empire, which included plans to take over Albania and Greece (and Abyssinia in 30s).

Question 31

What happened to Japan’s Racial Equality Proposal during the TOV?

Answer 31

Although the majority of nations supported Japan’s proposed racial equality amendment to the ToV, opposition from Australia and the United States meant it was rejected. Japan felt alienated by the decision, which fueled nationalism in the lead up to WW2.

Question 32

What were the key factors that contributed to dictatorship in Japan?

Answer 32

The context for dictatorship in Japan is based on their dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles not providing them with greatr control of China and failing to endorse the principle of equality of all races.

• Japan believed that the structure fo international peace through the League of Nations favoured Western nations.
• Japan believed that the West wanted to control the world’s resources by placing barriers on Japanese trade and establishing anti-Asian immigration legislation.
• During the economic crisis of the Great Depression, many unemployed Japanese people believed the military could solve the economic problems by winning new colonies and controlling industry.

The rise of dictatorship in Japan has many parallels to the other European case studies. The Great Depression had created the economic conditions for the military to be projected as a strong alternative to the government. This was seen through the opposition to the London Naval Treaty 1930 (seen as weakening Japan). Japan saw the growth of ultranationalism and military adventure.

Question 33

What was the Manchurian Crisis?

Answer 33

In 1931, following an explosion on the Japanese owned railroad from Manchuria to Mukden in northeast China, Japanese troops moved quickly to take control of the region. While occupying the region Japan accused China of intentionally sabotaging the railway line and subsequently used brutal military force to conquer Manchuria.

However in the following year it was discovered that Japan had staged the explosion as a means of gaining access to the region for what would be their eventual military takeover. Both the deception and military action led to Japan’s diplomatic isolation and ultimately their expulsion from the League of Nations.

The Manchuria Crisis was the first of several key diplomatic events which would inevitably result in Japan’s alignment with other dictatorships such as Germany and Italy.

key diplomatic events:
1933 - Japan leaves the League of Nations

November 1936 - Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Germany, which Italy signed in 1937.

1940 - The Berlin Pact was signed by Japan, Germany and Italy which was largely directed at the United States.

Question 34

What happened on 9th November 1918?

Answer 34

• Scheidemann declares Germany is a Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag
• Kaiser flees to Holland
• Ebert furious at statement being made to mass crowd
• Two days later they sign the Armistice.

Question 35

What was the Spartacist Uprising?

Answer 35

• A general strike from 4 to 15 January 1919
• Power struggle between SPD (Social Democrat Party) and KPD (Communist Party)
• Army and Freikorps crush it without mercy

Question 36

What was article 48?

Answer 36

It allowed the President to take emergency measures without the consent of the Reichstag.

Question 37

What were the problems with 1923 in Germany?

Answer 37

• Germany failed to make its first payment in January 1923
• France and Belgium troops entered the Ruhr Valley
• Occupied the industrial heartland of Germany to extract reparations from the Germans
• German government issued a policy of ‘passive resistance’
• German government would pay workers’ salaries through a complicated arrangement -> hyperinflation

Question 38

What was the Nazi 25-point program?

Answer 38

The political program of the early Nazi Party, composed by Adolf Hitler and Anton Dexler and published in February 1920.

Question 39

Who founded the German Worker’s Party?

Answer 39

Anton Drexler in 1919

Question 40

How did Hitler get involved with the German Worker’s Party?

Answer 40

“It was only when Drexler decided to have an open meeting that he had to register the party with the army and a representative would attend the meeting to record the attendance, what the speakers said, number of working class/middle class people, etc.

It was here that the army sent out a young corporal named Adolf Hitler who was stationed in Munich to review the meeting.”

Question 41

What were the key messages in Hitler’s early speeches?

Answer 41

• Anti-democracy
• Anti-Weimar Republic
• Anti-Semitism
• Judeo-Bolshevism

Question 42

What were the Kampfbund?

Answer 42

The ‘Fighting League’. An organisation of right wing military groups in Bavaria set up in 1923. Members of the Kampfbund took part in the unsuccessful Munich Beer Hall Putsch.

Question 43

When was the Beer Hall Putsch?

Answer 43

Hitler and his followers attempted to seize power when they detained the leaders of Bavaria at a political rally in a Munich beer hall on 8 November 1923.

In the end, the Beer Hall Putsch was a complete fiasco. However, Hitler was shrewd enough to realise that his trial may provide him with the platform to play the wounded martyr and project the NSDAP philosophy to a wider audience.

Question 44

What was the Dawes Plan?

Answer 44

The plan prepared in 1924 by a committee led by American banker Charles Dawes to adjust Germany’s capacity to pay.

Question 45

when was the golden age of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 45

1924-1929

defined by stability + democracy

Question 46

What were the concerns in the Weimar Republic after 1923?

Answer 46

• dependence on short term USA loans, which could be withdrawn at very short notice. If there was a crisis in America (i.e. the Wall Street Crash of 1929) then money could be withdrawn very quickly.
• Agricultural Depression since 1926
• High unemployment: Due to technology there was structural unemployment
• The middle class would never forgive the Republic for the economic chaos of 1923

Question 47

Who was the key German politician who was most responsible for the period of relative stability in Germany from 1923 to 1929?

Answer 47

Gustav Stresemann

Question 48

Quote: British Historian Alan Bullock on the impact of the Great Depression on Germany

Answer 48

“…men standing hopelessly on the street corners of every industrial town in Germany; of houses without food or warmth; of boys and girls leaving school without any chance of a job … one may begin to guess something of the incalculable human anxiety and embitterment burnt into the minds of millions of ordinary German working men and women.”

Question 49

What were the impacts of the Great Depression on Germany?

Answer 49

• By the end of 1929, around 1.5 million Germans were unemployed
• Within a year, this figure had more than doubled
• By early 1933, 6 million (26 per cent) Germans were without a job
• The unemployed had no money to buy food, and thousands of German children died from malnutrition

Question 50

What was German deflationary policy?

Answer 50

The policy followed by the German government from 1930 that involved cutting government spending, increasing taxes, and attempting to balance the budget.

Question 51

Who was Heinrich Bruning?

Answer 51

The Chancellor of Germany from 1930-1932.
He was ineffecting for two reasons:
* relied completely on Article 48
* was a believer in deflationary policy, which drove Germany deeper into depression

Question 52

Why did historian AJP Taylor say that March 1930 was “the end of democracy in Germany”?

Answer 52

1930-1933 saw the development of a more authoritarian system as the President, with Article 48, supported chancellors and their governments who had little support in the elected Reichstag.

Question 53

Nazi electoral seats in 1928-1932

Answer 53

1928: 12
Sept. 1930: 107
Jul. 1932: 230 (37%)
Nov. 1932: 196

Question 54

What was the date that The Great Depression broke out, creating a worldwide economic downturn triggered by a stock market crash in New York?

Answer 54

October 1929

Question 55

What is a demagogue?

Answer 55

A political figure who wins support by appealing to people’s emotions rather than by usuing rational arguments

Question 56

What were the Sturm-Abteilung (SA)?

Answer 56

The military wing of the Nazi Party, made up of a large measure of ex-Freikorps troops. (brownshirts)

• known for street violence, physical intimidation, assault to threaten political opponents
• Founded by Hitler in 1921 and headed by Ernst Rohm from 1931
• By the time Hitler gained national power in 1933, the SA had grown rapidly in numbers and was 20 times the size of the Reichswehr (German Army)
• Rohm had ambitions to merge the SA with the army under his own leadership, which threatened Hitler’s influence as Chancellor
• In order to consolidate power, Hitler ordered for Rohm and the SA leadership to be murdered on the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in 1934, enabling Hitler to gain the allegiance of the German army.

Question 57

What were the roles of von Papen and von Schleicher?

Answer 57

Both von Papen and von Schleicher play a significant role in Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany. Schleicher’s attempt to split the Nazi Party by offering the Vice-Chancellor position to Gregor Strasser fails. And Papen is the one who harnesses the support of the conservative elites to support Hitler as Chancellor and himself as Vice-Chancellor.

Question 58

What were the key events in Hitler’s rise from December 1932 to January 1933?

Answer 58

• The fall of von Papen, December 1932
• Hitler makes a pact with the German industrialists
• Schleicher fails as Chancellor, December 1932
• Hitler becomes Chancellor, January 1933

Question 59

What were the overall reasons for the collapse of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 59

• Lack of democratic tradition
• Flaws in the constitution
• Powerful opposition and division between SPD and KPD
• Psychological and economic disasters
• The appeal of Hitler and the Nazy Party

Question 60

Why did Franz von Papen argue for Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor?

Answer 60

He believed Hitler could easily be controlled

Question 61

In January 1933, who was replaced by Hitler as Chancellor?

Answer 61

Kurt von Schleicher

Question 62

What does Gleichschaltung mean?

Answer 62

This means ‘coordination’. It also refers to the process of Nazification. Every aspect of the German state was brought under the authority of the Nazi Party such as the political system, the civil service, the trade unions, the education system and the economy.

Question 63

What was the Enabling Act?

Answer 63

A law passed by a two-thirds vote of the Reichstag in March 1933. This law allowed Hitler to rule independently of both the Reichstag and the President.

Question 64

What were the key events in Nazi consolidation of power?

Answer 64

27 February 1933: The Reichstag Fire
* The Nazis accused the Communists of setting the fire

28 February 1933: Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State

• Civil liberties and freedoms of the German people were ‘suspended’
• The emergency decree remained in force until 1945

5 March 1933: Elections
* The Nazis won 288 seats in the Reichstag

22 March 1933: Political pressure
* First concentration camp for political opponents was set up at Dachau

24 March 1933: The Enabling Act

• A bill was proposed to alter the constitution and give the government authority to pass laws without the need to refer to the Reichstag or President for five years
• The vote was passed 441 to 94

Question 65

When did President von Hindenburg die?

Answer 65

2 August 1934

This death allowed Hitler to merge the positions of Chancellor and President to become the supreme ruler of Germany.

Question 66

What was the Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 66

The name given to the elimination + arresting of the leadership of the SA such as Ernst Rohm on 30 June 1934 by the SS under Hitler’s orders. It was done partially to get support from Hindenburg and the Army, who didn’t like the restless SA.

Question 67

What does Fuhrer mean?

Answer 67

The German word for leader. In Nazi Germany, Hitler was called the ‘Fuhrer’, as he held the positions of both Chancellor and President after Hindenburg’s death in 1934.

Question 68

What is Judeo-Bolshevism?

Answer 68

A conspiracy theory asserting that Soviet-Communism is a Jewish political ideology.

Question 69

What were Hitler’s views outlined in Mein Kampf?

Answer 69

Nationalism:
* Envisaged a Greater German Reich including Volkdeutsche (ethnic Germans) in Austria, Sudetenland, and other nations. “The highest form of Nationalism finds its expression only in an unconditional devotion of the individual to the people. It will never be denied that the purest form of socialism means the conscious elevation of the claims of the people, its life and its interests above the interests and the life of the individual.” - speech of August 17, 1934

Anti-Semitism:

• The nation was to maintain the racial purity of the state.
• Absolute belief in the superiority of the Aryan race.

Anti-Communism:

• Hitler considered communism to be a major enemy of Germany
• Firm belief in the conspiracy theory of Judeo-Bolshevism
• Conflated communists and Jews into a single enemy.

Question 70

What is Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 70

The people's (or national) community. the Nazis preached an idealised version of a new German society.
Rejected old religions, ideologies, and class divisions, instead forming a united German identity based around ideas of race, struggle and state leadership.

Question 71

What is Fuhrerprinzip?

Answer 71

The Leadership Principle
The principle that a group is entirely subordinated to a leader who has ultimate control over it.
- the Fuhrer had ultimate authority
- “Hitler is Germany and Germany is Hitler. He who takes an oath to Hitler takes and oath to Germany!” - Rudolf Hess, February 1934.
- National revival
‘charismatic authority’

Question 72

How did Nazi ideology relate to democracy and the state?

Answer 72

• That liberal parliamentary democracy had failed and Germany had to revive her national will under a strong leader.

Question 73

What is Lebenraum?

Answer 73

Living Space

- Germany needed to expand into eastern Europe, subjugating inferior races and acquiring its ‘living space’.

Question 74

What is Autarky?

Answer 74

Self-Sufficiency
- An economic policy in the Third Reich where the German nation would not have to rely on others for raw materials and food.

Question 75

What were Carl Friedrich’s criteria for a totalitarian state?

Answer 75

1. Single party led by a charismatic leader
2. A party ideology
3. State control of the economy
4. Terror and repression
5. Party control of the armed forces

Question 76

Who was Joseph Goebbels?

Answer 76

Joseph Goebbels was minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Hitler. From this position, he spread the Nazi message and presented a favourable depiction of the Nazi regime to the German people.
1928:
* Hitler named Goebbels the Nazi Party propaganda director
- Goebbels began formulating the strategy to craft the myth of Hitler as a brilliant and decisive leader.
- Arranged huge political gathering at which Hitler was presented as a saviour of a new Germany.

March 1933:

• Hitler appointed Goebbels as the country’s Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
• Goebbels was given total jurisdiction over the content of German newspapers, books, films, magazines, music etc.
• Censored all oppostion to Hitler
• Presented Hitler and the nazi Party in the most positive light, while also stirring up hatred of the Jewish people.

Question 77

Quote: Goebbels, Time, March 27 1933 on the role of propaganda

Answer 77

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

Question 78

Who were the Gestapo?

Answer 78

The German secret police under Nazi rule.

• Gained a reputation for ruthlessness and efficiency while carrying out mass surveilance
• in reality, relied heavily upon informants and public denunciations to gather the information needed to make arrests
• But the illusion of being all-knowing was enough to terrorise the population.

Question 79

Who were the Luftwaffe?

Answer 79

The German air force.

Question 80

Who was Hermann Goring?

Answer 80

Hermann Goring was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party. He was a member of the Party from 1922, and was named by Hitler as his successor in 1941.

• Took part (and was wounded) in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923
• President of the Reichstag
• Reich Minister of Aviation
• Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe
• Created the Gestapo in 1933 (passed to Himmler in 1934)
• Established concentration camps to imprison political opponents
• Indicted by the International Minitary Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946 and condemned to hang as a war criminal, but he took cyanide the night he was to be executed.

Question 81

Quote: Goering in an interview during the Nuremberg Trials, 18 April 1946 on the role of leadership

Answer 81

“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders… tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for the lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.”

Question 82

Who was Albert Speer?

Answer 82

Albert Speer was considered Hitler’s ‘architect of genius’.

• Designed and constructed numerous buildings, decorations and monuments, including the Reich Chancellory in Berlin and the parade grounds at Nuremberg, where a party congress was held in 1934.
• Hitler also commissioned him to refurbish Berlin, a project for which Speer prepared grandiose designs that were never completed.
• Efficient and creative in the staging of Nazi events.
• The 1934 Nuremberg rally, at which the Leni Riefenstahl film Triumph of the Will was made, became the archetype of what the Nazi-style public rallies were.
• Some identifiable features of the rallies included huge crowds of uniformed marchers, lighting effects, and large flag displays, which were all created and directed by Speer.
• Hitler appointed Speer the ‘Inspector General of the Reich’.
• Speer became the Minister for Munitions during WWII.
• After WWII ended, Speer was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. He was the only Nazi at these trials to accept moral responsibility for the practices of the Nazi regime (while still denying all knowledge of the Holocaust) and became known as ‘the Nazi who said sorry’.

Question 83

Quote: Testimony of Albert Speer, Munich, 15 June 1977

Answer 83

“I still today consider as just that I assume the responsibility and thus the guilt for everything that was perpetrated… after my joining with the Hitler Government.”

Question 84

What were the SS?

Answer 84

Schutzstaffel (German: Protective Echelon). The black-uniformed elite corps of the Nazi Party.
They developed as a branch of the SA and were an instrument of terror in controlling any remaining German opposition that threatened the leadership of Hitler.
* Initially served as Hitler’s bodyguards under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, and grew rapidly.
* By 1935 there were 200 000 ‘Blackshirts’ operating in Germany.
* SS soldiers had to meet strict intelectual, physical and racial requirements to become members of the organisation, and were held up as ideal Aryan Germans, a notion commonly promoted in propaganda
* During the Nazi regime, the SS largely operated as a police force to discover and remove any opposition to the state, which included execution and forced labour.
* Chiefly responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews and other victims in the Holocaust.

Question 85

Who was Heinrich Himmler?

Answer 85

Heinrich Himmler was the head of the SS from 1929, of the Gestapo from 1934, and of the unified police forces from 1936. This gave him the ultimate responsibility for internal security and all-but-unlimited power to know who was a threat to Hitler and the party. As a result, he became one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany and Europe.

• Hitler brought Himmler into the inner circle of Nazi Party in the early 1920s, after Himmler’s involvement with right-wing nationalist groups caught Hitler’s attention.
• Alongside Hitler, Himmler believed fervently in the creation of a master race and racial purity.
• Led the SS and the Gestapo in the Night of the Long Knives, the ‘blood purge’ in which the leaders of the SA were executed.
• In charge of Germany’s concentration camps (he set up the first at Dachau in 1933) and eastern Europe’s death camps. His brilliance at organisation had terrible consequences for the Jewish people.
• Responsible for conceiving and overseeing implementation of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to murder the Jews of Europe.
• Committed suicide to escape capture after WWII.

Question 86

Quote: Heinrich Himmler/watchword of the SS

Answer 86

“My honour is my loyalty.”

Question 87

Who was Rudolf Hess?

Answer 87

Rudolf Hess was one of the leading members of the Nazi Party and was appointed Deputy Fuhrer to Adolf Hitler in 1933. He served as Hitler’s personal secretary for several years and was known for his fanatical devotion to Hitler.

• Was involved in Hitler’s failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and was arrested and imprisoned along with Hitler at Landsberg prison.
• During their time together in prison, Hess took dictation and helped with editorial changes for Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf.
• On April 21, 1933, he was made Deputy Fuhrer, a figurehead position with mostly ceremonial duties - though he was symbolically rewarded for his loyalty, he was never given any tangible power.
• In 1941, Hess secretly flew to Scotland with the plan of negotiating peace with the United Kingdom and thereby impressing Hitler. He was imprisoned as a POW and held in British custody until the end of the war.
• Convicted at Nuremberg of crimes against peace, and served a life sentence until his suicide in 1987 at the age of 93.

Question 88

Quote: Rudolf Hess, statement to the International Military Trial in Nuremberg, 1946

Answer 88

“I was permitted to work for many years of my life under the greatest son whom my people has brought forth in its thousand year history… I am happy to know that I have done my duty, to my people, my duty as a German, as a National Socialist, as a loyal follower of my Fuhrer.”

Question 89

Which Nazi party member was responsible for the blood purge of June 30, 1934, in which Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders were executed?

Answer 89

Heinrich Himmler

Question 90

Which two of the following Nazis were involved in the Beer Hall Putsch with Hitler?

• Joseph Goebbels
• Rudolf Hess
• Hermann Goring
• Albert Speer

Answer 90

Hermann Goring and Rudolf Hess

Question 91

Which Nazi filled each of the following roles?

Propaganda minister
Founder of the Gestapo
Head of the S.S.
Hitler’s personal secretary
Minister for munitions

Answer 91

Propaganda minister: Joseph Goebbels
Founder of the Gestapo: Hermann Goring
Head of the S.S.: Heinrich Himmler
Hitler's personal secretary: Rudolf Hess
Minister for munitions: Albert Speer

Question 92

Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer

Answer 92

One people, one nation, one leader

Question 93

Quote: Ian Kershaw, ‘The Hitler Myth’, in History Today, November 1985

Answer 93

“Unquestionably, the adulation of Hitler by millions of Germans … was a crucial element of political integration in the Third Reich … Without a degree of popular backing which Hitler was able to command, the drive, the dynamism, and momentum of Nazi rule could hardly have been sustained … Nor could Hitler himself have remained impervious to the extraordinary cult which had been created around him and which came to envelop him.”

Question 94

What were some of the anti-semetic laws created by the Nazis between 1933 and 1935?

Answer 94

• April 1933: Aryan paragraph
• June 1933: Law against Overcrowding of German Schools
• July 1933: De-Naturalisation Law (revoked citizenship of naturalised ( previously non citizens who gained citizenship) Jews)
• May 1935: Army law (Jewish officers expelled from the Army)
• September 1935: Nuremberg Laws (Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour + Reich Citizenship Law)

In twelve years under Nazi rule, the Reichstag only passed four laws and the Nuremberg Laws constituted two of these.

Question 95

What was the Aryan paragraph (April 1933)?

Answer 95

A type of regulation that blocked “non-Aryans” (Jews) from becoming members of German economic establishments, political parties, social clubs, volunteer organisations, student groups, sports groups, and other institutions.

• All non-Aryans in government jobs, including teachers in state-run schools and doctors in state hospitals, were dismissed
• This law was opposed by President Hindenburg, who insisted on an exemption for war veterans and relatives of war dead - to which Hitler agreed.

Question 96

What was the Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools (June 1933)?

Answer 96

This law fixed a general limit of 1.5 per cent of a school’s population for Jews. However, where Jews made up more than 5 per cent of the local population, the ceiling could go as high as 5 per cent.

Question 97

What were Nuremberg Laws (September 1935)?

Answer 97

The Nuremberg Laws organised racial discrimination through two pieces of legislation.

• The ‘Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour’
• This new law banned all marriages and extra-marital intercourse between Jews and Germans
• The ‘Reich Citizenship Law’
• This law stripped those no longer considered to be truly German of their citizenship.

Question 98

What were block wardens in Nazi Germany?

Answer 98

Police informers. They were individuals in apartment blocks in cities and towns who reported fellow citizens for suspicious behaviour.

Question 99

What were the Reichswehr?

Answer 99

The German armed forces. In 1935, the Reichswehr became the Wehrmacht (Defence Force)

Question 100

What were teh Einsatzgruppen?

Answer 100

Special mobile operational forces of SS who were ordered to murder mainly Jews and communists in occupied Poland and Russia.

Question 101

What were the Totenkopfverbande?

Answer 101

The Death Head’s Units. Part of the SS, their main task was to administer and control the concentration camp system across the Third Reich.

Question 102

points about Nazi concentration camps (pre-war)

Answer 102

• The first concentration camp was established in 1933 in Dachau to detain political prisoners. By the time Germany invaded Poland in 1939, there were six concentration camps in existence.
• Between 1934 and 1939, 200 000 people were passed through the camps. In addition to political enemies, groups such as homosexuals, gypsies and other minorities were added to the list of opponents and social deviants.
• Descriptions of the horrific conditions and brutality of the camps were allowed to spread to the public. These stories fed the growing terror of the Nazi regime, resulting in most citizens pledging loyalty to the state regardless of their politics or beliefs.
• Concentration camps, described by Hitler as the ‘most effective instrument’ to maintain the power of the regime, repressed any opponents of Nazism and controlled the public through fostering terror.

Question 103

What was the first concentration camp established in Germany?

Answer 103

Dachau in 1933 (for political opponents)

Question 104

Who gave this speech:
“… I am now reachign the main issue: internal security and the tasks of the police during war. In a future war the battle fields will not be only the land for the army, in the sea for the navy and in the skies for the air force, but we will have a fourth front: inside Germany. This is the base we have to keep healthy to the core because otherwise the fighting forces on the three other fronts will once again be stabbed in the back.”

Answer 104

Heinrich Himmler

Question 105

Quote: A. Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Harper Collins, London, 1991, pp. 410-411 on volksgemeinschaft

Answer 105

“After the Nazi takeover Hitler was both presented and seen by the party amd by millions of Germans outside it as the embodiment of Volksgemeinschaft or ‘national unity’, standing above all sectional interests; the architect of Germany’s recovery, personally incorruptible; a fanatical defender of German honour … a man of the people, a corporal who had won the Iron Cross First Class and shared the experiences of the common soldier at the Front … His appeal cut across class and religious boundaries, affecting both young and old, men and women.”

Question 106

What was the Reich Chamber of Culture?

Answer 106

An important Nazi body that censored and controlled aspects of cultural life including literature, music and paintings.

Question 107

What were some forms of propaganda in Nazi Germany?

Answer 107

• Newspapers: Editorial Law of October 1933 restricted newspaper editors to only printing news approved by Goebbels
• Radio: very effective for easy communication and shaping public opinion
• Cheap People’s Radios made available to the public, allowing Hitler’s speeches and other propaganda to reach homes all over the country
• Films contained messages about the honour of Germany
• This consistent promotion of Nazism influenced even neutral Germans to ‘swim with the tide of popular opinion’ and adopt the party’s point of view.
• Posters

Question 108

Quote: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf on propaganda

Answer 108

“Since propaganda consists in attracting the attention of the crowd … its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect … The receptivity of the great masses is very limited; their intelligence is small but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these … this spiritual weapon can succeed only if it is applied on a tremendous scale, but that scale amply covers all costs.”

Question 109

What are some examples of people whose works were censored in Nazi Germany?

Answer 109

• Pablo Picasso
• Claude Monet
• Vincent Van Gogh
• H.G. Wells
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Sigmund Freud

Question 110

Nazi Book Burning in Berlin

Answer 110

May 10, 1933
Thounsands of people assembled in Berlin’s Opera Square to hear Joseph Goebbels condemn works written by anyone deemed to be “un-German”; this included, Jews, liberals, leftists, pacifists and foreigners. He declared the book burning “cleansing of the German spirit”.

Nazi students led the burning of hte books, and libraries across Germany were purged of ‘censored’ books. In schools, some books were removed from classrooms by censors, and other newly-written textbooks were brought in to teach students blind obedience to the party, love for Hitler, and anti-Semitism.

Question 111

What was the name of the Reich Ministry headed by Joseph Goebbels that was in charge of the press, radio and culture?

Answer 111

Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

Question 112

What was the Exhibition of Degenerate Art in Nazi Germany?

Answer 112

An officially sponsored exhibition in 1937 that demonstrated the “demoralising” and “corruptive” influences of modern art.

Question 113

What were the Reichskulturkammer?

Answer 113

The Reich Chamber of Commerce, which regulated all forms of cultural expression in Nazi Germany.

Question 114

What were the Nazi views on art?

Answer 114

Painting
* Nazi-approved art was conservative in style, and its subjects focused on the beauty of the body and idealised depictions of family and rural life.
* Nazis regarded modern art as degenerate and the product of Jews and Bolsheviks. Over 5000 modern artworks were removed from German museums.
Film
* The film industry flourished during the Nazi era and all films were strictly censored.
* While not many films were overtly political, many included subtle propaganda.
* Some films promoted German nationalism and Nazi strength, such as The Triumph of the Will (1935), while others focused on spreading the message of anti-Semitism, as in The Eternal Jew (1939).
Theatre and music
* Classic plays with heroic and historical themes were revived, while Jews and liberals were excluded from working in the theatre.
* music remained of excellent quality. Classical music was an integral part of Nazi ritual. However, jazz and swing were regarded as degenerate and were banned, as well as Jewish composers and performers.

Question 115

Who created The Triumph of the Will?

Answer 115

Leni Riefenstahl

Question 116

What was Lebensborn?

Answer 116

‘The Fountain of life’.

A program approved by Himmler to provide for women who were racially pure to have children outside of marriage.

Question 117

What was Mutterkreuz?

Answer 117

The Mother Cross. This was a decoration awarded to women who had a large number of children.

Question 118

Quote: Richard Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, 2005 on the role of women in Nazi Germany

Answer 118

“The new woman idealised in a hundred propaganda posters, a contented and competent helpmate for her man, but above all, a model of heroic fecundity (fertility).”

Question 119

How were women affected in Nazi Germany?

Answer 119

• Women were forced out of higher positions in public service and allowed only limited entry into university.
• Financial incentives offered to families if the woman was to stay home and have children.
• Mothering Day, encouraging childbirth and homemaking in women (Kinder, Kuche, Kirche)

Question 120

What was the Reichskonkordat?

Answer 120

The treaty signed between the Holy See (the Vatican) and Nazi Germany in 1933.

Question 121

What was the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany

Answer 121

The Protestant Church organisation set up in 1934 to oppose the government’s efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi Reich Church; they also opposed the Hitler Youth movement.

Question 122

What was the Nazi impact on education?

Answer 122

• school + university used to control + manipulate the learning and outlook of young people
• Education was ‘Nazified’ and as a result most teachers supported Nazism - any who did not were removed from the profession under the Reich Law for the Re-Establishment of a Professional Civil Service (April 1933).
• German educators introduced new textbooks that taught students love for Hitler, obedience to state authority, militarism, racism and anti-semitism.
• Nazi education was anti-intellectual, physical development was emphasised, and racism played an integral role.

Question 123

What was the Nazi impact on religion?

Answer 123

• Nazism initially promised religious freedom.
• As other religions required a loyalty that would compete with Nazism (which Hitler believed was a religion in itself), the Nazis attempted to eradicate organised religion.
• In July 1933, Hitler and Pope Pius XI signed a concordat (treaty) in which the Nazis promised to leave the Catholic Church alone, and in return the Church would drop its ban on the Nazi party. However, the Nazis later broke this pact and persecuted priests and nuns.
• The Protestant Church split over the attitudes to Nazism after Hitler merged these churches into the one Reich Church in 1935.
• The Confessing Church opposed Nazism; however, the Nazis persecuted it in retaliation.
• Other religious groups were attacked.

Question 124

Quote: Hitler speaking at the Nuremberg Rally in 1935 on German Youth

Answer 124

“In our eyes the German youth of the future must be slim and slender, swift as a greyhound, tough as leather, and hard as Krupp steel. We must educate a new type of man …”

Question 125

What was the Nazi impact on youth?

Answer 125

• The Nazi Youth movement was an essential element of the regime to ensure there was a continuous source of passionate, dedicated followers.
• The movement allowd the regime to indoctrinate racial purity into young minds; the youth were trained to obey and become future members of the ‘master race’.
• Boys (Hitler Youth): Emphasis on physical fitness and good health through outdoor activities. Regime thus developed fit and trained soldiers for Nazi military adventures - linked to the preparation for rearmament.
• Girls (League of German Maidens): encouraged to do gymnastics - considered less strenuous to the femal body and better preparation for motherhood.

Question 126

What was the Reich Labour Service?

Answer 126

An organisation that required all men aged between 18 and 25 to perform six months of manual labour in the service of the Reich.

Question 127

What was the Nazi impact on workers?

Answer 127

• Hitler understood that an economic upswing and corresponding drop in unemployment would result in the loyalty of the people.
• The Nazi economic policies were generally successful, and unemployment was reduced through rearmament and major public works programs such as building and repairing roads (autobahn)
• Hitler also raised worker morale through such initiatives as the Kaft durch Freude (‘Strength Through Joy’) organisation, which included the production of the people’s car (Volkswagen) in 1938.
• All independent trade unions were abolished in 1933 in favour of the Nazi party’s Labour Front, which enforced a pay freeze and controlled all wages. Workers lost their right to negotiate.
• The Reich Labour Service, which instituted a compulsory six-month period of State-sesrving labour for all citizens, was introduced in 1935.
• The number of employed women dropped significantly, and Jews and other minority groups were forced out of employment.

Question 128

What is Aryanisation?

Answer 128

The transfer of property from Jewish to non-Jewish ownership

Question 129

What made Nazi anti-Semitism different?

Answer 129

• The Nazis believed the Jews were inhuman creatures in human form. They were the destroyers of culture and civilisation, geneticaly programmed for destructive evil.
• The Nazis believed the Jews engaged in exploitative capitalism, introduced socialism, posed a sexual threat, and engaged in plots to murder Aryan children.
• They were seen as guilty of having introduced the awful notion of equality, which weakens the position of the superior race.
• Secular humanism (all human beings are the same - civic equality) was condemned by the Nazis.
• Jews were seen to assimilate into Aryan society and use these terrible ideas to destroy from within.

Question 130

Timeline on Nazi racial policy

Answer 130

1. Vilification (1933-34)
2. Discrimination (1935)
3. Separation (1938)
4. Extermination (1942-45)

Question 131

What described the vilification stage of Nazi racial policy?

Answer 131

• The deliberate attempt to revile the Jews.
• In this phase the Nazi propaganda machine played a decisive role.
• Its aim was to make Germans dislike and fear the Jews in Germany.

Timeline:
April 1933
* National boycott of all Jewish businesses
* Mass sackings of Jews from the Civil Service following the law for the Restoration of Civil Services
* University restrictions were placed on Jews

July 1933
* Jews were formally denied marriage loans

October 1934
* Jews had been effectively excluded from the media and the arts

Question 132

What is Untermenschen?

Answer 132

German word meaning subhumans. Often used to describe Jews and Slavs during the Nazi period.

Question 133

What described the discrimination stage of Nazi racial policy?

Answer 133

The laws that were progressively passed depriving Jews of their rights including their citizenship

The Nuremberg Race Laws (September 1935)

• The Reich Citizenship Law
• Jews were no longer German citizens, and thus lost all rights that citizenship bestowed upon a person.
• The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
• This law aimed at maintaining purity of German blood.
• German citizens and Jews were not allowed to marry or engage in sexual relations

Question 134

What were some of the minority groups targeted by the Nazis?

Answer 134

Jews, Slavs, Gypsies/Romani, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses

Question 135

What was kristallnacht?

Answer 135

The name given to the organised Nazi attack on Jewish property across Germany on 9-10 November 1938

Question 136

What described the separation stage of Nazi racial policy?

Answer 136

The progressive removal of Jews from the community and resettlement in the East

Timeline:
April 1938
* The process of excluding Jews from economic life began

July 1938
* All Jewish doctors were removed from the medical register

August 1938
* All Jewish businesses had to be registered

September 1938
* All Jews were required to add the names ‘Sarah’ or ‘Israel’ to their names

November 1938

• Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass)
• The destruction of Jewish synagogues and property across much of Germany (more than 1400 synagogues were destroyed)
• 22 000 male Jews arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps
• The first example of Nazi mass murder, with 1000 Jews killed

New regulations excluded Jewish population from theatres, concert halls, cinemas, swimming pools and restaurants. Between 1933 and 1939, 250 000 German Jews emigrated from Germany.