Germany at War

Question 1

What period of the war was successful for the German army?

Answer 1

1939-1941

Question 2

What tactic did the German army use to conquer countries?

Answer 2

Blitzkrieg

Question 3

What did the RAF target in their early bombing campaigns in 1939?

Answer 3

Military targets

Question 4

When did the RAF begin bombing industrial targets?

Answer 4

1940

Question 6

Why were the initial RAF bombing campaigns of limited success?

Answer 6

Military and industrial targets were hard to find and hit

Question 7

When was the first air raid on Berlin?

Answer 7

August 1940

Question 8

When did Allied air raids become more frequent and intense?

Answer 8

1942

Question 9

What was Operation Millennium?

Answer 9

The codename for the RAF’s bombing attack on Cologne on the 30th of May 1943

Question 10

How did the Allied bombings after 1942 affect the German people?

Answer 10

• Evacuations became a greater necessity - after the bombing of Hamburg it was compulsory for children to be evacuated - this separated families
• The need for replacement housing became greater, causing discontent as the government failed to address this lacking
• Many people died - it was estimated at least 3.5 million civilians had died as a result of Allied bombing, almost as many as German soldiers KIA
• Class and religious tensions emerged and there was a drop in morale

Question 11

Why were there little doctors to treat victims of the bombings?

Answer 11

Many were away in the war and Jews and women had been banned from being doctors

Question 12

When was Hamburg first bombed?

Answer 12

July 1943

Question 13

How many people did the first bombing of Hamburg kill?

Answer 13

50,000

Question 14

How many people did the first bombing of Hamburg make homeless?

Answer 14

1 million

Question 15

When was the second bombing of Hamburg?

Answer 15

August 1943

Question 16

How much of the city did the second bombing of Hamburg destroy?

Answer 16

Two thirds

Question 17

When was Dresden bombed?

Answer 17

February 1945

Question 18

How much of the city was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden?

Answer 18

Three quarters

Question 19

How many civilians were killed in the bombing of Dresden?

Answer 19

150,000

Question 20

How many civilians had died from Allied bombing by the end of the war?

Answer 20

3.5 million

Question 21

How many Germans lived in occupied Eastern Europe in 1945?

Answer 21

16 million

Question 22

What did the Germans living in Eastern Europe do in the closing stages of the war?

Answer 22

As the Soviet armies advanced west they fled in panic fearing what would happen if they were captured

Question 23

Around how many German refugees who were living in Eastern Europe died as a result of their expulsion?

Answer 23

2 million

Question 24

When was rationing introduced?

Answer 24

1939

Question 25

When did the rationing system work effectively?

Answer 25

1939-1941

Question 26

What had the German people been promised about food?

Answer 26

They would get the food from occupied territories

Question 27

Why did rationing begin to fail in 1942?

Answer 27

The German economy had not been ready for a war and the army failed to secure victory over the USSR

Question 28

How much meat was a person entitled to in 1939?

Answer 28

700g

Question 29

How much meat was a person entitled to in 1945?

Answer 29

250g

Question 30

What foods were rationed?

Answer 30

Breads, fats, sugar and meat

Question 31

What non-foods were rationed?

Answer 31

Clothes, footwear, soap, toilet paper and hot water

Question 32

What other policies did the government enact to reduce food shortages besides rationing?

Answer 32

Public parks were used to grow vegetables and the population was encouraged to use unusual ingredients and eat a one-dish meal on Sundays

Question 33

Who received extra rations?

Answer 33

Germans working in heavy industries like mining, pregnant women and blood donors

Question 34

When did Germans begin to experience severe food shortages?

Answer 34

1945

Question 35

How did rationing affect the German people?

Answer 35

* Many Germans enjoyed a healthier diet for a time even if it was less varied * Later on many Germans experienced real hunger * Many shops displayed make believe produce like milk bottles filled with salt * Any household suspected of having more than its fair share would be inspected by Nazi officials * By early 1945 ration cards were no longer honoured due to food shortages and people relied on scavenging or the black market

Question 36

Where did most of the loot from occupied territories go to?

Answer 36

To Nazi Party members or the black market

Question 37

What could you buy on the black market?

Answer 37

Foodstuffs, luxury clothing and perfume

Question 38

Who stopped the production of civilian goods and focused all factories on production to support the war effort?

Answer 38

Minister for Armaments Albert Speer

Question 39

What was the aim of the decrees issued by the government in 1941 and 1943 (regarding labour)?

Answer 39

To recruit three million childless women between the ages of 17 and 45 into the workforce

Question 40

How many women were recruited as a result of the government's decrees?

Answer 40

1 million

Question 41

When did the Nazis introduce conscription into the workforce?

Answer 41

1943

Question 42

How many captured foreign workers were forced to work in German farms and factories?

Answer 42

8 million by May 1944

Question 43

When were women recruited into the workforce on a much larger scale?

Answer 43

The summer of 1944

Question 44

What auxiliary roles in the military did women perform?

Answer 44

Serving refreshments at railways stations to servicemen and evacuees, doing Red Cross work, sifting and collecting scrap metal

Question 45

What percentage of women were working in Germany by 1944?

Answer 45

40%

Question 46

How much of the workforce did women make up by 1944?

Answer 46

Over a half

Question 47

How did women try to evade conscription into the workforce?

Answer 47

Pretending to be ill or deliberately getting pregnant

Question 48

Why did Germans have to be careful about how they treated workers?

Answer 48

Acts of kindness were punished

Question 49

From what year were Jews encouraged to emigrate?

Answer 49

1938

Question 50

About what fraction of Germany’s Jews emigrated before the war began?

Answer 50

A half

Question 51

When was emigration banned?

Answer 51

1941

Question 52

How did the Nazis ensure that Jews could not escape Germany?

Answer 52

Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David and have a J stamped on their ration cards, and were banned from public transport

Question 53

When did the Nazis come up with the Madagascar Plan?

Answer 53

1940

Question 54

What department of the German government came up with the Madagascar Plan?

Answer 54

The Jewish Department

Question 55

What did the Madagascar Plan involve?

Answer 55

Relocating the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar

Question 56

Why was the Madagascar Plan scrapped?

Answer 56

The British navy was blockading German ports

Question 57

During what years did the SS Einsatzgruppen squads operate?

Answer 57

1939 to 1942

Question 58

How many men made up the SS Einsatzgruppen squads?

Answer 58

3000 men grouped into 4 specially created SS units

Question 59

What did the SS Einsatzgruppen squads do?

Answer 59

They followed the German army into newly occupied Eastern Europe executing Jews and burning the towns and villages they lived in

Question 60

How did the SS Einsatzgruppen squads kill Jews?

Answer 60

Locking them in lorries and pumping in carbon monoxide, shooting them into graves they had forced them to dig

Question 61

Who did the SS Einsatzgruppen squads target?

Answer 61

Initially they targeted Jewish men but after August 1941 they executed any Jew

Question 62

How many Jews were forced to dig their own graves?

Answer 62

2 million by 1943

Question 63

What was a ghetto?

Answer 63

Segregated areas that Jews were forced to live in

Question 64

How many ghettos were created by the Nazis in Eastern Europe?

Answer 64

1000

Question 65

What were the ghetto Jew used for?

Answer 65

Forced labour in factories

Question 66

What was life in a ghetto like?

Answer 66

* At first they were open but later they were walled and closed and anyone attempting to leave would be shot by guards * They were very overcrowded so disease spread quickly * The Jews survived on starvation rations * They lived an average of nine months before dying of disease, starvation, freezing or brutal beatings

Question 67

What was the biggest ghetto?

Answer 67

The Warsaw Ghetto which was 3.4km squared and contained 400,000 Jews