04/12/2015

Summary 6.2

In 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, few thought that he would hold on to power for long. Yet, by 1934 he was the dictator of Germany.

So how did he do that?
Ø  Hitler used a combination of methods, some legal, some questionable.
Ø  He also defeated or negotiated with those that could potentially be against him.
Ø  He called for another election in March 1933 to attempt to get a Nazi majority in the Reichstag. There were more speeches, rallies and street fighting, he was using the same tactics as in previous elections, and however, he had more resources now.

On the 27th of February the Reichstag building burnt down, which Hitler blamed on the Communists, who were Hitler’s most immediate threat. He stated that this was the beginning of a Communist uprising. He demanded special emergency powers to deal with the situation, which President Hindenburg gave him. They used this power to arrest Communists, break up meetings and frighten voters.

In the election, the Nazis won the overall majority. He intimidated the Reichstag into passing the Enabling Act using the SS and SA. The Enabling Act allowed him to make laws without asking for permission or even telling the Reichstag.

Hitler had one party voting against him: the SDP, the second largest party. The Communists were banned shortly after the election.

What did he do with that power?
Ø  Within a year, opponents (or potential opponents) had either left Germany or were in concentration camps run by the SS, while other political parties were banned.
Ø  Despite all his power, Hitler still had leading officers in the army doubting him, as well as being suspicious of Ernst Röhm, who was in charge of the SA. Röhm wanted to make the SA into a second German army. Hitler was also suspicious of Röhm, because he feared that his power over 4 million men made him a potential danger to Hitler.

The night of 29-30 June is known as the Night of the Long Knives. The SS troops broke into the homes of Röhm, along with the homes of other leading figures in the SA and arrested them. Hitler accused Röhm of plotting to murder him. Röhm and possibly 400 others were executed. The SA was not banned afterwards.

Ø  After Hindenburg died, Hitler took over as Supreme Leader (Führer) of Germany. Hitler wanted a totalitarian state: full control over everybody’s lives.
Ø  He had the SS, a loyal group of Hitler’s followers who formed in 1925. The Death-Head’s units were in charge of concentration camps, the Waggen-SS fought alongside the army.
Ø  The Gestapo was the secret state police, who coud arrest citizens on suspicion to concentration camps without trial. Due to the fear of the Gestapo, many citizens told on each other because they thought that the Gestapo would find out anyway.
Ø  The police and the courts were controlled by Nazis, which resulted in Nazi crimes being ignored.
Ø  Concentration camps were set up almost as soon as Hitler came to power. The first ones were in 1933 and were empty warehouses and factories. They were run by the SS Death’s-Head units. People had to do hard labour with little food, as well as having to suffer harsh discipline, beatings and random executions. Very few people came out alive. The prisoners were: Jews, Communists, Socialists, churchmen and anyone else against the Nazis.

Why was there hardly any opposition?
Opposition was always private, never public.

Many admired Hitler, he had ‘rebuilt’ Germany.
Ø  There was an economic recovery.

Ø  Made the people feel like they had power again since the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles.

People didn’t want to lose their jobs. There was also a lot of propaganda. It ensured that the people would know very little about the bad things happening.

The opposition
In 1944 many believed that Hitler was bringing Germany into ruin. So they tried to kill him. The plan was to leave a bomb in Hitler’s conference room. The man behind this was Count von Stauffenberg. On the 20th of July he left a bomb, however it did not succeed, and as a revenge, over 5000 men were killed.

Catholic Bishop Galen led a protest in 1941 against the Nazi killing mentally ill and physically disabled people, which forced the Nazis to temporarily stop.

Pastor Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer formed an alternative Protestant Church.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer became involved with members of the army who were secretly against Hitler. He helped Jews escape from Germany. He was arrested in October 1942 and hanged.

The Churches
In the early stages of Hitler’s power, there was some co-operation. Hitler signed a Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1933. The Catholic Church would be left alone and they would still be in control of the schools, in return they would stay out of politics.

However, some Protestant Churches were against the Nazis, as they believed that the loyalty lay with their own churches, and not Nazi-approved ones.

Hitler made an alternative religion to the Churches: the pagan German Faith Movement.

Culture and Propaganda
Dr Joseph Goebbels was in charge of the Propaganda and Enlightenment. He organised rallies, marches and meetings. An example is the Nuremberg rallies which took place every summer. They brought excitement into people’s lives.

The Olympic Games in 1936 was a propaganda opportunity for Goebbels to show the world how great the Nazis were and how well Germany was doing. The USA tried to boycott the Games due to the Nazis hate towards Jews.

Goebbels had full control over the media
Ø  No books were published without Goebbels’ premission.
Ø  He organised a ‘book-burning’ in 1933 where students publically burned any books that included anti-Nazi ideas.
Ø  Artists also had these restrictions. Goebbels also had control over the newspapers.
Ø  Jewish editors and journalists lost their jobs.
Ø  Cinemas were also closely controlled. All films had to include a pro-Nazi message. No foreign films.
Ø  Many posters were hung up in Germany.
Ø  Jazz music was banned, he claimed it to be ‘Black’ music.

Ø  He controlled radio stations and made them cheap so many people could afford them. Loudspeakers were placed in the streets and public bars, repeating Hitler’s speeches over and over. 

School
Ø  Learn a lot about the history of Germany.
Ø  Told how the economic problems were because of Jews taking away the money of honest Germans.

Ø  Biology would tell you that as an Aryan race you were superior and more intelligent. 

Teens
Ø  The Hitler Youth or League of German Maidens members marched in exciting parades, were physically fit and confident at reading maps.

Ø  Hitler Youth: first loyalty is Hitler.

Rebellious teens
Ø  The Swing movement:
v  Middle-class teenagers
v  Listened to American and English music.
Ø  The Edelweiss Pirates
v  Working-class teenagers
v  Mainly aged between 14 and 17
v  Went camping on weekends and sang songs mocking Germany
v  Almost never arrested because Hitler needed youths to work once they were old enough, but one time it escalated, in 1944 in Cologne. They helped shelter escaped prisoners and stole weapons and attacked the Gestapo. A chief was killed. Twelve ‘ringleaders’ were publically hanged in November 1944. 

Citizens in Germany
Women in Nazi Germany
Ø  Traditional role of a woman: take care of the household and children and support the husband.
Ø  Due to the falling birth rate, Hitler offered financial rewards for married couples to have four children. At eight children you were given a ‘Gold Cross’ and a special seat in meetings.
Ø  Gertrude Scholz-Klink was head of the Nazi Women’s Bureau.
Ø  Many women had to give up their jobs.

Ø  In the late 1930s the Nazis needed more women workers because the supply of unemployed men was drying up. 

The workers
Ø  The National Labour Service sent men on public works projects, to build a network of motorways or autobahns.
Ø  Industrial workers strongly supported the Nazis: propaganda, organisations providing activities for the working-class. They improved working conditions in factories.
Ø  Farmers were important in the rise of the Nazis. Hitler made the Reich Entailed Farm Law: no land could be taken off the farmers.
Ø  Not all farmers were thrilled: banks often refused to lend money.

The business
Ø  Middle-class business people were grateful for the Nazis: eliminated the Communists and how the Nazis were bringing order to Germany.
Ø  Most small stores did not benefit: especially not shops with consumer goods.

Ø  The big business really benefited from the Nazi rule: no more worries about difficult trade unions or strikes. 

Volksgemeinschaft: all farmers, workers and so on would see themselves as Germans. Their loyalty lay with the Germany and Hitler before their own social groups.

“Minorities”
The Nazis killed mentally ill or handicapped, gypsies, homosexuals and others because they believed that the Aryans were the ‘master race’ and that the above were inferior or just plainly unacceptable.

The Jews
Ø  Anti-semitism means hatred of Jews.
Ø  One reason for them to be discriminated was because the Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ.
Ø  Another reason was that they were often well educated, had good jobs or successful stores and businesses.
Ø  Hitler hated Jews because during his years in Vienna, in poverty, he felt that the Jews were really successful. This showed the opposite of his idea of the superiority of Aryans.
Ø  He blamed Jewish businessmen and bankers for Germany’s defeat in the First World War, declaring that they forced the surrender of the Germans.
Ø  When Hitler took power in 1933, he banned Jews from Civil Service and a range of public services like teaching and broadcasting.
Ø  The SA and SS organised boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses and marked them with a star of David.
Ø  In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws took away German citizenship from Jews.
Ø  Jews were often refused jobs and in schools Jewish children were humiliated.

Kristallnacht: In November 1938 a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris. The Nazis used this as an excuse for an attack on Jews. SS troopers got pickaxes and hammers and the addresses of Jewish businesses and smashed up their shops and workplaces. Ninety-one Jews were murdered. Twenty thousand were taken to concentration camps and thousands fled Germany. This became known as the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ or the Kristallnacht.

The ghettos: after Germany defeated Poland in 1939, the Nazis wanted to ‘Germanise’ western Poland. This meant taking the Poles away from their homes and replacing them with Germans. Polish Jews were rounded up and transported to the major cities, where they were brought into isolatated areas: the ghettos. The healthy Jews were used for slave labour, however, the young, the old  and the sick were left to die from hunger and disease.

In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR, which seemed to be a great success at first. Until they were losing to 3 million Russian Jews and the Jews of all the other countries the Germans had invaded. The Germans had the orders to round up and shoot Communist Party activists and their Jewish supporters. Special SS units called Einsatzgruppen carried out these shootings. By autumn 1941, mass shootings were taking place all over eastern Europe. In Germany, all Jews had to wear the star of David on their clothing to mark them out.

The ‘death camps’
When senior Nazis met at Wannsee in January 1942 to discuss what they called the ‘Final Solution’ to the ‘Jewish Question’ Himmler, head of the SS and Gestapo was put in charge of the killing of all Jews in Germany and German territory. Slave labour and death camps were built at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmo and other places. The old, the sick and young children were immediately killed, the healthy were used as slave labour and some were used for medical experiments. Six million Jews, 500,000 European gypsies and countless political prisoners, homosexuals and Russian and Polish prisoners were sent to these camps to be worked to death, gassed or shot.

Impact of World War 2
Hitler promised to:
Ø  Reverse the Treaty of Versailles
Ø  Unite Germany and Austria
Ø  Rebuild Germany’s armed forces
Ø  Extend German territory into Eastern Europe

He started a Second World War while doing so.
Ø  Germans didn’t want another war, but the Nazis made sure that they would support it.
Ø  Food rationing – introduced soon after the war began in September 1939.
Ø  Clothes rationing – November 1939.
Ø  From 1939 – 1941 everything was going well for Germany: Hitler was in control of much of western and eastern Europe.
Ø  In 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union: they were losing.
Ø  Civilians had to cut back on heating, work longer hours and recycle rubbish.
Ø  The Nazis lost support, weakening them. 

Ø  In 1942, the Allies started bombing German cities, to cripple German industry.
Ø  The bombing in Dresden (February 1945) killed between 35,000 and 150,000 people in two days.
Ø  By 1945, civilians were desperate: food was scarce, 3.5 million German civilians had died. 3 months after the Dresden bombing, the war was over: Hitler, Goebbels and other Nazi war leaders committed suicide and Germany surrendered.


Many Jews were able to flee the country before the killing started, while others managed to live under cover in Germany and the occupied territories. Gad Beck led the Jewish resistance to the Nazis in Berlin. There were 28 known groups of Jewish fighters. Germans and other non-Jews helped protect or smuggle Jews out of the country. Industrialist Oskar Schindler saved many Jews by getting them on his ‘list’ of workers. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg worked with others to provide Swedish and US passports to bring them to safety.