Germany and the occupied territories during the Second World War

Ghettos

Ghettos

• Many Jews suffered in ghettos

  • Jews were crammed into “Jewish quarters” in cities with poor and crowded housing

  • About 4000 died per month in 1941 due to disease/starvation (e.g. typhus spread quickly)

  • Food was restricted so many starved and the Jews had to pay for the walls around the ghetto

• Jews were then transported to concentration camps

  • Jews were resettled easily to concentration camps in the Final Solution

  • Over 250 000 Jews from Warsaw were taken to camps in eastern Poland to work/be killed

  • In total, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust in concentration camps (e.g. Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen)

Death squads

• They killed many eastern Europeans

  • Thousands came under Nazi rule when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941

  • They rounded up Jewish men/women/children and shot/gassed them

  • They killed 1.2 million Soviet citizens by 1943, burying them in mass graves

• The Nazis killed other undesirables

  • They were used to kill other opponents in the Soviet Union to purify the population

  • Local communist leaders & gypsies were killed as they went against Nazi ideology

  • Soldiers removed valuables (like jewellery, watches and clothes) from the bodies, profiting from them

Final Solution

• Jews were sent to concentration camps for forced labour

  • Those fit enough to work had to work all day for little food and inadequate accommodation

  • There were forced to work in fields or build buildings to help the war effort

  • They were subject to experimentation and frequent beatings 

• Undesirables and those unfit for work were killed

  • From January 1942, the Nazis decided to kill 6 million Jews at these camps

  • 5 million gypsies, homosexuals, priests, disabled people were also killed and valuables (hair, teeth, glasses) were taken

  • They used propaganda to show the camps as having good conditions and so Germans were happy to help run the camps and support them

The changing role of women

• Women were reluctantly encouraged to return to the workforce

  • More women were at work in 1929 than 1939 due to Nazi policies on being good mothers

  • In June 1941, Goering ordered childless women who had been in unemployment to work again

  • After total war was declared in 1943, all women 17-45 had to register to work and women made up 60% of the labour force by 1945

• Women helped with the war effort

  • Total war led to a war-driven economy by 1943 and 500 000 more women were working

  • Many were auxiliaries in the armed forces, operating searchlights and anti-aircraft guns

  • Nazi propaganda encouraged women to see the Soviets as brutes who would treat them badly so were encouraged to help with the war effort

Total war

• Many citizens were encouraged to work to help the war effort

  • Following the failed Operation Barbarossa (invasion of the Soviet Union), Goebbels told Germans they had entered total war (they were committed to victory)

  • Prisoners of war had to help work (7 million used as slave labour by 1944)

  • Men aged 16-65 and women 17-45 had to work: holidays were banned and hours were increased

• Unnecessary services were shut down

  • Sports teams and places of entertainment were closed so more could focus on work (though cinemas remained open for propaganda)

  • Postal services were reduced to save fuel and a Home Guard was established (with boys aged 12)

  • Small businesses which weren’t essential were closed so employees could do war work

Rationing

• Products were limited

  • From August 1939, food stamps were introduced to buy food (meat, dairy products, soap)

  • From November, there were clothing restrictions; people had a basic level of nutrition but it was not ideal and so many turned to the black market for supplies

  • Theft of stamps was serious with a punishment of going to a labour camp

• There were shortages of products

  • Tobacco was rare and could be traded for other goods; there were shortages of toilet paper too

  • In 1939-40, there were shortages of coal and shoes so people were cold and discontented

  • In May 1942, the Government cut rations further: half a loaf of bread per person per day and just 40g of meat

Allied bombing

• German morale deteriorated

  • The RAF bombed civilian targets like cities with large populations to destroy German morale

  • Between March-July 1943, 43 cities were bombed, damaging houses; 42 600 died in Hamburg

  • The Government used propaganda to increase morale and set up welfare organisations, but many felt the strains of war very strongly

• War production decreased

  • From 1944, the Allies focussed on targets like railway lines, bridges, and motorways (transport)

  • Raids on the Ruhr valley reduced metal production by 40% (less for guns) in 1944

  • By destroying railway lines, war production was reduced by only 1% (although some goods didn’t make it to the front line)

Edelweiss Pirates

• Many youths engaged in anti-Nazi activities

  • They daubed anti-Nazi graffiti on the walls, listened to forbidden music, and mixed sexes

  • By 1939, there were 2000 members (it started in the Rhineland) and they objected to army conscription – but they were very loosely organised

  • They hated members of the Hitler Youth and bullied them as they hated military training

• They helped the Allies

  • They sheltered army deserters/escaped prisoners from camps and distributed Allied propaganda

  • After rationing increased, they stole food from trains alongside guns and smashed factories

  • Whilst they were never a serious threat to the Nazis, several young people from the Cologne Pirates were publicly hanged in 1944

White Rose Group

• Leaflets were sent out to spread anti-Nazi messages

  • Hans and Sophie Scholl (alongside several others) in 1941 printed anti-Nazi messages, sending them to lecturers and business owners in Munich

  • They criticised the Nazis and promoted democracy, saying Hitler would be defeated in the war

  • They campaigned against the war and the persecution of the Jews, writing graffiti on walls

• The Nazis made an example of the Scholls

  • In 1943, the leaflets were left in prominent places (e.g. Munich University), but Sophie was seen

  • The Gestapo tortured the Scholls who confessed to treason against the Nazis and Hitler

  • They were executed in private and 80 other associates were arrested too, reminding the public not to go against the Nazis

July bomb plot

• The Army were seen to be dissatisfied with the war

  • On 20^th July 1944, von Stauffenberg (a colonel) was one of several officers who believed Germany was going to be defeated and wanted to stop Hitler

  • He took a bomb in a briefcase to a meeting with Hitler (but Hitler survived the bomb)

  • The group wanted to take control of Berlin, but were unable to with Hitler still alive

• Thousands of conspirators were killed or arrested

  • Von Stauffenberg was shot and Himmler was put in charge of rounding up the plotters

  • 7000 people were arrested, including many senior officials, so many were anti-Hitler

  • Thousands of these were executed, including 19 generals and 27 colonels (showing dissatisfaction with Hitler in the senior ranks of the Army)

Hitler’s death

• Morale was lost

  • With British forces advancing from the West and Soviets from the East, defeat seemed immanent

  • Nazi propaganda showed the Soviets as brutes and many were scared of the invasion

  • Resources ran low with continued bombing and 1 million died from hunger, disease, and cold

• Germany quickly surrendered to the Allies

  • Germany was squeezed from both sides and couldn’t resist for much longer

  • More German troops died in the last 4 months of the war than in 1942-43 (they fought hard)

  • But Hitler committed suicide on 30^th April 1945 and Germany surrendered to the Allies on 7^th May 1945. The Third Reich had ended.