3. The Nazi regime (a) How effectively did the Nazis control Germany, 1933–45?

Which groups opposed the Nazi regime?

• Church leaders

• Youth groups

• Trade unions

• Left and right wing groups

• Army

Why did Church leaders oppose the Nazi regime?

• Some church leaders opposed the persecution of minorities

• Church schools and religious education was banned

• Did not like Nazi attempts to control the churches.

• Nazis saw Christianity as a rival ideology

How did Church leaders oppose the Nazi regime?

• Pastor Niemöller formed an alternative church to the Nazi Reich Church: the Confessional Church- ended up spending 8 years in a concentration camp

• Priests like Paul Schneider criticised the Nazis in their sermons

• Bishop Galen campaigned against the Nazi euthanasia programme (Aktion T4) as a result the programme stopped.

Why did the Youth oppose the Nazi regime?

• Some young people did not want to join the Hitler Youth and were demoralised by the Second World War

• Other young people did not like the restrictions imposed on them by the Nazi state

How did the Youth oppose the Nazi regime?

• Edelweiss Pirates and Navajos

  • Attacked Hitler Youth groups

  • Sheltered army deserters and concentration camp escapees

  • Assassinated the head of the Cologne Gestapo

• White Rose

  • Produced anti Nazi brochures

  • Leaders Hans and Sophie Scholl were executed by the Nazis in 1943

why did the army oppose the Nazi regime?

• The army became disillusioned as the war started to go badly

• Many army leaders hated the SS, which acted as a separate army and carried out brutal war crimes

how did the army oppose the Nazi regime?

• July 1944- Army Officer von Stauffenberg tried to assassinate Hitler with a bomb

• The plot was known as Operation Valkyrie

• Led to 5000 executions as it failed

how did right wing groups oppose the Nazis?

• Kreisau Circle (Conservative group) organised secret meetings on how Germany would be governed after Hitler’s removal

• Membership included army officers and aristocrats

how did the left wing groups oppose the Nazis?

• Communists and Social Democrats maintained underground networks after 1933

• Distributed Anti-Nazi pamphlets and printed illegal newspapers

• Striking of workers was encouraged

How did trade unions oppose the Nazis?

• Officially banned in May 1933

• Some activists with links to left wing groups worked in secret

• They organised illegal strikes and demonstrations

How did the Nazis deal with opposition?

• Informers

• The SS

• The Gestapo

• Concentration camps

• Nazi courts and judges

Informers

• Local Nazi officials reported on reliability of local residents

• Everyone was encouraged to be vigilant and report anti-Nazi activities

• This created fear as well as enabling private scores to be settled, turning people against each other

The Gestapo

• Secret police under control of Himmler and the SS in 1936

• Spied on Germans by tapping phones, intercepting emails and using information from the network of informers

• Almost unlimited powers of arrest and detention

• Had punished many cases of treason and espionage

The SS

• Led by Himmler

• Extensive powers to arrest, detain without charge, search and confiscate property

• Run concentration camps, implemented Nazi racial policies included the Final Solution (plan to systematically exterminate the Jewish population)

Concentration Camps

• Large scale prisons for critics and opponents, and other groups such as ‘undesirables’

• Harsh treatment with torture, beatings, poor labour conditions

• Used for the extermintation of the Jewish population during the Final Solution

Nazi courts and judges

• Nazis took over the court system, requiring judges and magistrates to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler

• Jewish judges and lawyers were fired

• Special courts set up for dealing with political crimes

• Minimum age for death penalty reduced to 16

• Telling Anti-Nazi jokes and listening to foreign radio stations both carried the death sentences

Why was there little opposition to the Nazis?

• Propaganda

  • The Nazis carefully controlled all media output, including all newspapers, film, radio and public events

  • Opponents of the Nazis had no opportunity to spread their ideas

  • Most Germans never heard about Nazi failures

• Indoctrination

  • Nazis attempted to indoctrinate young people

  • School children were taught Nazi ideology in schools.

  • Syllabuses were changed to reflect Nazi ideas

  • Children had to join the Hitler Youth in their leisure time, which also taught Nazi ideology

• Popular policies

  • The Nazis sorted out Germany’s economic problems, reducing unemployment from 6 million to almost nothing

  • Nazis seemed to be making Germany great again.

  • They won victories against Germany’s enemies and overturned the unpopular Treaty of Versailles

  • Brought political stability compared to the unrest of the Weimar period

Who was Josef Goebbels?

• Propaganda minister

• Controlled aspects of communication for Nazi propaganda, in order to reflect Nazis in the best light

how did the Nazis control newspapers?

• The Propaganda Ministry issued daily orders to newspapers

• Jewish and anti-Nazi publications were closed down

• Editors had to attend a daily press briefing where they were told what to print

how did the Nazis control the radio?

• The Nazis formed the Reich Radio Company to control all radio broadcasts

• Cheap People’s Receiver Radios were produced, which could not pick up foreign broadcasts- by 1939, 70% of households had one

• Loudspeakers were placed in streets and workplaces so that those without radios could hear propaganda broadcasts

how did the Nazis control festivals

• Festivals were held to celebrate national days linked to Nazi history including German Culture Day and Hitler’s Birthday

• The Nuremburg Rally was the most important event of the year and lasted a week.

• It involved huge parades and speeches, reinforcing the personality cult of Hitler, encouraging loyalty and support for the Nazi regime.

how did the Nazis control art and architecture?

• Art galleries were forced to remove expressionist paintings from the Golden Years- considered ‘degenerate’

• Galleries forced to replace exhibits with sculptures depicting heroic qualities of the Aryan race

• Public architecture was classic, emphasising the state’s authority

how did the Nazis control music?

• Classical music was favoured (e.g. Beethoven) whereas Jewish composers (e.g. Mahler) were blacklisted

• Jazz music banned as it originated in the black community

how did the Nazis control theatre?

• Propaganda films vilified the Jews, e.g. Jew Süss

• Some films celebrated the wonders of the Nazi regime, e.g. The Triumph of the Will

• Admission was only possible at the start of the programme so the audience were unable to miss official newsreels broadcasting Nazi messages

how did the Nazis control literature?

• Books were censored and libraries were forced to remove output of Jewish and Communist authors

• 1933- Goebbels supported public book burning event held by students in Berlin

• 20,000 books considered Jewish or un-German were placed on a huge bonfire

• Books encouraged were about Hitler, war-heroes or the importance of family

how did the Nazis contorl sports?

• 1936- Berlin Olympics, Nazis showcased Nazi achievements

• Germany topped the medal table, depicting Germans as superior

why did the Nazis persecute many groups in German society?

• Those not fitting the Nazi ideal

• Political opponents

• Master race theory

• Economically unproductive

Those not fitting the Nazi ideal

• Nazis saw some groups as “lesser”, who they believed undermined the racial purity of the German nation

• These groups included Jews and Romani

• Hitler used Jews as a scapegoat for Germany’s problems.

• For example, he blamed defeat in the First World War on Jewish businessmen

Political opponents

• Intimidation tactics were used against political opponents such as the Social Democrats and Communists, who stood in the way of the Nazis’ rise to power

• Many political rivals were killed during the Night of the Long Knives

Master race theory

• Hitler believed Aryans were naturally superior in terms of intelligence, physique and work ethic

• Wanted to preseve purity of the Aryan race by keeping it separate from other races

Economically unproductive

• Hitler believed Germany was overburdened with ‘undesirables’ who refused to pull their weight

• Regarded as a drain of resources, contributed little but cost vast amounts of money with care which could be better deployed on supporting the fit and healthy

• ‘Undesirables’ included the disabled, alcoholics and the mentally ill

how did the Nazis separate the Jews from the Aryans?

• April 1933- boycott of Jewish shops and businesses

• Anti-Jewish articles in the press along with ‘Jews not wanted’ signs in cafes and public areas

• Jews purged from government employment

• 1935- Nuremburg Laws denied German citizenship to Jews and prohibited sexual contact between Jews and non-Jews

Jews and Kristallnacht

• November 1938- German diplomat was murdered in Paris by a Jewish man

• Nazis responded by ordering attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues

• 400 synagogues and 7,500 shops were destroyed

• 91 Jews were murdered and 30,000 were sent to concentration camps

• jewish business owners who rented property from Germans were fined 1 billion Reichmarks for the damage

• 40% of the 550,000 German Jews had left the country

how were the Gypsies treated?

• Seen to violate both the racial and efficiency requirements

• Subject to discrimination over citizenship and marriage

• Many were arrested without cause and sent to concentration camps

• 1938- all Gypsies required to register with the authorities

What happened to the ‘undesirables’?

• Popular resentment against such people, e.g. the disabled, juvenile delinquents

• July 1933- Sterilisation law authorising sterilisation of people with illness

• So loosely interpreted that nearly 700,000 people were sterilised before the fall of the Nazi regime

• Many were sent to concentration camps

• 1939- Nazis began killing the mentally ill in a secret euthanasia campaign

• Victims included handicapped infants and children

• Methods were brutal- gas chambers, starvation

• 700,000 people lost their lives, but protests from the Church put an end to this

what is a totalitarian state?

type of rule where the government controls all aspects of public and private ,ife with the aid of propaganda and terror

Nazi totalitarian aspects

• The political system

• The economy

• Society

• Mass media and culture

• Religion

The political system

• One party state with a charasmatic leader at its helm

• Small underground cells of Communists, Social Democrats but the Gestapo prevented them from threatening Nazi rule

• Virtually all aspects of political life in Germany were controlled

The economy

• Economy of Nazi Germany was in the hands of private enterprise; most industries and finanial services had independence

• Government regulation and intervention mainly in industries connected to war production

• Nazi control over economy was far from complete

Society

• Nazi government excerised control over women and children

• Significant minority of teenagers rebelled

• Leisure time for adults was organised through the Strength through Joy organisation

• Nazi control over German society was extensive, but not complete

Mass media and culture

• Nazi had almost total control over media, the arts, newspapers

Religion

• Nazis never managed to control the Catholic Church, it retained independence

• However, many were sent to concentration camps for speaking out against the regime

• Attempts to form a Protestant Reich Church under a Nazi Bishop were stopped by the creation of the Confessional Church by Niemöller

what was the Strength through Joy organisation?

• Offshoot of the German Labour Front

• Organised leisure and recreational activities for German workers

• Subsidised theatre, cinema and opera tickets, affordable cruises and hikes with other holidays together offering a range of sporting activities