Studied by 0 people
chapter 5
- Germany took control of much of Europe, only Britain and Soviet Union prevented total domination.
- By this time there were fewer than 200,000 Jews in Germany.
- But as new territory was occupied, millions more Jews came under Nazi control.
- All the Jews were forced to move to ghettos in Poland.
- Germans called these 'Jewish Quarters'.
- Jews were crammed into poor housing.
- Food was restricted and starvation was common.
- Very overcrowded and many diseases spread.
- In Warsaw, the Jewish ghetto was surrounded by a 3.5 metre high wall, topped with barbed wire and broken glass.
- The wall was built by a German company but the local Jewish community was forced to pay for the construction.
- They followed the German army in the invasion and had special orders to put Jews to death.
- They rounded up Jewish men, women and children (as well as Communist Party leaders and gypsies) and confiscated any valuables they owned.
- The victims were forced to remove their clothing and march to fields or forests on the outskirts of towns.
- Here the Jews were shot or gassed and their bodies thrown into mass graves.
- People who were fit enough to work were given jobs to do until they were too weak to perform them. Or some were forced to take part in medical experiments.
- People who were not fit enough to take part in work were killed.
- Huge showers were built and up to 2,000 Jews at a time were sent into these showers supposedly for 'delousing'.
- Poison gas was then released into the chambers.
- After all the victims were dead, other prisoners removed the bodies.
- The bodies were then transported to huge ovens to be burned.
- Propaganda films were made showing that resettlement camps were no more than labour camps.
- The videos showed that the people were treated well and lived in good conditions.
- Stopped the Germans reacting badly.
- Also meant that Jewish people were willing to help organise the resettlement of fellow Jews.
- There was an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto against transportation to the camps.
- After a month of fighting, 56,000 Jews were arrested.
- 7,000 of them shot and the rest sent to the camps.
- Children were moved away from major centres of population, such as Berlin.
- They were sent to rural areas such as Bavaria.
- About 2.5 million German children were evacuated into rural areas as part of the KLV programme.
- The children were placed in one of 9,000 camps supervised by Hitler Youth leaders and teachers.
- Food stamps were issued to civilians and the appropriate number of stamps had to be handed over when food was bought
- Theft of stamps was a criminal offence.
- May 1942
- Bread was restricted to about half a loaf per person per day, and meat to just 40 grams per day.
- Operation Barbarossa.
- The invasion of the Soviet Union.
- At first the Germans launched rapidly and by November they were threatening Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.
- But in late November, the temperatures dropped and the soldiers were short of both winter equipment and supplies.
- The soviet forces had adopted a scorched earth policy which ,want they destroyed crops and resources that may have been helpful to the Germans.
- Over 2 million German soldiers died in the battle.
- They were now involved in 'total war'.
- So all of Germany's resources and all of its people had to be fully committed to fighting for victory.
- In 1941, Hitler announced the Russian prisoners of war could be transported to Germany to act as slave labour.
- By 1944, over 7 million prisoners were working for German industry.
- From January 1943, all men aged 16-65 and all women aged 17-45 had to register as available for work.
- Small businesses were closed.
- In August 1944, a ban on holidays for workers was introduced and the working week increased to 60 hours.
- By 1943, Hitler had to allow women to help the war effort.
- Professional sports teams.
- Places of entertainment.
- Postal services reduced to save fuel.
- Railway lines.
- Bridges.
- Motorways.
- Ruhr valley (reducing metal production by around 40%)
- They operated searchlights and anti-aircraft guns.
- Worked as nurses.
- many were killed in air raids.
- many were made homeless.
- many were forced to leave their homes to move to safer areas.
- The Soviet army was nearing Germany.
- Propaganda had led Germans to believe the Soviets would treat women brutally.
- Soviet soldiers did rape millions of German women in East Prussia and Berlin and tens of thousands of women died from the attacks.
- German communist party.
- Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, the party stepped up its secret campaigning against the government and set up more than 100 underground cells across Germany.
- But the Gestapo managed to shut the party down.
- Roman Catholic Church supported the invasion of the Soviet Union.
- But, individual priests spoke out against the Nazis policies towards those with mental or physical disabilities.
- Members of the Protestants Church read a statement in 1943 criticising the treatment of Jews.
- They met a number of Tim's in 1942/3 to discuss how to oppose Nazism.
- The group was made up of German nobility, lawyers and politicians that did not like the way Nazism crushed personal freedoms.
- The Gestapo broke up the group.
- Yes there was an increase.
- As the Allied advance began to reach major German cities, there was increasing sabotage of the defence measures.
- The people just wanted the war to end.
- Generally middle-class Germans who wanted to listen to American and British 'swing' music.
- They particularly liked jazz which the Nazis did not like because of its links to black Americans.
- Many Swing Youth groups started in major German towns.
- Some of the leading members were arrested and served short sentences in concentration camps.
- They hated Hitler Youth and frequently bullied it's members.
- They objected to conscription and training for military service.
- Their dress and musical tastes did not follow Nazi fashion.
- They were suspected of producing anti-Nazi and anti-war graffiti.
- They gave shelter to escaped prisoners from concentration camps.
- They stole food and supplies from stores or freight trains.
- They derailed train cars full of ammunition and supplied adult resistance groups with explosives.
- In 1942-43 the group published 6 leaflets criticising the Nazis.
- They painted anti-Nazi messages on buildings in Munich.
- Eventually the Scholls were caught and executed.
- General Ludwig Beck, Von Stauffenberg and anti Nazi politician, Goerdeler.
- The plan was that Goerdeler would be chancellor once Hitler had been killed.
- Von Stauffenberg took a bomb in a briefcase into a meeting at Hitler's military headquarters in East Prussia.
- He then said he had an urgent phone call so left the meeting.
- After he had left, one of the other army leaders moved his briefcase.
- Four people were killed when the bomb went off, but Hitler survived.
- Beck and Von Stauffenberg were shot.
- Goerdeler was hanged.
- Himmler was in put in charge of rounding up the plotters.
- 7,000 were arrested and almost 6,000 of them executed.
- Despite their being 11 attempts on Hitler's life, the opposition was not a threat to their rule.
- The Nazi opposition was more in little things such as not attending work, buying on the black market and failing to report anyone seen to be opposing Nazi policies.
- Allied forces were advancing on Germany from the West and the Soviet Red Army was approaching from the East.
- The allies had increased bombing of German cities.
- More soldiers died in the last 4 months of the war than the whole of 1942 and 1943 put together.
- Huge numbers of refugees fled to cities to avoid bombing or the advancing Red Army in the East.
- On 28th April, Hitler married his long term girlfriend, Eva Braun.
- Two days later he shot himself and Eva took her own life.
- Hitler left control of Germany to Admiral Doenitz.
- Doenitz surrendered to the Allies on 7th May 1945.
- The Third Reich had come to an end.
