Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany Exam 2 Cards

Nazi Anti-Semitism

➤ Extreme nationalism \n ➤ Social Darwinism \n ➤ Pseudo-scientific corruption of Darwins idea of natural selection \n \n Jews were blamed for many of Germany's problems (WWI), prejudice of religion and hatred on ancestry

Within anti-semitism, who were considered the superior races?

➤ Aryans \n ➤ Latins (Kinda)

Within anti-semitism, who were considered the inferior race?

➤ Slavs, Africans, Sinti-Roma, Asians \n ➤ Jews

How far back does anti-semitism go back?

To medieval times, potentially even farther back

Why were the jews considered "Blood Libel"?

They were considered to be the cause of many events in the past such as the Bubonic Plague and were a major contributor to the Crusades.

Were seen as a scape goat.

Who were considered Gypsies?

descending from people who immigrated from India in the Medieval Ages, the Gypsies lived in Communal living in caravans, were outsiders.

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Faced Pre-Nazi discrimination (1926, 1929)

What were Nazi Policy on Gypsies?

Faced Pre-Nazi discrimination (1926, 1929)

✤ 1933 sterilization \n ✤ 1935 banning of intermarriage of Germans \n with "Gypsies, negroes, and their \n bastards"

How did the Nazi Policy on Gypsies get worse?

✤ 1936: Office to Combat Gypsy considered it a Nuisance

✤ 1937: increased mass arrests

✤ 1938: 1,000 sent to concentration camps

✤ 1939 2 concentration camps opened for Sinti and Roma

✤ 30,000 expelled from Germany to Poland

✤ 1941-45 250,000 killed by SS units and in death camps

How did the Nazis view homosexuality?

Wasn’t looked positively upon.

The Nazis followed their policy of discrimination \n \n ✤ After Night of Long Knives homosexuals purged from party \n ✤ Himmler purges SS \n ✤ Paragraph 175 of criminal code making homosexuality illegal \n ✤ 10 year sentence \n ✤ 100,000 arrested in Germany \n ✤ 50,000 imprisoned in concentration camps \n ✤ Discrimination continued after the war and many were not recognized as victims of Nazis

Where does Modern anti-Semitism start?

After emancipation in 1790

What consisted of modern-antisemitism?

➤ Nationalism and "Jewish Question"
➤ Anti-Semitism politics
➤ Social Darwinism
➤ Anti-Semitism in Vienna during Hitler
early adulthood

Origins of the "Stab in the Back"

What was Nazi-Antisemitism?

How the Jews themselves were responsible for all that threatens Germany

Caused Germany to lose World War One, The Jews were the traitors

Communism, Karl Marx was a Jew

Caused the Great depression (So is said)

Lebensraum and the Solution to the "Jewish Question"

How as the Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life seen during the 1920s

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✤ Removal of those "polluting the population" \n ✤ Prevention of reproduction (forced sterilization) and euthanasia ("mercy" killing)

Wasn’t something only done by Nazi Germany \n

✤ Sterilization programs in Sweden and Switzerland \n ✤ US states and sterilization of severe patients in psychiatric facilities

What were Nazi policies on racial hygiene after 1933

Moved from theory to practice, defined people as “useless mouths

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✤ July 1933: Law for Prevention of Genetically Diseases

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✤ Compulsory sterilization

Was done on mentally deficient individuals:

schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, epilepsy, hereditary blindness and deafness

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✤ Expanded to alcoholism, habitual criminals, workshy. "Rhineland Bastards"

✤ 400,000 forcibly sterilized

Effect of Racial Hygeine policy later on

Led to the Arrests of:

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Sinti-Roma (Gypsies)

prostitutes

beggars

homeless

Alcoholics

All above would be sent to concentration camps

T4 Program

Program done by Nazi Germany

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framed as a euthanasia program— done to kill incurably ill, people physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught and even elderly people.

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Done to Reduce consumption of resources

✤ 70,000 killed by gas by 1941

✤ Became the model for Holocaust

✤ Ends over fear of public backlash, particularly from the Catholic Church

What was Nazi Architecture?

Was a mixture of classical and modern architecture

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Was curated by Albert Speer

How did the Germans go after art?

In 1937, they put forward an art exhibition displaying pieces seen as degenerate.

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Within the collection, it featured works by Picasso, Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky and others

What attributes led to the Nazis having control over media and culture?

Eventually, almost all media consumed in Germany had been approved by Ministry of Propaganda

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Monitoring of public opinion through block wardens



Hitler Youth

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SD and Gestapo

How was Hitler seen by the German people?

Hitler was seen as a man of destiny \n In tune with all levels of society

\n Self-sacrificing hero of German national \n salvation

\n Germany itself was renewed and resuming its \n destiny as the master of Europe

\n How all Germans, through the Party and Hitler, had \n role to play in Germany's messainic mission

What were the effects of the Nazis having almost complete control over media and culture?

Much of society begun buying into it, even those that weren’t fully into it.

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Increased the feelings of unity and conformity


All public dissent disappeared


Increased anti-Semitism

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Slowly began to die down as the public got bored of it,

inability to completely remove all competing culture

What was the SS State?

Effectively a private army of Nazi Germany

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• Created in 1934 fusing of security state and political state

Would overshadow the Storm Troopers (SA) in importance.

What made up the Organs of the SS?

Gestapo

• Considered the Official government secret police

• 1935-6 7,266 people affiliated with SPD and KPD would arrested and interred in concentration camps

• SD

• Internal security force of SS

• Order Police

• Regular police force

• Block Wardens

• Hitler Youth

• Informers - Both official and unofficial

Who was Antonio Gramsci

A humanist and a neo-marxist, developed the concept of hegemony

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States how unlimited terror is often not effective or possible.

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Repressive states to be effective require terror to be combined with consensus building.

How would the nazis conduct mass surveillance?

The public was vital

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• Many volunteered information on those they
thought disloyal to the regime
• Some were false accusations

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The Nazis worked to create contradictory goals:
Mass participation and conformity
Depoliticization of masses and turning them into passive consumers

The Nazis created contradictory goals

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Very few would truly buy into the Nazi regime, everyone else went along with the motions.

What was the Winter Relief Program?

Program done to aid those in need

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End class divisions, \n Creation of racial community of "National Comrades"

The Reich Church

A church established by Nazi Germany based off the Christian church, was done with intentions to take over the official state church.

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This was the name given to the national church into which all protestant churches in Germany merged in 1933.

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A fusion of the christianity and the Nazi Ideology.

The "Confessing Church"

Led by two men named Martin NIemöller and Dietrch

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movement for revival within the German Protestant churches that developed during the 1930s.

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The "Confessing Church" worked against the nazi's "Reich Church" until it was forced to go underground due to the growing opposition from the Nazis.

Who was Martin NIemöller?

A veteran submarine commander in World War One

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Leader of the Confessing church,

Held traditional Christian anti-Semitism

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Would break with Nazis of Jewish converts and attempts to Nazify the Protestant Church

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later arrested in 1938

What was considered "Racial Hygiene"?

Removal of all thought to be threatening to

racial purity

✤ Long history in and outside of Germany

✤ Support from highly educated

How did the Nazis conflict with the Protestant Church?

Protestant church was divided

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Attacks on university theology departments

University of Bonn and Munich

Pastors openly opposed to Nazis banned fired, by 1937 over 700 arrested

Others embrace the German Church and Regime

What was "Kristallnacht"?

Between Nov 9-10th...

➤ Massive, officially support pogrom

➤ Organized by Goebbels to regain favor

➤ Hitler supports, but keen to hide

➤ Synagogues burned, Jewish business ransacked

➤ 25,000 arrested and sent to concentration

camps

➤ 100 murdered, thousands injured and raped

What were the Nazi Party's views on the Catholic church?

Openly against many of the morals that make it up.

Ideas of peace, charity, love,

and forgiveness contradicted the Nazi

ideals of hyper nationalism and violent

struggle

• Nazis saw Christian virtues as weak

• Issue of Jewish roots of Christianity

Nazi Party relationship with the Christian Church

Consisted of 20 million Germans

Nazi have more ambiguous relationship

Many leaders were catholic

Nazis admired organization, discipline, hierarchy, and influence

Nazis opposed internationalism and political independence

Why did so many Germans support the Nazis?

Traditionally close relationship between Prussian state and

protestant Church

• Largest religious group in country

• Union of Throne and Altar

• Divine Right monarchy

• Majority religion in Germany

How did the Church view the Nazis?

Nazis seen as a buffer state between Communism

• Hitler's depiction as defender of Christian

Civilization

• Tool of "Divine Providence"

• Nazis assure them they would safeguard

the values and the Church

• Nazi leaders all Christians who never

renounced their religious affiliations

Clemens vol Galen

Bishop of Münster

• Condemned Nazi radicals like Alfred

Rosenberg

• Opposed T4 program, Gestapo, and

concentration camps

• Nazi plans to have him arrested after the

war

What was the Night of the Long Knives?

Purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. Ernst Röhm wanted to have his troops incorporated into the new Wehrmacht that was being prepared to take the place of the Reichswehr.

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Hitler, sacrificed Röhm, knowing that military strength was necessary in order to appeal to German generals, to gain army support.

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Alleging that Röhm was plotting a putsch, Hitler ordered a massacre. Röhm and many more leaders of the SA were shot by members of Heinrich Himmler's SS.

Night of Broken Glass

Organized attack on Jewish people, as well as synagogues and their businesses

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Hitler would later rationalize it by stating how the Jews had it coming, concluding that the Jewish Communities would pay for the damages done.

Ernst Rohm

head of the "Storm Troopers"; loyal aid to Hitler; killed by Hitler.

Was a good friend to Hitler.

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Röhm helped Hitler win the support of the army in Bavaria and made available to him his private strong-arm force, which in October 1921 became the SA.

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For his part in the Beer Hall Putsch of November 8-9, 1923, in Munich, Röhm was briefly imprisoned.

Otto Adolf Eichmann

One of hitler's top men

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realized that sending jews to the concentration camps to die was easier than using the einsatzgruppen, (

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often called "mobile killing units," they were best known for their role in the murder of Jews in mass shooting operations during the Holocaust.)

Heinrich Himmler

German Nazi who was chief of the SS and the Gestapo and who oversaw the genocide of six million Jews (1900-1945)

Reinhard Heydrich

Gestapo deputy chief

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set out to gain the final solution to the Jewish Question.

Heinz Guderian

He was a German general during WWII and the major military theorist of his generation,

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advocated armored thrusts to break enemy lines. He saw the potential of the tank as the key weapon of war.

Hermann Göring

German politician in Nazi Germany who founded the Gestapo and mobilized Germany for war (1893-1946)

Joseph Goebbels

Chief minister of the Nazi propaganda, and organizer of Kristallnacht

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Head of Ministry of PropagandaMinistry

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Make sure all theatre, film, literature,

art, press, broadcast brought in line

with Nazi worldview and ideology

Public relations in Germany and

internationally

Where did racial hygiene originate within the 1800s?

✤ Fears of supposed degeneration of

population with industrialization and mass

urbanization

✤ Social breakdown

✤ Children born of out of wedlock

✤ Alcoholism

✤ Tuberculosis

✤ Sexually transmitted disease

Meinkampf

Hitler's book My Fight. He wrote this while he was in arrest after leading an uprising in Feldherrnhalle and is his idea of what Germany should be.

* States how propaganda shouldn't be complicated, should be clear and understandable that even the dumbest person can understand.

How was propaganda used within Nazi Germany?

It should inspire and prepare them for unpopular policies

First part would be completely disregarded

More effective to manipulate than invent

• Propaganda shouldn't be complicated, should be clear and understandable that even the dumbest person can understand.

• Propaganda be directed towards those lowest intellectual level

• Repetitive

To use a little sliver of truth and make a web of lies out of it.

How did the Nazis use propaganda?

Posters, photographs, radio broadcasts, pamphlets, newspapers, and movies were used and made German citizens believe they were traitors if they didn't support it.

Massive expansion in new media of radio

"People's receivers" radios provided by substitutes from the government

Government controlled message, (2/3 of it was music. If it was constant propaganda, it would be tuned out)

Books were banned, by 1934 1,000 different books were banned.

How was the film industry affected by the Nazis?

Only German films would be available to the general public

2 largest film studios (UFA and Tobis) would be effectively nationalized

Not as much heavy handed propaganda. Most would be dramas and comedies rather than political.

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Reected the desires of public for lighter entertainment

What was the goal of the regime?

To build a foundation of popular support rather than a foundation based off fear.

How did the Germans end the independent press?

Nazis propaganda of "Lying press" before 1933

After 1933, Social Democratic and Communist newspapers closed

Creation of Reich Association of Journalists

Only politically acceptable journalist allowed to work

All journalism had to pass Nazi censorship

What goals were placed on younger generations

For boys: physical fitness and military training

• To the win the future struggle aboard

For girls: fitness for motherhood, focus on "racial hygiene and purity"

• To win the future struggle at home

How were the nazi youth encouraged to manage their relationship with their family.

Youth encouraged to oppose and

denounce parents seen as

ideologically opposed or

insufficiently loyal

What limits did the Nazi youth have with in regards to control?

Not totally pervasive

• Many more interested in sports than ideology

• Long hikes soon lose appeal

• Acts of passive resistance - not attending meetings, etc

How did the Nazis look to the education system?

Desire to manipulate during the

formative years

• History guidelines:

• Focus on heroism and leadership

• Racial/national struggle

• German cultural supremacy

• Germany's special national mission

How was higher education impacted by the Nazi Regime?

• Less control over universities

• Jewish faculty fired

• Anti-Intellectualism was in effect, discouraging people in getting advanced educations, drops in enrollment

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• Women discouraged and numbers capped at 10%

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• Military and Party were more popular, means to advance

How did the Nazis view women?

propagation of "master race"

• Promotion of motherhood as goal of female

education and female youth organization

• Discouragement of female higher education

Discouragement of jewelry, lipstick, makeup,

perfume, high-heel shoes, trousers

Impact of the Nazi's view on women

Rights for women such as…

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• abortion and contraception

• Banning of reproductive freedom

• Would prove impossible to enforce

How did Nazi Germany try to increase the size of German families?

Germany would give working women six week paid

maternity leave

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• Marriage loans of 1000 RM

Each child born would repay 25% of it.

• Paid for by taxes on single people and

childless couples

How did the Nazi's view on women become radicalized?

When throughout the war, children and women would be kidnapped from neighboring countries due to their aryan appearance.

Abortion made a capitol crime

30,000 forced abortions and sterilizations on grounds of

racial hygiene

How did the Nazis see women in the workforce?

• Another area of contradiction

• Only acceptable form of work was the

family farm

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Women slowly pulled out from professional jobs:

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• Hitler 1932: goal is to remove 800,000

women from workforce

• 1934, all married female doctors and civil

servants dismissed

• 1936, women removed as judges and

jury members

Gertrude SchlotzKlink

Oversee Nazi women policy and promotion of Nazi views on Women

Increase the League of German Girls

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Encourage them away from professional ambitions and towards marriage

Economic realities of women out of the workforce

• Reality of labor force issues require female

participation

• 1933 11.5 million women employed

• 1939 12.8 million women employed

• Demands of war production and

conscription

How did women participate in Nazi Germany?

Staffing Lebensborn

• Nazi Block Wardens

• Taking advantage of looted goods

• Secretaries in SS and Gestapo

• 3200 served as SS concentration camp

guards

How were people overall discontent with the regime?

• Mostly on economic and material issues

• Shortages

How were peasants dissatisfied with the regime?

They lacked support despite promises

How were workers dissatisfied with the regime?

Had loss of bargaining rights when unions were closed,

shortages and forced attendance at Nazi

How were the middle dissatisfied with the regime?

A large majority were not disatisfied

How were people overall discontent with the regime?

• Mostly due to economic and material issues such as shortages

Who was blamed in the Nazi Regime?

• Most blamed the system or local Nazi

officials

• Rarely targeted Hitler

• Was seen as self-sacrificing

• Rarely broke into widespread or open

dissent

• No large scale demonstrations or

confrontations

What were key reasons for the lack of opposition?

Abolition of all political parties and independent organizations

Relentless propaganda

Culture of surveillance

Threat of terror

How was Hitler's Foreign Policy seen?

Positively (At least towards the beginning)

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Hitler's success in foreign policy bolstered support for the

regime

Most accomplishments up to 1939 had strong support

Popularity was contingent though to avoidance of war

What major challenge in 1938 nearly caused the war to start a year early?

The Czech chrisis.

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• Reports of depressed mood, listening to

foreign broadcasts

• Was a lack of enthusiasm for war

• Discouraging to the regime

How did Nazi Repression work?

1933, Special Courts and People's Courts was established

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• People's Courts for major offense,

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Special Courts for minor

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• Staffed by Nazi judges

• Prosecution of derogatory remarks and

unpatriotic rumors

Why was there a lack of opposition in the Nazi regime?

• Divisions between SPD (Social Democratic Party) and KPD (Communist Party of Germany) before 1933

• Arrest, exile, and execution of leaders and

activists

• Illegality of independent institutions

• Block Wardens

Was there military opposition against the Nazi regime?

• Was the only real effective source of potential opposition

Had some concerns:

• 1934, elimination of unsupportive

leadership

• 1934, swear of oath to Hitler

• Foreign policy success undermine

opposition

• 1938, Czech crisis and near coup

• Only act in 1944

Nazi opposition to Versailles Treaty of 1919

One of opposition

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Deeply resented Disarmament, War guilt clause reparations Border revision

What was Hitler’s foreign policy like?

1\. End the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles 2. Unity of Germans in Germany (Völkish Germans) 3. Lebensraum (Living space)

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What was Hitler’s foreign policy like?

2\. Unity of Germans in Germany (Völkish Germans)

What was Hitler’s foreign policy like?

3\. Lebensraum (Living space)

What was the Policy of Appeasement?

The desire to try and avoid such a devastating war at all costs.

How did the Policy of Appeasement work?

How did Hitler begin to oppose the

Became the "affronted peace-maker"

Hitler's skills: Anticipating the actions of others and trapping them in their own self-interest

1933: Call for disarmament

1933: Non aggression pact with Poland

Weakens France

1934: Assassination of Austrian fascist Englebert Dollfus (Notes: Fascist in an Italian way, imitates Mussolini)

What was the last real opportunity to stop German aggression and low cost?

Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland, 19 battalions (19,000 soldiers) sent into Rhineland

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Clear violation of Versailles Treaty Prohibition

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France and Britain fail to act

What was the 1936 Spanish Civil War?

The first war between democracy and fascism

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Coup attempt by democratic, socialist and even communist supporters on Fascists, coup fails and results in a civil war.

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Italy really sends mass number of soldiers.

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Germany sends the condor legion. Germans tanks fight Russian tanks, becomes a place to test new weapons

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Guernica becomes a testing ground, how to destroy a city

1936, the end of German International Isolation

1936, The Rome-Berlin Axis

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1936, Japan and Germany sign anti-comintern pact

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Italy and eastern European dictatorships join in following years

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Italy and eastern European dictatorships join in following years

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Attempt at alliance with Great Britain fails

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Treaty of non-interference with the British

What was the Year of Radicalization

1938,

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Hitler's health declines causing him fear

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Moving up of timeline for war

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Göring takes over economy

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Removal of more cautious military leaders

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Kristallnacht and increasing anti-semitism

Anschluss with Austria

When Austria was bullied by Hitler to unite with Germany,

What happened with Czechoslovakia in 1938

Hitler’s biggest gamble yet.

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Hitler demands annexation of Sudetenland

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Chamberlain rejects

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War seems inevitable

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Mussolini proposes international conference to resolve issue

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Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain

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Neither the Czechs or Soviet invited

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Germany granted Sudetenland in exchange for security of remaining Czech state "Appeasement

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becomes humiliating for the British and French

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Result of Czechoslovakia

• Conservative/fascist government of central and east Europe all sign political and economic agreements

• The military and German public relieved

• Hitler and the Nazis disappointed, no war occurred

  Hitler would later annex the rest of it

Fate of the occupation

After the occupation of Sudetenland, Hitler gins up controversy over Slovakia

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March 15, orders occupation of entire Czechoslovakia

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Britain, France, USSR do nothing France and Great Britain resolve to act if Nazis act again

1939 - The Polish Crisis

• Hitler demands unification of Danzig and west Prussia with Germany

• Great Britain and France publicly state that they will use military force to support Polish independence

Explain the purpose of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Hitler desire to secure eastern flank in case of war with west

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Hitler confidence that France and Britain will not fight alone

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Stalin

Failures of popular front

Temporary alliance to buy time

Recovery of former Russian territory

1939 Invasion of Poland

Operation Himmler

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Germany invades

Great Britain and France declare war

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Hitler's Shock

Why did Germany go to war?

Richard Evans: Nazi ideology as crucial factor

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Ian Kershaw: German expansion through war was part of plan

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Adam Tooze: Nazi economic made war inevitable

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All previous gambles had paid off

Why Allies declare war

Felt they had little choice after Munich

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Anita Prazomowskia: Not really a fight for Poland, but indicating that Germany's actions were unacceptable.

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Up to 1939, Chamberlin's thoughts were that Hitler's motives were rational

Explain Blitzkrieg, what was it?

Blitzkrieg was the action of combined arms warfare

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Coordination of armor, motorized infantry and Air Power

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Avoid or destroy enemy fixed position

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Get behind enemy lines

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Cut off communication and supply

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Destroy morale, cause confusion and terror

How was Blitzkrieg used as a military strategy?

Germany had lost the war of attrition, lack of resources

for long war in the past

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Need to win any future war quickly

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Germany is easily surrounded

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Lacking in sufficient resources

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War must be fought sooner rather than later