Nazi Germany 1933-1945

Hitler insanely hated the Jews

During his years of poverty in Vienna, he became obsessed with Jews as they ran the money of the most successful buisnesses

Offended his idea of the superiority of Aryans

He blamed the Jews for German's defeat in the Firt World War

As soons as he took power in 1933, he movilised the full powers of the state against the Jews

Banned from the Civil Service and a variety and Public Services like teaching and broadcasting

SA and SS troopers organized boycotts of
Jewish shops and buisnesses

Marked with a star of David

Nuremberg Laws took away German citizenship from Jews

Jews were forbidden to marry or have
sex with pure-blodded Germand

Goebbels propaganda experts bombarded German children and families with anti-Jewish messages

Jews were refused jobs and people in
shops refused to serve them

In shools, Jewish children were humiliated and segregated

Kristallnacht ("The Night of the Broken Glass")

In November 1938, a young Jew
killed a German diplomat in Paris

The Nazis used this as an excuse
to launch a violent revenge on Jews

Ninety-one Jews were murdered

Hundreads of synagogues were burned

Twenty thousand Jews were taken to concentration camps

Thhousands of Jews left the country

The ghettos

After defeating Poland in 1939, the Nazis
set about "Germanising" western Poland

Polish Jews were herded into sealed areas called ghettos

The ablbe-bodied Jews were used for slave labour

The young, the old, and the sick were
left to die from hunger and disease

Mass murder

In 1941, Germany invaded the USSR

Nazis were in controle of 3 million Russian Jews in addition to the Jews in all of the other countries they had invaded

There was a massive shooting

The "death camps"

In January 1942, Nazis met to discuss
about the "Final Solution"

Himmler, head of the SS and Gestapo, was put in charge of the systematic killing of all Jews within Germany and German-occupied territory.

Slave labour and death camps were built

The old, the sick and young children were killed inmediately

The able-bodied were used as slave labour

Some were used for appalling medical experiments

6 million Jews, 500.000 European gypsies and countless political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and Russian and Polish prisoners of war

Sent to these camps to be worked to death, gassed or shot

The "Final Solution"

International historians believed the hole
dreadful process was planned

Structuralists historians argue that the
plan was not clear from the beginning

The problem was the lack of evidence

Hitler made speeches in which he talked
of the annihilation of the Jews

He never signed any documents or made any recorded orders directly relation to the extermination of the Jews

Nazis kept the killing programme as secret as they could

Historians agree that Hitler was ultimately responsible

The genocide would not had been possible without

The Civil Service bureaucracy

They collected and stored information about Jews

Police forces in Germany and the occupied lands

The SS

Adolf Heichmann devised a system of transporting Jews to the collecting points to the death camps

The Wehrmacht (Germn armed forces)

Industry

Companies had their own slave labour camps

The German poeple

Mnay Germans took part in some aspect of the Holocaust, but closed their eyes to the full reality of what was hapening

Resistance

Many Jews scaped from Germany before the killing started

Other Jews managed to live under cover in
Germany and the occupied territories

Gad Beck

Lead the Jewish resistace to the Nazis in Berlin

Captured in April 1945

Rescued by a detouchment of troops from the Jewish
regiment of the Red Army before his execution

28 known groups of Jewish fighters

Many resisters helped Jews in concentration camps to escape

Most of the succesful resisters were succesful because they kept unextremely low profile and were discovered neither by the nazis then, nor by historians today

Nazis believed in the superior of the Aryan race

Persecution of other races and minorities

Gypsies

Considered an inferior race

Homosexuals

Were a threat to Nazi ideas about a family life

Mentally handicapped

Were a threat to Nazi ideas about Germans
beign a perfect master race

Between 1939 and 1945, "Euthuansia-
programme" was introduced

Mentally handicapped babies
and children were killed

Sterilisation was enforced in families
with hereditary illnesses

Hitler fullfilled his promises

Promises

Reverse the Treaty of Versalles

Rebuild Germany's armed forces

Unite Germany and Austria

Extend German territory into easter Europe

Consequences

He started the Second World War

Eventhough food and clothes were rationated, Germans
lived in better conditions that in other countries

War with Russia disrupted civilian's lives

They had to

Cut back on heating

Work longer hours

Recycle rubbish

Goebbels tried to mantain poeple's support

By asking them to do sacrifices

1.5 million fur coasts were donated
to German army in Russia

German people started to hear less about Hitler

He was proccupied because of the war

The Final Solution

Was based on the killing of million of Jewish
civilians in German-occupied countries

Measures were carried out by the SS

postal services were suspended

Letter boxes were closed

All places for entretainment were closed

Except for cinemas

Useful for propaganda

Woman were drafted into the Labour
Force in increasing numbers

Country areas had to take evacuees from the
cities and refugees from eastern Europe

Germans stayed away from Nazi rallies and they refused
to give the "Heil Hitler" salute when they were asked

The bombarding of Dresden

In 1942, Allies decided an a new policy
towards the bombing of Germany

Under Arthur "Bomber" Harris, industrial and residential
areas of all mayor Germany cities were bombarded

Objectives

Cripple German industry

Lower the morale of civilians

By 1945, German poeple were
in a desesperate state

Food supplies were dwindling

3.5 million German civilians died

Refugees were fleeing the advancing
Russian armies in the east

Hitler, Goebbels and other Nazi leaders
committed suicide 3 months later

Germany was a shattered country now

Economic recovery and rearmament

Economist Dr Hjalmar Schacht

Organized Germany's finances

National Labour Service

Sent men on public works projects
and conservation programmes

Build a network of motorways

Railways were extended

Major house-building programmes

New public building programmes

Rearmament

Conscription for the German army
was reintroduced in 1935

Reduced unemployment

Weapons, equipment and
uniforms were needed

Jobs in coal mines, steel amd
textile mills were created

Four-Year Plan was announced in 1936

These measures boosted national pride

Germans began to feel their country was emerging
from the humiliation of the First World War

The Nazis and the workers

Hitler promised lower unemployment

Popular among industrial workers

Important for Nazis

Good workers were needed
to create industries

Loyalty of industrial workers
by a variaty of iniciatives

Iniciatives

Propaganda tried to associate them with Hitler

Strength Through Joy (KDF)

Gave them cheap theatre and cinema tickets

Offered cut-price cruises on luxury liners

Workers saved 5 marks a week in the state scheme
to buy the Volkswagen Beetle "people's car"

Prosperous symbol of the new Germany

Beauty of Labour

Improed working conditions in factories

Consequences

Workers lost the Social Democratic Party

Workers lost their Trade Unions

Workers had to join the DAF (General Labour Front)

It kept strict control of workers

They couldn't strike for
better pay and conditions

Some were prevented from
moving to better-paid jobs

Some workers thought that their standard of living was still lower than it had been before the Depression

The Nazis and the farming communities

Hitler introduces measures
to help farmers

The Reich Food
Estate in September 1933

Set up central boards to buy agricultural produce from the farmers and distribute it to markets in Germany

Reich Entailed Farm Law

Peasants had state protection for their farms

Banks were unwilling to lend money to farmers

Many children of farmers went to work
for a better pay in German's industries

Rural depopulation grew

Some peasants were not thrilled with
the regime's measures

Big buisnesses and the middle classes

Small buisnesses

Were likely to do well from government orders

Consumer goods

Might well struggle

Big buisnesses

Didn't had to worry about trade unions or strikes

Volksgemeinschaft ("national community")

Hitler wanted Germans to think
they didn't have social groups

They all belonged to a national community

Hitler wanted people to put Germany's
interest before their own

Didn't success

The SS (1925)

Loyal to Hitler

Led by Heinrich Himmler

Composed only by Aryans

Divided into

Death's Head units

Responsible of

Concentration camps

Slaughter of the Jews

Waffen-SS

The Gestapo

Secret state police

Commanded by Reinhard Heydrich

Responsible of

Arresting citizens on suspiction and send them to Concentration Camps without explanation

Police and courts

Helped to prop up the Nazi dictatorship

Jobs were given to high ranking Nazis

Ordered to ignore crimes committed by Nazis

Oppenents of Nazism rarely recieved farely trial

Concenration capms

Anti-Nazi citizens were sent
to Concentration Camps

Force to do hard labour

Limited food

Suffered harsh discipline
and random executions

Ruled by SS Death's Head units

Nazi Successes

German's support

Causes

Economic recovery

Discipline was brought back

Restoring traditional values

Hitler's success in foreign affairs

Consequence

Germans felt they were a
powerful country again

Economic fears

Bosses and workers feared to loose their jobs

Couldn't express opposition

Buisnesses feared to go bankrupt

Couldn't express opposition

Propaganda

Bad news were desguised
with propaganda

Hitler's image was
perfectly mantained

Respected even when Germany
was loosing the war

The July Bomb plot

Some army officers
wanted to kill Hitler

The plan failed

Nazis took revenge
killing 5000 people

Catholic Church

Concordat with Hitler in 1933

Church must stay out of politics

Hitler created an alternative church
to unite all Protestant Churches

Reich Church

Little opposition between
Nazis and Protestants

Exceptions

Catholic Bishop Galen

Wanted Nazis to stop killing mentally
ill and physically disabled people

Nazis couldn't silence them

Pastor Martin Niemöller

Created an altrnative Protestant
Church to the Reich Church

Spent 1938-1945 in a
concentration camp

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Helped Niemöller

Preached against the Nazis

Gestapo stopped him in 1937

Involved with members of army's services
who were secretly opposed to Hitler

Helped Jews escape from Germany

Arrested in October 1942

Hanged in April 1945

Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Minister for
Englishtement and Propaganda

Believed in Hitler as a saviour

He wanted others to believe this too

Decided what German people
should or should not hear

Used every resource to make
poeple loyal to Hitler

The Nuremberg rallies

Public event where bands, marches, flying
displays and Hitler's speeches were shown

Took place every summer

Media

Books should promote Nazi message

High-profile "Book-burning" in 1933

Paintins should promote the Nazi message

Films and commercials had to
carry a Pro-Nazi message

Foreign films were avoided

Posters proclaming the success of Hitler
and the Nazis were posted everywhere

Jazz music was banned because it was "black"
music. Black people were conidered inferior

New technology

Cheap radios were sold so people could listen to Hitler's speeches and Pro-Nazi messages everywhere

If poeple coouldn't afford radios

Loud speakers were placed in public areas

The 1936 Olympics

Great opportutnity to

Great propaganda within
Germany and internationally

Show Aryans were superior

USA boycott the games against the Nazis

Germany included one Jew in their team

Show Germany as a modern,
civilized and successful country

A new stadium was built

New technology was used

Schools made children be loyal to Hitler

Parents were less loyal thay their children

Youth movement against Hitler (not
political opponents of the Nazis)

The "Swing" movement

Middle-class teenagers

Listened to English and American music

Accepted Jews at their clubes

Talked about and enjoyed sex

The Edelweiss Pirates

Working-class teenagers
(boys and girls)

Aged between 14 and 17

Sang songs to mock Germany

Much freer towards sex

Nazi's intervention

Gestapo broke up 28 groups
containing 739 in 1942

Pirates could be arrested or ignored

Future workers and soldiers were needed

Pirates helped to shelter army
deserters and escaped prisoners

Stole armaments and
attacked the Gestapo

12 Pirates were hanged in 1944

Nazis were a male-dominated organization

Many women agreed with it

Hitler offered finantial incentives for married
couples to have at least 4 children

If couples got 8, they would
get a "Gold cross"

Couples were given priviledge
seats at Nazis meetings

During 1930s, women had to start working

They had to continue with their
family's responsibility

Limitations

Married professional woman was
forced to give up their jobs

Discrimination against women
applicants for jobs was encouraged

Prominent women

Leni Reifenstahl

High profile film producer

Gertrude Scholz-Klink

Head of the Nazi Women's bureau