9. Nazi Germany: Opposition, support and survival (1933-1945)

Question 1

What social benefits did some German people receive under the Nazis?

Answer 1

1. The Strength Through Joy programme, which was set up by the German Labour front (DAF), offered free trips to German workers.
2. The Strength Through Joy programme gave German workers favourable holiday rates which were subsidised by the government (23 million marks in 1933).
3. The National Socialist People’s Welfare (NSV) ran a yearly Winter Aid programme, distributing food and clothing parcels and running soup kitchens at emergency centres.
4. Aryan mothers experienced an increase in status, and their role was glorified (e.g. the Mother’s Cross)

Question 2

Identify three pieces of evidence that suggest that some people’s lives improved economically under the Nazis.

Answer 2

1. Unemployment fell considerably in the early years of Nazi rule (7.4% by 1936).
2. Wages increased, on average, 1% a year.
3. 1,000 mark loans were granted to married, Aryan couples (for every child they had, their repayment was reduced by 250 marks).

Question 3

Identify three groups of people who would have supported the Nazi regime, and explain why they would have done so.

Answer 3

1) Industrialists: This group benefitted from the banning of the German Communist Party (KPD) and trade unions (except the DAF), as well as through the expansion of the war economy.
2) The Mittelstand (small businessmen; tradesmen): The Law for the Protection of Retail Trade (1933) banned the opening of new department stores and gave this group more business. Also, the Nazi government used the money available from the confiscation of Jewish businesses to offer low interest rate loans to small businesses.
3) Agricultural workers: The Reich Food Estate (est. in 1933) regulated food production and distribution, as well as food prices and wages. Tariffs on imports saw the demand for German farmers’ produce rise (e.g. farmers’ incomes increased by 41%).

Question 4

Why did popular support for the Nazis help the regime to survive between 1933 and 1945?

Answer 4

Popular support helped the Nazi regime to survive because it:

1) Encouraged people to accept/tolerate/support Nazi rule and, therefore, not oppose the regime.
2) Discouraged people from rallying around opposition movements and, as a result, weakened these movements

Question 5

What happened to the level of support for the Nazis during the Second World War (1939-45), and why?

Answer 5

German people’s morale and support for the regime began to weaken during the Second World War. This was as a result of:

1) Significant losses after 1942 (the Battle of Stalingrad and El Alamein)
2) Food shortages, the short supply of commodities (such as clothing and footwear)
3) The severe impact the war had on German workers (e.g. holidays were banned and the working week became 60 hours).

Question 6

What methods of communication did the Nazis use to spread their propaganda and ideology to the masses?

Answer 6

• Produced a cheap radio set called the ‘People’s receiver’ (1939: 70% of German households owned a radio)
• Hitler was portrayed as a military leader and a father figure.

Question 7

Identify three ways the Nazis censored methods of mass communication (e.g. newspapers).

Answer 7

• October 4 1933: Editor’s Law; a crime to publish anything which spoke out against the Third Reich.
• The decree for the protection of the People and the State
• Reich association - list of accredited journalists

Question 8

Why did propaganda encourage popular support for the Nazi regime?

Answer 8

Many elements of Nazi propaganda glorified the regime and Hitler, as well as portraying him as a father figure.

Question 9

How effective was the use of propaganda during the Second World War?

Answer 9

Lana

Question 10

Why did propaganda help the Nazi regime to survive between 1933 and 1945?

Answer 10

the Nazis produced a cheap radiates and by 1939 70% of homes had one , this was a mass communication device that helped spread the nazi messages and increase their stability. also they banned anything anti nazi, decreasing opportunity for opposition. The Editors law 4th October 1933 made it a crime to publish anything against the 3rd reich, this stopped even more opportunities for opposition to form and therefore increased the Nazi’s stability. propaganda published portrayed hitler as a father figure, military leader and just idolised hime , this indoctrinated the people of Germany which greatly increased their stability.

Question 11

Describe the organisation of the SS, and their role in Nazi Germany.

Answer 11

Poppy

Question 12

Describe the organisation of the Gestapo, and their role in Nazi Germany.

Answer 12

Molly

Question 13

Describe what the People’s Courts were, and how they were different to the traditional judicial system.

Answer 13

Caitlin

Question 14

Describe what concentration camps were, and their role in Nazi Germany.

Answer 14

Louis

Question 15

How did the Nazis put down communist opposition groups?

Answer 15

• Leading activists after 1936 were drawn away from Germany to fight for the Republicans against the Fascists in Spanish Civil War
• They took orders from Moscow and yet in the 1930s Stalin purged elements of the whole communist movements

Question 16

How did the Nazis put down the opposition from the student-led White Rose Group?

Answer 16

Isra

Question 17

How did the Nazis put down opposition from youth groups, such as the Edelweiss Pirates?

Answer 17

Thomas

Question 18

How and when did conservative elites (e.g. army members) oppose Nazi rule?

Answer 18

Damiano

Question 19

How did the Nazis deal with opposition from the conservative elites (e.g. army members)?

Answer 19

-After the bomb plot on July 20 ,1944 the Nazis arrested the conspirators and killed 5000 supporters of the attempted assassination of Hitler.

Question 20

How did the Nazis use of terror affect the lives of the German population?

Answer 20

1. Concentration camps established where prisoners of the regime were questioned and subjected to torture, hard labour and re-education in Nazi ideals-could be held without trial
   1933-45 20,000 camps established
   1933-24 500,000 non-Jewish people sent to camps for political crimes
   January 1945- 714,211 people held within camps.
2. Heinrich Himmler was Reichsfuhrer and chief of all German Police (schutzstaffel)- The SS numbered 250,000 members by 1939- carried out purge of the SA during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 and later on ran concentration camps .
   - the main function of SS-police system was intelligence gathering, policing and military action.
   - responsibilities for creating “New Order” in occupied territories outside of Germany and resettling ethnic German’s and eliminating non-Aryan’s.
3. The Gestapo where a part of the SS , a secret state police set up by Hermann Goering, and were know for finding opponents of Nazi and arresting them, upholding the regime using surveillance and repression. It had a reputation for brutality-could arrest and detain without trial.
   - relied on informers and blockwarts- those who ran individual apartment blocks (around 2 million in Germany.
4. The Peoples’ courts established in 1934 where tried people were accused of being traitors to Nazi regime
   - 2 judges and five Nazi members chosen by Nazi part, the SS and armed forces were present.
   -trials were not public and appeal against verdict where banned- 10,000 people passed through courts in 1945.
   139- judges had to study Nazi beliefs-those who did not where removed.

Question 21

What impact did the Second World War have on the Nazis use of terror (1939-1945)?

Answer 21

The use of terror increased. E.g.:

1. More concentration camps were established, so opponents could be forced to hard labour for war production. There were 21,000 people in camps at the start of the war and 715,000 at the end.
2. SS numbers rose from 240,000 in 1939 to over a million in 1944.
3. Asocials, homosexuals, disabled people, gypsies, Jews and others who were looked as inferior in Nazi ideology were systematically murdered, with the Final Solution being decided in 1942 at the Wannsee Conference.

Question 22

Why did the establishment of the terror state help the Nazis regime to survive between 1933 and 1945?

Answer 22

Herbie