Nazi Control of Germany

1. Nazi Control of Germany 1933-1945

2. Objectives • Review how Hitler consolidated power • Understand how Germany changed once Hitler became dictator • Discuss how Nazi ideology was put in to practice & changed the lives of youth, women, workers, and Jews • Empathize with life under Nazi control, both for those favored and those unfavored

3. Vocabulary • Trade union: organization of workers to demand rights for workers • Self-sufficient: having everything that is needed, not requiring any imports. • Rearmament: building up your armed forced, constructing materials needed for war. • Untermenschen: sub-human (Jews, slavs) • Indoctrinate: getting people (especially the impressionable or young) to believe in a set of ideas

5. How did he keep power? 1) One-party state: • Enabling Act (March 1933) made Hitler all-powerful Fuhrer   • The Law against the Formation of Parties (July 1933) declared the Nazi Party the only political party in Germany.   • Was an offence to belong to another Party.   All other parties were banned, and their leaders were put in prison.      • Nazi Party members, however, got the best jobs, better houses and special privileges.   Many businessmen joined the Nazi Party purely to get orders.

6. How did he keep power? “The average worker is primarily interested in work and not in democracy. People who previously supported democracy now showed no interest at all in politics. One must be clear about the fact that in the first instance men are fathers of families and have jobs, and that for them politics takes second place and even then only when they expect to get something out of it.” – German activist, 1936 2) Terror • Set up the Gestapo (the secret police) • Controlled the SS, police, and courts • Economic fears (“keeping your head down”) • Encouraged Germans to report opponents • Went to great lengths to find out what people were saying about the regime • Sent to concentration camps

7. How did he keep power? 3) Propaganda • Minister for Enlightenment & Propaganda = Dr. Joseph Goebbels • Believed Hitler = savior, mission to convince others • Focus: Bring excitement & a sense of belonging, prove the power of the state, emphasize order, point out scapegoats/enemies • Nazi propaganda also branded Jews as dirty, deceitful, dangerous people of whom Germany should be free

8. Propaganda Nuremberg Rallies • Huge, torch lit processions w/ bands, flying displays • Took place each summer • Hitler speeches

9. Propaganda • Nuremberg Rallies

10. Propaganda 1936 Olympics in Berlin • International propaganda opportunity • Showcase their doctrine that Aryan race superior • Prove that Germany was a modern, civilized, successful nation • Visitors amazed at scale, facilities & organization • Those used to it noticed its strength, efficiency, achievement • To others, propaganda effort backfired • Appalled by the fanatical devotion of people to Hitler & the overt presence of army and SS • Jesse Owns – 4 gold medals, 11 world records (10 black members of the American team won 13 medals)  destroyed idea of Aryan superiority

11. Propaganda 1936 -38 Boxing Championship: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling • Hitler will use Max Schmeling as an overseas mouthpiece • After first fight, Schmeling became a hero • The second fight became a spectacle that came to embody the broader political and social conflict of the times; Louis was a focus point for African Am pride in the 1930s, representing the entire United States against Nazi Germany. The fight came to symbolize the struggle between democracy and fascism. • These two fights are among the most talked about in all of boxing history. “When you go to the US, you’re going to obviously be interviewed by people who are thinking that very bad things are going on in Germany at this moment. You’ll tell them that the situation isn’t as bleak as they think it is.” – Hitler to Schmeling “Schmeling knocks out the Negro. Wonderful… the white man defeats the black man, and the white man was German!” – Goebbels

12. Propaganda The Media • Stark contrast to free expression of Weimar Germany • (had support of SS & Gestapo to control) • Nazi’s controlled it very strictly • Books – Goebbels had to permit. Organized “book-burnings” • Newspapers – no anti-Nazi ideas, very dull • Art – only Nazi approved painters (images = Aryan, heroic looking military figures or ideal Aryan family) • Movies – ALL had to carry a pro-Nazi message • Posters – proclaimed success of Hitler and attacks on opponents • Music – no Jazz • Radio – Goebbels made cheap so all could hear Nazi message; placed loudspeakers in streets & bars;

13. “That, too, is an affirmation of the Führer: that one becomes a radio listener and can thereby always be connected to the Führer, and to the life of his people.” “The time is yours. What happens with it depends on you.” “The Jew is our misfortune” “Each German boy and each German girl must be filled with the sense of holy duty to represent our people.” “Germany. We all stand under the great command: Do your duty to serve your people!” Adolf Hitler. “Each sin against racial purity is a sin against God’s will and the created order.”

14. Nazi propaganda gave people hope. Nazi racial philosophy gave people self-belief. Trust in Adolf Hitler gave a sense of security. “He is my mother and my father.   He keeps me safe from all harm.” one German woman told the American reporter Nora Wall

15. Food for Thought • In partners, discuss which of the following statements you most agree with: • Goebbels’ work was more important to Nazi success than that of Himmler (head of SS) • Himmler’s work was more important to Nazi success than Goebbels’ • The techniques of repression and propaganda go hand in hand – neither would work without the other

16. How did he keep power? 4) Education “Our state is an educational state… It does not let a man go free from the cradle to the grave. WE begin with the child when he is three years old. As soon as he begins to think, he is made to carry a little flag. Then follows school, the Hitler Youth, the storm troops and military training. We don’t let him go; and when all that is done, comes the Labour Front, which takes possession of him again, and does not let him go till he dies, even if he does not like it.” – Dr. Robert Ley, in charge of making “good citizens” out of German people

17. How did he keep power? 4) Education • Hitler wanted to control the daily life of people. He reorganized schools to make children loyal to him. Placed great importance on the young people because they were the future of Nazi policies. • Would learn: • Only German history (stabbed in the back; hardships of 1920s caused by Jews; history would make you confident that loyalty to Fuhrer was right & good) • biology lessons would have informed you that Aryan race superior in intelligence and strength to untermenschen (sub-human) • Math would reinforce pro-Nazi, anti-semitic views “It is my great educative work I am beginning with the young. WE older ones are used up.. We are bearing the burden of a humiliating past… But my magnificent youngsters! Are there finer ones in the world? Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world!” – Hitler, speaking in 1939

18. How did he keep power? The Jews are aliens in Germany. In 1933 there were 66 million inhabitants in the German Reich of whom 499, 862 were Jews. What is the percentage of aliens in Germany? – Question in a math book 1933 4) Education • Textbooks were rewritten • Wanted young men to believe in values of discipline, sacrifice, and obedience • All Germans were taught to see him as a father figure • Subjects distorted to indoctrinate pupils • All teachers had to belong to the German Teachers League “All subjects – German language, History, Geography, Chemistry & Mathematics – must concentrate on military subjects, the glorifications of military service and of German heroes & leaders and the strength of a rebuilt Germany. Chemistry will develop a knowledge of chemical warfare, explosives, etc, while Mathematics will help the young to understand artillery, calculations and ballistics.” – German newspaper approving of Curriculum

19. “'When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side', I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already’.” - Hitler • The Nazis replaced anti-Nazi teachers and University professors, and school lessons included hidden indoctrination - requiring children to calculate how much mentally disabled people cost the state, or to criticize the racial features of Jewish people. German boys were required to attend the Hitler Youth, which mixed exciting activities, war-games and Nazi indoctrination. German girls went to the BDM and learned how to be good mothers, and to love Hitler.

20. Nazi effect on: Youth • Many young people were happy. Nazi culture was youth-oriented. • Outside of school, young people had to belong to youth organizations (compulsory) • Taught them loyalty to Hitler and trained them in military skills • Provided exciting activities for young boys and treated them as though they were special • physical training (sports & gymnastics) • very harsh • Had Performance Books with marks for athletics, fighting, and camping skills. Could move on to Adolf Hitler Schools for boys and Order Castles were they tested them to the very limit of endurance. Those not injured or killed by training graduated at models of Hitler’s youth. “The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be a swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather and as hard as steel.” – Hitler about the HJ

21. Nazi effect on: Youth • Not all young people were happy with the Nazi regime • Towards the end of the war, youth gang rejected the HJ and enjoyed drinking, dancing, and American jazz & swing music. In Cologne in 1944, they sheltered army deserters and even attacked the Gestapo. Those caught, were hung • Many young girls were unhappy with the emphasis on three Cs (church, children, cook) • Young people were encouraged to notify the Gestapo if their parents or teachers said anything against the regime.

22. Nazi effect on: Workforce • For many, life before 1939 would be considered as “happy” • Focused on becoming self-sufficient • Created RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst): men working on public projects – these programs gave full employment and pride to many Germans (most work was manual) • Began re-armament: • 1935 started compulsory military service (100,000 to over a million) • Thousands given work for creating tools of war • Drop in unemployment was published – however, it did not include Jews & women that had been forced out of their jobs (figures didn’t tell the whole story) • Controlled free-time & wanted to make sure that those who supported the Nazi’s got all the benefits  • Created Strength through joy program (sports, opera)

23. Impact of Hitler’s Policies on Unemployment

24. How did Hitler put Germany back to work?

25. Nazi effect on: Women “Kinder, Kirche, and Kuche.” • The Nazis were very male-dominated and anti-feminist.   Nazi philosophy idealized the role of women as child-bearer and creators of the family. • Law for the Encouragement of Marriage: more money for more children • Women were not allowed to work and were never allowed to serve in the armed forces • Only thing actively encouraged to was have children. • August 12, Motherhood Cross • Lebensborn “Spring of Life” homes created • Make-up, trousers, hair-dye was not allowed

26. Nazi effect on: Women “Kinder, Kirche, and Kuche.”

27. The key here is to understand that the Nazi state affected different people in different ways.   For the majority of people, in fact, life was good - that is why they turned a blind eye to the fact that - for groups which were not accepted by the Nazi state - life was horrific.