Wartime Germany revision

1. Wartime Germany revision By the end of this lesson…Understand how the lives of civilians were affected by the war.Understand what opposition there was to the Nazis during wartime from both civilians and the military.To understand how Germany was defeated and how it was punished.

2. Changing role of women propaganda Volksturm How was life affected during the war years? Daily life Total war Allied bombing

3. Rationing Germans received seven food ration cards, colour coded for different foods. Extra rations were given to workers in heavy industries such as mining; to expectant or nursing mothers; sick people; vegetarians and donors of blood or breast-milk As a result of rationing, two out of five Germans ate better than before the war. The first year of the war went well for Germany. As Germany conquered other countries, food as well as huge stocks of luxury goods such as dresses, stockings, furs and perfumes were imported from those countries. People could buy these on the black market if they had money, but most of the goods went to loyal or high ranking Nazis. Diet became increasingly monotonous – vegetable and black rye bread, with small amounts of meat, butter and a single egg each week. Bread was usually sold when it was one day old so that it took more chewing and people ate less. Adults received no milk ration although children received a generous one. Other commodities, such as clothing, also became more difficult to obtain as production was geared increasingly towards the requirements of the war effort. As early as 1941, 40% of all textile output and 44% of all manufactured clothing was earmarked for use by the armed forces. Strict rationing came into force at the start of the war, and between 1939 and 1941 German workers were considerably less well fed than their British counterparts. Consumption declined by 25% compared with only 12% in Britain. Hot water was permitted on only two days per week. Soap was also rationed. Toilet paper was not available. Tobacco was difficult to find. Many people were so desperate for it that tobacco became a kind of substitute for money

4. Propaganda Goebbels claimed that between December 1941 and January 1942 Germans gave 1.5 million furs and 67 million woollen garments to help clothe the German army in Russia. Other campaigns urged people to save fuel, work harder and even try to avoid tooth decay. Extra food rations were given out at Christmas 1942 to help keep up morale. The civilian population within the Reich remained relatively sheltered from enemy action until 1942. In that year, the British and American airforces abandoned their policy of avoiding areas of heavy civilian population. There is much evidence to suggest that Nazi propaganda has been so effective that public confidence in Hitler’s leadership remained high, even when Germany was on the verge of defeat.

5. By 1942 the raids were more frequent and more intense. At the same time the number of doctors available to treat victims was going down. As the air-raids worsened many Germans left the cities and were evacuated to villages or rural towns. In the cities the air raids became increasingly ferocious. The first in a series of “thousand bomber raids” was launched against Cologne in May 1942, and in August of the following year another such raid killed 40,000 civilians in Hamburg. From mid-1944, Germany’s enemies enjoyed almost total aerial superiority, and the vulnerability of German towns to devastating aerial attack became even greater. The final official statistics for the damage caused to Germany by aerial bombardment alone are staggering. In the years immediately after the war, the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden established that 593,000 German civilians had been killed by this means, and that 3,370,000 buildings had been destroyed, including 600,000 in Berlin alone. Air Raids

7. Albert Speer was appointed as Reich Minister for Armaments and Production in September 1943. This post gave Speer responsibility for all industrial output and raw materials. By 1943 it was clear that the war was not going to go Germany’s way. The Government began preparations for “Total War” with every part of German society geared to the war effort, producing arms, growing food, caring for the sick or fighting. Anything that did not contribute to the war effort was eliminated. Total War Despite Allied bombing, the last years of the war saw a significant improvement in industrial production and an increase in military expenditure. Between 1939 and 1944, only 200,000 extra women entered the workforce despite the chronic lack of labour. In 1939, the number of women in employment was 14,6 million, a figure which actually declined to 14.2 million in 1941 and peaked at 14.9 million in 1944. Even with the move towards “Total War”, the subsequent campaign to encourage women to work from January 1943 had little effect with only 400,000 extra women being recruited by the end of the war.

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9. GHETTOS FINAL SOLUTION The treatment of Jews during the war years EINZATSGRUPPEN

11. The Allies agreed to put on trial leading members of Nazi Germany as war criminals. Twenty two senior ranking Nazis were tried at Nuremberg, a place chose because of its association with the development of the Nazi Party. The defendants were accused of conspiring to wage war, commit crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and commit war crimes such as abuse and murder of prisoners. The trials began on 21st November 1945 and ended on 1st October 1946 and over 200 Nazis were tried, with 146 being found guilty of at least one of the above crimes. An extract from a GCSE textbook. A photograph of some of the defendants in the Nuremburg trials. Table showing the fate of Senior Nazis at the Nuremburg trials.

12. When the Allies agreed to divide and occupy Germany at the Potsdam conference in 1945, the idea was that although each country would take responsibility of a specific section of the country, they would rule together through the Allied Control Council. This did not last and soon the Western zones joined together forming a West German union, with the Soviet Zone soon after creating the German Democratic Republic in the East.

13. Denazification was the Allies' policy of removing traces of the Nazi regime form German society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics. The Allies not only had to punish and remove senior Nazis, but wanted to make sure that Nazism was removed from everyday life. By 1947 the Allies held 90,000 Nazis in detention and almost 2 million were forbidden to work as anything other than manual labourers. The renaming of a German street in 1916. • 30th August 1945: The wearing of the uniform of the German Army is prohibited. • 10th October 1945: The Nazi Party was dissolved and its revival made illegal. • 1st December 1945: All German military units dissolved. • 12th January 1946: All those who held a significant position in the Nazi Party or were a member of the Party before 1937 (the year when membership became compulsory for German citizens) and removed from public office. • 13th May 1946: Confiscation of all media that could contribute to Nazism of militarism. A list is drawn up of over 30,000 book titles ranging from school books to poetry which were banned. • A list of the measures passed by the Allied Control Council.