Download Nazi Terror State

Adolph Hitler’s three goals:
• Rule the world
• Make all conquered
peoples the slaves
of the German
“Master Race.”
• Make the world
`Judenrein’ or Jew
Free.
NAZI
• acronym
• National Sozialist German Worker’s Party
Fascism
"A governmental system with strong
centralized power, permitting no
opposition or criticism, controlling all
affairs of the nation (industrial,
commercial, etc.)"
(American College Dictionary)
Nation comes first
– Constant use of patriotic mottos,
slogans, symbols, songs, and other
paraphernalia
– Flags are seen everywhere, as are
flag symbols on clothing and in public
displays
Enemies of the State
– Human rights are ignored
– People tend to 'look the other way‘
– Some even approve of torture,
summary executions, assassinations,
long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
in order to protect the state
Identification of Enemies &
Scapegoats
– Perceived common threat becomes a
unifying cause
– Patriotic frenzy over the need to
eliminate the enemy: racial, ethnic or
religious minorities, liberals,
communists, terrorists
Under a Fascist government
• The military and soldiers are glamorized
• Obsessed with national security
• Intertwine government and religion
• Control the Mass media
Under a Fascist government
• Extreme contempt for Intellectuals and
education, the arts
• Fraudulent Elections
• Cronyism
• Corruption
Totalitarian State
• The Nazis were
absolute masters
over 66 million people
• Citizens had no
rights, no freedom,
no choice, no privacy
• Only the good of the
state mattered
• Individuals did not
count.
• Without warrant or
trial, homes were
searched, phones
were tapped, mail
was opened
• Thousands were
imprisoned and
executed
Rule by force and fear
• Prison and hard labor awaited anyone who
spoke out against the regime or its policies
• Not even a harmless remark about a Nazi
official was tolerated.
Remember
The Nazis did not come to power
because Fascism was so strong.
They came to power because
Germany’s Democracy was weak.
“Terror is the best political weapon
for nothing drives people harder
than a fear of sudden death.”
~Adolph Hitler
Gestapo
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Geheime Staatspolizei
Secret State Police
Plainclothes watchdogs of the Reich
Employed an army of spies to inform on people
Unlimited powers to arrest, to jail, or to kill
Operated without any restrictions by civil
authority
• Elitist Group: members knew that whatever
actions they took, no consequences would
arise
• Unconditional authority
Torture
• Common
• Techniques tested on
inmates at Dachau
• Used to make
prisoners reveal
secret information
• The instrument in this
photograph was used
to break the finger
joints of the victims
SS
• Hitler’s personal body
guards
• “the Blackshirts”
• “Hitler’s Butchers”
• It was planned that
the SS would be the
elite under lords to
help him rule the
masses
• They and their brides
were to be the
parents of the “pureblooded” master race
of super people
• By 1933, SS
membership was
30,000
SS Officers
• Had to prove German
heritage and that his
“blood was pure” by
submitting a family
tree dating back to
1750
• Medical records had to
be closely examined to
prove he had no
history of hereditary
disease
• He also had to be tall,
blonde, blue-eyed,
and athletic
• Prospective SS brides
had to submit the
same records before
marriages were
permitted
How did Hitler keep control of
Germany?
Rule by Force and Fear
Propaganda
Gestapo (Secret police)
would spy on and arrest
enemies of the state
Mass Rallies, Posters
and Propaganda films
Totalitarian
State
SS
Controlled and censored
the radio & newspapers
ran the concentration
camps
Everyone was scared of
being arrested by the
Gestapo and being put in
a concentration camp
Popularity
Children were
indoctrinated with Nazi
ideas at school
Ripped up the Treaty
of Versailles
Hitler Youth & the Young
Maidens
Created Jobs
HOW DID THE HITLER GET
EVERYDAY PEOPLE TO
COOPERATE?
Propaganda
• Used to control or alter people's attitudes
• deliberate
• produces predictable behavior
• does not depend on violence or bribery
In Mein Kampf
Hitler states that “effective propaganda is …”
• aimed at the masses
• aimed at emotions, not intellect
• designed so that the bigger the audience, the
lower its intellectual level
Research into persuasion
Suggests that people whose
self-esteem is low are more
readily persuaded than others.
Treaty of Versailles
• Considered by most to be the cause of
Germany’s problems
• Germany’s problems were not her fault!
Treaty of Versailles
• War Guilt Clause …Germany had to
accept responsibility for causing the war
• Pay heavy reparations to France and
Britain (100 tons of Gold or $64 Billion)
• Made to disarm
Also…
• Forced to give up (13%) of her territory
• Germany also lost all her overseas
colonies
• A large percentage of her raw materials
(65% of iron ore reserves, 45% of her
coal, 72% of her zinc) and 10% of her
factories overtaken by the French
Hitler was a demagogue.
Demagogues play on peoples’ fears.
• War Vets—Hated Government for Losing
the War
• Middle Class—Ruined by Inflation,
Depression
• Workers—Unemployed
• Industrialists—Hated Socialism and Labor
Struggles… Terrified of Communism
Hitler promised Germans:
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Stability
Jobs
To be Proud Again
To Reverse the Versailles Treaty
To End “Weak” Democracy
To “Get Rid of” the Jews
Lebensraum— “Living Space”
Enemies of the State
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Communists
Social Democrats
Jews
Trade Unionists.
Work Shy
Homosexuals
Gypsies
• Germans who bought
from Jews
• Pacifists
• Radical Christian
Organization
• Anyone who criticised
Hitler or the Nazi Party
Scare Tactic
• Example: A list of
German women who
were still purchasing
goods from Jewish
shops
• Printed to scare other
people into not buying
from the Jews
Anti-Semitic
Examples
The Eternal Jew
This was issued after regulations
were introduced requiring all
Jews still in Germany to wear a
visible yellow star. The caption
says: "He who wears this symbol
is an enemy of our people."
Promotion of Nazi Ideology
Examples
This poster advertises a Nazi
charity
The text translates:
"Health, child protection,
fighting poverty, aiding
travelers,
community, helping mothers:
These are the tasks of the
National Socialist People's
Charity.
Become a member!"
Examples cont.
This poster from the
mid-1930's. The
caption: "Hitler is
building. Help him.
Buy German goods."
Examples cont.
The text of this
1940 poster reads:
"Youth Serves the
Führer. All 10-yearolds into the Hitler
Youth."
Examples cont.
This 1938 poster was
issued shortly after
the Annexation of
Austria. The caption:
"One People, One
Reich, One Führer."
German Life
• No phase of German life in the Third Reich escaped
tight control
• Citizens soon learned that as long as they didn’t
question and did exactly what they were told, life
was not really that unpleasant.
Culture
• Hitler ordered Nazification - the imposition of
Nazi values - on all aspects of German life
• The Nazis dictated what people were allowed to
do in their social and private lives
All art had to portray...
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Racial purity
Militarism
Obedience
Volk (folk) at work in the fields
Love of homeland
Manly virtues
Womanly virtues
• Artists had to produce acceptable paintings and
sculptures that portrayed Nazi values
Die Partei, Arno
Breker's statue
representing the
spirit of the Nazi
Party
German Life
Culture
• Books written by Jews were publicly burned
• Any un-German literature
Prophecy?
“Where one burns books, in the end one will
burn human beings.”
~Heinrich Heine
19th-century German poet
Jazz music
• First censored but later
banned
• Why? Jews allowed into
their social clubs
• Propaganda …combine
black music with Jews and
you get…
• “Musical race defilement”
Gramophone
Records would be obtained illegally from
record stores or on the docks from
sailors smuggling them from England
Short Wave Radios
• Pick up BBC
• Illegal
• Played the newest
swing hits before they
were smuggled into the
country
• News from outside
world
Olympic Games of 1936
• Huge Nazi propaganda success
• Only members of the "Aryan race" were
allowed to compete promoting German
ideological belief of racial supremacy
• Germany won 33 Gold medals
Jesse Owens
• When Jesse Owens won the 100 meter
race Hitler was so infuriated he
stormed out of the stadium
• Owens won 4 gold medals
The Depression
• Vanished as Germany became a war machine
• Unemployment lines disappeared
• German men and women either were:
– in the military
– Worked in war production factories
– Or worked building the autobahns
Nazi Labor Front
• Replaced all labor unions
• Strikes forbidden
• Hours were long; wages were low
– Take home pay in 1936 was less than $7.00
a week
• Workers had no choice of jobs
– drafted and assigned a job
whether he liked it or not
– Tabs were kept on
performance
– Fines and prison were
punishment
• With the depression fresh in
their minds, most accepted the
regimentation
Control of
the Churches
• Hitler and his SS officers were fascinated by the occult,
Nordic mythology and Aryan superiority
• The reigning god in their pagan system was the Fuehrer
himself, the "Savior" of Germany
• Hitler pretended to be a Christian, his hatred for the Bible
would soon shake the church
This poster makes the
most direct Christological
comparison with Hitler.
A dove descended on
Christ when he was
baptized by John the
Baptist
An eagle hovers against
the light of heaven over an
idealized Hitler. The text:
"Long live Germany!."
Churches
• Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent
while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered
by the Nazis
• Most entered into arrangements with the Nazi regime
to protect themselves
1933 Concordat
• Treaty between Hitler and the Vatican
• Supposed to protected Catholic clergy,
congregations, and schools in Nazi Germany
• 800 priests and nuns were put in
concentration camps
Protestant Churches
• The Protestant Churches were cautious-avoided public confrontation
• Negotiated privately with Nazi authorities -hoping to ensure protection from direct Nazi
control
Dissident Churchmen
• Rebellious churchmen very harshly
punished
• Catholic priests and Protestant ministers
who opposed the Nazis were imprisoned in
concentration camps
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Lutheran pastor
• organized resistance
• Caught and hanged
“The ultimate test of a moral
society is the kind of world that it
leaves to its children.”
Martin Niemöller
• Lutheran pastor
• openly preached against the
Nazis
• imprisoned from 1937-1945
• Finally freed by the Allies
Education
• Non-Nazi teachers and university professors
were dismissed
• Teachers had to join the National Socialist
Teachers' League
• Textbooks were re-written to include Nazi
political and racial ideas
• History was taught to glorify Germany
• There was a concentration on physical fitness
Indoctrination
• The Hitler Youth was compulsory; it prepared
boys for war
• The Nazi Girls' youth organization - the BDM
(Bund Deutscher Mädel ) was also compulsory;
it prepared girls for Kinder, Küche, Kirche –
(children, kitchen, church)
• All other youth groups were outlawed
Questions that appeared in two math textbooks
used in German schools during the Nazi era:
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1. The construction of a lunatic asylum costs 6 million RM. How many
houses at 15,000 RM each could have been built for that amount?
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2. To keep a mentally ill person costs approx. 4 RM per day, a cripple 5.50
RM, a criminal 3.50 RM. Many civil servants receive only 4 RM per day,
white collar employees barely 3.50 RM, unskilled workers not even 2 RM
per head for their families. (a) Illustrate these figures with a diagram.
According to conservative estimates there are 300,000 mentally ill,
epileptics, etc. in care. (b) How much do these people cost to keep in total,
at a cost of 4 RM per head? (c) How many marriage loans at 1000 RM each
… could be granted from this money?*
Quoted in Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, ed. by J. Noakes and G. Pridham.
Vol. 1. Schocken Books, 1983, p. 439
Indoctrination
• The Hitler Youth was compulsory; it prepared
boys for war
• The Nazi Girls' youth organization - the BDM
(Bund Deutscher Mädel ) was also compulsory;
it prepared girls for Kinder, Küche, Kirche children, kitchen, church
Hitler Youth
"Youth Serves the Führer.
All 10-year-olds into the
Hitler Youth."
"Every girl belongs to us"
Hitler's belief
• The future of Nazi Germany was its children
• Organized like an army
• Strict and severe discipline
• Considered more important than school
• At its peak 90% of German youth involved
Teachers complained that
students were so tired from
attending activities that they could
barely stay awake the next day at
school
“The weak must be chiseled away. I
want young men and women who
can suffer pain. A young German
must be as swift as a greyhound, as
tough as leather, and as hard as
Krupp’s steel.”
~Adolph Hitler
Opposition
Youth Groups
Swingjugen
•Swing dance movement
•Direct insult to Nazi ideals
•Defiant
•Their dress, music and dancing
was considered “overtly sexual”
and “immoral”
•Underground dance clubs were
often raided
•Kids arrested and put in hard
labor camps
The White Rose
• Group of students at
Munich University
• Printed pamphlets
about Nazi crimes
• Arrested and
executed
Edelweiss Pirates
•Kids who didn’t want to
conform
•Helped army deserters
and refugees
•Stole armaments
•Attacked the Gestapo
•12 of the leaders were
publicly hanged
How do you get from a civilized society to
the mass murder of millions?
Steps to Organized Genocide
Denial of Justice
Isolation
Persecution
Dehumanization
Violence
Mass Execution
Why Study the Holocaust?
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it.”
-George Santayana