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Germany 1918 - 1945
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Shocked defeat, expected victory
The British blockade meant no food getting through
to the German public
Starvation, poverty and illness gripped Germany;
Influenza was rife
Many wanted a democratic government
29 oct, sailors at Wilhelm went on strike and refused
orders, Nov 4, Dockers joined
Formed ‘workers and soldiers council’
Revolts all over Germany, soldiers refused to
suppress
Many royals fled, including the Kaiser
Kaiser’s assistants opened talks with allies Nov 1918
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Weimar Republic constitution
 Germany split into 18 different regions run by local governments
 These local governments were run by a central government
 Central Government
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Reichstag
 Members elected every 4 years
 Men/Women over 20 allowed to vote
Proportional Representation
 20% of votes got you 20% of seats in Reichstag
Reichsrat
 MP’s from each region, number to size of region
 Reichsrat delay new laws, or overruled if majority 2/3rds of votes of Reichstag
Chancellor
 Head of government
 Choose ministers
 Create laws, needed majority of Reichstag to pass law
President
 Took no part in every day government
 Dismiss Reichstag, call elections, control army and rule by decree in state of
emergency
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Proportional representation meant that no
party got the majority vote
A total of 28 different parties
This lead to short and unstable coalitions
If one party disagreed, would pull out
New elections would have to be held
Most of the time, president ruled by decree
Extreme left and right wing parties didn’t
support the Weimar republic
Moderate Germans thought Gov was weak
 Treaty of Versailles
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Germany had to pay reparations to the allies
Accept all blame for the war
Lost all colonies in Africa
Army allowed 100,000 men, no navy/air force
Lost Alsace and Lorraine to France, West Prussia and upper
Silesia to Poland, northern Schleswig to Denmark and Eupen
and Malmedy to Belgium
This shamed and humiliated German pride
The German people blamed the Weimar Republic
Many thought that the German army was able to still fight
The Kaiser had censored the press to a point where people
did not know of the retreat
 Opposition parties published newspapers blaming
Government incompetence and cowardice ‘Dolchstoss’
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 Spartacists were Communists
 Named themselves after the Spartans
 They portrayed themselves as slayers of Evil (Weimar Republic)
 Wanted to overthrow the Weimar republic and install a
communist Government instead (like the one in Russia)
 They represented the workers, (trade unions)
 1919, 100,000 Spartacists marched on Berlin
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The army was equal in size but loyal to Kaiser not Republic
Spartacists seized all vital buildings in Berlin
The Friekorps (demobilised soldiers with weapons)
250,000 alongside the army attacked the Spartans
Several thousand Spartans killed/arrested
Rosa Luxemburg (leader) was shot and dumped in a canal
Her assistant was shot (Leibknecht) and buried with other
Spartans in mass burial
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1920, 5000 marched on Berlin
Supporters of Dr Wolfgang Kapp
Marched on Berlin to overthrow Weimar
Republic and reinstate the Kaiser
Government fled to Dresden
Encouraged Workers to strike
Essential services, gas, water, transport
stopped, Kapp Fled
Kapp arrested and later died in prison
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In 1923 Germany missed its reparation of that year
France declared it to be deliberate
French and Belgium forces occupied the Ruhr
(750,000 men in total)
German government encourage workers to strike and
even sabotage (flood mines and damage equipment
French retaliated by arresting German workers and
bringing their own
This ruined the already fragile German economy
Hyper-inflation occurred as the government printed
more money to pay the reparation
Industries profited but small businesses went into
depression, unemployment rose to 4 million
Germany went into her first Depression
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War bankrupt Germany
Versailles exacerbated this: hefty reparations and loss of
wealth earning land
Occupation of the Ruhr
3000 printing stations in Germany
Farmers and small businesses profited, big industries
collapsed
Many banks crashed, people withdrew all their money from
banks, leaving no money in them
Every day item prices soared
In 1920, the price of a loaf of bread was 1 mark, in 1923,
it was 4 billion marks
Middle-class savings were wiped out
Many were made homeless
The government set up aid shelters
◦ Stresemann reintroduced the retenmark (4 billion marks = 1 retenmark)
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This helped stabilise the economy
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Germany would loan 800 million retenmark from the US to pay the reparations
German loan  pay reparations to allies  allies pay off loans to US
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Germany agreed to keep its boarder with Briton, France, Belgium , Italy and Poland,
allies remove troops from Rhineland
◦ The Dawes plan 1925
◦ Locarno pact
◦ League of nations formed 1919
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Germany included into the League of Nations 1926
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65 countries promise not use war to achieve foreign aims
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Reparations cut 6.6 billion to 2 billion
Germany still pay 50 million a year
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He died of a heart attack on October 1929
Wall Street crash, World wide depression, Germany mainly effected
◦ Kellogg-Briand pact
◦ The Young Plan 1929
◦ Death of Stresemann
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Stresemman achieved German Recognition
National pride: league of nations in 1926
He had cut the debt by 4.6 billion which
helped Germany massively
He had stabilised the economy which was
failing, this lead to a boom
Weimar Republic weakened by (pre
Stresemann) political unrest
 Used strikes and Friekorps to counter right/left revolts
 Extremist parties grew, had private armies
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Retenmark
 Stresemann created a new currency
 4 billion marks = 1 Retenmark
 This helped to stabilise the economy
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Kellog Briand pact
 Germany accepted her new boarders
 The allies would remove their troops from the Rhineland
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The Dawes Plan
 800 million Rentenmarks loaned from US
 This paid off reparations to allies
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Germany was accepted into the league of nations in 1926
The league of nations was created in 1919 to maintain world
peace
Germany was excluded from 1919 – 1926
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Locarno pact
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when accepted, place on league council
Treated as equal (unlike Versailles)
Allow to discuss German entry League Of Nations
New boarders agreed in Versailles
Allied troops removed from the Rhineland
Kellogg-Briand Pact
 65 countries agree not use war to achieve foreign policy aims
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Effect
 Germany treated as equal
 Viewed as respectable member of international committee
 Which helped to ease pain felt by Germany at Treaty of Versailles
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Hitler Corporal during and after WW1, awarded Iron
Cross
Sent to investigate German workers Party, Axton
Drexler
Party blames the Jews and Wiemar Republic for
Germany’s weakness
Hitler agrees with views and joins the DAP
25 point program
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Scrapping the treaty of Versailles
Expanding Germany’s boarders, more room to live
Stripping Jews of German citizenship
Prepared to use violence to achieve
Supporters
◦ Army men, small business owners and police
◦ Membership 1100 in June 192
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Party name changed to NSDAP
Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (NAZI) August
1920 adopted swastika and raised arm salute
Membership 3000 during second half of 1920
Mid 1921, Hitler becomes leader, Drexler pushed aside
Hitler's henchmen Goering, Rohm, Hess, Streicher
Made friends with Ludendorff
1921 created SA Brownshirts (Sturmabteilung)
Rohm was placed in charge of SA
1923 Hitler creates SS Shocktroop (body guard) Stosstrupp
Nazi Party (Hitler) unlikely future ruling party of Germany,
used violence and thuggery to become ruling Party
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Hitler stormed the Munich Government building with 600 SA,
declared himself leader
He was forceful in the way he persuaded them to join his cause
as many were scared of the SA, would say anything to appease
The next day Kahr, Seisser and Lossow change sides
3000 fascist supporters entered main square, Army and
policemen blocked their way
At the end of the day 16 fascist were killed, Hitler fled and
contemplated suicide as he knew that he face a death sentence,
this was to prove a fateful decision
During the trial Hitler promoted and publicised Nazism to
Germany, the judge was lenient and sentenced him to 5 years,
this meant that he was able to reorganise the Nazi's.
Publicity helped NSDAP gain first seats in Reichstag (32)
The experience caused Hitler to look to elections instead of a
coup to secure power
He wrote Mein Kampf during his brief 9 month stint in prison
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After Hitler's release from prison, he set about reorganizing the NAZI party
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With extra funding, Hitler improved the SS and SA, new uniforms, weapons
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This gave the Nazi party an appearance of strength and unity, SA members increased to
400,000
The SA had more allegiance to Rohm than to Hitler, the SS leaders warned Hitler of threat
Julius Schrek was put in charge of the SS, later replaced by Heinrich Himmler
Nazi propaganda
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He persuaded the government to lift the ban
Befriended Germany’s most wealthy to secure significant funding for party (Thyssen, Krupp
and Bosch)
Joseph Goebbels put in charge of propaganda
He promoted the Fascist cause, blaming the depression on the weakness of government, as
Germany was in a depression, he capitalised on this.
He blamed the Jews for failure in the war and how they were all plotting for world
domination, the Nazi's hated the Jews and needed a scapegoat
He used radio, leaflets dropped from planes and newspapers to repeat Hitler’s speeches in
writing, Hitler was a motivational speaker that inspired all, Gobbel’s also capitalised on this
Members
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By 1928 the party had over 100,000 members
The Stresemann era was beginning and fascist support was staring to wane
They won 12 seats in the 1928 election
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The wall street crash of 1929 hit Germany the
hardest
◦ The Stresemann era was over: he had died of a heart
attack October the 16 1928
◦ Fascist support increased massively as people again
turned to extremist parties such as the communists and
socialists
◦ It was as though Hitler had been thrown a lifeline
◦ He again blamed the Government and Jews in his
speeches with renewed vigour
◦ Unemployment rose from half a million to 6 million from
September 1929 to January 1933
◦ Middle-class savings were wiped out
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Speeches
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Propaganda
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Hitler was very good at speeches as he could motivate a crowd with ease
He travelled by plane and made 5-6 speeches all over Germany in one day
He gave the impression Fascism represented unity, debt free and a stronger tougher
Germany
Goebbels used all branches of propaganda to promote Fascism and anti-government
reports
Parades and Marches
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The SA would march in the streets and people would join the march
This showed strength to the people in the time of weakness
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The SA would also intimidate other party members/supporters and boycott elections,
they Physically beat anyone voting for another party
Elections
Supporters
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The fascists promised to abolish trade unions which appeased the big industries and
farm owners (who were angry at workers rights)
The middle-class supported them as they feared the communists who wanted to share
the land and evenly distribute the wealth
The Hitler youth looked exiting and fun to the youth who wanted a change from poetry
and Arts & crafts after school clubs
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Hitler lost the 1932 Presidential elections
 Hindenburg won 18 million, Hitler 11 million and Thallmann 5 million
 When the election was repeated Hindenburg won 50% of the votes with 19,
Hitler 13 and Thallmann 4 million, Hitler was now a dominant figure on the
political stage
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Sacking of Bruning 1932 April
 Bruning placed a ban on SS and SA in attempt to control the Nazi Party
 This angered the right wing parties, Kurt von Schleicher gained support from
many influential people and persuaded the president to lift the ban
 Bruning was sacked and the ban lifted
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Von Papen is elected chancellor may 1932
 He then offered the NSDAP a place in the coalition
 Thought that they were merely children who needed a guiding hand in
politics
 NSDAP won 230 seats largest party, Hitler demanded he be made chancellor,
Hindenburg refused and made von Schleicher chancellor instead
 This coalition didn’t last long as von Papen’s and Schleicher resigned
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Hitler made chancellor 1933 30th January
 Hitler made chancellor with von Papen as vice chancellor
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The Reichstag fire in 1933 gave Hitler the opportunity to gain overall
power in Germany
He declared a sate of emergency and ruled by decree
Hitler said that it was a communist plot to overthrow government
He banned the formation of the communist party
Hitler asked Hindenburg to call an election
The Nazi party gained majority vote
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He raised millions marks for businesses
Used decrees to imprison political opponents
Used SA to attack political rival parties
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Gave Hitler the right to pass laws without government
Passed 444 – 92 votes
This now meant that there wasn’t a reason for parliment, but they were still powerful
The laws he now passed would make Germany into a totalitarian state
The enabling act
◦ He banned trade unions to please the big businesses which helped gain more
support, he also banned all political parties except Nazi party
◦ He then replaced the local governments with chosen fascists
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Night of The Long knives
The SA were now 3 million strong
They were a threat to Hitler’s power
SA felt that Hitler owed them for their service to him
The SS heads created an SA plot to overthrow Hitler,
This gave Hitler and SS the excuse they needed to kill Rohm
and dissolve the SA
 The SS killed Rohm and disbanded the SA into the army and
SS
 Hitler was now in complete control of the Nazi Party and
unrivalled
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◦ On 2nd august 1934 President Hindenburg died
◦ Hitler absorbed the presidential powers into his own title
◦ He now declared himself ‘Dein Fuhrer’
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The SS
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The Gestapo
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Concentration camps
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The law courts
◦ Created in 1925 to be Hitler’s personal bodyguard
◦ It later took control of all security branches
◦ They would be the Organisation that would enforce the persecution of Jews and
deaths
◦ They were Hitler’s secret police
◦ Were allowed to arrest without reason anyone suspected of being anti-Fascist
◦ The suspected were either sent to labour camps of concentration camps
◦ First opened and Dachau in 1933
◦ These camps were used for making weapons, ammunition and clothing for the
soldiers on the front
◦ They were later used to kill minorities
◦ NSLML created to control the courts
◦ All judges had to swear alliegience to Hitler
◦ If any sentence was to Hitler’s dislike he could change it without notifying the Victim
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Women were allowed to have jobs and ware
make up and trousers before 1933
After 1934
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women were not allowed these privileges
They forcefully discouraged from doing work
Encouraged to have over 6 babies
4 bronze, 6 silver, 8-10 gold
Women who had no babies and weren’t married were
taxed heavily
 They were also forcibly made to be fertilised by SS
 Nazi’s believed that women should stay at home and
be good house wives
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The Nazi’s mainly focused on the youth as
they were the future
The Hitler youth was created
 They taught them
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Military strategy (tactics)
Military training (fitness)
Weapons skills (shooting)
Fascist ideology (films about Hitler)
 The aim of the Hitler Youth was to control the youth
and propaganda them into believing:
 Fascism was the only way
 Democracy is weak
 Jews were to blame for the defeat ww1 and two depressions
◦ Nuremberg laws, Jews not allowed/required:
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Had to have a yellow star on their forehead so that they be identified as a Jew
To marry Germans
To have Jobs
To go into any German owned building
To own property of any type
To inherit property
◦ Seperate Laws against
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Boycott of Jewish businesses
Jews were stripped of German citizenship
Had to have the name Israel or Sara before their own
◦ Kristallnacht
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A Polish Jew, Hershel Grynszpan, assassinated a German diplomat in the French capital
on November 7th 1938
This angered the Nazi Party and Hitler, they published in their newspaper ‘Der Sturmer’
that the fascist police would do nothing if Jews were killed in revenge
SA and SS, including members of the public used this opportunity to physically attack
Jewish shops and homes
100 Jews were killed, 814 shops, 171 homes and 191 synagogues were destroyed
This was called ‘The Night Of The Broken Glass’
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Hitler made various pacts with the pope to counter Christian church power
Christen church: tolerance, peace and respect for all people
Nazi’s: strength, violence and racial superiority
Catholic Church: 1/3rd Christians were Catholics, allegiance to Pope, had own
schools
July 1933, concordat with Pope
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Hitler agreed to confirm freedom of worship for Catholics, have own schools and worship
Priests not to interfere with politics
Bishops to swear loyalty to the Nazi regime
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‘Mit Brennender Sorge’ With Burning Anxiety
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Made Nazi deal, formed Nazi church, hung Nazi flags
Pastor Martin Niemoller (1933) set up Pastors Emergency League (anti-Nazi), sent
concentration camp in 1937 the PEL banned
During 1930’s Hitler broke Concordat
Catholic priests harassed/arrested/camps
Catholic schools had to copy fascist curriculum or face closure
Catholic youth league were banned
1937 pope angry at concordat failure, issued statement
Podestant church
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By 1937 Hitler controlled the Reichstag, the
NSDAP, the army, the police and the legal
system and treated the church with contempt.
Truly totalitarian state the central government
controlled every aspect of the country.
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Labour works schemes were introduced to build
‘autobahns’
 By doing this Hitler was reducing unemployment
 Improving the motorways which meant that troops could be moved with
ease across Germany
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The army recruited to increase its size from 100,000 to
500,000 in 1935
 This further reduced unemployment
 Increased the size of the army
 By recruiting he was abolishing the treaty of Versailles, German army
limited 100,000 men
 3.5 billion marks spent on rearmament 1933, by 1939 it was 26 billion
◦ The bigger German army now needed weapons and ammunition
 This created jobs in armament industry
 High-tech engineers were hired to invent new weapons (Tanks)
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The Nazi’s believed that the Jews were to blame for
defeat in ww1
They come up with the final solution
 This lead to the persecution of Jews and minorities
 Death camps were set up to kill the Jews
 Auschwitz is the most famous of these
 It had two gas chambers that could kill 2000 Jews in one go
 The SS were killing the Jews in open fields on top of the mass gassing
 1.1 million Jews were killed in Auschwitz 1 and 2
 Ghetto’s were set up to keep Jews in a square section of land
where they would be starved to death to save ammunition
 These Ghetto’s were also used to make clothing for the front
line
 They feared that if they made ammunition, they would sabotage them
with slight imperfections to make them unusable
 Berlin, Wannsee house (meeting), Final Solution
 The problem was that by keeping the Jews alive, the Germans were
using vital manpower that could be used on the front lines
 The Final solution was to kill all Jews under Nazi control, which was
11 million Jews
 Captured Russian Jews would be transported to eastern Europe to be
exterminated in newly built (by Jews in forced labour) gas and death
camps
 Roughly 6 million Jews were killed
 Death camps
 These were used to work the Jews to death
 In one month at Auschwitz, 400,000 Jews were killed
 Outcome
 The SS were half way through the Final Solution when Germany
surrendered to the allies
 The killing of Jew went on right up until the end of the war, using
valuable fuel to transport the Jews by train
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Quick victories in Europe
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The public back at home were pleased with the conquest of eastern Europe
France and Poland had been captured with minimal casualties
When Germany declared war on Russia, some worried that it would fail
Most were confident of a quick victory as in Eastern Europe
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The German public had suffered from food shortages
Hitler countered this by taking food from occupied countries
In WW1- WW2
After 1942 the tide started to turn for Germany as the Russian offensive was a
stalemate
Public opinon of Fascism decreased as many started to realise that they might lose
the war
Some women started to join the work force in producing arms for the frontline
(this went against Fascist ideology so only a few)
The ammunitions factories workers were made to work longer hours for the same
amount of pay
When the 1000 bomber raids by the allies came over, the factories went
underground
The continuous bombing lowered public morale
In Hamburg, 40,000 people died in one week, compared to the 60,000 killed in
Britain in the entire blitz
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As the fall of Germany was imminent, previous parties that were
banned started to regroup and reorganise
Parties that were originally banned started to gain support from
the public
Newspapers started to pint anti-fascist stories
People who originally reported Jews and People suspected of
speaking anti-Fascist
◦ Now tended to turn a blind eye
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Opposition groups like the ‘Red Orchestra’ were hung and
executed
◦ The Red Orchestra was a teacher and a group of students who passed on
secret plans of Germany to allies
◦ They were executed in 1942, august 1943 a further 32 members were
killed
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Organisations such as these undermined the power of the Nazi
Party
Generals and commanding officers planned an assassination of
Hitler, (Valkery film) otherwise known as the July Bomb plot 1944
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With Russian forces swarming all over Germany, Hitler
married his Fiancée
8 hours later they would commit suicide
The SS tried to cremate the bodies to be later
transported to a secret hidden bunker
Hitler and Eva were half cremated when the Russians
found the bodies, which they reburnt and fully
cremated them
they were taken to Magdeburg where they were
buried for 40 years
Fears of them being dug up and becoming a Nazi
shrine
Meant that they were thoroughly cremated and
dumped into a nearby river