THE THIRD REICH

1. THE THIRD REICH 1933-1945 PRESENTATION BY : FENIE DUENAS POLSCI 311

2. After the Nazis obtained the chancellorship, they set out to get complete control. The Nazis used the military, paramilitary, and police to brutally suppress the opposi?tion and used propaganda to mobilize large parts of the population. The Nazis set up the first concentration camps already in 1933, populated mostly with their political opponents. Hitler’s forces centralized power and rebuilt an economy devastated by the Depression. They concentrated all political authority in Berlin, removing any regional autonomy. After the regime banned free trade unions, industries forced workers into longer hours and less pay. Although some segments of big business had initially feared Hitler, most of German industry eventually endorsed Nazi economic policies. The Nazis also emphasized massive public works projects and, with the onset of war, gave industrialists access to slave labor from conquered territories.

3. Extolling a mythically glorious and racially pure German past, Hitler made scapegoats out of political opponents, homosexuals, ethnic and religious minorities, and, especially, Jews. Hitler blamed all political problems on Jews, this “external” international minority. Jews were quickly excluded from many professions, including teaching, law, medicine, and the civil service, and were prohibited from marrying non-Jews. Of course, far worse measures would be adopted during the war.

5. Despite the Allied efforts, Hitler conquered much of Europe during 1939 and 1940. In 1941, despite an earlier friendship treaty with the USSR, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, mistakenly calculating that it would fall as easily as his other con?quests. The attack was a costly failure, and foreshadowed the Third Reich’s defeat, though not until after an estimated 40–50 million Europeans lost their lives over the course of the war.

6. The most heinous aspect of the Nazi regime was the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews and the imprisonment in concentration camps of millions of Jews and other civilians. Prisoners were the target of extreme brutality, and large numbers were shot or died from starvation, disease, or overwork. The Nazis also ran “scientific” experiments on camp inmates and the mentally ill and disabled. During the war, the Nazis created extermination camps in occupied countries like Poland, equipped with gas chambers specifically for the purpose of murdering Jews and other inmates. This was the so-called Final Solution. Jews from countries controlled by Nazi allies generally survived in higher numbers than those in countries directly occupied by the Germans, very few of whom avoided transport to the death camps.

7. Early on, loot from conquered territory eased wartime hardship for the German “home front.” As the military tide turned, however, civilian production was redi?rected to produce weapons, food rationing was introduced, and a fierce Allied bomb?ing campaign killed about 300,000 civilians and razed major cities to the ground. About 2 million German civilians and 4.5 million German soldiers died from war, in a country whose prewar population was about 70 million.

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