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. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. As the war intensified there was even more demand for women workers, but as the casualties mounted there was even more pressure to increase the birth rate. Rationing, bombing and absent husbands made life very difficult for mothers. When the war began to go badly in 1943 the Nazis tried to mobilise all women except those with young children. Three million women aged 17-45 were called to work, yet only about one million took jobs. Many tried to escape the call up – some pretended to be ill, others deliberately got pregnant. An extract from a History textbook. A German propaganda poster of 1943 with the words: ‘One Battle, One Will, One Goal: Victory at any price. It features a female worker. All single and married women up to the age of 35 who do not already have four children should produce four racially pure German men. Whether these men are married is of no significance. Every family that already has four children must set the husband free for this action. A new marriage law planned in 1943, but which never came into effect. WOMEN

6. By 1944 Germany’s armed forces were heavily stretched and in September Hitler gave orders for the creation of the Volkssturm. This was a type of Home Guard, intended to defend Germany’s cities from Allied invasion. It was made up of men and boys. An extract from a History textbook. VOLKSSTURM AlI was never a soldier so I hadn’t a clue about anything. After three hours of instruction from a holder of the Iron Cross, we were ‘ready for action’ to use a bazooka. Our platoon had twenty three members and for these twenty three we got given twelve weapons. I didn’t get one and didn’t make any effort to. I didn’t understand how they worked. An elderly member of the Volkssturm recalls his involvement. A German propaganda poster of 1944.

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.

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

9. Of the countries which Hitler invaded by 1940, Poland had the highest population of Jewish people. For years, Hitler had been waging a non-stop war of persecution against the Jewish people in Germany. With the invasion of Poland, Hitler took the opportunity to round up all the Jewish people and place them into ghettos or send them to concentration camps. • The main problems were overcrowding (with an average of seven people per room,) hunger (people were given 250 calories of food a day) and inactivity. Although the Nazis established the ghettos, they were normally run by a Jewish Council or Judenrat who were responsible for keeping order. They established soup kitchens, and were permitted to run four primary schools, which also ran adult classes on a Sunday. Culture was also an important part of ghetto life; people could attend lectures, concerts, theatres and art exhibitions. GHETTOS Originally seen as a short term ‘solution’. As time went by conditions in the ghetto became appalling. By 21 September 1939, an order had been issued that Jews were to be concentrated in separate areas within cities (ghettos). This 'short-term' measure to contain and control Jews son developed into a long-term policy towards the Jews.

10. Plans to isolate the Jewish population of Warsaw came into being immediately after Poland was invaded. The Jewish people made up over 30% of the Warsaw population and were rounded up and placed into an area only 2.4% of the city’s size. During November a huge wall was built around the ghetto to physically segregate the Jewish people from the rest of Warsaw. Over the next two years, thousands of Jews from other Polish cities were sent to the Ghetto. By 1940 there were already 450,000 people living in an area only 1.6 square miles in size surrounded by high walls, barbed wire and guarded by Nazi military. In the space of three years this number dropped to 37,000. Every day, people died in their hundreds from diseases such as typhoid, starvation and malnutrition. Children were particularly vulnerable in the ghetto. Thousands died of starvation.

11. These were mobile killing squads made up of SS officers who went directly into Jewish communities and killed them rather than taking them to Ghettos or camps. Their focus was killing any racial or political enemies of the Nazis so Gypies, Russians, and the mentally and physically disabled. EINZATSGRUPPEN Shooting was the most common method of execution but by 1941 it had been noted that this was having serious psychological problems so they began to use ‘gas vans’. In total the Einzatsgruppen killed nearly two million.

12. As more and more Jews were under Nazi control, Hitler and leading Nazis wanted an answer to deal with the Jewish ‘problem’. In the Summer of 1941, a ‘final solution’ was decided – to exterminate the Jews in death camps. Hitler’s hatred and demand for a pure master race were the reasons behind this. In January 1942, leading Nazis met at Wannsee in Berlin. Death camps were to be built in Poland, far away from Germany, where Jews would work until death. By the Summer of 1943, Jews from all over Europe were being sent to these camps. The most infamous of the death camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau where as many as 2 million may have been murdered; Sobibor where about 250,000 were murdered; Treblinka where 725,000 may have been murdered; Chelmno where 600,000 were murdered; Belzec where 600,000 were murdered and Majdanek where 235,000 were murdered. Another camp was found in north-west Poland at Stutthof where 67,000 were murdered. All of these camps were in Poland with four of them near the Russian border (Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka) while Auschwitz-Birkenau was in the south-west of Poland while Chelmno was in central west Poland.  FINAL SOLUTION

13. White Rose Group Set up in 1941 by Sophie and Hans Scholl. Issued six different pamphlets to persuade people of the evils of the Nazis. NOT VERY EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION! Edelweiss Pirates Youth group, refused to join Hitler Youth. They went on marches, handed out Allied propaganda and harrassed Hitler Youth groups. NOT EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE AS ON A SMALL SCALE! Civilian Opposition Catholic Opposition Bishop von Galen was head of the Catholic church in Germany. Initially did not oppose the Nazis but spoke out against Gestapo and use of Euthanasia. Became known as the lion of Munster. REASONABLE THREAT! Protestant Opposition Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer both key leaders of the Confessional Church. Both spoke out frequently against the Nazis. 2/3 Germans were Protestants. Swing Groups Listened to Jazz music met in bars and night clubs and occasionally sheltered enemies of the state. NOT A BIG THREAT TO NAZI RULE!

14. If the Youth and Religious opposition had all worked together they could have formed a successful, effective opposition to the Nazis, however they did not and so were ineffective. Military opposition was most serious due to their organisation, training, position and methods of opposition.

15. As the Soviet Army advanced into Berlin Adolf Hitler was based in his bunker underneath the Reich Chancellery building. Bomb proof and with its own air recycling plant, the complex had been built without a proper communication system. Hitler finally accepted that defeat was close at hand. At around midnight on 28th April Hitler rewarded his long term partner, Eva Braun. After the wedding, Hitler wrote his final instructions, blaming the start of the war on the British and the Jews. He named Admiral Donitz as his successor to lead Germany after his death. On 30th April, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot, his wife Eva, committed suicide with him by swallowing cyanide capsules. After their bodies were found by Goebbels at 3.30pm, their bodies were taken into the garden. In accordance with Hitler’s wishes the bodies were taken out to the garden, drenched in petrol and set alight. (Hitler did not want his body to be displayed after his death) On 1st May Jossef Goebbels poisoned his six young children and then committed suicide with his wife. The burned remains of the two bodies were found by Soviet troops on 4th May and taken away for forensic testing to confirm their identities. After the deaths in the bunker, Admiral Donitz tries to negotiate with President Eisenhower to try to ensure that most of their troops would surrender to the western allies rather than the Soviet Union. Eisenhower rejects Donitz’ terms, insisting on surrender on all fronts and threatened to resume air raids on Berlin. Dontiz accepted Eisenhower’s terms and had his second in command sign the document at 2.41 am on 7 May, 1945. This document meant the Germans had to cease military operations by 11.01 that night.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.