Life Under the Nazis

1. Life Under the Nazis 1933-1939

2. The concept that there is only one leader, consolidated power • Outlined in Mein Kampf • Goebbels, Goering and Himmler Fuhrerprinzip

3. By 1933 there are 2 million SA • Roehm wanted them to become a branch of Wehrmacht, wanted to continue socialist programs • Wehrmacht vs. Old Friend • SS is ordered to arrest and kill multiple leaders of SA on June 30, 1934 • Night of 1,000 Knives • 100-1,000 killed • Roehm arrested and later shot Blood Purge

4. August 2, 1934 Hindenburg dies • Nationwide vote of 90% gives Hitler dictatorial powers Total Power

5. Unemployment went from 6 million to 1 million in 4 years • Production up 100% • War machine/infrastructure • 1936: Four Year Plan under Goering • Meant to make GRE self-sufficient • Development of substitute (ersatz) goods Economy

6. Education = Indoctrination • Anti-intellectual • Strong body > strong mind • Obedience > critical thinking • Conformity > Individualism • Bernhard Rust put in charge of national education Public Education

7. Mandatory Nazi membership to be a teacher (oath of obedience) • Teachers either conformed or left the profession. • Phys Ed top priority (5 hrs. per week!) • Strong soldiers, healthy mothers • Aryan racial theories for science • Geography lessons on lebensraum • History on awesomeness of Germanic tribes • Math problems about number of bullets required to kill GRE enemies Public Education

8. 1936 all other youth organizations outlawed • Membership compulsory ages 6-19 • 6-10: Pimpfe • 10-3: Jungfolk • 13+: Jugend • Tested strength, courage • Acceptance not guaranteed • At 18, graduate and become SA or Nazi party member Hitler Jugend (Youth)

9. Adolf Hitler Schulen (AH Schools) • Racial background super important • Military ideals, graduates went on to university • NAPOLAS (Nat’l-Political Training Institute) • Training for future official positions • Nazi families given preference • Ordensburgen (Order Castles) • Highest leadership school, usually alumni of AHS • Most graduates joined SS Hitler Jugend-18+

10. Bund DeutscherMaedel (Union of German Girls) • Emphasis on motherhood, cooking, home-skills • Girls working was severely discouraged • University enrollment of women dropped dramatically • HAVE BABIES!! (even out of wedlock) Girls in Hitler Jugend

14. Hitler wanted to avoid a confrontation with the churches • Restricted some functions (youth organizations) • Freedom to teach some tenants restricted • Very limited resistance Christian Churches

15. 1933 Concordat with Pope Pius XI • Guaranteed freedom of GRE Catholics • Catholics promised to dismantle political & social groups • Hitler ultimately ignored the Concordat • Church protested euthanasia killings, successfully Hitler and the Catholics

16. Many denominations made them trickier to control • Mostly harassed by SA members at services • Pastors and priests that spoke out would be arrested and jailed • Rev. Martin Niemoeller, Lutheran pastor leader of church resistance Hitler and the Protestants

17. Volksgemeinschaft (unity of GRE people) is most important • Old legal code was distorted to fit new policies, but lots of new laws • By 1945, 43 crimes punishable by execution • Defilement of race • Torture acceptable • Juveniles tried as adults • Gestapo: Secret Police had thousands of informers • People’s Court: No verdict appeals. Nazi Justice

18. Jews in Germany 1933-1938

19. Intentionalist Functionalist Final extermination was an evolved strategy, rather than a blue-print • The final extermination of the Jews was the plan from the beginning, as outlined and formed in Mein Kampf Theories of the Holocaust

20. According to Nuremberg Laws 1935 Jew had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents Mischling was a half-Jew who had two Jewish grandparents, practiced Judaism, and/or was a child of a ¾ Jew Mischling 1st degree had two Jewish grandparents, but did not practice Judaism and was not married to a Jew Mischling 2nd degree had one Jewish grandparent Who is a Jew?

22. Nuremberg Laws 1935 • Stripped Jews of citizenship • Prohibited marriage and sexual relations with non-Jews • Jews would be put to death • No Aryan woman under 45 could be employed in a Jewish house

23. Nuremberg Laws 1935 Not allowed to go to parks, zoos, etc. Not allowed to sit on benches, ride public transport Banned from public school No radios, furs Smaller rations (when given) to Jewish families

24. Zionism • A movement in reaction to growing anti-Semitism • Believed only a Jewish homeland would solve the “Jewish question” • Some Jews thought Zionism was counter-productive • WHY? Basic Premise 1. Anti-Semitism will not go away 2. Jews are like any other nation, but without a homeland 3. Palestine should be their homeland

26. To Leave? Or Not to Leave? • Since 1933, Jews leaving Germany • Rich and famous—no problem, any country was open • Middle class to poor, very difficult • If you couldn’t support yourself w/o a job, didn’t want you • US Consulate told to issue visas sparingly

27. Judenraus (Jews Get Out) • 25% tax on assets to leave • Foreign Jews expelled • 1938 increased persecution • Males and females had to add Israel and Sara to their names • Had to carry identification cards (Kennkarte) at all times

28. Judenraus • By 1938, only 1/3 of German Jews had left • Nowhere to go • Forced sale of Jewish businesses and property to Aryans • Money not given to sellers, but distributed by a bank • In case of emigration, all money was confiscated • Jewish households had to itemize their possessions

29. Kristallnacht(Night of Broken Glass) • Oct. 1938, Polish Jews living in Germany were rounded up, left in no-man’s land between Poland and Germany • 7,000 people • Herschel Grynzpan, living in France, heard about his families plight , shot a German diplomat