1. NAZI GERMANY Life in Wartime Germany

2. Introductions and Feelings  War had two phases  1939 – 1942; germany was successful, lives of civilians not that badly affected  1943 – 1945; key defeats, military disaster, economic misery and hardship on the home front.  Many were not happy about the outbreak of war  They remembered the horrors of WW1  German troops were successful at first using lightning war tactics  Swept through a lot of Europe.

3. First Phase 1939 - 1941  Rearmament;  1934 – Hitler ordered the expansion of Germany’s armed forces.  1935 – compulsory service (conscription) was introduced.  1938 – Germany had a lot of men in the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe was created and the Navy was expanded.  1939 – Germany had one of the most powerful armies in the world.  Economy;  Rearmament helped revive German economy.  Goring introduced Four Year Plan to help economy.  Key aim was Autarky.  At the start, Germany was able to take goods from the countries it had invaded.  Food and luxury goods were sent back from countries that had been invaded.  Foreign workers were used in German factories.

4. First Phase 1939 – 1941 (2)  Rationing;  Was introduced in the beginning to ensure everyone got what they needed  Artificial substances started to replace everyday products e.g. ersatz  Clothing was also rationed  Hot water was limited  Soap was rationed  Toilet paper was hard to get  There was a black market where people sold and brought things illegally  Evacuation;  Many children evacuated Berlin, but many stayed behind  Mass evacuation didn't happen until the war turned bad.

5. Second Phase 1942-1945  Total war;  By the end of 1942, it was clear Germany was going to loose.  Therefore, Nazis introduced Total War  This meant all sections in Germany had to work towards the war effort  Labour Shortages;  There was a large shortage of workers in factories  Therefore, Nazis had to allow women to work  They tried to introduce women to the workplace, but it didn’t work  Many women got called up to work, but some didn’t want to  The fact that a lot of women weren't being employed led to Germany’s defeat  Large numbers of foreign workers were brought in  Inmates from concentration camps were used as slave labour  The Volkststurm;  Peoples home guard  To protect German people in case the Allies pushed through into Germany  Members of the Volkststurm were weak and ill prepared  Had men who were too old or too sick to join the actual army  It was mainly a propaganda tool to make people feel safe and protected

6. Second Phase 1942-1945 (2)  Life in Germany turned for the worse as Germany was defeated on all sides by allies  Shortages of food and supplies affected civilians  Goebbels launched a propaganda campaign to lift spirits  It played on peoples fear of communism  It worked  Allied Bombing;  RAF targeted main areas of Germany  1943 – a heavy bombing campaign was started in main German cities  Hamburg was wiped out a lot along with Dresden  1944 – more continous bombing began to affect industrial output and made people more determined to resist  Allied bombing did not have a high accuracy rate  Number of people killed from bombs, 800,000  Final Solution;  Percecution of Jews became worse after 1939  This led to the Holocaust  Invasion of Poland brought millions of Jews under Nazi control  They were herded into ghettos where the conditions were terrible with starvation, disease and overcrowding and the Jews were basically imprisoned with no one being allowed to come in or to leave.  Invasion of the Soviet Union meant more jews were captured  The killing squads were sent in to capture jews

7. Second Phase 1942-1945 (3)  Final Solution;  Persecution of Jews became worse after 1939  This led to the Holocaust  Invasion of Poland brought millions of Jews under Nazi control  They were herded into ghettos where the conditions were terrible with starvation, disease and overcrowding and the Jews were basically imprisoned with no one being allowed to come in or to leave.  Invasion of the Soviet Union meant more Jews were captured  The killing squads were sent in to capture Jews  They thought this method was too slow to wipe out an entire race  1941 – the final solution was made  Jews were to be transported in the masses to huge concentration camps  Himmler was put in charge of expanding more efficient methods  They wanted to use gas chambers to kill them quickly  Heydrich played a key role.  Himmler became one of the most feared men in the Third Reich  The Death Camps;  Jews would be divided into two groups  Those who were fit to work were forced to do labour  Those who could not were taken to showers  Thousands could be fit in one gas chamber and it is estimated the 6 million Jews were killed in concentration camps

8. Opposition from Young People + Students  Edelweiss Pirates;  Young people who did not like the way the Nazis were controlling all aspects of life  The leader was hanged at age 16  The Swing Youth;  Tended to be middle class  Inspired by British and US jazz music  Swing clubs sprung up all over Germany  They danced and listened to banned music  They rejected the Nazi lifestyle  The White Rose Group;  Organised by students from the University of Munich  They called for Passive Resistance against Nazi regime  They didn’t use violence they just refused to follow orders  They were tortured and hanged

9. Opposition from Christians + Military  One they realised what Nazis were like, the more they opposed them.  Confessional Church – set up by Martin Neimoller as an alternative to the Reich Church.  The Reich Church – was a church set up by Nazis to teach their ideas.  The Catholic Archbishop spoke out against the euthanasia policy in which disabled people were killed.  Dietrich Bonheoffer was a protestant priest who opposed Nazis and helped may escape  Military opposition led by Ludwig Beck who had resigned his post in the army  They were prepared to use violent methods to oppose Hitler  Responsible two failed assassination attempts along with the July Bomb Plot

10. July Bomb Plot  Code name was Operation Valkyrie  Plan to assassinate Hitler and seize control of Berlin using the army  In 1944, a senior army officer left a bomb in the conference room in Hitler’s quarters in East Prussia  Hitler arrived and he left  Killed four people, but Hitler had only minor injuries  Those involved were hunted down  5000 people were executed for being suspects

11. The Defeat of Germany + Post War  Towards the end of the war, Hitler refused to leave his bunker and directed the war from it  March the allies were moving towards Berlin  April the soviet army entered Berlin  Millions of German refugees were fleeing from Russians and bombs  2 million + German refugees died.  Hitler commits suicide  Germany surrenders in May  Trials of top 21 Nazi party leaders took place in Nuremburg  Ten were hanged  Others were imprisoned  Germany was divided into four  Denazification started