Nazi Control & Dictatorship Flashcards
All 32 cards in this deck
When was the Reichstag Fire and who was blamed for it?
27 February 1933. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was caught at the scene and blamed.
What powers did the Reichstag Fire Decree (Decree for the Protection of People and State, February 1933) give the Nazis?
Emergency powers suspending civil rights, so political opponents could be arrested without trial and placed in concentration camps.
What did the Enabling Act (March 1933) allow Hitler to do?
Make laws for four years without the approval of the Reichstag or the President.
True or false? The Enabling Act itself made Germany a one-party state.
False. It gave Hitler power to make laws without the Reichstag; other parties were banned by the Law Against the Formation of New Parties in July 1933.
What did the Nazis do to German trade unions in May 1933?
Banned them and replaced them with the Nazi-run German Labour Front (DAF).
Why did Hitler see Röhm and the SA as a threat by 1934?
The SA had over two million men and Röhm wanted it to take over the army, which angered army leaders and the SS.
What was the Night of the Long Knives?
A purge on 30 June 1934 in which the SS murdered Röhm, other SA leaders and opponents such as von Schleicher.
What happened when President Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934?
Hitler combined the posts of Chancellor and President to become Führer, and the army swore a personal oath of allegiance to him.
What was the Gestapo and what powers did it have?
The Nazi secret state police; they could search without warrants and detain, torture and imprison suspects without trial.
What was the SS and who led it?
Hitler's elite blackshirt force, led by Heinrich Himmler; it ran the concentration camps and could arrest and imprison people without trial.
What were the concentration camps used for in 1933–39?
SS-run camps, such as Dachau (opened 1933), where political opponents and 'undesirables' were held without trial and forced to do hard labour.
True or false? The Gestapo was a huge force with agents watching every German.
False. It was fairly small and relied heavily on ordinary Germans and block wardens informing on their neighbours.
What was the People's Court, set up in 1934?
A court that tried cases of treason in secret; only limited evidence was needed to bring a case and almost all defendants were found guilty.
Who was Joseph Goebbels and what post did he hold?
One of Hitler's most trusted associates, Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda from 1933; he censored and controlled what Germans read, heard and saw.
What was the People's Receiver (Volksempfänger)?
A cheap, heavily subsidised radio; by 1939 most German families owned one, and speeches were also broadcast over loudspeakers in streets and workplaces.
What were the Nuremberg Rallies?
Huge annual Nazi rallies that highlighted Nazi ideals and showed the strength and unity of the regime; they were filmed for cinema newsreels.
What did the Nazis do to impress the world at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Built the largest stadium in the world, ran the Games on an extravagant scale and made a film about them; Germany won the most medals.
What kinds of art and architecture did the Nazis approve of?
Art showing heroic Aryans, family life and the countryside, and huge buildings in a classical Greek or Roman style; modern art was condemned as 'degenerate'.
How were films controlled in Nazi Germany?
All scripts had to be approved by Goebbels, and every showing began with a Nazi newsreel.
What was the Concordat of July 1933?
An agreement between Hitler and the Pope: the Nazis would not interfere with the Catholic Church, and the Church would stay out of politics.
What was the Reich Church?
A Nazified Protestant Church set up in 1933 under Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, uniting Protestant churches under Nazi control.
Give one piece of evidence that many Germans supported the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
The Nazi Party gained four million new members between 1933 and 1939; falling unemployment and apparent economic recovery also won support.
True or false? Hitler's personal popularity was generally higher than support for the Nazi regime as a whole.
True. Many Germans admired Hitler himself while complaining about Nazi officials and policies.
Give two ways ordinary Germans showed they did not conform to Nazi rule.
Refusing the 'Heil Hitler' greeting and salute, telling jokes about the Führer, listening to foreign radio stations, or complaining about the regime.
Who was Pastor Martin Niemöller?
A Protestant pastor who led the Pastors' Emergency League and the Confessional Church against the Reich Church; he was arrested in 1937 and sent to a concentration camp.
What was 'Mit brennender Sorge' (1937)?
A letter from the Pope attacking Nazi treatment of the Catholic Church, read out from Catholic pulpits across Germany.
Who were the Edelweiss Pirates?
Groups of mainly working-class young people who wore an edelweiss badge, went hiking and camping, sang anti-Nazi songs and taunted or attacked Hitler Youth patrols.
Who were the Swing Youth?
Mostly middle-class young people who listened and danced to banned American and British jazz and swing music, grew their hair long and mixed with Jewish students.
By how many votes did the Reichstag pass the Enabling Act in March 1933?
444 to 94. Only the Social Democrats voted against, while SA men packed and surrounded the building to intimidate the deputies.
Who set up the Gestapo, and when?
Hermann Göring, in 1933. Its officers worked in plain clothes, and it was later run by Reinhard Heydrich under Himmler.
What control over the German police did Himmler gain in 1936?
He became Chief of the German Police, so the SS now controlled all of Germany's police forces, including the Gestapo.
What was the Reich Chamber of Culture (1933)?
A body overseen by Goebbels that controlled the arts. Writers, artists, musicians and film-makers had to belong to it in order to work, so anyone whose work clashed with Nazi ideas could be shut out.