1) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Hitler’s Rise to Chancellor

Key WordsHitler became chancellor in 1933. the Nazi party grew in popularity. There were a variety of factors that led to the Hitler becoming Chancellor in 1933.

The Great Depression was an economic downturn started with the Wall Street Crash in the USA in 1929. this caused a huge economic difficulties in Germany. There was mass unemployment with 6 million people unemployed. Businesses lost their savings, business and investments. Farmer sales and profits dropped this resulted in bankruptcy.

The Weimar government had failed to solve the economic crisis. There was political unrest as coalition governments could not agree on how to solve the crisis. Taxes were raised and wages lowered causing people to become angry. The government were hated and the German people started to turn to extremist parties such as the Nazis and communists.

Fear of Communism: Businesses, factory owners and farmers did not want the Communist party in power because business and agriculture would become state owned. The church were also worried because Communists did not believe in religion. Hitler gained support from the middle and upper classes because he promised to deal with the communist threats. Hitler sent the SA to fight communist gangs.

Nazi Tactics: Made use of the SA to intimidate voters and distribute propaganda. Organisation of Nazi Party was another way the Nazis gained support. They were funded by industrialists and the upper classes. Nazi Party offices were set up over Germany to recruit loyal followers. Role of Hitler was important . He was decisive and charismatic and appealed to the German people because he was a WW1 veteran, worker and was seen as a savior for Germany. Hitler was a great speaker and was able to draw in large crowds. During his speeches he would attack the Treaty of Versailles, Jews and Weimar government. Nazis made many promises including “work and bread “ and to make Germany strong again.

Propaganda: Information,

especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view. Nazis used newspapers, radios, loudspeakers and posters to win over the German people and increase support.

SA: Hitler’s private army who used violent tactics against opponents. Nicknames the ‘Brownshirts’. The SA would protect the party’s meetings and distribute propaganda.

Chancellor: Chief minister of the Weimar Government. Appointed by the President. Needed support of the majority of the Reichstag.

Paul von Hindenburg: President of Germany from 1925-1934

Franz Von Papen: Chancellor of Germany in 1932, vice Chancellor to Hitler 1933-34.

Kurt Von Schleicher: Chancellor of Germany 1932-33

Reichstag: the German Parliament.

During the July 1932 election the Nazis won 12 million votes and now had 230 seats in the Reichstag.

Political deal: although the Nazis remained the most popular party, Hindenburg would not give Hitler the position of Chancellor. He instead gave it Von Papen, however with little support he quickly failed. He was soon replaced with Von Schleicher who also struggled to win support.Keen for revenge Von Papen struck and deal with Hitler and persuaded Hindenburg to make Hitler the next Chancellor. Hitler was appointed Chancellor because Von Papen and Hindenburg thought that they could control him.

2) Germany Knowledge Organiser – How Hitler became a Dictator

Key Words

Fuhrer: German word for leader, title used by Hitler.SA: Hitler’s private army who used violent tactics against opponents. Nicknames the ‘Brownshirts’ SS: Elite group of Aryan soldiers loyal to Hitler. Hitler’s personal bodyguards. Nicknamed the ‘Blackshirts’ Communism: System where theoretically all property and wealth is owned by the government and shared amongst people equally.Wehrmacht: Name given to the German Army under the leadership of Hitler.Reichstag: German name for their Parliament

Ernst Rohm: leader of the SA who was arrested and executed during the Night of the Long Knives.Heinrich Himmler: Leader of the SSPaul von Hindenburg: President of Germany from 1925-1934Marinus Van der Lubbe: Dutch Communist blamed for the starting of the Reichstag Fire.

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Between Jan 1933 and Aug 1934 a series of events allowed Hitler to take full control of Germany.

Rohm Himmler Hindenburg Van der Lubbe

Key figures

Reichstag Fire: 27th February 1933, the Reichstag building was burnt down. A Dutch Communist Marinus Van der Lubbe was found at the scene and was arrested. The Communists were blamed for the fire.

Emergency Powers: 1st March 1933. Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to give him emergency powers to deal with the Communist threat These gave Hitler the power to suspend civil rights such as freedom of speech, shut down communist newspapers and arrest 4000 communists.

March Election: 5th March 1933. Nazis gain their best result, 44% of the vote, but this is not enough for a majority.

Enabling Act: 23rd March 1933. Passed by the Reichstag this gave Hitler the power to pass any laws he wanted for four years.

Banning of Trade Unions: May 1933. This removed workers rights and their ability to go on strike. The Nazis replaced Trade Unions with the DAF.

Banning of all political parties: July 1933. All other political parties were banned and their leaders were arrested. Germany became a one party state.

Night of the Long Knives: 30th June 1934. Hitler was concerned that the SA could threatened his power. The 4 million members were loyal to Rohm. Rohm wanted merge the SA and Army together under his leadership. The army did not support this. To secure the Army’s loyalty and reassert his own authority Hitler organised the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler used the SS to arrest and remove disloyal SA members. Rohm was arrested and executed in the aftermath.

Death of Hindenburg: August 1934. Hindenburg dies of natural causes. Hitler combines the role of President and Chancellor together to become Fuhrer of Germany.

Oath of loyalty. Hitler orders that the army swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to him. Hitler now have control of the Wehrmacht.

3) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Control: Terror & Propaganda

Key Words

SS (Schutzstaffel) Means Protection Squad. Elite group of ‘racially pure’ Aryan soldiers who were totally loyal to Hitler. Originally set up as Hitler’s black shirted bodyguards.Informant: A person who gives information to anotherRally: A mass meeting of people to show support for a cause.Nuremberg Rally: Annual rally of the Nazi Party in Nuremberg, Germany. Held every year between 1923 to 1938. They showed the size and organisation of the party and its support.

Josef Goebbels. Chief of Nazi Propaganda. Became party propaganda chief in 1928 and Reich Minister for Propaganda and Enlightenment in 1933.

Heinrich Himmler. Head of the SS and the Gestapo.Responsible for setting up extermination camps and implementing the Final Solution.

HimmlerGoebbels

Terror: Use of extreme fear and punishment to control behaviour andkeep the population under control.

Propaganda: Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.Nazis were masters of propaganda and made use of posters, radio, newspapers, rallies and cinema to promote their ideas and the party,

Censorship: The suppression of any information that was considered unacceptable to the Nazis.The Nazis burnt books written by Jews and Communists. Jazz music was

banned because it originated with the African-American community. Anti-Nazi jokes and stories were forbidden and could result in imprisonment.

Removes threats

Removes all opposing ideas Berlin Olympics, 1936: In 1936 the Nazis hosted the Olympics in Berlin. Hitler wanted to use this as an opportunity to show the superiority of his master race. During the Olympics a number of African-Americans won gold medals proving race theory incorrect. Most famously Jesse Owens won 4 Gold Medals.Machinery of

Terror

Concentration Camps: A place where civilians, especially political prisoners or member of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned for crimes against the state.

Police & Law Courts: Run by the Nazis. Judges swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler, removing the ability of receiving a fair trial. Crime punishable by death included sexual relationships with Jews and listening to anti-Nazi radio broadcasts

Gestapo: State secret police. Did not wear uniforms. Had a huge network of informers. Telephones were tapped and mail was opened. The Gestapo would arrest people without trial, torture them and send them to concentration camps.

Block Warden: An official who provided a link between the population and the Nazi authorities. There would be a block warden on each street and in each apartment block.

SS

4) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Control: Opposition 1933-1939

Key PeopleTypes of Resistance:• Open Opposition – taking action against Nazi

rule• Passive Resistance – refusing to co-operate

with the Nazis

Reasons for Opposition:• Political – individuals who did not agree with

the way the country was being run• Religious- individuals who were angry about

how their religion was being treated and/or how the Nazi state was impacting their ability to follow their faith.

• Cultural – individuals who were frustrated at the expectations and limitations the Nazi state put on culture, e.g. music, films, clothing

Limitations: Opposition was largely ineffective as the different groups did not work together, making them easier for the Gestapo to infiltrate and stop.

Martin Niemoller:Protestant pastor Niemollerbecame one of the most prominent critics of the Nazi regime. He refused to join the Reich Church and instead founded the Confessing Church. By 1934, 6000 pastors had joined leaving only 2000 in the Reich Church. The Confessing Church preached against the Nazis, particularly their racial policy and persecution of the Church. Over 800 pastors were arrested and sent to concentration camps including Niemoller, who survived the ordeal.

Cardinal Galen:Catholic Bishop who used his sermons to protest against Nazi racial policy and the murder of the disabled. Galen was too high profile to remove from power and the need to keep German Catholics on side meant Galen continued to provide resistance.

Reich Church: Hitler tried to unite the different Protestant Churches in to one Reich Church.

Concordat: Agreement made between the Pope and Hitler in July 1933. Hitler realised that the Catholic church posed a potential threat to his control so he offered a promise to leave the Catholic church alone if the Catholic Church stayed out of politics. Despite his promise Hitler soon closed Church youth groups, schools and arrested priests who spoke out against him.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses were completely unwilling to comply with the Nazis. They refused to give the Nazi salute or take part in military service. Jehovah’s Witnesses both within and outside Germany began to create anti-Nazi leaflets. The Gestapo created a special unit to target them, by 1939, 6000 were imprisoned in concentration camps.

Political Left: Under the Nazis all opposition parties were banned. Some members of groups like the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) formed underground groups to try and organise acts of resistance like strikes. The resistance groups from the left did not work together, however, so this limited their impact.

Edelweiss Pirates: Youth resistance group who rejected Nazi values. Members wore an Edelweiss flower or a white pi on their clothing. Members produced anti-Nazi leaflets and painted slogans on walls. Other actively sort Hitler Youth members to beat up. Many members were arrested and several were publicly hanged.

Swing Kids: Young people who disliked the strict control and conservative traditions promoted by the Nazis. The Swing Youth rebelled by listening to banned American music, drinking alcohol & socialising with ‘inferior’ groups. They were mostly considered a nuisance rather than a threat but there were members who were arrested and some were sent to a concentration camp.

Opposition Groups

Nazi Attempts to control the Church

Cardinal GalenNiemoller

5) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Changing Lives: Workers

Key Words

Autarky - Self sufficiency: Reliance on imports had caused problems duringWW1. Hitler wanted self sufficiency so scientists developed substitutes for goods, e.g. making oil from coal, coffee from acorns. Economy: A term to describe the management of a country’s finances, resources and trade. Recession: A period of economic declineRearmament: Focus on building up armed forces and weapons in preparation for the futureWinter Relief Fund: Charity set by the Nazis to provide food, clothing and fuel to poorer Germans in Winter.

Dr Schacht: Designer of the New Plan

Hermann Goering: Leading Nazi deputy, created the Four Year Plan in order to prepare Germany for War

1933:By Jan ‘33 unemployment had reached 6,000,000No one would give Germany a loanHitler was elected on a promise to give the German people ‘Work & Bread’

Hitler’s Economic Aims:• Drag Germany out of the world recession and pursue

a policy of Autarky.• Get rid of Jewish industrialist and give their businesses

to Aryans.• To solve unemployment• Transform the economy to focus on rearming

Goering

The New PlanAim was to reduce unemployment and make Germany self-sufficient.• Limited imports• Made trade agreements with other countries• Production increased by 50% by 1935• Schacht sacked in 1937 for not wanting to rearm

Germany

The Four Year PlanCreated by Goering from 1936• Aim was to prepare Germany for war• Made whole economy focus on rearmament• Millions spent on rubber, fuel and textiles• Hermann Goring Works (huge mining and metals

works) set up• Use slave labour from camps• Focus on arms production over agriculture led to

food shortages before the war.

German Labour Front. DAF, organisation set up as a replacement to trade unions, designed to control workers and win their support.

National Labour ServiceRAD, An organisation that arranged compulsory work for all males aged 18 to 25• Gave men jobs in public work schemes• Men wore a uniform and live in camps• Given free meals and pocket money• Built: drainage ditches, schools, motorways and

planted forests.

Strength though JoyKdF, organisation set up to ensure all parts of worker’s free time were well spent. KdF organised activities, cruises and holidays, many of these workers would not have been able to afford before. They also set up a saving scheme to help people buy a VW Beetle (car). Two aims:• To keep people busy so they would not take part in

non approved activities• To make people grateful for the Nazis.

Economic Plans

Policies towards Workers

6) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Changing Lives: Women & Children

Key Words

100 Year Reich: Hitler believed that his actions would create a Nazi Empire that would last 1000 years. He needed women to have as many children as possible to support this.Three Ks: Kinder, Kirche, Kuche(children, church and cooking). The Nazis believed that women’s lives should be dominated by these activities.Lebensborn: Program which set up maternity homes where unmarried women could go to be impregnated by racially pure SS men.Indoctrination: To teach someone to accept a belief without question, brainwashHereditary: Passed genetically from one generation to another.Eugenics: The study of methods of improving the human race. Hierarchy: Ranking members of a particular organisation or society by importance.

Nazi Female Ideal: Nazis believed that a woman’s role was in the home. Women were not equal citizens and their role was to have as many children as possible.

Importance of Youth: Hitler was confident that young people could be won over to Nazism. He thought that it would be easy to ‘brainwash’ young people and wanted to prepare them for their future roles of either soldiers or mothers.

Nazi Education: The Nazi took over the education system in Germany, The curriculum was tailored to promote Nazi ideas. Textbooks were rewritten to support Nazi ideology. New subjects like Race Studies were introduced to teach young people about the Nazis believed hierarchy of the races, PE was trebled to ensure children were physically fit, ready for their future roles. History lessons focused on the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles, rise of the Nazis and the wickedness of the Jews and Communists.

Hitler Youth (HJ) A Nazi youth movement set up to replace all other youth groups. Girls’ strand was known as the League of German Maidens. (BDM)The Hitler Youth reinforced Nazi expectations of young people and gave them opportunities to attend weekend camps, away from their parents, and learn skills for their future roles.

Policies

Law for the Encouragement of MarriageA loan of 1000 marks given to newly married couples, if the woman gave up work. For each child they had, they could keep 250 marks.

Mother’s CrossAward given each year to prolific mothers. Bronze for four children, silver for six and gold for eight

Nazi Teacher's Association After 1933 all teachers had to become members of the Association and support Nazi ideas. Those who were thought to be lacking in loyalty or not willing to defend the Nazis without reservation were sacked.

Hitler Youth Law passed in 1936 stated all youths should belong to the Hitler Youth. In 1939 joining became compulsory.

7) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Changing Lives: Persecution of the Jews

Key Words

Aryan: A person of German or Scandinavian origin, preferably with fair hair and blue eyes. The Nazis believed that Aryans were superior to all other races.

Anti-Semitic: Political, social and economic actions against Jews. In simple terms it means ‘Hatred of Jews’.

Persecute: Treat someone cruelly because of race, religion etc.

Inferior: Of lower quality, position or status

Synagogue: Jewish place of worship and religious instruction.

Stereotypes: Widely held but fixed and oversimplified view of a particular group

Scapegoat: A person who is used to lay the blame for all that goes wrong. Usually an easy or convenient group to take the blame.

Master Race: The Nazis believed in a racial hierarchy and that the Aryan Race were the most superior. All other races could placed within the hierarchy to determine their value

Untermensch: A person considered racially or socially inferior. Nazis included Jews, black people, gypsies, vagrants, homosexuals and those with mental illness as ‘untermenschen’

Historical Anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism was not created by the Nazis. During the 1300s the Jewish population was blamed for causing the Black Death by poisoning the wells. In the 1800s there were pogroms (massacres) in Russia and Eastern Europe, as Jews were blamed for problems in society such as poor harvests.

Why were the Nazis anti-Semitic?• Economic jealously – Jewish communities had

historically been involved in money lending and banking

• Jews were used as a scapegoat for the loss of the First World War

• Historical anti-Semitism had made Jewish communities easy targets and a way to gain favour with people who already disliked the Jews,

Nuremberg Laws, 1935:Series of laws that restricted the rights of Jews• Jews could no longer be German citizens• Marriages between Jews and Aryans were

forbidden

Kristallnacht 9-10th November 1938 –Night of the Broken GlassOn 7th November a Polish Jew shot a German diplomat in Paris. The Nazis used this as an excuse to encourage anti-Semitic violence. Thousands of Jewish businesses and 200 synagogues were burnt down. The Jewish community were then fined to pay for the damage that was caused. In the following months 30,000 German Jews were arrested and taken to concentration camps. After this point violence against the Jewish community increased.

Turning points in the escalation of persecution:

8) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Germany in the War: War Economy & Total War

Key Words

Economy: A term to describe the management of a country’s finances, resources and trade.

Total War: A state were all industries are focused on supporting the war effort.

Evacuation: Removing people from a place of danger to a place of safety. During WW2 children were evacuated from cities due to the bombing of civilians, in Germany it was known as the Kinderlandverschickung (KLV).

Rationing: Protecting supplies by restricting people to a certain amount. Used with food, clothing, shoes and coal.

Volksstrum: People’s Home Guard. Created to raise the German's spirits and protect the cities from foot invasion from men aged 13-60 who weren’t already in the army.

Albert Speer. Minister of Armaments and War Production. Appointed in 1942. Created the Central Planning Board to help improve the War Economy. His policies included: • Focusing factories on producing a single product• Employing more women • Using labour from concentration camps• Excluding skilled workers from the military

The Four Year PlanSet up by Goering in 1936. It focused the economy on building up weapons and increasing its agricultural output. Hitler wanted to make the country self-sufficient but ultimately knew Germany would need to conquer new territories and capture their resources to achieve this.

RationingFood and clothing rationing began in 1939, whilst Germany was winning the war most good could still be bought. As the war went on life became much harder for ordinary citizens. By 1942, German civilians were living off bread, potatoes and vegetables. Their rations were much smaller than British rations.

Changing Role of WomenAfter suffering heavy losses the Nazis realised they needed to encourage women back into the work place. Restrictions on women’s education and the marriage loans were lifted during the war. From 1939 women under the age of 25 had to complete 6 months labour service before entering full time employment, women mainly completed their 6 months in the agricultural department.

By 1944, 50% of the workforce were women, up from 37% in 1939. However only 1.5 million out of a potential 30 million choose to work.

Speer

Daily Life• Non essential production stopped

and small non essential businesses closed. Those workers were moved to war-related industries.

• Civilian clothes and consumers goods were no longer manufactured

Mass Bombing• From 1942 British and American forces began bombing German cities

more heavily. Around half a million civilians were killed and many more were made homeless.

• Many cities were attacked using incendiary bombs which caused huge fires.

• Germany was later flooded with refugees from German territories and cities like Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg.

• There was little help for these refugees – most struggled to find food and shelter.

Impacts

9) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Germany in the War: Growing Opposition

Key People

Hans & Sophie Scholl. Brother and Sister – Among the leaders of the White Rose opposition group. Executed for their participation in resistance.

Claus von Stauffenberg. Key participant in the July bomb plot of 1944. Stauffenberg was executed for his participation in the attempted assassination.

Bonhoeffer: A key member of the Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer helped Jews escape and was involved in a plan to assassinate Hitler. He was caught and executed weeks before the fall of the Nazis.

Cardinal Galen: n 1941 Galen delivered three famous sermons denouncing the use of terror by the Gestapo, the taking of Church property and the murder of mentally and physically disabled people. The sermons were printed and distributed illegally. Galen lived under virtual house arrest from 1941 to 1945.

The White Rose: Active between 1942 and 1943. Opposition group made up of students and lecturers from Munich University. Some of the male members have served in the army and were horrified by the atrocities being carried out by the German army. The group also dislike the strict control and expectations the Nazis promoted over women.

The group used non-violent methods of protest including distributing anti-Nazi leaflets to encourage opposition. In 1943 the group organised their first public anti-Nazi demonstration. Many were later arrested by the Gestapo. Several of the leaders were tortured and executed.

Kreisau Circle: Anti-Nazi movement led by Helmuth von Moltke and Yorck von Wartenburg. The group did not believe in violence so did not actively resist the Nazis, but did meet to discuss how to make a better country after the Nazis had fallen.

Some members of the Circle tried to inform Allied governments about the dangers and weaknesses of Nazi Control. In 1944, members of the Kreisau Circle, including Moltke, were arrested and executed.

July Bomb Plot: During the war plots against the war became more serious as it became more obvious that Germany would not be successful. The most famous plot became known as the bomb plot of July 1944.

Army officer Stauffenberg worked with other German officers to try a carry out an assassination. The plan was to kill Hitler and other leading Nazis and replace them with a moderate government including members of the Kreisau Circle.

During meeting Stauffenberg left a bomb hidden in a briefcase by Hitler’s chair. After Stauffenberg left the meeting, the briefcase was moved so whilst the bomb went off, Hitler was unhurt. Most of the plotters were quickly captured and executed.

Rosenstrasse Protests, Berlin, Feb-March 1943: After authorities arrested some of the last Jewish men left in Berlin, their Aryan wives went to the building on Rosenstrasse (‘Rose Street’) where their husbands were being held. Women spent several days protesting. Eventually Goebbels ordered the men to be released. This was one of the few public anti-Nazi protests that were successful.

Hans & Sophie Scholl

Stauffenberg Bonhoefffer Cardinal Galen

10) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Occupation: The Holocaust

Key Words

Final Solution: Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews. Introduced by Himmler and administered by Eichmann. The policy resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews in extermination camps.

Genocide: Deliberate killed of a specific group of people from a specific nation or ethnic group.

Holocaust: Term generally given to mass slaughter carried out by the Nazis during WW2. Comes from a Jewish term for a sacrificial offering which was burnt completely on an altar.

Shoah: Modern Hebrew word which means catastrophe, the preferred term for the mass murder of Jews under the Nazi regime.

Extermination Camps: Camps that were set up for the sole purpose of exterminating the inmates. The camps were designed to do this systematically with gas chambers and crematoria to destroy the bodies. Examples include Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno and Belzec.

Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS -put in charge of leading the organisation the Final Solution

Reinhard Heydrich- Led the Wannsee Conference, key figure in the implementation of the Final Solution.

Adolf Eichmann –labelled as the mastermind behind the specific detail of establishing the extermination camps. His work earn him the title of ‘Chief Executioner of the Third Reich’

Life in the CampsPeople were transported from all over Nazi occupied Europe. Jews were told they were being ‘evacuated’ to the east. The aim was hide their intention to avoid mass panic. On arrival all possessions would be confiscated for use by the Nazis,. Arrivals were then sorted. The majority were sent straight to the gas chambers disguised as shower blocks.

Those who were selected for forced labour had their head shaved, a identification number tattooed on to their arm and were issued with a striped uniform. The workers were used to complete tasks to keep the camps running, for example transporting bodies to the crematoria and checking bodies for valuable items like gold teeth. Few of those selected for work survived more than a few months. When they were to sick or weal to work, they were killed.

Others were selected to be subjects for medical experiments.

Einsatzgruppen: Mobile killing squads that carried out mass murders in the east after 1939.

Ghettos: Enclosed areas in towns and cities where the Nazis forced the Jews to live in isolation after 1939. The largest was in Warsaw.

Wannsee Conference: Meeting held on January 20th 1942 between senior Nazi official, led by Heydrich. Here they discussed the co-ordination of what they called the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”. During this meeting they decided on a plan for the systematic murder all European Jews.

Turning point in the escalation of persecution

11) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Occupation: Occupation in the East & West

Key WordsEastern Case Study: Poland

Background: Poland was created at the end of WW1. Before this it had been part of Germany. The Nazis saw it as their right to take their land back. After invading in October 1939 the Nazis divided the country and began to remove all Polish control and culture, as they considered the Poles to be racially inferior.

Western Case Study: Netherlands

Background: May 10th 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. After 4 days of ground fighting the Luftwaffe began a bombing campaign. Fearing continued destruction the Dutch government surrendered.

Eastern General Plan: Drawn up by Himmler in 1940, this would be the template for all occupation in the East.Many native poles were moved into the General Government region. It was governed by a Nazi who introduced a rule of terror and set about destroying culture, education and leadership. 30,000 of the most talented people in Poland were arrested, many were tortured and murdered. 1.9 million non-Jewish Poles were killed. 1.5million were deported to work in labour camps. Poles were forced to wear a P on their arm and sexual relationships with Germans were banned.

Warsaw Ghetto: Hundreds of ghettos were set up in Poland, the largest being the Warsaw Ghetto (completed Nov. 1940). By March 1941, the ghettos had 445,000 Jewish inhabitants. This made up a third of Warsaw’s population, they lived in 2.4% of the space. The poor conditions led to disease and death. Over 140,000 died in three years.

Liquidation of the Ghetto: July 21st 1942 the Nazis began the mass-deportation of inhabitants to the Treblinka death camp. By Sept 21st 300,000 had perished in the gas chambers. By October only 10% of the official ghetto population registered in July were still present. In April 1943 the surviving inhabitants started a final battle against the Nazis. It was unsuccessful and by mid-May the ghetto was destroyed.

Occupation begins, 1940: The Nazis saw the Dutch as sharing the same racial background as Germans & therefore were treated very differently to the Poles. Education was kept the same & civil servants could keep their jobs if they wanted to. There was general compliance with the regime.

Turning point, 1941-42: In Feb, the first 425 Jewish men were rounded up for deportation. Dutch communists decided to retaliate with a strike. The Nazis responded violently: nine were killed and hundreds were arrested. After the first death sentences were issued against the Dutch people

Intimidation and Violence, 1943-44: By 1942 all Jews had to wear the Star of David. In 1943 the Nazis began to deport Jews, 107,000 (76%) of Dutch Jews were deported. This was partly due to compliance but also due to the difficulty of hiding people in a densely populated country. With severe shortages of workers in Germany, the Nazis announced they would take Dutch ex-soldiers to work as forced labourers. Strikes erupted across the country and the Nazis responded brutally. Dutch resistance developed. By 1944 there were 300,000 men in hiding. 20,000 resistance members were arrested. Most were sent to the four Dutch concentration camps. 2000 were executed.

Late 1944-45: The exiled Dutch Government called for railway strikes- 30,000 rail workers went into hiding, causing transport shortages. Food shortages meant 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation. But on May 5th the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadians.

Ghettos: Enclosed areas in towns and cities where the Nazis forced the Jews to live in isolation Liberated: freed from enemy occupation.

Poland

Netherlands

Polish RegionsGeneral GovernmentSoviet-Occupied

12) Germany Knowledge Organiser – Occupation: Accommodation, Collaboration & Resistance

Key Words

Accommodation: obeying Nazi rule

Collaboration: working with the Nazis to help them rule

Resistance: opposing the Nazis

Perpetrator: someone who actively takes part in committing a crime

Rule in the West:Nazi rule in the West was relatively humane. Whilst day to life wasn’t pleasant and all Jews were persecuted, the Nazis did not attempt to exterminate entire western populations. However, they did react brutally towards resistors.

Germany required resources and man power. Raw materials, produce and industrial good were all taken leading to shortages in the country. Citizens of occupied countries were forced to work for the Nazis.

Rule in the East:Nazi in the East was brutal and cruel. The Nazis viewed the East as essential Lebensraum (living space) for Germany. To do this the Nazis believed the East needed to be ‘cleansed’ of non-Aryan populations. Jews and Slavic populations (e.g. Poles and Russians) were especially targeted. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Einsatzgruppen followed the German army with the orders to kill every Jew they found.

Forces labourers from the east were essentially slaves, and endured terrible conditions. About 2 million Poles were forced into slave labour.

Belgium: The DeVlag movement wanted stronger ties with Nazi Germany. They helped the Nazis recruit members to the Waffen-SS and had 50,000 members by 1943.

Denmark: The Danes were allowed to keep their government in return for establishing favourable relations. Production and trade was redirected towards Germany , in return laws against the Jews were rejected.

France: The ‘French Resistance’ took action against Nazi occupation. They published underground newspapers and provided intelligence to the Allies. June 1944, the French Interior force was formed to help the Allies push out the Nazis.

Croatia: In Croatia, the Ustasa, an extreme right-wing political party were inspired and encouraged by the Nazis to build their own concentration camps. They killed 25,000 Jews.

Latvia: In Latvia. The SS created the Latvian Auxiliary Security Police. The group took up the job of purging all internal enemies by killing Jews and Communists. The group alone murdered 26,000 Jews (half the Jewish population of Latvia).

Bielski Partisans (Poland): The Bielskipartisans, led by four brothers, managed to escape a ghetto in Poland to the forest. Hundreds joined them, at its peak 1236 lived in the forest. They survived for two years, completing numerous sabotage missions against the Nazis.

Occupation Case Studies