Methods of Control

Methods of Control

1. CENSORSHIP - controlling what people read, hear or see

   • PROPAGANDA - Giving people false or misleading information to change their opinions
     • Josef Goebbels was in charge of the propaganda - his title was the minister of enlightenment and propaganda The aim was to control the German people through persuasion and that all Germans accepted Nazi ideas and actions - through censorship.
       • Goebbels controlled books, book burnings, newspapers, Reich chamber of culture (art) and radio.

2. THE SS - They had originally been a private bodyguard for Hitler and other Nazi leaders and it only had 500 men. SS stands for Schutz staffel or protection squad and in 4 years, Himmler managed to build it into an elite force of 50,000 tall, blond, blue-eyed Aryan supermen. Physical standards very strict, replaced brown shirts with black ones. Became means of terrorising or intimidating into obedience. Feared because they had almost unlimited powers to arrest anyone, search houses, confiscate property and they also ran concentration camps.

   • ROLES OF THE SS included being Hitlers protection squad, to crush the SA leadership, when in power 1933 onward - ran concentration camps, organised the Gestapo and controlled the police, arrests, no trial only imprisonment = fear, 1939 onwards -> war = SS fighting units, Waffen SS, concentration camp - huge factories produced goods for war, huge profits.

3. CONCENTRATION CAMPS - Concentration camps were 1st temporary prisons run by the SA and SS in disused factories or warehouses or in hastily erected barbed wire enclosures in the countryside. Some took overflow of jails and other specialized in particular types of people like trade unionists. Feared because opponents taken for questioning, torture hard labour or re-education. If someone killed a letter sent home saying been killed from disease. Later, they were scenes of mass killings.

4. THE GESTAPO - Were secret police run by Himmler. Tapped telephones, intercepted mail, spied on people. Anything said bad about Hitler was to be reported to them, they could strike anywhere at any time.

5. THE POLICE AND COURTS - Nazis didn't get rid of these, just controlled them. Police under control of the SS and judges took oath of loyalty to Hitler. Number of crimes punishable by death rose from 3 in 1933 to 46 in 1943. Included listening to foreign radio stations.

6. INFORMERS - Every town divided into a small unit called blocks which included a handful of houses. Their local Nazi visited them weekly to check up on them and reported them if they were telling anti-Hitler jokes, refusing to support the party, showing signs of independant thinking, hosting illegal political meetings or not flying the Nazi flag on celebration days. Had to write reports on residents.

7. BERLIN OLYMPICS 1936 - Successes -> facilities/buildings were impressive, well organised, 75 million marks spent on facilities, Germany won the most medals, it was a technical success - radio/film. Failures -> Jesse Owens won medals and the support of the German crowd much to Hitlers disapproval, military were over the top/intimidating, Hitler Youth did not impress foreign athletes, racism put off foreign athletes.

8. DONKEY AND A CARROT! - Hitler sat on the back of a donkey with a carrot on a stick in front -> donkey represent the German people, carrots try to attract people to Nazis and stick to beat people who don't follow.