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| Question | Answer |
| In the early stages of WWII, what was Hitler reluctant to do according to the historian, Gordon Craig (1978)? | There was a "reluctance to ask the public to bear sacrifices" |
| When was food rationing introduced? | 1939, although it was fairly generous |
| From the German point of view, what were the three stages of WWII? | 1: Period of conquest, 1939-1942 2: Period of decisive reverses, 1942-1943, e.g. Stalingrad, Kursk and El Alamein 3: Period of retreat, 1943-1945 (Red Army into Poland then Germany; Allied landings in Normandy) |
| When did Hitler commit suicide? | 30th April 1945 |
| How did Helmut Krausnick described the public mood in regards to war in 1939? | "Reluctant loyalty" |
| What were the 4 reasons for the deterioration of civilian morale on the home front, 1942-1945? | 1: Military defeats 2: Dislocation and disruption 3: Shortages and hardship 4: Impact of bombing |
| What military defeats contributed to the deterioration of civilian morale? | Stalingrad, August 1932 to January 1943 Kursk, July 1943 |
| How many of the servicemen killed during the whole war were killed between 1944-45 alone? | Two-thirds of all servicemen killed were in 1944-45 |
| In 1945, how many civilians in eastern parts of Germany became refugees to escape the oncoming Red Army? | 5 million |
| What did the Nazis do to overcome labour shortages in 1944? | Introduced a compulsory 60-hour work week Holidays banned |
| When did rationing become increasingly severe? | From 1942; bread and meat allowances cut drastically Fuel increasingly scarce |
| Who attacked Germany from the air, 1943-1945? | USAF by day, RAF by night |
| Describe the statistics relating to Anglo-American strategic bombing (Tonnes of bombs, civilians killed, civilians injured, homes destroyed, homeless) | 2.7 million tonnes of bombs dropped 300,000 civilians killed 780,000 civilians injured 2 million homes destroyed 7 million Germans homeless by 1945 |
| What was alarming for the Nazi regime, in terms of workers? | Absenteeism from work, which affected industrial production |
| Why did Goebbels' wartime propaganda fail to halt the decline in morale? | -Propaganda claims during the period conquest were shown to be hollow -Hitler Myth collapsed -Working-classes believed that the wealthy were unaffected by rationing - Nazi talk of Volksgemeinschaft shown to be hollow too |
| Where was Hitler during the war? | Disappeared from public view - stayed at his 'Wolf's Lair' in East Prussia, and then his bunker in Berlin Committed suicide, April 30th 1945 |
| Who was Himmler and what was he appointed to in 1943? | Head of the SS Appointed as Minister of the Interior in 1943 |
| What methods did Himmler introduce to keep the civilian population under control? | -New criminal offences, e.g. listening to foreign radio, hoarding food -Courts pressured to impose harsher sentences (death sentences rose from 139 to 4000 by 1944) -Detainees in concentration camps increased from 25,000 to 700,000+ by 1945 |
| Give examples of daily dissident and and non-conformity acts of behaviour | -Listening to foreign radios, e.g. BBC -Refusal to give 'Heil Hitler!' salute -Buying/bartering food on the black market -Anti-regime jokes -Failing to participate in Nazi organisations, e.g. Hitler Youth |
| Name 3 of the wartime resistance groups | White Rose Group Kreisau Circle Beck-Goerdeler Group |
| What did the White Rose Group do and what happened to them? | Distributed anti-Nazi leaflets Anti-Nazi graffiti Leaders (siblings) Hans and Sophie Scholl with other leaders arrested and beheaded, 1943 |
| What was the Kreisau Circle? | Loose association of upper-class intellectuals and political moderates Planned a post-war democratic Germany Some leading figure made contact with Beck-Goedeler Group Arrested and executed |
| What was the Beck-Goerdeler Group? | Old-fashioned upper-class conservative nationalists Turned against Hitler when they realised he was leading it to disaster Planned to remove Hitler by assassination - Operation Valkyrie; planted bomb 20th July, killed 4 but not Hitler Beck committed suicide; Goerdeler executed |
| How serious was wartime resistance to the Nazi regime? | Left wing not really a threat - underground networks destroyed by Gestapo Few links between middle and upper class resistance No sign of mass protest - down to SS terror Military-conservative had capacity to get close to Hitler and assassinate him - but failed |
| When did Germany's rearmament and preparation for war begin? | Rearmament began in secret in 1933 Continued openly after 1935 |
| What was the aim of the 4-year plan, launched in 1936? | Make Germany as economically self-sufficient as possible (and able to withstand an Allied blockade, similar to that of WWI) |
| What were the results of the 4-year plan? | -Army of 3.8 million men and air force of 3000 planes -Spending on armaments accounted for 23% of Germany's GNP, compared to 1% in 1933 |
| When Germany attacked Poland in 1939, why were army chiefs worried about the ammunition? | Production had been disappointingly low, so there were shortages |
| What were 4 reasons for the low production levels? | 1) Different agencies competing against each other for resources 2) Production bottlenecks as a result of labour shortages 3) Smaller armaments contractors were not prepared for mass production 4) Army insisted on quality not quantity |
| Munitions shortages led to Fritz Todt's appointment as Armaments Minister. What did he do? | Some success at overcoming production bottlenecks Dragged into 'turf wars' with Office of the Four-Year Plan and the Wehrmacht (army) |
| Who was Fritz Todt and what was he known for? | Civil engineer known for getting things done Had been Head of Roads Inspectorate - building of 2000 motorways |
| What happened to Todt in 1942? | He died in an airplane crash Albert Speer took over as Armaments Minister |
| What did Speer realise about German production compared to the enemies? | Britain, Soviet Union and USA production combined outweighed Germany's |
| What were some of the plus points that Speer managed to do? | -Access to new food and raw materials, e.g. French coal, Romanian oil -Large quantities of military equipment from defeated countries -Conquered territories provided slave labour for production factories - 8 million slaves in Germany by 1944 |
| By how much did weapon production increase by under Speer? | Tripled, 1942-1944 |
| What did Speer do with the polycratic system? | Replaced it with more orderly arrangements Streamlined production by cutting waste and duplication Sacked ineffective managers |
| What system to Speer therefore introduce? | Top - Central Planning Middle - Main Committees - production of particular equipment; aircrafts, tanks, etc Bottom - Special Committees - production of one type of tank, aircraft |
| What were 4 strengths of the German war economy? | 1) Increases in armaments production, 1942-44 2) Resilience in the face of Allied bombing 3) Organised effectively under Speer 4) High-quality, advanced equipment produced, e.g. Panther and Tiger Tanks, V1 and V2 rockets, Me262 jet-fighter |
| What were the 4 weaknesses of the German war economy? | 1) Low levels of munitions production at the start of the war 2) Shortages of labour, especially skilled craftsmen 3) Shortages of raw materials, e.g. oil 4) Heavily depended on borrowing and printing money - threat of hyperinflation |
| How did Ian Kershaw describe Hitler's obsession with the Jews in 'Hitler 1889-1936'? | "All-devouring manic obsession with the Jews" |
| What was Hitler's assumption of the Jewish race? | They were non-Aryan, so could never be part of the German nation They were megalomaniac, cohesive and devious |
| What was Hitler's assumptions of the Jewish race based on? | The Social Darwinist theory of evolution and survival of the fittest |
| When were the 3 waves of Nazi persecution of the Jews in the 1930s? | 1933, 1935 and 1938 |
| What happened to the Jews in late 1938? | 'Kristallnacht' - orchestrated violence towards Jews Businesses destroyed, 96 killed |
| Was there a settled anti-Jewish policy in Germany by 1939? | No - competing policies Goering committed to Aryanisation (sale Jewish properties and have funds for autarky) Himmler - forced emigration |
| How many Jews were in Poland when Germany invaded in 1939? | 3 million - one-third of the total European population |
| Where else were there large numbers of Jews living, who became merciless to the Nazis? | West and south-east Europe Western Russia - 2.5 million |
| When did Nazi anti-Jewish policy become more centred around genocide? | End of 1941 - needed a scheme to solve the 'Jewish problem' Deportation to Madagascar was an option too |
| Who mainly ordered the mass executions of Jews during the invasions into Poland and Russia, and why? | Mainly SS commanders, for their policy of 'working towards the Fuhrer' |
| How did Poland get divided after the invasion by Germany? | Eastern Poland to Soviet Russia under Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 3 provinces incorporated into German Reich - West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Wathegau Remainder became an administrative area known as the General Government headed by Hans Frank |
| What did the SS hope to do with the Jews in Poland and who opposed this? What happened instead? | SS wanted to deport Jews into General Government Opposed by Hans Frank Herded into ghettoes as an interim measure as the Nazis pondered their fate |
| Where were some of the largest Polish-Jewish ghettoes? | Lodz, Warsaw and Krakow |
| What happened to many Jews in the ghettoes? | Half a million died from malnutrition and disease |
| What was the SS' Operation Reinhard? | Building of extermination camps for remaining Jews in the ghettoes The first camp was in Chelmno, opened in December 1941 - more soon followed |
| What was Operation Barbarossa? | German attack on Soviet Russia in June 1941 |
| Who were the Einsatzgruppen? | SS task forces who targeted Jews Their atrocities were on a different scale than seen in Poland |
| How many Jews were butchered by the Einsatzgruppen? | More than 500,000 from June 1941-April 1942 |
| Did Hitler give an official directive for the genocide? | No Evidence of a green light being given at some point in summer/autumn 1941 Heydrich ordered to draft plan for the 'total solution of the Jewish question' |
| What did Adolf Eichmann (one of Heydrich's senior aides) claim after the war in regards to Hitler's wishes for Jewish destruction? | He had been told by his bosses: "the Fuhrer has ordered the physical destruction of the Jews" |
| What happened at the notorious Wannsee Conference in January 1942? | Heydrich informed 14 senior Nazi officials that the 'final solution' was to be the responsibility of the SS Would involve deportation of Jews to Poland |
| Which concentration camp killed the most Jews? | Auschwitz - 1 million died there between 1942-1944 |
| What happened to the survivors of the extermination camps when the Red Army entered Poland in 1945? | Nazis emptied the extermination camps and forced survivors to walk long distances without food, clothing or shelter for transportation back to Germany |
| What are the statistics for the Holocaust victims? | 3.3 million died in the camps 2 million murdered by Einsatzgruppen in Russia 0.5 million died from malnutrition and disease in Polish ghettoes 0.25 million died in 1945 'death marches' |
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