Police state 1933-39

Police state 1933-39

1. The SS

   • The kripo- responsible for carrying out policing duties
     • Police
   • The Gestapo [40000 members]- hunted down Nazi opponents
     • Intelligence
   • The SD- Monitored the security of the Reich
     • Security
   • Trained in junker schools where they were taught absolute loyalty to Hitler and told they were the master race
     • 250000 members by 1939
     • State within a state
     • Ran by Heinrich Himmler

2. The Law Courts

   • By 1939 the judicial system sentenced nearly 1/4 of a million germans to more than 60000 years in prison
   • Came under state control
   • 1934- Hitler made a 'peoples court' which would give the 'right' verdict
     • Nazi judges, no juries and those accused could not defend themselves

3. Concentration camps

   • Contained political prisoners, jews, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and prostitutes
   • The Decree for the Protection of People and the State allowed political prisoners to be sent to 'protective custody' i.e. concentration camps
   • By 1934 it was ran by the Death's Head Unit

4. `Impact of the police state

   • People's community (volksgemeinschaft) taught people loyalty to the state and the fuhrer
   • Offenses like anti-Nazi graffiti or saying business was bad would be reported to the gestapo
   • Clan responsibility meant if one person broke the law the whole family would be punished
   • Many people did not trust their neighbours

5. How effective?

   • Limited opposition until the outbreak of WW2
   • Very popular in rural protestant areas and the youth
   • Popular with the lower working class
   • Less support from urban working classes and the unemployed
   • "Speak through a flower"