Nazi methods of control

1
Nazi methods of control

• Lesson aims
• To understand the meaning of the Nazi police
  state
• To be able to explain censorship and propaganda
  under the Nazis.
• To be able to describe Nazi policies towards the
  Church.

2
overview

• There two main methods of controlling the German
  people once the Nazis were in power.
• Fear and terror making sure people were too
  scared to oppose the state.
• Indoctrination brainwashing people into
  accepting your ideas
• BUT also remember there were people attracted to
  Hitler and his ideas.

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How did Hitler keep control of Germany?
Everyone was scared of being arrested by the
Gestapo and being put in a concentration camp.
Hitler Youth the Young Maidens.
Creating Jobs
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Key Quote

• Terror is the best political weapon for
  nothing drives people harder than a fear of
  sudden death.

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Enemies of the State

• Communists
• Social Democrats
• Jews
• Trade Unionists.
• Work Shy
• Homosexuals
• Gypsies

• Germans who bought from Jews
• Pacifists
• Radical Christian Organisation
• Anyone who criticised Hitler or the Nazi Party.

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Enemies of the State

• A list of German women who were still purchasing
  goods from Jewish shops.
• Printed to scare or terrorise other people into
  not buying from the Jews.

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Fear The Police State

• Both the Gestapo and the SS were run by Heinrich
  Himmler.
• The Gestapo employed an army of spies who would
  inform on people.

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Fear concentration camps

• Any body who opposed the Nazi state would be put
  into a concentration camp.

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How did the Terror State Work?
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Nazi Propaganda and censorship.

• Nazi propaganda was used to glorify Adolf Hitler
  and crush opposing viewpoints.
• The dictatorship of Adolf Hitler suppressed
  completely the right to freedom of the press.
  Journalists were not allowed to say anything
  against Hitler and the Nazis or they would be
  risking imprisonment or even death.
• Propaganda was always used by the Nazis in their
  newspapers and other news media.

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Keeping control Censorship
radio
Books, theatre, Music (book burning)
newspapers
films
Mass rallies
Joseph Goebbels Minister for Propaganda
Reich Chamber of Culture
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Why did the Nazis burn books?
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Keeping control Propaganda

• Write a definition of propaganda

Propaganda is a type of message that
influences the opinions or behaviour of people.
Instead of impartially providing
information, propaganda is often deliberately
misleading.
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Propaganda

• Why was the radio so important to the Nazis?

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Propaganda posters
How are Jews portrayed here?
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The Eternal Jew

• The Eternal Jew was a Nazi propaganda film made
  in 1940 under the close supervision of Goebbals.
• It depicts Polish Jews as an evil sub species.
• http//www.subcin.com/nazi.html click here for
  more info

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Propaganda

• Tasks
• Watch clip from the film the Triumph of the Will
  (1934).
• Think about what is being portrayed and how.
• How good a promotional video is it?
• (This film was banned after WW2, can you think
  why?)

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How does propaganda work?

• YouTube - More Nazi WW2 Propaganda

Watch the clip and note down what happens and
what you think the point of it is?
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The Churches

• Hitler and the Nazis disagreed with the ideas of
  the Christian Church.
• The Nazis believed in racial superiority.
• Belief in God also interfered with the Hitler
  myth.
• In Germany about two thirds of people were
  Protestant and a third were Roman Catholics.
• http//www.historylearningsite.co.uk/church_in_naz
  i_germany.htm

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The Catholic Church

• How did Nazis deal with the Catholic Church?
• What was the Concordat?

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THE PROTESTANT CHURCH

• Martin Niemoller
• What was the attitude
• of the Protestant
• church towards the
• Nazis?

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Key Quote Martin Niemoller, 1945

• When the Nazis came for the Communists I was
  silent, I was not a Communist.
• When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I
  was silent, I was not a Social Democrat.
• When the Nazis came for the Jews I was silent, I
  was not a Jew.
• When the Nazis came for me there was nobody left
  to protest.

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Summary

• The Nazis set up a police state to force people
  to support their regime. The main instruments of
  the police state were the SS and the Gestapo.
• The Nazis also used censorship to control what
  people saw and heard.
• Goebbels made use of propaganda methods, such as
  posters, the radio and film, to try to persuade
  people to support the Nazis.
• The Catholic and Protestant Churches were
  persecuted by the Nazis. Many priests and
  pastors resisted and were sent to concentration
  camps.