Conditions in 1930s 1) Germany was defeated in World War I • Germans lacked confidence in their weak government 2) An Economic depression hit Germany • Millions lost their jobs Germans were desperate for change, so they looked to Adolf Hitler who promised a better life and a new and glorious Germany. In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government, and many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation . •A crowd cheers Adolf Hitler as his car leaves. Hitler moved quickly to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship. He ended individual freedoms and organized police power to enforce policies. People lost their right to privacy. He put tons of jobless men to work as Nazi Storm Troopers. These men were put to the streets to beat and kill some opponents of the Nazi regime. • May 2,1933 - Trade union officials and activists are terrorized. The trade unions' records are impounded and their assets seized. • July 14,1933 - All political parties except the Nazi party are dissolved. Police search a vehicle for arms. An important tool of the Nazi terror was the Protective squad, or SS. The SS began as a special guard for Adolf Hitler and other party leaders. ~Some of the SS members formed a smaller, elite group whose members also served as auxiliary policeman and also as concentration camp guards, which eventually overshadowed the Storm Troopers, or SA. ~The SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, also turned the regular police forces into an instrument of terror. These non-uniformed police used ruthless and cruel methods throughout Germany to identify and arrest political opponents and others who refused to obey laws and policies of the Nazi regime. ~After Hitler took power, the SA and Gestapo agents went from door to door looking for Hitler's enemies. Socialists, Communists, trade union leaders, and others who had spoken out against the Nazi party were arrested, and some were killed. By the middle of 1933, the Nazi party was the only political party, and nearly all organized opposition to the regime had been eliminated. ~Many different groups, including the SA and SS, set up hundreds of makeshift "camps" in empty warehouses, factories, and other locations all over Germany. • Members of SS parade during a rally. Nazi Propaganda and Censorship • The Nazi party created a propaganda campaign to win the loyalty of Germans. • The propaganda was found in magazines, newspapers, books, etc. • Nazis in the spring of 1933 burned books that were written by Jewish writers. More than 25,000 books were burned. • Books were removed from German libraries in an attempt to censor Jewish writers. • Hitler and his Nazi party then implanted books that taught children to obey the Nazi party and love Hitler. Nazi Racism During WWII in Germany, a new tactic called “Blitzkrieg,”(lightning war) was used to break through enemy defenses. Germany defeated Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, and Yugoslavia. German Nazis pushed more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow. Allies tried to start attacking their way into Germany. Finally, Nazi Germany surrendered in May of 1945. ~Adolf Hitler suggested that wartime "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill." Many Germans did not want to be reminded of individuals who did not measure up to their concept of a "master race." The physically and mentally handicapped were viewed as "useless" to society. At the beginning of World War II, individuals who were mentally retarded, physically handicapped, or mentally ill were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the "T-4," or "euthanasia," program. ~The "euthanasia" program required the cooperation of many German doctors, who reviewed the medical files of patients in institutions to determine which handicapped or mentally ill individuals should be killed. The doctors also supervised the actual killings. Doomed patients were transferred to six institutions in Germany and Austria to be killed in specially constructed gas chambers. Handicapped infants and small children were also killed by injection with a deadly dose of drugs or by starvation. The bodies of the victims were burned in large ovens called crematoria. • Hartheim castle, a euthanasia killing center where people with physical and mental disabilities were killed by gassing and lethal injection. Hartheim, Austria. German Rule in Occupied Europe  Germany planned to annex most territories they conquered  Territories were ruthlessly exploited for the German war effort  Local populations were drafted for forced labor  Germans destroyed cultural and scientific institutions  Territories were given starvation rations  Food and raw materials were confiscated for the war effort • http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7671 • • • • • • • http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7673 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7679 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7681 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7675 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 7683 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?Moduleld=1000 7685 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article/php?Moduleld=1000 7677