The twentieth-century world, Year 10: propaganda, the police state and opposition (Germany 1890–1945 option)

The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

HintIts job was to shape what Germans read, heard and saw.

The whyIt controlled newspapers, radio, film, theatre and the arts. Editors were told what they could print, and anyone working in the arts had to belong to a Nazi-run chamber.

The People's Receiver (Volksempfänger)

HintSold at a low price so that ordinary families could afford one.

The whyBy the start of the war in 1939 about 70 per cent of German households owned a radio. Loudspeakers were also put up in streets, factories and cafés for important speeches.

Heinrich Himmler

HintBy 1936 he also controlled all of Germany's police.

The whyThe SS began as Hitler's bodyguard. Under Himmler it grew into a huge organisation that ran the concentration camps, the security services and its own army units.

The Gestapo

HintIt relied heavily on tip-offs from ordinary Germans.

The whyIt had far fewer officers than people believed. Much of its information came from neighbours, workmates and even relatives who reported remarks they had overheard. The fear of being informed on kept many people silent.

Dachau

HintIt first held political prisoners, such as Communists and Social Democrats.

The whyThe early camps were for the regime's political opponents. Prisoners were held without trial, and news of the camps was allowed to spread so that others would be afraid to speak out.

Students burned them in public

HintIt happened in Berlin and in other university towns.

The whyThe largest burning took place in Berlin on 10 May, where Goebbels spoke to the crowd. Censorship went on to cover newspapers, films, music and art.

By writing and secretly distributing anti-Nazi leaflets

HintThey were students armed with paper, not weapons.

The whyThe group was based at the University of Munich in 1942 and 1943. Its leaflets told Germans about Nazi crimes and urged them to resist.

Hans and Sophie Scholl

HintStudents at the university in Munich.

The whyA university caretaker saw them with leaflets and reported them. They were arrested, tried and executed within days, and other members were put to death later.

Listened and danced to American and British jazz

HintTheir name comes from a style of music.

The whyThey were mostly middle-class teenagers in cities such as Hamburg. They wore English-style clothes and rejected the uniform and drill of the Hitler Youth. Some were sent to concentration camps.

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

HintHe had been badly wounded in North Africa.

The whyThe bomb went off at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia but only injured him. The plotters' attempt to take over in Berlin failed the same day. Stauffenberg was shot within hours, and a wave of arrests and executions followed.

The Edelweiss Pirates

HintNamed after an Alpine flower.

The whyThey went hiking and camping on their own terms and sang songs the regime had banned. During the war some helped army deserters. In Cologne in November 1944 thirteen people were publicly hanged, some of them members of these groups.