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

The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

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

为什么It 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)

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

为什么By 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

提示By 1936 he also controlled all of Germany's police.

为什么The 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

提示It relied heavily on tip-offs from ordinary Germans.

为什么It 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

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

为什么The 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

提示It happened in Berlin and in other university towns.

为什么The 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

提示They were students armed with paper, not weapons.

为什么The 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

提示Students at the university in Munich.

为什么A 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

提示Their name comes from a style of music.

为什么They 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

提示He had been badly wounded in North Africa.

为什么The 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

提示Named after an Alpine flower.

为什么They 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.