How Did the Nazis Deal with Opposition? (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE History)

The Aspects of the Nazi Police State - Summary

Once the SA and army had sworn an oath of loyalty to him, Hitler wanted to transform Germany into a police state to ensure that there would be no obstacles to creating his Third Reich.

As dedicated Nazis, the SS formed the backbone of Hitler’s police force and oversaw the roles of the Gestapo and SD. Their intimidating presence on the streets of Germany, combined with their ability to bypass legal proceedings, spread fear into those who thought about resisting or opposing Nazi policy.

In the background, the SD gathered intelligence and information on enemies of the Nazi Party, informing the SS and other police groups of who to target.

Of all the components of the police force, the Gestapo were perhaps the most infamous and feared. People worried about their late night visits to suspected opponents of the Nazi Party, as well as their ability to blend into public life and remain unseen.

The Nazis created concentration camps in 1933 to imprison all opponents of the Nazi regime. Details of the poor living conditions and violence committed were leaked back to the public, creating fear and ensuring compliance.

Changes to the legal system drastically increased the conviction rate and number of people executed due to treasonous crimes. With the removal of trial by jury, enemies of the state were at the mercy of pro-Nazi judges influenced to declare them guilty.

With the majority of the population being either Catholic or Protestant, the Nazis were worried about the ideas and beliefs being taught in church and Christian schools. Ultimately, Hitler could not allow religion to challenge his authority. He made agreements with the Catholic Church and reformed the Protestant Church.

 Role of the SS

• The SS was created in 1925 to act as personal bodyguards to Hitler

• Members had to be both ‘racially pure’ and radically loyal to the NSDAP

• Heinrich Himmler became leader of the SS from 1929

• The SS wore black uniforms to be easily identifiable from the SA

• The SS had several roles:

  • Protect Hitler and other Nazi leaders

  • Provide security during political meetings

  • Urge people to subscribe to the Nazi newspaper, Der Völkischer Beobachter

  • Marry ‘racially pure’ wives to create ‘racially pure’ children

  • Manage and control other police forces, including the SD and Gestapo

• The SS were responsible for carrying out the arrests and murders of SA members during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934

Role of the SD

• The SD was created in 1931 by Heinrich Himmler

  • Reinhard Heydrich was placed in charge

• They gathered intelligence on anyone they suspected or knew opposed the Nazi Party, which included:

  • Existing and new Nazi Party members

  • Leaders and activities within other political parties

  • Minority groups such as Jewish people, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Freemasons

  • Government officials 

• Heydrich and the SD compiled a list of SA members during the Night of the Long Knives

• The SD became the only police agency to collect and manage intelligence from 1934

  • They continued this work during the war

Role of the Gestapo

• Hermann Goering initially created the Gestapo to “investigate and combat all attempts to threaten the state”

• By 1934, Reinhard Heydrich led the Gestapo

• They wore plain clothes so they could not be easily identified

• The Gestapo had several roles:

  • Tapping phones and spying on opponents

  • Arresting, questioning and torturing suspects

    • Around 160,000 people were arrested in 1939 for political crimes

  • Sending people directly to concentration camps using protective custody

  • Releasing information about concentration camp conditions to spread fear

• They relied on denunciations from the public to target suspects:

  • Only around 10% of political crimes committed were discovered by the Gestapo, compared to 80% reported by ordinary citizens

• Towns such as Hamburg and Frankfurt only had 40-50 Gestapo agents, which demonstrates the reliance on fear to reduce opposition

The Development of Concentration Camps

• Most arrests were for ‘political crimes’

  • Political crimes involved speaking out against the Nazi Party

• Dachau was opened in 1933 and became the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany

• Concentration camps were created to imprison many groups:

  • Minority groups such as Jewish people and Jehovah’s Witnesses

  • ‘Undesirables’ such as homosexuals, prostitutes and Romani

  • Political opponents, including journalists, writers, intellectuals and Communists

• Concentration camps had poor living conditions and inmates had to do hard labour

• During the Second World War, the Nazi strategy changed

  • Concentration camps did not reduce the number of ‘undesirables’ in Germany

  • Germany’s progression into Eastern Europe increased the number of ‘undesirables’ under Nazi occupation

• Hitler and the Nazis developed the ‘Final Solution’ in 1942

  • This led to the development of six extermination camps

    • The most notorious camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau

Controlling the Legal System

• Control of the legal system allowed the Nazi Party to remove opposition under the illusion that it was fair and just

  • However, cases were often pre-determined and biased in favour of a conviction

Judges and Lawyers  

• Judges and lawyers were required to prioritise the interests of the Nazi Party above all else:

  • Judges joined the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law

    • Judges were dismissed if they did not join

  • Lawyers joined the German Lawyers Front

• Judges had to wear the swastika from 1936

• Judges decided the outcome of cases, not the jury

Law Courts 

• The Nazis removed trial by jury so that judges could decide the outcome of the case

• The People’s Court was introduced to hear cases of treason

  • The Nazis selected judges radically loyal to them

  • Trials were held in secret

  • The right to appeal was removed

• Control of the legal system led to a rapid rise in the number of political opponents executed:

  • Between 1930 and 1932, only eight people were executed

  • Between 1934 and 1939, this increased to 534 people

Controlling Religion

The Concordat With the Catholic Church

• Germany had high levels of Christianity

  • Most of the country was either Protestant or Catholic

• Christianity was a threat to Hitler and the Nazi Party because the Christian Church held different beliefs from the Nazi Party:

• However, Hitler was not sure what to do about the churches:

Should Hitler Destroy or Keep Christianity?

• Hitler initially wanted the Christian churches to work with the Nazi government

• The Catholic and Protestant churches reacted differently to Nazi interference

• Catholics represented several challenges for Hitler:

  • They were loyal to the Pope

  • They supported the Catholic Centre Party before the Enabling Act

  • They had their own Catholic schools, which taught different beliefs to Nazi schools

• Hitler signed an agreement known as a Concordat with the Pope in July 1933 on behalf of the Catholic Church:

  • It allowed Catholics to worship freely and to continue with Catholic schools

  • In return, Catholic priests would not interfere in politics and would swear loyalty to the Nazi regime

• Persecution of Catholics continued throughout the 1930s:

  • Around 400 priests were sent to the Dachau concentration camp

  • Catholic schools were controlled or closed

    • This broke the Concordat

  • Youth groups like the Catholic Youth League were banned

  • Monasteries were closed down

• By 1937, the Concordat had failed:

  • The Pope released a statement known as ‘With Burning Anxiety’, which criticised the Nazi regime

    • The Pope called Hitler a “mad prophet”

The Protestant Reich Church

• Many Protestants supported the Nazi Party by 1933 as the party had promised protection from Communists, who were anti-Christian

• Ludwig Müller became Reich Bishop of a unified Protestant Church called the Reich Church:

  • Around 2,000 individual churches joined

  • The swastika was displayed in some churches

  • Jewish people were not allowed to be baptised in the Reich Church

• Pastor Martin Niemöller resisted Nazi intervention and set up the Pastors’ Emergency League (PEL)

  • The Confessing Church was created in 1934 and 6,000 churches joined