Living under Nazi rule 1933–1945

This is one of the four optional depth studies for Paper 2. OCR sets source-based questions (AO3 — evaluating usefulness/reliability) as well as knowledge-based questions. Nazi Germany is exceptionally well-tested: expect a source question (8 marks) and at least one extended essay.

How Hitler consolidated power (1933–34)

• January 1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg.
• February 1933: Reichstag Fire — Communist Marinus van der Lubbe blamed; emergency decrees suspended civil liberties.
• March 1933: Enabling Act passed — gave Hitler power to pass laws without the Reichstag for 4 years.
• June 1934: Night of the Long Knives — SA leaders murdered; Hitler eliminated rivals within the Nazi party.
• August 1934: Hindenburg dies; Hitler combines Chancellor and President as Führer.

The terror state

The Nazi regime controlled through fear:

• SS (Schutzstaffel): Himmler's elite force; policed the party and later ran the concentration camps.
• Gestapo (secret police): investigated political enemies; relied heavily on public denunciations.
• Concentration camps: Dachau (1933) the first; used for political opponents initially, later expanded.

In practice much terror was self-policing: citizens reported neighbours, colleagues and family members. The Gestapo was far smaller than often assumed — it depended on ordinary Germans cooperating.

Propaganda: Goebbels and mass persuasion

Joseph Goebbels was Minister of Propaganda:

• Film: Triumph of the Will (1935, Riefenstahl) glorified Hitler; Der ewige Jude (1940) presented anti-Semitic propaganda.
• Radio: "People's Receiver" (Volksempfänger) brought Nazi broadcasts into homes at low cost.
• Rallies: Nuremberg rallies (1933–38) created sense of power and community.
• Education: schools taught Nazi racial ideology; history rewritten; PE prioritised over intellectual subjects.
• Hitler Youth and League of German Girls: indoctrinated young people; separated them from family influence.

Economic benefits and support

Between 1933 and 1939 many Germans experienced real improvements:

• Unemployment fell from 6 million (1933) to under 300,000 (1938) — due to rearmament, autobahn building, and "invisible unemployment" (Jews and women excluded from figures).
• "Strength through Joy" (KdF) — gave workers subsidised holidays and leisure.
• "Beauty of Labour" — improved factory conditions.

This "carrot" alongside the "stick" of terror explains why many Germans supported — or at least tolerated — the regime.

Persecution and the Holocaust

Stages of persecution:

Year	Event
1933	Boycott of Jewish businesses; Jews banned from civil service
1935	Nuremberg Laws — Jews stripped of citizenship; Jewish–non-Jewish marriage banned
1938	Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"): 91 killed, 7,500 businesses destroyed, 30,000 arrested
1941	Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) began mass shootings in the East
1942	Wannsee Conference — "Final Solution" coordinated; death camps (Auschwitz, Treblinka) in operation
1945	Liberation of camps; estimated 6 million Jews murdered

Opposition and resistance

Opposition was rare but real:

• White Rose: Sophie and Hans Scholl distributed anti-Nazi leaflets at Munich University (1942–43); executed.
• Stauffenberg bomb plot (July 1944): Army officers attempted to assassinate Hitler; failed; 5,000 executed.
• Church opposition: Confessing Church (Niemöller, Bonhoeffer); Catholic resistance to euthanasia programme.

Why was opposition so limited? Terror, propaganda, economic success, and genuine support for many Nazi policies made organised resistance extremely dangerous and socially isolated.

Common OCR exam mistakes

1. Saying all Germans supported Hitler — many acquiesced out of fear or self-interest; genuine enthusiastic support varied.
2. Confusing the Night of the Long Knives (1934, against the SA) with Kristallnacht (1938, against Jews).
3. Forgetting that the Wannsee Conference (1942) coordinated the Final Solution — the Holocaust was already underway before 1942 (Einsatzgruppen from 1941).
4. On source questions: describing what a source says is AO1; assessing why it was produced and what it leaves out is AO3 (scores higher).