Opposition to the Nazis.

Do Now:

The KDF was . . .

The National Labour front was . . .

One way unemployment figures were falsified was . . .

The motherhood medal was . . .

There are various methods that you can oppose people.

Grumbling. Often in the privacy of their homes, people would moan about the Nazis

Passive Resistance. People might refuse to follow Nazi orders.

Open Opposition . Some groups like the White Rose Movement were young people who opposed the Nazis.

Other ways people tried to oppose the Nazis was.

Striking (teachers)

Anonymous Propaganda

Don’t join Hitler Youth

Refuse the salute

Death threats (Letters)

Sabotage

Controlled attacks

Assassinations on Nazi Officials

Stealing

Riots and fights

Anti-Nazi Jokes

Read the following Events and decide whether they are resistance, opposition and non-conformism.

Avoid giving the Heil Hitler salute (some people were executed for this)

Don’t join Nazi organisation or groups

Some acted as a spy for the Germany’s enemies

The Edelweiss Pirates were formed as a rebellion group for young people who rejected the Nazis Hitler Youth groups.

On saints day would hang out a church banner rather than the swastika flag

Brave individuals, such as priest Deitrich Bonhoeffer and Alfred Delp, and a carpenter, Georg Elser. Who planted a bomb in a Beer cellar near where Hitler was due to speak in 1939. Hitler, was only saved as he left early.

Tell anti Nazi jokes

Sabotage Nazi factories, railways and army depots.

Remain a member of a political party other than the Nazis (banned under the enabling act)

Complain about life under the Nazis

Read the following information.

The Edelweiss Pirates were a loosely organized group of youth in Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth. Similar in many ways to the Leipzig Meuten, they consisted of young people, mainly between the ages of 14 and 17, who had evaded the Hitler Youth by leaving

school (which was allowed at 14) and were also young enough to avoid military conscription, which was only compulsory from the age of 17 onwards.

many Edelweiss pirates supported the Allies and assisted deserters from the German Army. Some groups also collected propaganda leaflets dropped by Allied aircraft and pushed them through letterboxes.[2]

Apart from gatherings on street corners, the edelweiss pirates engaged in hiking and camping trips, defying the restrictions on free movement, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the totalitarian regime.[2] They were highly antagonistic to the Hitler Youth, ambushing their patrols and taking great pride in beating them up. One of their slogans was "Eternal War on the Hitler Youth".

The Swing Kids

A youth movement that started in Hamburg in 1939 and spread to Berlin and other German cities.

The movement was a challenge to Hitler announcing that all German adolescents had to join a Nazi youth movement.

They challenged the Nazi image of youth by growing their hair and wearing fashionable clothes.

They also listened to swing music, which was seen by the Nazis as Black music and met at secret dance halls. This often led to clashes with the Hitler Youth and the security forces.

Complete the following sentences:

The edelweiss pirates were . . .

They engaged in . ..

The swing youth were . . .

They engaged in . . .

They opposed the Nazis by . . .

The key people who opposed the Nazis were . . .

I believe the most effective form of opposition to the Nazis was . . .

This is because . . .

(give two examples in your response).

Lesson 2: Undesirables

Do Now:

The first president of Weimar Germany was . . .

The president who appointed Hitler was . . .

The Reichstag fire happened in . . .

The Night of the Long Knives was . . .

Task 1: Make a list of all the groups of people Hitler hated

Why did he hate them so much?

Hitler believed that some races were better or superior to others

He felt that a master race had the right to dominate inferior races, such as Jews, gypsies, Slavs (such as Russians), black and Indian people.

Hitler used the word Aryan to describe the master race of Germans he planned

Hitler’s ideal people would be:

Blond haired

Tall

Strong

Blue or brown eyes

White!

He was quoted once as saying: “The result of all racial crossing is in brief always the following: Lowering of the level of the higher race; Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness.”

Read the following source: what is the key message?

To keep a mentally ill person costs approx. 4 RM per day, a cripple 5.50 RM, a criminal 3.50 RM. Many civil servants receive only 4 RM per day, white collar employees barely 3.50 RM, unskilled workers not even 2 RM per head for their families. (a) Illustrate these figures with a diagram. According to conservative estimates there are 300,000 mentally ill, epileptics, etc. in care. (b) How much do these people cost to keep in total, at a cost of 4 RM per head? (c) How many marriage loans at 1000 RM each … could be granted from this money?

Read the following information:

In July 1933, Hitler passed a law that stated that anyone who suffered from ‘feeble-mindedness, depression, serious physical disability, blindness, deafness or were seriously alcoholic’ could be forced to have an operation that prevented them from having children (castration).

In total approximately 300,000 men and women were sterilised between 1933 and 1939#

On 1 September, 1939 Hitler signed an order giving Nazi doctors the power to administer a mercy death to the incurably sick

It was named T4 after the address of the building in Berlin where the programme was organised (Tiergartenstrasse)

20 hospitals were set up with special children’s wards to conduct these mercy killings

Over 5000 children were taken from their families and killed, many through lethal injection or starvation

6 killing centres were established for adults, where the disabled were murdered by gas and their bodies burned

People who argued for the T4 programme said:

Disabled people are not perfect

Death is painless

Disabled people are trouble

Money can be saved

Defects should not be bred

Effort required is disproportionate

Ruins Master Race

People who were against It said:

Innocent people die

Families are not consulted

Mistakes happen

Don’t be embarrassed about what is happening

Families lose loved ones

Lowers population

Not morally right

Should be allowed a chance to live

Help people

Come up with a question for the following key words:

T4

Euthanasia

Sterilised

Inferior races