Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SS (Schutzstaffel)
Military group set up in 1925
From 1929 run by Heinrich Himmler
During 1930s, expanded to 50,000 and put in charge of state
security
Carried out racial purification and one part was Totenkopf, who ran
concentration camps
Members were Aryan with pure wives
Because they followed Nazi ideas Hitler told the judges they could
punish people even if they were innocent
New Peoples Court, to hear all treason against the state cases
judges were handpicked and Hitler could increase the sentence if it
was too lenient
The Nazi viewpoint on religion
The Nazis believed in Constructive Christianity and freedom for
every religious denomination (group). But in reality, the Nazis saw
the Church and Christianity as a threat to their policies. One-third of
Germans were Catholics and two-thirds were Protestants. At the
beginning they cooperated with the Nazis. They believed that the
new government protected them from communism and maintained
traditional morals and family values.
Links with the Catholic and Protestant Churches
Hitler signed a concordat with the Pope in 1933. He promised full
religious freedom for the Church and the Pope promised that he
wouldnt interfere in political matters.
Then, the Nazis started to close Catholic churches. Many
monasteries were shut down and the Catholic Youth Organisation
was abolished (remember that the Nazis had created the Hitler Youth
Movement).
The Pope protested by issuing a letter in 1937, which was to be read
in every Catholic Church. This didnt have any impact at all.
Around 400 priests were arrested and sent to the Dachau
concentration camp.
The National Reich Church
There were 28 Protestant groups in Germany, and they were merged
to form the National Reich Church in 1936. A member of the Nazi
party was elected Bishop of the Church. Non-Aryan ministers were
suspended.
Church members called themselves German Christians, with "the
Swastika on their chest and the Cross in their heart."
Censorship of newspapers and the arts
Newspapers were censored.
1935 - 1,600 newspapers were closed down
1938 - 10,000 publications disappear
Around 2,500 textbooks by unreliable authors were burnt in public.
Berlin students burned 20,000 books by Jews and Communists in
1933.
Music was controlled. Jazz was banned, as well as the jitterburg
dance, as black people had invented them.