Transcript The impact of war on the German civilians…

The impact of war on
German civilians…
Syllabus
• Social and economic
effects of the war on
civilians in Germany
• Nazi racial policies: the
Holocaust &
persecution of
minorities
Evacuation
Parents of Germany were urged to evacuate their children from the major cities, by
1943, 300 000 children had been sent away. The majority of children were sent to
camps that were established and run by Hitler Youth. They were set up through the
Reich and occupying territories. Whiles in camps the children participated in Nazi
indoctrination programs.
As the war continued class differences appeared as middle class families moved
away from the city together, whiles the working class had to brake their families up,
as they sent their children far away. With the desire to keep the family together,
children were kept in the city with their family, even as bombing intensified. Families
that evacuated to the countryside were met with hostility, as they were blamed for
food shortages, inflation and the rise in crime rate as a country and town anger
developed.
Areas such as the Black Forest, Bavaria and the rural parts of eastern Germany
became the safety areas for fleeing refugees as these areas avoided the horrors of
bombing.
The effects of Allied bombing
Germany put in place a system of air raid precaution wardens, fire drills and black out
precautions. Bomb shelters were established by the end of the 1940’s, large aboveground
reinforced concert bunkers which were located in the major cities.
Propergander gave the German’s a false sense of comfort, Goering claimed that the
Luftwaffe would never allow Allied bombers over Germany, however as bombing intensified
confidence faded in the German civilians.
During May 1942, a raid on Cologne distressed the city, though the public shelters which
accommodated 75 000 people help to guarantee the death toll was only 460.
The German civilian witnessed further destruction, in Hamburg during July and August 1943,
when bombing caused blazing fires which reached temperatures of 1000 Degrees Celsius,
this sourced powerful winds of 240 kilometers per hour, which destroyed buildings, uprooted
trees and pulled people into the flames, there were 90 000 casualties.
At the end of the war more then 12 million German civilians were left homeless, and 4 million
homes had been destroyed. Government assistance was reduced to the victims of the
bombing, as the government could no longer afford basic needs.
Hamburg
Civilian Morale
The civilian morale in Germany did not crumble during the effects of the Allied bombing, due
to the control maintained by the Nazis, but also due to a spirit of defiance that emerged
among the civilians, as both Nazi and non- Nazis were determined by there hardship.
While resources were used scarcely to rebuild damaged factories and communications the
production of weapons was decreased. The fleeing of refugees placed burden, as is strained
the rationing system in the country. Hospitals were also placed under strenuous pressure as
they had to cope with 750 000 casualties.
Germans suffered intensely by Allied bombing, 10 times more Germans died then British
civilians, 305 000 Germans were killed and close to 800 000 were injured in air raids. Five
million German civilians were evacuated.
Rationing
The Nazi leaders put in measures to ensure a repeat of world war one, starvation would not
be experienced by the German civilians. Ration cards, colour coded for each item of food
had been printed and issued in August 1939. clothing and shoes were also rationed in a
points system. As the war progressed, stores were running out of items and as a result the
system was altered. One hundred points were issues in January 1943 however these points
had to last until the end of 1945.
With the expectations of a short war, fruits and vegetables were not rationed, however as the
war prolonged flower beds became vegetable gardens and meat rations were reduced. A
black market occurred to ensure that the wealthy were able to eat well.
As the Allies advanced food supplies became harder to acquire. Farmers declined to
surrender their crops and proceeded in selling them in the cities to who ever could afford the
higher asking price.
Even though rationing was significant, the German civilians did not starve as their parents
has done in 1918.
Role of women
Despite the Nazi view on women as homemakers and mothers, during the war the number
of women in employment rose from 11.4 million to 14.8 million in six years, on the out brake
of war women made up 37 percent of the total labor force. An allowance was introduced to
families were the soul provider was fighting in the Army, however working women had
massive reductions to their family benefit, depending on their income.
Campaigns urging for women to work was disappointing, with German women refusing the
notion of war work. The burden then fell onto the working class women who resented the
middle and upper class women who still enjoyed their comfortable lifestyle.
In 1943 women from the ages of 17 to 45 where conscripted to work, however this was
stated by the upper class as “Bolshevist”, as an assault on basic rights.
Women who worked in factories where involved in the manufacture of munitions and
weapons. While women were also used in transport, administration, communications and
commerce. Women were left to manage the farms, approximately 6 million women worked in
German agriculture.
Nazi racial policies
The desire for racial purification, saw the period of systematic and sustained persecution, to
achieve this aim was the most ‘revolutionary’ aspect of Hitler’s regime.
The most documented and largest example was the movement against the Jew, which was
known as the Holocaust. Other groups were also victimized in the force to produce a pure
Aryan state.
Persecution of minority groups
Gypsies
The 30 000 German gypsies were originally from India, which suggested and Aryan
background, though their itinerant behavior meant they were seen as nomadic and
unwelcomed. In 1940 a decision to expel the German gypsies to occupied Poland, in the
‘combating the gypsy plague’, however due to overcrowding in the Polish reception centers
this never happened.
In November 1941, 5000 gypsies were sent to Lodz ghetto in Poland where they died of
disease. Himmler ordered special gypsy camps to be established in Auschwitz, here they
were subjected to medical experiment, fatal diseases and debilitating labor, 5600 were also
gassed.
In 1944 when the camp closed, some men and women were sent to German factories while
the rest were gassed. Only 5000 of the original population of gypsies survived the war.
Disabled people
In 1933 disable people where subjected to sterilization laws, which resulted in 350 000
people being sterilized in 10 years. People who fell under ‘handicapped’, were prostitutes,
alcoholics, and sufferers of Parkinson’s disease. Euthanasia program also known as T2, was
introduced at the beginning of the war, this saw a ‘merciful death’ given to ‘unproductive’
people. This lifted the burden on families and hospitals as it freed beds for returning injured
soldiers.
Approximately 1.4 million Germans living in mental hospitals, asylums and children’s homes
came within the guide lines of the program. The victims were gassed in a sealed room
disguised as a shower. Families received a form letter that stated the ‘unexpected death’ of
their family, and to avoid disease has been cremated, a warning was given not to make any
other further enquiries.
When the information spread of the horrors, protesting begun among the public and religious
leaders. With mounting hostile T2 was stopped in August 1941, with 72 000 people falling
victim.
Other minority groups;
Homosexuals, beggars and tramps were also victimized in concentration camps before and
during the war however the largest minority group to suffer where the Jews, the Holocaust
begun with the commencement of the Nazi regime.
Holocaust
The ‘Final Solution’ was the answer to the Jewish problem, it was their complete elimination
from Germany. Hitler said that in the event of war the Jews would be killed. In November
1939 all Jews in Poland were to wear a yellow star to identify themselves, this was later
seen throughout Germany and occupying areas Jews were moved to harden ghettos,
where is was impossible to maintain basic hygiene. Anyone who tried to leave the ghetto
was shot by German guards. A revolt at Warsaw ghetto, in April 1943 saw 56 000 Jews killed
in the suppression of the revolt.
Six extermination camps were established in Poland at Chelmno, Auschwitz, Majdanek,
Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka to manage the Jews. Prisoners were stripped naked and all
possesions were removed, gold teeth fillings were also taken, before being gassed in
specially constructed shower blocks. Their bodies were then burnt in large ovens.
Alone in Auschwitz more the four million people were murdered between 1941 and 1944.