Study Guides

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils study a modern society and the issues that affected it in great depth over a shorter period. They learn about the key events, developments, people and stories that shaped this modern society over a period of around twenty to thirty years.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain how Hitler created a police state in Nazi Germany.

Key Notes

• Hitler's regime built a police state using the SS, Gestapo, SD and concentration camps to control the German population.
• The SS oversaw other Nazi security bodies and controlled policing, intelligence, racial policy and concentration camps.
• The Gestapo, Germany's secret police, monitored people, used fear and denunciations to arrest citizens without trial.
• The SD gathered vast amounts of intelligence, helping to create a society gripped by paranoia and silence.
• The legal system was restructured to serve Nazi goals, with courts delivering harsh, ideologically driven verdicts.

Vocabulary To Learn

• police state: a country where the government uses the police and security forces to control every part of people's lives through fear, surveillance and arrest
• concentration camp: a place where large numbers of people are kept as prisoners in extremely bad conditions, especially for political reasons
• intelligence: information collected by a government or security organisation to identify threats and control opposition, often using spying or surveillance
• secret police: a police force that works in secret to spy on, arrest, and punish people who are seen as enemies of the government, often using illegal methods
• denunciations: public accusations made by ordinary citizens to Nazi authorities, reporting others for disloyalty to the regime; these reports, often driven by personal motives, fuelled widespread fear and paranoia

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Pupils may assume that all concentration camps in this period were death camps like Auschwitz.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• 1923, the Ruhr and hyperinflation Study Guide
• Early unrest and the Treaty of Versailles Study Guide
• Economic recovery under Stresemann Study Guide
• Employment in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Goebbels and propaganda in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Hitler's creation of a dictatorship Study Guide
• How Hitler became Chancellor of Germany Study Guide
• Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities Study Guide
• Opposition and resistance in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Social and economic change 1924-29 Study Guide
• Stresemann's international achievements Study Guide
• The early development of the NSDAP Study Guide
• The First World War and the German Revolution Study Guide
• The growth in support for the Nazi Party Study Guide
• The growth of unemployment and rise in support for the Communist Party Study Guide
• The Munich Putsch Study Guide
• The Nazi Party and religion Study Guide
• The NSDAP's 'lean years' Study Guide
• The persecution of Jews Study Guide
• The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act Study Guide
• The Weimar Republic Study Guide
• Threats to the Weimar Republic from the left and the right Study Guide
• Weimar culture 1924-29 Study Guide
• Women in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Work and life in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Young people in Nazi Germany Study Guide