Resources required

• Resource A: Political situation 1930
• Resource B: Pre-war Nazism
• Resource C: A Communist’s view
• Resource D: Propaganda and persecution
• Resource E: Determining ‘Jewish bloodline’
• Resource F: Kristallnacht

Rationale and learning intentions

This enquiry explores a range of attitudes to the Nazi regime before the war. Its aim is to help students appreciate the complexity of human reactions to a given situation and gain some understanding of the interaction of factors that can shape such reactions. The Nazi regime worked energetically and ruthlessly to gain universal approval for its existence and actions, but despite this, attitudes towards the regime remained diverse among both Germans and foreign nationals. Students will be asked to draw inference from sources to investigate why this diversity of attitude existed. A study in attitudes and beliefs.

How much hardship had Germans including Berliners experienced before Hitler came to power?

Context: This enquiry would benefit from being carried out after pupils have studied the effects of the Wall St Crash and war reparations on Germany in the years between 1930 and 1933 to provide a background to Hitler’s rise to power.

When this context has been established pupils should then answer the question below using the sources provided.
Using Resources A and B, what evidence can pupils find of i) unemployment ii) poverty iii) violence in Germany between 1930 and 1933?

(AV suggestions: Support for Hitler across the social classes and generations could be explored further through the film ‘Cabaret’, such as the scene of the youth singing in the beer garden scene. The violent pro- and anti-Nazi passions could be considered after viewing the first ‘History File’ programme [BBC] on Nazi Germany, which focuses on the activities and motivation of members of the SA.)

Did Hitler seem to offer hope of a solution to Berlin and Germany’s problems?

Using Resources A and B again, what evidence can pupils find that the writers of the sources believed that Hitler offered some solution to the problems of unemployment and poverty?

Look at Resource C. Does this writer agree that Hitler is solving Germany’s problems?

Pupils should find evidence from the source to back up what they think.

Discussion points:

• What might explain the difference between the opinion of the writer of Resource C and the opinions of the writers of the other sources?
• Can it ever be true to say that Germany supported Hitler? Study of the election result of March 1933 would deepen this discussion.

How effective was Nazi propaganda against the Jews?

Pupils should be made aware of the Nuremburg Laws of 1935, the events of Kristallnacht, 1938 and the nature of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda in the years after 1933. Resource D gives a brief overview of some of the key events.

Pupils should read the letters in Resource E. What can they learn from these letters about Nazi party attitudes to Jewish people?

Then pupils should study Resources B, C and F. What evidence can they find that Nazi propaganda had been effective in shaping attitudes towards Jews in Germany?

Pupils should read Resource F. Use the extracts to argue for or against these statements:

• ‘Nazi propaganda hadn’t completely succeeded in turning everybody against the Jews by 1938’ 
• ‘Not all anti-Jewish attitudes originated from Nazi propaganda’. 
• ‘Some Germans would have liked to help Jewish people but were too afraid to do so’

(AV suggestions: The issue of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda could be also be considered by watching the early part of World at War series [Thames TV 1973], episode 10, ‘Genocide’.)

Was a decision to do nothing really a vote of support for Nazi policies?

Write the following quotation from Mrs Midgley, Resource B, on the board:

‘My parents like most of their friends steered clear of politics and accepted all the benefits of the new regime without, to my knowledge, questioning the methods used.’

Explain what economic benefits Nazism would have brought to non-Jewish Germans by 1938. Also make it clear that at least some of the anti-Jewish policies of the regime were very obvious to all Germans by 1938, and that many would have seen relatively mild violence towards, and humiliation of, Jews would even before Kristallnacht (although nobody at this stage could have foreseen death camps).

Class debate:

In such circumstances is it fair to blame Germans for quiet acceptance of the regime as expressed in Resource B?