CREATIVE EVENTS

This is another meaty part of the topic, and we investigate this one until early December.

 

Here, we concentrate on how the Nazis (after they got power) strengthened their hold on power. 

 

 

Strengthening their power

We begin with the crucial period  in 1933 and 1934 when Hitler made himself outright dictator (or Fuhrer) of Germany.  We look in depth at key events such as the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act and the Night of the Long Knives.

 

Nazi control

We explore how the Nazis controlled particular areas of German life and groups - education, youth, women, workers, the Churches - and why he was able to do it.  We also examine the impact of propaganda and censorship under the Nazis.

 

Economic life

It is also during this part that we cover economic life under the Nazis.  We investigate how and why they tackled unemployment, labour organisations, rent and price controls and their attempts to achieve self-sufficiency.

 

Persecution of the Jews

The other very important element of this part of the topic is Anti-Semitism – the Nazi persecution of Jewish people.  We cover Nazi race theory, Nazi policies on Jewish employment and property, key events like the Nuremburg Laws and Kristallnacht, as well as the use of concentration camps for Jewish people.

 

 

 

Part Three - Nazi Policies and Actions in Europe 1933-41

 

 

This final part of the topic takes us up to Christmas in Year 11.

 

Nazi foreign policy aims

We start by outlining Nazi foreign policy aims (such as destroying the Treaty of Versailles, restoring German military power, uniting all Germans, making Germany great and Living Space (or Lebensraum).

 

A cautious start

After that, we look at how Germany tried to achieve these aims in Europe – gradually and carefully at first, and more aggressively later on. 

 

German military power was built up from an early stage, with key moments being the immediate start of rearmament, conscription and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 and the remilitarisation of the Rhineland.

 

More aggression later and eventual war

We see how in the mid and late 1930s, Hitler successfully brought back into Germany German speakers in Austria, the Sudetenland and Poland (although in Poland, German speakers weren’t a majority).

 

We also see how Hitler created living space for Germans in areas where Germans were not a majority, like Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR.  We finish off by seeing how Hitler started World War II, and how Germany got on in the early years of the war.