a) Assess the role of terror and repression in maintaining the Nazi State 1933-1939
Partnered with propaganda, terror and repression became an ever-increasing option for the Nazis. As a tolitarian state, groups or individuals who opposed the propaganda campaign needed to be mobilized through other terms. Brutality was often reserved for minority groups as per Nazi ideologies presented under Hitler. The SA and SS had ever increasing power over these groups.
In 1921 Adolph Hitler formed his own private army called Sturm Abteilung (Storm Section). The SA were instructed to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and to protect Hitler from revenge attacks. Hitler's storm troopers were often former members of the Freikorps (right-wing private armies who flourished during the period that followed the First World War) and had considerable experience in using violence against their opponent. The SA wore grey jackets, brown shirts, swastika armbands, ski-caps, knee-breeches, thick woollen socks and combat boots. Accompanied by bands of musicians and carrying swastika flags, they would parade through the streets of Munich. At the end of the march Hitler would make one of his passionate speeches that encouraged his supporters to carry out acts of violence against Jews and his left-wing political opponents. The SA was given responsibility for running the Concentration Camps which it did with brutality not hesitating
Hitler set up the People's Court to try people who opposed the Nazi regime. Judges had to be loyal Nazi and could be guaranteed to give the right verdict. Under such a system, the number of political prisoners increased dramatically. Between 1930 and 1932 just 8 people were found guilty and executed. Between 1934 and 1939, 534 people were executed. By 1939 there were 162,734 people under protective arrest
The Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) was a state police force set up by Hermann Goering in 1933. It was led by Reinhard Heydrich and was...