Chapter 25 Hitler's Germany.

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Chapter 25 Hitler’s Germany Before Hitler came to power, freedom to live ones own life within the law was protected by powerful forces within the German Republic. 1st, the Republic was a federation of states, or lander, each with its own democratically elected government.  Those second-level govs. Worked as a check on the power of the federal gov. in Berlin. 2nd, a citizen could join an organization which protected his interests. 3rd, a citizen had the right to speak, listen and read criticism of those who ruled him. And finally, there was the crucial principle that no person or gov. was above the law. – Germans were to be moulded into a volk, a racially pure people, whose only loyalty was to Hitler. Hitler gave facts of life in Nazi Germany: “the gov. will brutally beat down all who oppose it.” On 23, March 1933 the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave Hitler the authority to make his own laws.  ON 2 May, Union offices throughout the country were raided by the SA and SS.  IN their place the German Labour Front (DAF) was set up, led by Robert Ley, which both workers and employers sere forced to join.  The DAF was basically a means of stopping German workers organizing themselves in their own interests. ON 14 July a new law destroyed the German people’s democratic right to disagree openly with those who ruled them. “Law Against the New Formation of Parties” Article 1: The sole political party existing in Germany is the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Article 2: Whoever shall undertake to maintain the organization of another party, or to found a new party, shall be punished.  The NSDAP (Nazi) itself became a mass party. For many people
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it was a convenient, and prudent, to join the Nazis’ there were all kinds of benefits for Party members, such as being first in line for jobs. By 1939 Party membership was a condition of entry into the civil service. By 1937 there were 700,000 political leaders in Germany; regional party chiefs, area bosses, local leaders, cell leaders, and block leaders. Through these ‘mini-fuhrers’ of his mass party, Hitler could regulate and spy on the nation. –to raise the right arm at an angle so that the palm of the had becomes visible and say ‘Heil Hitler’, that stiff-armed salute ...

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