Food was limited for the prisoners and they suffered harsh discipline, beatings and random executions.
By the late 1930s concentration camps were becoming more common.
Usually Jews, Socialists, Communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else who opposed Nazi ideas ended up there.
Use of propaganda
The use of propaganda in Germany kept opposition to Hitler very limited.
Goebbels used every resource available to him to make sure that people were loyal to the Nazis.
Nuremburg rallies included huge rallies, marches; torch lit processions and meetings, bands, flying displays and Hitler’s speeches. The rallies emphasised order in the Nazis and gave people the belonging to a greater movement.
The media was also controlled, this included: books, newspapers, films, plays, art, posters in the streets, music and radio broadcasts were increased telling people about the Nazis.
During Goebbels time in power he was supported by the SS and the Gestapo, so had the power to shut down any anti-Nazi ideas.
Hitler also controlled the Nazi ideas that were exposed to young people and at schools:
At schools during the Nazi period you would have been taught about German History and how Germany had been stabbed in the back because of the way the First World War has ended.
You also would have been taught how Jews were squeezing prophets out of the German workers and how the Germans people were a super Aryan race.
These teachings would ensure that the next generation of Germans would grow up the serve the Nazi group and Hitler to ensure that the Nazis would carry on.
As a member of the Hitler Youth or league of German maidens, the children would march in parades with loud music and leisure time would be devoted to Hitler.
The first loyalty of Nazi children would be Hitler instead of their family.
All of these factors made Hitler confident that there were a strong generation of Nazi supporters after his that could carry on the Nazi name.
Some of the German youth did not support Hitler:
Many of the other youth organisations had been made illegal to make way for the Nazi youth groups, so there were no alternatives for children who didn’t like the idea of supporting the Nazis.
Some groups such as the Swing movement and the Edelweiss Pirates resented and resisted Nazi control of their lives.
The youth rebels mainly disobeyed the laws of the Nazis, mainly by having parties and listening to banned jazz music and danced to American music.
The Nazis combated these groups by arresting them and publicly hanging them to send out the message to the people that the Nazis would not tolerate such actions.
This helped Hitler to stay in control as it sent fear into the German public as well as reducing the amount of rebels so other children would not be drafted into the illegal groups.
Churches:
Hitler had tried to get all the churches to form into one official Reich church.
Hitler encouraged an alternative religion to the traditional religion, the German Faith Movement.
There were large protests against this and of the Nazis action such as the killing of people with disabilities or the mentally ill.
Many of these protestors were silenced, but some such as the Catholic Bishop Galen criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930’s but the Nazis thought it would be too risky to silence him while German was in the war because he has had such a large group of strong supporters and followers.
One important reason that the Nazis keep control in Germany was there promises of economic recovery, unemployment recovery and the crisis to German farming.
Many people thought that the Nazis kept their promises over these matters, especially the 5 million workers that were unemployed in 1933. The public works projects created many jobs for the unemployment in building new motorways, railway building and house building.
The rearmament that Hitler brought back in 1935 created many more jobs for the unemployed as they were drafted into the army.
This need for weapons, equipment and uniforms created more jobs in the mines, textile mills for engineers and designers.
As well as bring about economic recovery, these measures boosted Hitler’s popularity because of the national pride meaning that Hitler was able to keep power and control in Germany.
Hitler also gained a large amount of respect from the workers, as they were essential to his success; they were given schemes such as the strength through joy and the beauty of movements meaning they received some well-deserved enhancement sin the workplace.
Hitler also created a series of measures to help the Farmers of Germany, as they too were essential to him. He set up measures such as the Reich food estate and the Reich Entailed Farm which ensured that farm good would be distributed throughout Germany and that Farms received State protection for their farms.
Middle classes and big business also benefitted from Nazi rule.
Although middle class business people benefitted from Nazi rule because of the elimination of Nazi threat to their businesses and properties and how order had slowly been brought back to Germany. However you would struggle if you owned a small shop or business you would most likely struggle because of the large department stores that were taking the business way from the shop owners.
Big business really benefitted from Nazi rule because there was no worry over the trade unions or strikes. Big names prospered from Nazi policies as well as big companies gained huge government contracts to make goods.
Women
The Nazis were a male dominated organisation with the traditional ideas of having the women in Germany as wives and mothers.
Hitler gave awards the women who birthed more children and posters and newspapers all celebrated the ideas of motherhood.
As the war developed there was a greater need for women in the workplace to fill the places of the men.
Overall opportunities in Germany for women were very limited.
Persecution of Minorities
The Nazis believed in a superior Aryan race in Germany.
Groups that were persecuted in Germany included: Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally and physically handicapped, alcoholics, prostitutes, homeless, beggars and habitual criminals.
These groups were rounded up off the street and sent to concentration camps where they would be forced to do hard labour for very long hours.
5000 handicapped babies and children were killed between 1939 and 1945.
Between 1939 and 1941, 72,000 mentally ill patients were gassed.
Five out of six gypsies were killed in Germany by the Nazis.
Hitler hated Jews especially, as soon as he came into power in 1933, Jews were immediately banned from the civil service and a variety of public services such as broadcasting and teaching.
The SA and SS were also boycotting Jewish shops and businesses, which were then marked with the Star of David and advised German people not to use them.
Kristallnacht
On November 1938 a young Jew killed a diplomat in Paris.
Goebbels saw this as a chance to regain Hitler’s favour.
There was a brutal response to the killing and SS troopers smashed Jewish shops and businesses. Ninety-one Jews were murdered and hundreds of synagogues were burned, twenty thousand Jews were taken to concentration camps and thousand more left the country.
Hardly anyone protested against these actions but the few that did were brutally murdered.
There was little opposition in Germany because of the fear of the SS and Gestapo and how you would be treated if you spoke out. Many people had been scared into submission so the Nazis could keep power and control with hardly any interference. Many Germans feared that they would lose their jobs if they spoke out so many kept quiet. Propaganda also helped that Germans found out very little about the bad things that were happening in Germany.
Nazi successes also helped Hitler keep control such as:
Economic recovery that was deeply appreciated.
Bringing back discipline to Germany.
Foreign affairs convinced other nations that they were a strong country.
