Propaganda and Indoctrination
Education
Opposition to the Nazis
The Churches
- According to Volker Ullrich, Hitler’s aim was to rid Germany of any religious institution other than the NSDAP. But he realised that this would have to be a gradual process as he could not afford to alienate so many religious people.
- As a result, he signed the Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1943.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller
A famous quotation but one that was made after the Second World War had ended. As the website explains, Niemöller was a former Nazi member who became disillusioned with Hitler’s actions and policies by 1934. He set up the Pastor’s Emergency League in opposition to him and his government and was eventually imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945 as a result.
The White Rose
Foreign Policy
Volker Ullrich
Hitler became more authoritarian as the years passed. Ullrich explains that Hitler discussed policy with his cabinet with increasingly fewer occasions between 1933 and 1938.
Hitler did not fully support national state laws so he could have flexibility to intervene when he wanted…
‘Working towards the Fuhrer’ meant that NSDAP members had to anticipate what Hitler wanted.
Ullrich agrees with Ian Kershaw in that the Nazi regime was disorganised, it only gave the impression it was the opposite through propaganda and orderly military parades.
