Life in Germany During WWII [IEAEO]

Impact on Ordinary Germans

•  At first, the war had limited impact on ordinary Germans.  Early military successes brought celebrations and boosted Hitler’s popularity. 

•  From September 1940, children were evacuated from Berlin in anticipation of bombing, though many stayed until the Allied bombing intensified in 1943. 

•  Germans were encouraged to support the war effort, such as through recycling drives led by the Hitler Youth. 

•  At the start of the war, military successes, and the fact that conquered territories provided resources, which delayed shortages, reduced the need for propaganda to maintain morale.  However, propaganda increased as military defeats mounted after 1943.  Joseph Goebbels urged the population to work harder and sacrifice more for victory. 

•  Rationing

•  Rationing was introduced immediately for basic goods like meat, bread, fats, and sugar, though poor Germans benefitted from a more balanced, though limited, diet. 

•  After 1942, defeats and a lack of resources necessitated tighter rationing, causing hunger.  Weekly meat rations fell from 700g in 1939 to 250g by 1945.  Ersatz products, like acorn coffee and ‘Hitler Butter’ (margarine), substituted scarce goods. 

• Extra rations were allocated to miners, pregnant women and blood donors. 

• Public parks and gardens were converted for vegetable production, and Germans adopted frugal recipes and one-pot Sunday meals. 

• By 1943, clothes non-military clothing production stopped.. 

• Exchange centres allowed Germans to trade items, but shortages led to black market trade in goods like luxury clothing and food. 

•  By 1945, society was on the edge of collapse; severe shortages in the war’s final year meant that ration cards were useless, there was , no post, clubs were closed, and fear mingled with mourning for dead. 

•  At the end of the war, as the Soviet Army advanced from the east, between 11 and 13 million refugees fled westwards, rather than fall under Soviet domination, causing massive problems in western Germany. 

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Basic accounts from BBC Bitesize

YouTube

Pete Jackson on living in Germany during WWII

Economy

•  In February 1943, Goebbels declared Total War, emphasizing that all economic activity should focus on the war effort.  Civilian production ceased, working hours lengthened, and more women were employed. 

•  Albert Speer, who succeeded Fritz Todt as Minister for Armaments and Production in 1942, rationalized the economy for war; mass-production methods increased munitions output by 60% per worker between 1939 and 1944.  Production, however, nevertheless lagged far behind that of the USA and the USSR. 

•  German inventiveness was applied to military: eg nerve gas, first manned rocket flight, 1945, microwave ovens, missile guidance systems, ejection seat, atomic research – by the end of the war, Nazi scientists were working towards building an atomic bomb. 

•  The long war and Allied bombing wrecked the German economy; in 1945 fuel production dropped by 86%, explosive production by 42% and tank output by 35%, leading to the Nazis’ defeat. 

•  Labour Shortages

•  The numbers of men called up to fight caused labour shortages. 

•  By 1944, over eight million prisoners of war, concentration camp slave labour, and foreign workers in Nazi-occupied territories had been forced into labour. 

•  Nazi ideology idealized women as homemakers, many women resisted entering the workforce, and Hitler was ideologically reluctant to mobilize them.  However, wartime labour shortages required their involvement and in January 1943, conscription forced women aged 17-45 into war work.  By 1944, over 40% of women made up half the workforce. 

Allied Bombing Raids

•  Allied bombing after 1942 targeted German cities rather than just industrial sites to undermine morale. 

•  Key raids included:

•  The RAF’s first ‘thousand bomber raid’ on Cologne in May 1942. 

•  Hamburg was heavily bombed in July and August 1943, killing up to 100,000 and leaving millions homeless. 

•  Dresden faced devastating raids in February 1945, with 150,000 civilian deaths. 

•  By May 1945, 3.5 million German civilians had died from bombings.  While some argue this united Germans, disaffection and opposition grew, especially after Stalingrad in 1943. 

Escalation of Racial Persecution → the Holocaust

•  The German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the USSR in 1941 brought three million additional Jews under Nazi control.. 

•  The Nazis considered various solutions, including a plan to exile Europe’s Jews to Madagascar, but this was not feasible due to the British naval blockade. 

•  From 1939 to 1942, SS Einsatzgruppen followed advancing German armies, executing Jews in newly occupied territories, particularly Poland and the USSR.  Victims were often identified by informants and forced to dig their own graves.  By 1943, an estimated two million Jews had been murdered in this way. 

•  Ghettos were created in cities like Warsaw and Lodz, confining Jews in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions with limited food.  Many died from disease, cold, or starvation.  50,000+ died in the Warsaw Ghetto alone.  In 1943 the Warsaw ghetto rebelled, but was crushed. 

•  At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Nazis decided on the ‘Final Solution’, establishing death camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka in occupied Eastern Europe. 

•  Jews deemed unfit for work were sent directly to gas chambers, where up to 2,000 people were killed at a time with Zyklon B gas, and their bodies burned in large ovens. 

•  By 1945, approximately six million Jews had been murdered, along with Roma and other persecuted groups. 

The persecution of the Jews - essential link

Auschwitz - a tour

YouTube

Holocaust - World at War: shocking documentary

Opposition and Resistance

There was no effective opposition to Hitler, and the regime was never seriously challenged from within Germany.  The list that follows contains acts of opposition, rather than meaningful resistance:

•  The Beck-Goerdeler Group was led by General Ludwig Beck and Dr Carl Goerdeler, a politician.  It planned Operation Valkyrie, an assassination attempt in which Claus von Stauffenberg, an army officer, on 20 July 1944 left a bomb in a suitcase in Hitler’s Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) headquarters.  Although it exploded, Hitler survived, and the coup which was supposed to seize the government in Berlin never happened.  In total, 5,746 people were executed: Beck was shot, Von Stauffenberg executed and Field Marshall Rommel committed suicide. 

•  The Kreisau Circle, led by Helmuth von Moltke, was a merely ‘talking shop’ which discussed the kind of Germany they wanted after the war.  It was non-violent and did not intend to overthrow the regime.  Nevertheless, Moltke and a number of other members were arrested and executed in 1944 having accomplished nothing. 

•  Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) was a loose network of Communist sympathisers, many who worked for the military, which distributed leaflets calling for rebellion, helped Jews escape, and passed military information to the Soviets.  They were arrested in September 1941 after a decrypted Soviet intelligence message gave the names and addresses of the leaders.  65 members were hanged. 

•  Edelweiss Pirates – during the War, the Pirates painted anti-Nazi graffiti, helped Jews and army deserters, distributed Allied leaflets, raided army camps and killed the Head of the Cologne Gestapo.  In November 1944, 13 Pirates were hanged in Cologne, including Barthel Schink. 

•  The White Rose – set up in 1941 by Munich University students Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Christopher Probst - along with Kurt Huber their Professor of Psychology.  They wrote, printed and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, but were executed after a caretaker saw them planting leaflets in the lecture theatre. 

•  Confessional Church – the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer passed secrets to the Allies, and took part in an assassination attempt in 1943.  He was arrested, sent to Buchenwald concentration camp and executed in April 1945

•  Catholic Church – in 1941Bishop Clemens von Galen, preached openly against Nazi euthanasia, forced sterilisation, concentration camps and the Gestapo.  As a consequence he lived under virtual house arrest.  A number of priests were sent to Dachau concentration camp, others were drafted into the army.  Church publications were censored or banned and Church services restricted. 

•  Jewish resistance:

•  In April-May 1943, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto revolted.  They fought for a month, killing 300 Germans; 13,000 Jews died.  There were dozens of other ghettos rebellions. 

•  In eastern Poland, 1941-44, the Bielski brothers led a Jewish resistance group which attacked Nazis and helped more than 1,200 Jews to escape. 

•  At Treblinka death camp, in August 1943 and Sobibor in October 1943, Jewish prisoners attacked their guards and organised mass-escapes. 

•  In Auschwitz death camp, in October 1944, the Sonderkommando Jews (who burned the gas chamber victims) stole some explosives and blew up Crematorium 4. 

YouTube

Defiance - movie based on the Bielski brothers

Sophie Scholl - movie about the White Rose