From Chancellor to dictator

On 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Within months he turned a democracy into a one-party dictatorship.

• February 1933: the Reichstag Fire — the parliament building burned down. Hitler used it to arrest communists and pass emergency measures.
• March 1933: the Enabling Act let Hitler make laws without the Reichstag — the legal foundation of his dictatorship.
• Through 1933 other political parties were banned and trade unions abolished (replaced by the German Labour Front).

Misconception alert: it was the Enabling Act (1933), not a single election, that handed Hitler dictatorial power.

Removing rivals

To make his power total, Hitler dealt with threats inside his own movement and above him.

• Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934): Hitler purged the leaders of the SA (his own stormtroopers). Their leader Ernst Röhm was killed, reassuring the army and big business.
• August 1934: President Hindenburg died. Hitler merged the roles of Chancellor and President into one — the Führer. The army swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler.

Misconception alert: the Night of the Long Knives targeted the SA — Hitler's own supporters — not the Jews.

The road to dictatorship

The police state

The Nazis kept people obedient through fear. A network of organisations watched and punished anyone who stepped out of line.

• The SS, led by Heinrich Himmler, was the regime's most powerful security force.
• The Gestapo — the secret police — could arrest people without trial.
• Concentration camps (the first opened at Dachau in 1933) held political prisoners and others.
• Informers and block wardens reported on neighbours, and the Nazis controlled the courts.

Why it worked: people never knew who might be an informer, so fear and denunciation discouraged open opposition.

Winning hearts and minds

Alongside terror, the Nazis used propaganda to make people admire Hitler and accept Nazi ideas. Joseph Goebbels ran the Ministry of Propaganda.

• Control of newspapers, radio (cheap "People's Receivers"), film and posters, plus strict censorship.
• Huge mass rallies, especially the Nuremberg rallies, built excitement and unity.
• The 1936 Berlin Olympics were used to show off Nazi Germany to the world.
• The "Hitler myth" (Führer cult) presented Hitler as Germany's saviour.

Two sides of control: terror made people afraid to resist, while propaganda tried to make them genuinely support the regime.

Name the year

Controlling the young

The Nazis wanted to shape the next generation into loyal Nazis, so they targeted children and teenagers.

• The Hitler Youth (for boys) and the League of German Girls (BDM, for girls).
• Schools taught Nazi ideology, "race science" and lots of PE; textbooks were rewritten.
• The aim: turn boys into loyal soldiers and girls into future mothers.

Women in Nazi Germany

Nazi ideas about women were summed up as "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" — children, kitchen, church.

• Women were encouraged to marry and have children — the Marriage Loans and the "Mother's Cross" medal rewarded large families.
• They were discouraged from professional work, and even from wearing make-up or trousers.
• In wartime, however, women were later needed back in the workforce to keep the economy going.

Change over time: the Nazis wanted women at home, but the demands of total war forced them to bring women into work — an example of ideology bending to necessity.

The Nazi ideal for women

Escalating persecution

From the start the Nazis were antisemitic, and their persecution of Jewish people grew steadily harsher during the 1930s.

• The Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of German citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
• Kristallnacht — the "Night of Broken Glass", 9–10 November 1938 — was organised violence against Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues.

Misconception alert: Kristallnacht was in 1938. The Nuremberg Laws were passed earlier, in 1935. Persecution escalated in steps, not all at once.

The citizenship laws

Who or what did it?

Tap a term on the left, then tap its meaning on the right.

The Holocaust

During the Second World War, Nazi persecution turned into mass murder. This is a grave subject: the facts are stated plainly here.

• Jews were forced into overcrowded ghettos, and mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) carried out mass shootings in occupied Eastern Europe.
• From 1941–42 the Nazis organised the "Final Solution" — the systematic murder of around six million Jews in extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• The Nazis also persecuted and murdered Roma and Sinti people, disabled people (the "T4" programme), political opponents, homosexuals and others.

Chronology matters: the systematic mass murder of the "Final Solution" escalated during the war, from 1941–42 — not in the early 1930s.

Life during the war

After the Second World War began in 1939, daily life in Germany grew steadily harder.

• Rationing of food, clothing and fuel, and a total war economy managed by Albert Speer.
• Allied bombing of German cities destroyed homes and killed civilians, causing growing hardship.
• Some Germans resisted: the White Rose student group in Munich (Sophie and Hans Scholl, executed 1943), and the July 1944 bomb plot (Stauffenberg) to kill Hitler — both failed.

Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945. Hitler had died by suicide on 30 April 1945 as Allied forces closed in.

When did the mass murder escalate?

Why opposition was so hard

Most Germans did not openly resist the Nazis. Understanding why is a key exam idea:

• Terror: the SS, Gestapo, camps and informers made resistance dangerous.
• Propaganda: constant messaging and the Hitler myth won real support, especially early on.
• Some real gains: lower unemployment and national pride made many people willing to accept the regime.
• Yet a brave minority — the White Rose, church figures, and the 1944 bomb plotters — did resist, at great personal risk.

Balanced judgement: control rested on both fear and genuine support — strong exam answers weigh the two together.

Timeline: 1933 → 1945

Put the events in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

How the Nazis kept control

OCR wants you to explain how the Nazis controlled Germany and why people went along with it. Group your reasons:

• Terror — SS, Gestapo, concentration camps and informers.
• Propaganda — Goebbels, radio, film, rallies and the Hitler myth.
• Shaping society — youth movements, schools, and the role of women.
• Persecution — laws and violence against Jews and other groups.

Strong answers weigh terror against propaganda and support, rather than naming just one cause of Nazi control.

The tools of terror

Using sources on Nazi Germany

You will handle sources — posters, photographs, speeches and reports — about life under the Nazis. Two habits win marks:

• Ask who made it and why (provenance). A Nazi poster or Goebbels' newsreel was designed to persuade and glorify the regime, so it is not a neutral record.
• Use your own knowledge to judge it. Support or challenge a source with facts you know — for example, that terror and censorship shaped what people were allowed to say.

Interpretations differ: historians debate how far ordinary Germans supported the Nazis out of belief versus fear. Recognising that interpretations vary is exactly what the exam rewards.

Name the minister

The essentials to remember

You've covered the whole OCR Living under Nazi Rule study. Press Finish to see your score.