A-Level History: Nazi Society and Racial Policy, 1933–39

This material covers the social and racial side of the Nazi dictatorship between 1933 and 1939, the part of the Germany depth studies that asks how far the regime reshaped German society and how it treated those it excluded from the 'national community'. It sits alongside the category's material on political consolidation and the terror state, so the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act and the Night of the Long Knives are left out here and the focus stays on society.

The first strand is the Volksgemeinschaft as the regime presented it and as Germans experienced it: policy towards women (marriage loans, the Honour Cross of the German Mother, Lebensborn, and the quiet reversal of 'women out of work' as rearmament created labour shortages), the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls from the Hitler Youth Law of 1936 to compulsory service in 1939, the Nazification of schools and the party's elite schools, and the German Labour Front with Strength through Joy, Beauty of Labour and the Reich Labour Service. The churches are covered through the Concordat, the Reich Church, the Barmen Declaration and the Confessing Church, and Mit brennender Sorge.

The second strand is racial policy, followed step by step so that the chronology is secure: the boycott and the civil service law of April 1933, the sterilisation law, the Nuremberg Laws and the November 1935 definitions of 'Jew' and 'Mischling', Aryanisation, and Kristallnacht with the fine, the mass arrests and the exclusion decrees that followed. Persecution of Roma and Sinti, of homosexual men under the revised Paragraph 175 and of people labelled 'asocial' is included, because A level questions increasingly ask about the whole range of those excluded.

The quiz mixes multiple-answer questions, chronology questions and short scenarios in which you identify the policy at work, and ends with the historians' debate on consent and coercion, summarised in neutral terms. The flashcards fix the dates and terms. The written work sets eight tasks, from short explanations to essay-style questions of the 'how far' and 'to what extent' type, each with a reference answer and key points. The oral exam asks you to explain and justify judgements aloud, one question at a time, with brief feedback at the end.

The material follows the content common to the Germany options of the main exam boards (for example the AQA and Pearson Edexcel Germany papers), but board papers differ in their date ranges and question styles, so check your own specification.

Explain Nazi policies towards women, youth, education and workers, and how far they changed between 1933 and 1939
Describe the regime's relations with the Catholic and Protestant churches
Place the main anti-Jewish measures from April 1933 to November 1938 in the correct order
Explain the Nuremberg Laws and the 1935 definitions of 'Jew' and 'Mischling'
Describe the persecution of Roma and Sinti, homosexual men and people labelled 'asocial'
Weigh consent against coercion as explanations of popular conformity

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Germany 1933–39 content of the A level History specifications (for example AQA and Pearson Edexcel).

Sample question

Which TWO statements about Nazi policy towards women between 1933 and 1939 are accurate?

Marriage loans of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks were introduced in 1933, and a quarter of the loan was cancelled for each child born.
From 1937 the rule that a wife had to give up paid work to receive a marriage loan was dropped as labour shortages grew.
The gold Honour Cross of the German Mother, instituted in 1938, was awarded to women with four children.
The Lebensborn organisation, founded in 1935, was run by the German Labour Front to provide nurseries for factory workers.

See the answer

Marriage loans of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks were introduced in 1933, and a quarter of the loan was cancelled for each child born., From 1937 the rule that a wife had to give up paid work to receive a marriage loan was dropped as labour shortages grew.

Marriage loans (1933) were worth up to 1,000 Reichsmarks and a quarter was written off for each child. Rearmament created labour shortages, so from 1937 women receiving loans no longer had to leave work. The Honour Cross (December 1938) was bronze for four or five children, silver for six or seven and gold for eight or more. Lebensborn was an SS organisation set up by Himmler in 1935 to support 'racially valuable' births, including to unmarried mothers.

← History

↑ A-Level