6. Terror and Repression

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the role of terror and repression in Nazi Germany, focusing in particular on: (i) the use of terror in the earliest stages of the Nazi regime in March 1933; (ii) the establishment of a network of concentration camps, beginning with Dachau in 1933, but soon expanding across large parts of Europe, and the expansion of pre-existing infrastructure such as the German prison system; (iii) the extent to which terror was targeted at particular sections of society – political dissidents, Catholic priests, so-called ‘asocials’, etc.; (iv) the complicity of ordinary Germans in the system, including the importance of denunciations; (v) the extent to which ordinary Germans were supportive of the terror and were willing to support its functioning; (vi) the expansion of the terror apparatus during the war and the causes for this expansion; and (vii) the extent of the Nazi terror apparatus by the end of the war.

Course

In this course, Professor Neil Gregor (University of Southampton) explores several aspects of Nazi Germany, 1933-45. In the first module, we think about the ideology of the Nazi Party, before turning in the second module to consider Hitler’s rise to power. In the third module, we think about the nature of the Nazi government, before moving on in the fourth module to consider Nazi foreign policy in the period 1933-41. In the fifth module, we think about German opposition to the Nazi regime, while in the sixth module we consider the role of terror in overcoming this opposition. In the seventh module, we think about the extent to which ordinary Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi regime, before turning in the eighth module to consider the role of treatment of women in Nazi Germany. In the ninth module, we think about Nazi education and culture and its importance in promoting Nazi ideology, before turning in the tenth module to the Holocaust.

Lecturer

Neil Gregor is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Southampton. His research interests range widely across twentieth-century German history, and have encompassed, at various points, aspects of business history, social history, cultural history and literary studies, along with historiography. His recent publications include (as editor) Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor. (2019) and How to Read Hitler (2014).