Nazi control of the police and the legal system
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how Hitler created a police state in Nazi Germany.
Key learning points
- Hitler’s regime built a police state using the SS, Gestapo, SD and concentration camps to control the German population.
- The SS oversaw other Nazi security bodies and controlled policing, intelligence, racial policy and concentration camps.
- The Gestapo, Germany’s secret police, monitored people, used fear and denunciations to arrest citizens without trial.
- The SD gathered vast amounts of intelligence, helping to create a society gripped by paranoia and silence.
- The legal system was restructured to serve Nazi goals, with courts delivering harsh, ideologically driven verdicts.
Keywords
Police state - a country where the government uses the police and security forces to control every part of people’s lives through fear, surveillance and arrest
Concentration camp - a place where large numbers of people are kept as prisoners in extremely bad conditions, especially for political reasons
Intelligence - information collected by a government or security organisation to identify threats and control opposition, often using spying or surveillance
Secret police - a police force that works in secret to spy on, arrest, and punish people who are seen as enemies of the government, often using illegal methods
Denunciations - public accusations made by ordinary citizens to Nazi authorities, reporting others for disloyalty to the regime; these reports, often driven by personal motives, fuelled widespread fear and paranoia
Common misconception
Pupils may assume that all concentration camps in this period were death camps like Auschwitz.
Emphasise that early camps (1933–1939) were brutal prisons for political opponents and ‘undesirables’, but were not yet part of a systematic extermination programme. The Holocaust’s industrial death camps came later.
Teacher tip
Across all three learning cycles, teachers may wish to compare the Nazi police state to the way in which the police, the courts and the law function in the UK.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What worried Hitler and senior leaders about the SA by summer 1934?
Q2.The SA posed a serious threat in 1934 because they wanted to take over the army with a people’s force and promoted ideas that alarmed wealthy businessmen who had funded the Nazi Party.
Q3.Match each Nazi figure to their role in the power struggle against Röhm.
head of the SS, seeking to expand its power
head of the Gestapo, with military ambitions
vice-chancellor who publicly criticised SA violence
Q4.What did General von Blomberg and the army leadership warn Hitler in June 1934?
Q5.What were the key consequences of the Night of the Long Knives?
Q6.After Hindenburg’s death, Hitler merged the roles of President and Chancellor, giving himself the title of .
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is a police state?
Q2.What role did the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) play in the Nazi police state?
Q3.As Nazi Germany’s secret police, the used fear, surveillance, and denunciations to control the population, despite having only a small number of officers.
Q4.How did the SS gain full control of the Nazi terror system by 1939?
Q5.The Nazis reshaped the legal system so that had to join the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law.
Q6.Why did some Germans support the Nazi police state despite its brutality?
To help you plan your 11 history lesson on: Nazi control of the police and the legal system, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 11 history lesson on: Nazi control of the police and the legal system, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 history lessons from the Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39 unit, dive into the full secondary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.