Nazi control of the police and the legal system
I can explain how Hitler created a police state in Nazi Germany.
Nazi control of the police and the legal system
I can explain how Hitler created a police state in Nazi Germany.
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Lesson details
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.
To help you plan your year 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 year 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.
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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.
Equipment
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
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