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GCSE · EDEXCEL

EDX.WN6 Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939: Employment, Living Standards and the Persecution of Minorities

EDEXCEL 1HI0 · Calculators not allowed · about 75 minutes

Total Marks

Name: _______________________________ Date: ____ / ____ / ______

Answer ALL questions. Question 15 refers to Source A. Questions 17, 18 and 19 refer to Interpretation 1 and Interpretation 2. Write in full sentences for Questions 16, 17, 18 and 19. You are advised to spend about 75 minutes on this pack.

Source A, and Interpretations 1 and 2

Source A was written for Revision Library. It is an original text representative of a promotional leaflet for the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) savings and leisure scheme of the 1930s. It is not a reproduction, translation or paraphrase of any surviving leaflet, and no genuine publication is reproduced. Interpretation 1 and Interpretation 2 were also written for Revision Library, in the style of history textbook extracts discussing how far ordinary Germans' living standards genuinely improved under the Nazis by 1939; they are not the work of any real, named historian.

SOURCE A: a promotional leaflet written for Revision Library, representative of material advertising the Strength Through Joy scheme during the 1930s.

Working Germans deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Through Strength Through Joy, you can book affordable concerts, theatre trips and sporting events after your shift, or save a little each week towards a holiday cruise to Norway or a stay in the mountains. Save regularly and you may even join our savings plan for your own car, the KdF-Wagen, built for the ordinary family, not just the wealthy. Ask your works representative about weekly savings stamps. A healthy, contented workforce is a stronger Germany.

INTERPRETATION 1: from a history textbook written for Revision Library, discussing how far ordinary Germans' living standards genuinely improved under the Nazis by 1939.

Living standards for most non-persecuted Germans genuinely improved during the 1930s. Unemployment fell dramatically from around six million in 1933 to under one million by 1939, driven by public works such as the autobahns, the National Labour Service and, increasingly, rearmament. Schemes such as Strength Through Joy gave ordinary workers access to leisure activities, holidays and consumer goods that had previously been available only to the better off, giving many working Germans real, everyday reasons to feel their circumstances had improved under the regime.

INTERPRETATION 2: from a history textbook written for Revision Library, discussing how far ordinary Germans' living standards genuinely improved under the Nazis by 1939.

The apparent improvement in living standards is less impressive on closer examination. Official unemployment figures excluded groups such as Jews dismissed from their jobs and women who left the workforce, making the fall in unemployment look larger than the real change in most families' security. Wages for ordinary workers rose only slowly once inflation is taken into account, working hours lengthened as rearmament accelerated after 1936, and the loss of independent trade unions in 1933 meant workers had no way to bargain for better conditions. Popular schemes such as Strength Through Joy provided real but modest benefits that masked, rather than solved, these underlying pressures.

Give the approximate number of unemployed people in Germany in 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor.

(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)

Give the approximate number of unemployed people in Germany by 1939.

(Total for Question 2 is 2 marks)

Name the compulsory scheme, introduced in 1935, that required young German men to work for six months on public projects.

(Total for Question 3 is 1 mark)

Name the major road-building project, begun in 1933, associated with reducing unemployment and improving Germany's infrastructure.

(Total for Question 4 is 1 mark)

Name the organisation, led by Robert Ley, that replaced independent trade unions after May 1933.

(Total for Question 5 is 2 marks)

Name the Strength Through Joy scheme's savings plan for an affordable car, aimed at ordinary working families.

(Total for Question 6 is 1 mark)

State two leisure benefits offered to workers through the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) scheme.

(Total for Question 7 is 2 marks)

Give the date, in April 1933, on which the Nazi government organised a nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

(Total for Question 8 is 1 mark)

Give the date, in September 1935, on which the Nuremberg Laws were introduced.

(Total for Question 9 is 1 mark)

State what the two Nuremberg Laws of 1935 did.

(Total for Question 10 is 2 marks)

Give the dates, in November 1938, of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass).

(Total for Question 11 is 2 marks)

State two things that happened to Jewish people and their property during Kristallnacht.

(Total for Question 12 is 2 marks)

Give two other groups, besides Jewish people, who were persecuted by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1939.

(Total for Question 13 is 4 marks)

Give two ways in which Jewish people's rights and livelihoods were restricted between 1933 and the outbreak of the Second World War.

(Total for Question 14 is 4 marks)

Give two things you can infer from Source A about how the Nazi regime tried to improve ordinary workers' lives. Support each inference with a detail from the source.

(Total for Question 15 is 4 marks)

Explain why unemployment fell in Germany between 1933 and 1939.

(Total for Question 16 is 12 marks)

What is the main difference between Interpretation 1 and Interpretation 2 about how far ordinary Germans' living standards genuinely improved under the Nazis by 1939? Explain your answer, using details from both interpretations.

(Total for Question 17 is 4 marks)

Suggest one reason why the authors of Interpretation 1 and Interpretation 2 might have different views about how far living standards genuinely improved.

(Total for Question 18 is 4 marks)

Which interpretation do you find more convincing about how far ordinary Germans' living standards genuinely improved under the Nazis by 1939? Explain your answer, using Interpretation 1, Interpretation 2 and your own knowledge.

(Total for Question 19 is 16 marks)

Mark scheme · EDX.WN6 Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939: Employment, Living Standards and the Persecution of Minorities

Question 1

B1 around 6 million
Answer: Around 6 million

Question 2

B1 under 1 million (accept a figure in the range under 500,000 to under 1 million)
B1 correctly links this fall to Nazi economic policies such as public works and rearmament
Answer: Under 1 million, largely due to public works schemes and rearmament.

Question 3

B1 the National Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD)
Answer: The National Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst)

Question 4

B1 the autobahns (motorway building programme)
Answer: The autobahns

Question 5

B1 the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF)
B1 correctly identifies Robert Ley as its leader
Answer: The German Labour Front (DAF), led by Robert Ley.

Question 6

B1 the KdF-Wagen savings scheme
Answer: The KdF-Wagen savings scheme

Question 7

B1 subsidised holidays and cruises
B1 affordable concerts, theatre and sporting events
Answer: Subsidised holidays/cruises, and affordable concerts, theatre and sporting events.

Question 8

B1 1 April 1933
Answer: 1 April 1933

Question 9

B1 September 1935
Answer: September 1935

Question 10

B1 the Reich Citizenship Law removed German citizenship from Jewish people
B1 the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour banned marriage and sexual relationships between Jews and other Germans
Answer: The Reich Citizenship Law stripped Jews of German citizenship, and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour banned marriage/relationships between Jews and other Germans.

Question 11

B1 9 to 10 November
B1 1938
Answer: 9-10 November 1938

Question 12

B1 synagogues and Jewish-owned shops were attacked and destroyed across Germany
B1 thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps
Answer: Synagogues and Jewish-owned shops were attacked and destroyed, and thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Question 13

B2 Roma and Sinti people (referred to at the time as 'Gypsies') were subject to increasing registration, restriction and persecution
B2 people with disabilities were targeted by forced sterilisation under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, and habitual offenders, 'asocials' and homosexual men (under Paragraph 175) were also targeted and sometimes sent to camps
Answer: Roma and Sinti people, and people with disabilities (forced sterilisation from 1933); other targeted groups included homosexual men and those labelled 'asocial'.

Question 14

B2 Jewish people were excluded from the civil service under the April 1933 law, and progressively from other professions and, from 1938, from most remaining businesses
B2 the Nuremberg Laws of September 1935 stripped Jewish people of citizenship and banned marriage or relationships with other Germans, formalising their exclusion from German civic life
Answer: Exclusion from the civil service and, over time, most professions and businesses; and loss of citizenship and a ban on marriage/relationships with other Germans under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.

Question 15

B1 inference 1, e.g. the regime wanted to give ordinary workers access to leisure activities that had previously been for wealthier people
B1 supporting detail for inference 1 from the source, e.g. it offers 'affordable concerts, theatre trips and sporting events' and 'a holiday cruise to Norway'
B1 inference 2, e.g. the regime encouraged workers to save gradually towards larger, longer-term goals such as owning a car
B1 supporting detail for inference 2 from the source, e.g. it mentions saving 'a little each week' and a savings plan for 'your own car, the KdF-Wagen... ask your works representative about weekly savings stamps'
Answer: The regime wanted to give workers access to leisure once reserved for the wealthy, and encouraged gradual saving towards larger goals such as a car.

Question 16

Level 1 (1-3): Identifies one or two general reasons for falling unemployment, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (4-6): Identifies and begins to explain one or two reasons, supported by some accurate detail.
Level 3 (7-9): Explains two or three reasons for falling unemployment, each supported by accurate and relevant detail.
Level 4 (10-12): Explains three or more reasons in a well-developed, logically structured way, supported throughout by precise and accurate detail, showing how the reasons connect.
Indicative content:
- Public works schemes created large numbers of jobs directly: the autobahn programme, begun in 1933, and other state-funded building projects put many thousands of unemployed people back to work in construction.
- The National Labour Service, compulsory for young men from 1935, removed hundreds of thousands of young men from the unemployment count by placing them in state-organised labour on public projects.
- Rearmament, openly announced from 1935 with the reintroduction of conscription, created large numbers of jobs in heavy industry, armaments factories and the armed forces themselves, especially from the mid-1930s onwards.
- Some of the fall in official unemployment reflects how the figures were counted rather than the true underlying picture: married women who left the workforce and Jewish people dismissed from their jobs, especially after 1933, were not counted as unemployed, making the fall look larger on paper than the real change in total need for work.
- The removal of independent trade unions in May 1933 also allowed the regime to direct labour more closely towards its preferred projects, such as public works and armaments, without the wage negotiations that might otherwise have accompanied a return to full employment.
- These reasons connect: state-directed job creation (public works, RAD, rearmament) removed people from the unemployment figures directly, while changes to who was counted as unemployed reduced the figures further still, so the headline fall reflects both a real recovery and a change in measurement.

Question 17

B2 Interpretation 1 argues living standards genuinely improved, citing the fall in unemployment from around 6 million to under 1 million and the real benefits of schemes such as Strength Through Joy
B2 Interpretation 2 argues the improvement was overstated, because unemployment figures excluded groups such as Jews and women, wages rose only slowly, hours lengthened, and workers lost the ability to bargain after trade unions were banned
Answer: Interpretation 1 sees a genuine improvement in living standards, based on falling unemployment and schemes like Strength Through Joy; Interpretation 2 sees the improvement as overstated, pointing to excluded groups, slow wage growth and lost bargaining power.

Question 18

B2 the authors may focus on different kinds of evidence: Interpretation 1 emphasises headline statistics and popular schemes, while Interpretation 2 emphasises how those statistics were compiled and the experience of excluded or persecuted groups
B2 the authors may hold different views about which Germans should be considered when judging 'living standards', e.g. one focusing mainly on the majority population and the other insisting that excluded groups must be accounted for
Answer: They may focus on different evidence (headline statistics vs how they were compiled and who was excluded), or hold different views about whose living standards should count when making the judgement.

Question 19

Level 1 (1-4): States a simple preference for one interpretation, with little or no supporting reasoning or own knowledge.
Level 2 (5-8): Describes the content of one or both interpretations and gives a limited reason for a preference, with some own knowledge.
Level 3 (9-12): Explains reasons for a preference between the interpretations, using relevant own knowledge to support or challenge each one.
Level 4 (13-16): Evaluates both interpretations critically, using precise own knowledge to reach a sustained and well-supported judgement about which is more convincing, or how far each is convincing.
Indicative content:
- Evidence supporting Interpretation 1: unemployment fell from around 6 million in 1933 to under 1 million by 1939 through the autobahns, the National Labour Service and rearmament, and Strength Through Joy genuinely gave many workers access to holidays and leisure they could not previously afford.
- Evidence supporting Interpretation 2: the ban on independent trade unions in May 1933 removed workers' ability to bargain for better pay and conditions, working hours lengthened as rearmament intensified after 1935, and the unemployment figures did not count Jewish people dismissed from work or women who left employment, groups whose exclusion is itself part of the wider persecution covered by this period.
- A convincing answer might note the two views can both be partly right for different groups: living standards for many non-persecuted German workers probably did improve in real, everyday ways, while for Jewish people and other persecuted groups, and to a lesser extent for all workers who lost union protection, conditions worsened even as headline statistics improved.
- Own knowledge that the Nuremberg Laws (September 1935) and Kristallnacht (November 1938) coincided with the same years in which unemployment was falling could be used to argue that any judgement about 'living standards' must specify which Germans are being discussed, supporting Interpretation 2's caution about taking the statistics at face value.
- A full answer reaches a supported judgement, weighing genuine improvement for much of the population against the statistical and human costs Interpretation 2 highlights, to argue for one interpretation over the other, or for a combined, more precisely qualified view.

Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939: Employment, Living Standards and the Persecution of Minorities - Worksheets, Questions and Revision