OCR GCSE History B (Schools History Project) Component 83 November 2021 question paper

What can Source A tell us about wartime opposition in Nazi Germany?

Use the source and your own knowledge to support your answer.

Source A An extract from a leaflet made and distributed by the White Rose student group in January 1943.

A call to all Germans!

The war is coming to its certain end. Hitler cannot win the war, he can only prolong it!

Do you and your children want to suffer the same fate as the Jews? Do you want to be judged by the same standards as the Nazis? Are we to be forever the nation which is hated and rejected by mankind? No. Reject the Nazi gangsters. Prove by your actions that you think otherwise.

The better part of the nation will fight on our side. Cast off the cloak of indifference you have wrapped around you. Make the decision before it is too late. Do not believe the Nazi propaganda which has driven the fear of Communism into your bones.

Support the resistance. Distribute the leaflets!

How useful are Sources B and C and Interpretation D for a historian studying the lives of Jewish people in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939? In your answer, refer to the two sources and the interpretation as well as your own knowledge.

Source B A 1930s sticker advertising a seaside resort in Germany. The words read, ‘The North Sea resort of Norderney is free of Jews’. The seaside resort was run by the KDF (‘Strength Through Joy’).

Source C Instructions issued in 1938 by Heydrich, who was in charge of the Gestapo.

Secret

Copy of Most Urgent telegram from Munich, 10 November 1938.

To All Headquarters and Districts of the State Police and the Security Police.

Measures against Jews tonight

Following the attempt on the life of the German diplomat von Rath in Paris, demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected in all parts of the Reich. The instructions below are to be applied in dealing with these events:

Only measures are to be taken that do not endanger German lives or property (synagogues are to be burned down only where there is no danger of fire in neighbouring buildings).

Places of business and apartments belonging to Jews may be destroyed but not looted. Particular care is to be taken that non-Jewish businesses are completely protected against damage.

Interpretation D An extract from an interview with Alfons Heck, who was a member of the Hitler Youth in 1938. The interview was carried out and televised in 1989.

Until Kristallnacht, many Germans believed Hitler was not engaged in mass murder. The treatment of the Jews seemed to be a minor form of harassment of a disliked minority. But after Kristallnacht no German could any longer be under any illusion. But I myself never met a fanatic Nazi who wanted the extermination of the Jews. Certainly we wanted the Jews out of Germany, but we did not want them to be killed.

3* ‘The reason why most Germans did not resist the Nazis was that they were afraid.’

How far do you agree with this view of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939?

4* ‘Hitler’s position of total power by August 1934 was achieved through legal means.’

How far do you agree with this view of Germany between January 1933 and August 1934?