1. Timeline: persecution of political opponents

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Teachers’ notes
Preparation:
These cards should be printed on A4 paper, and given out after the personal stories have been put on the wall. Students should consider which of the victim groups are linked to these actions.
Clearly, these measures are not sufficient to explain the Holocaust. However, they will help to explain Hitler’s consolidation of power in and should be linked to the personal story cards of the murder of Ernst Röhm and – through Franz Stützinger – the persecution and murder of German political opponents. The powers of arrest without trial were used to throw tens of thousands of Germans into concentration camps. The same powers were later used to arrest more than 20,000 Jewish men following the November Pogrom (or Kristallnacht) of
The People’s Court is important in crushing German resistance and also in the persecution of ‘non-conformists’ such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, e.g. it sentences Helene Gotthold to death. During the war years, the ‘Night and Fog’ decree led to the deportation to German concentration camps of thousands of people suspected of resisting the Nazis in western Europe.
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3. Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
1933
30 January
Hitler is made leader of the German government by President von Hindenburg, but he is not yet in total control:
Only three Nazis are in the top level of his government.
Laws must still be agreed by the Reichstag (Parliament).
The President (who is supported by the army) has power to sack Hitler and appoint another Chancellor at any time.
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Emergency Decree
February
The German parliament (Reichstag) is set on fire and the Nazis say that a Communist revolution is about to happen.
Hitler is given emergency powers by the President and uses them to take away freedom of speech, assembly and the press. Hitler gives the Gestapo the power to arrest anyone believed to be against the government, and to hold them prisoner without trial for as long as they want.
The Reichstag burns, February Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
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5. Dachau concentration camp opens
March
Dachau is the first Nazi concentration camp and becomes a ‘model’ for later camps. It is first built to hold Communists, trade union leaders and other political opponents of the Nazis.
Soon the concentration camp system expands, and it becomes an instrument of terror used against all victims of Nazi persecution.
Photo: Prisoners carrying bowls in the Dachau concentration camp, Germany. Between Credit: Gedenkstaette Dachau
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The ‘People’s Court’
May
The ‘People’s Court’ is set up to try people accused of treason.
The court does all of its work in secret.
There is no jury.
It has the power to order the death penalty.
There is no appeal except to Hitler himself.
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Enabling Law
March
After the Reichstag building is burned down, politicians of the German parliament meet at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin.
On 23 March 1933, the politicians meet in a threatening atmosphere, surrounded by Nazis wearing brown-shirt and black-shirt uniforms. They vote to give Hitler emergency powers for four years.
During this time Hitler can make laws without asking the politicians to agree to them. This is the end of democracy in Germany: Hitler is now a dictator.
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8. Opposition parties and trade unions banned
May-July
The Nazi Party is now the only political party existing in Germany.
All other parties and trade unions are illegal. Opposition to the Nazis is crushed.
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9. Night of the Long Knives
June
To strengthen his grip on power, Hitler has about 200 leaders of the Nazis’ own private army, the SA, rounded up and many of them murdered.
These people are killed by the SS, Hitler’s personal protection guard. Hitler shows his power, reassures the German people that he can control the street violence of the Nazis, and gains the support of the German army.
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10. Hitler becomes Führer of Germany
August
The army promises the Führer their loyalty and obedience. Hitler now has absolute power.
After the death of President von Hindenburg, Hitler combines the roles of head of state and head of government, President and Chancellor, into the all-powerful Führer (Leader).
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‘Night and Fog’
1941
By the end of 1941, Hitler has invaded the Soviet Union and has declared war on the United States. The Nazi war in Europe has become a world war, and there are increasing acts of resistance and sabotage against the Nazis in the occupied lands of western Europe.
In December 1941, to crush resistance in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, Hitler orders that resisters be sent directly to concentration camps in Germany, without informing their families what has happened to them – as if they have disappeared into the ‘night and fog’.
Some 7,000 people, including 5,000 French men and women, are captured, questioned, tortured and sent to concentration camps in this way. Many die in the camps.
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12. Timeline: persecution of political opponents
Acknowledgements
Lesson plan and materials created by Paul Salmons
© Paul Salmons, 2010, All Rights Reserved. Updated 2014.
Additional editing by Darius Jackson, Andy Pearce and Emma O’Brien
Artwork by Cheryl Lowe.
Credits
Photographs are attributed where possible and we are keen to ensure we have credited all copyright holders, but if there has been an oversight on our part please contact us.