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Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state, which means that the government sought to control every aspect of life. Germans experienced this in four areas:

1. The police state
2. The economy
3. Social policy
4. Persecution

The police state

Hitler used three weapons to control the German people:

• The Schutzstaffel (SS). This organisation was responsible for ensuring the population remained under control and any potential threats to the Nazis were dealt with. It oversaw the Gestapo (secret police), which spied on ordinary Germans, it ran concentration camps where enemies of the state were sent and it ran the death camps that murdered millions.
• Control of the legal system. All judges had to swear an oath of loyalty to the ��ü������ and all lawyers had to join the Nazi Lawyers’ Association. It was made harder to defend people placed on trial for suspected crimes and the death penalty was used much more widely than before.
• Propaganda and censorship. Joseph Goebbels ran the Ministry of Propaganda, whose job it was to convince the German people to embrace Nazi rule. This was achieved through control of the press, radio and the arts, and through rallies and sporting events.

There was limited resistance to the Nazis, mostly because the police state was so effective at crushing dissent. It is hard to know exactly how much opposition there was to Hitler and his regime, though religious figures, underground members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), communists, and the young did provide some resistance.

The economy

Hitler achieved virtually full employment through rearmament, National Service and marginalising groups like the Jews (who lost their jobs and were not included in unemployment figures). However, living standards for working class Germans did not really improve and workers were expected to take part in Nazi Party schemes like Strength Through Joy, which gave them cheap holidays, in return for giving up their trade union rights.

The Nazis aspired to achieve autarky, or economic self-sufficiency, but in general the economy was geared towards preparing for a future war. As such, workers were expected to work long hours for modest pay and to toe the line.

Social policy

The Nazis’ social policies affected two groups in society the most – women and young people:

• Women were expected to fulfil a very traditional, subservient role; they were expected to embrace a life based around the '3 Ks' of Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen and Church). It was their duty to produce and raise children, in order to secure the future of the Reich. They were encouraged to give up work and received loans and awards for having lots of children.
• Young people were a particular target for the Nazis’ propaganda, as they represented the future. The school curriculum was altered to promote Nazi ideology and all young people were expected to join a Nazi youth organisation such as the Hitler Youth. Hitler famously stated, When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already. You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.

In addition, the Nazis sought to control or limit the influence of Christianity. They set up an official state church, called the Confessing Church, which adapted protestant teachings to Nazi ideology. Also, despite signing a Concordat with the Pope in which Hitler promised to leave the Catholic Church alone if it stayed out of politics, the Nazis attempted to infiltrate it and placed restrictions on worship.

Persecution

Nazi ideology centred on the idea of the master race, the belief that the Aryan race of northern Europe was superior to all others and that some races were sub-human. Nazis also believed any weaknesses in the Aryan race, such as disabled people, should be weeded out to maintain racial purity. As such, many groups in Nazi Germany were persecuted, as well as the Nazis political enemies. This persecution involved sterilisation, ‘euthanasia', imprisonment in concentration camps and the loss of civil rights.

The racial group targeted most by this persecution was Germany’s Jews. Their rights were progressively taken away, including their German citizenship, before the horrors of the Holocaust during World War Two saw 6 million Jews from across Nazi-occupied Europe murdered.