opinion through planned propaganda. He once said, ‘any lie frequently repeated will ultimately gain belief.’ The Gestapo or Secret State Police was formed and run by Himmler, who controlled the select bodyguard of Hitler. Nazi Policy towards Jews Along with the repressive measures, Hitler’s government followed a policy of repressing Jewish people. The Jews were removed from government positions, excluded from the universities and deprived of citizenship.
Jewish businesses were closed down, and their establishments were attacked. After the outbreak of World War II concentration camps, barracks surrounded by electrified fences and watch towers, were built where Jews were interred and used as forced labour with less than subsistence nourishment. Later they were turned into extermination camps where industrial means of murder such as gas chambers were used to kill Jews. It is estimated that about million Jews in Europe were killed in what the Nazis termed ‘The Final Solution’.
Apart from Jews, the Nazi state also exterminated gypsies, and other itinerant communities, homosexuals and lunatics. Apart from these, several hundreds of thousands of Germans who dissented with Hitler too were killed. Defiance of the Treaty of Versailles In August Hindenburg died and Hitler, apart from being Chancellor, became both President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. By the Nazi Party had tightened its control over the army.
Hitler’s foreign policy aimed at restoring the armed strength of Germany and annulling provisions of Versailles Treaty which undermined Germany. His deliberate attempts to breach the Treaty of Versailles (discussed in the next lesson) led to the outbreak of Second World War.