Lesson video

Hello, everybody, and welcome to your history lesson at Oak National Academy with me, Miss Porter.

Today we're going to be starting a new inquiry, looking at how people were controlled in totalitarian states.

For today's lesson, please make sure you have a pen or a pencil to write with and some paper to write on.

And just to make sure that you've moved yourself away from any distractions so that you can focus on today's lesson.

Once you've done that you'll be ready to get started and you can do so by writing today's title, which is, Police state and Fear.

So, as I said at the start of this lesson, we are focusing now on a new inquiry, we will be learning about how people were controlled in totalitarian states during the 1930s and 1940s.

It is therefore really important to understand what totalitarianism means.

To help us understand this term, I want you to look at the following image.

This painting by Boris Vladimirski is called Black Ravens.

This was the nickname for the black cars you can see in this image.

They were the cars that Stalin's secret police used to travel to people's homes and make their arrests in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

These people were often arrested in the middle of the night without warning and could be sent to labour camps without evidence or without a fair trial.

People would therefore fear the sight of such cars as they feared that they too could be arrested.

In the background of the image, you can see a prison which adds to the feeling of fear present in this painting.

And to further this, this is a quote made by a citizen living in the Soviet Union during this time.

They explained that because of the fear of being arrested by the secret police, it became vastly more difficult to socialise because nobody knew who was informing on them.

In the morning when you left your flat, you saw that a flat had been sealed and that those people were no longer there.

Of course your state of mind was utter terror because nobody knew whether they would be arrested, people turned in on themselves.

This quote explains the fear that people felt living in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

So why were people putting up with this and living in such fear? Well, during the 20th century, a new type of government took over in some European countries.

We call these totalitarian governments and we're going to find out more about them over the next few lessons of this inquiry.

Totalitarianism is a political system in which the people in power have complete control over the public and private lives of the citizens in their country.

This means the leader of the government controls every aspect of people's lives and does not allow any opposition.

One of the key features of a totalitarian state is a dictator.

This is a ruler with total power over a country.

During the 1930s, dictators came to power in several European countries, including Germany and the Soviet Union.

We refer to this as the rise of dictatorship.

We're now going to briefly think about the reasons why this occurred.

So the rise of dictatorship was partly caused by the impact of World War I.

Following the end of the war in 1918, the countries that fought in the war suffered the loss of millions of lives and experienced huge economic problems that contributed to the loss of jobs and businesses.

Moreover, the Treaty of Versailles agreed by the allies and Germany in 1919, put large restrictions on Germany that angered many of the German people.

This contributed to economic problems in these countries throughout the 1920s.

During times of economic hardship, people looked towards leaders with more extreme ideas who promised to strengthen their economies and overcome the problems caused by the First World War.

As they gained popularity, these leaders took power either by force or by being voted for.

By the 1930s, these leaders had managed to establish total power over their countries.

I'd now like you to test your understanding of the lesson so far by answering this multiple choice question, what does totalitarianism mean? Pause the video here and choose the correct answer from options A to D, and then resume the video when you're ready.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got the answer as C, a system in which the people in power have complete control over the lives of the citizens in their country.

Well done if you got this correct.

So in the next few lessons, we are going to focus on two dictators specifically.

We are going to see how they established totalitarian states and attempted to achieve total control over people's lives in their countries.

Firstly, we'll study Germany, which you can see towards the centre of the map symbolised by the Nazi flag.

And secondly, the Soviet Union or the USSR, which you can see on the right of the map with the Soviet flag.

This map shows Europe in 1919, a year after the war, and only shows the European part of the Soviet Union.

So you can see it in relation to Germany.

In fact, the Soviet Union was an extremely large country that spread to the east across Asia.

However, the area you can see on the map was a political and economic centre of the Soviet Union.

So we are going to look now at the leaders of these countries during the 1930s.

Adolf Hitler was a dictator of Germany.

He came to power in 1933 and led Germany until the end of the Second World War in 1945.

He was the leader of The Nazi Party, and did not allow any opposition to exist in Germany.

The Nazis believed in making the German nation stronger and more powerful, and would do what was necessary to strengthen the nation, even using violence.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin established himself as a dictator of the Soviet Union.

He led the country between 1924 and 1953.

He was the leader of The Communist Party.

And this meant that he believed in making people more equal in society, meaning they would have potentially no rich or poor people and wealth would be shared more equally.

However, Stalin was also willing to use force to achieve his aims. Now despite their different beliefs, both Hitler and Stalin aimed to achieve complete control over people's lives in their countries.

And there were a number of ways they attempted to do this.

Today, we are going to focus on one of these, which was the creation of a police state.

This means a state in which the government used the police or secret police to control what people did and what people said.

This use of police force created fear amongst people and made them more likely to obey the rules or laws made by the state.

Based on your knowledge so far, I'd like you to now pause the video and write down a definition for police state.

You can resume the video once you've finished.

Welcome back.

So a police state is a state in which the government used the police or secret police to control what people did and what people said.

Well done if you wrote something similar.

If needed, you can now pause the video to make any corrections or to tick through your work.

So there were a number of ways the police were used in Germany and the Soviet Union to control people.

There are some similarities between the countries, as they both used each of these methods.

So firstly, the use of the police to control people, this included having a secret police force that would focus on removing opposition to the leader and the party.

the German secret police were the Gestapo and the Soviet secret police were the NKVD.

These organisations could arrest people often in the night, with little or no evidence, and could find people guilty even without a fair trial.

Both countries also used a form of labour or prison camp.

These would be where the people that had been arrested would often be placed.

They were forced to work in these camps and the conditions were extremely harsh.

Thousands of people died in these camps due to starvation or the punishing work they were forced to complete.

The impact of these methods meant that people in Germany and the Soviet Union became aware of what might happen to them if they opposed the government, this created fear and therefore many people obeyed the laws of the country, even if they disagreed with them, through fear that they could be targeted by the police or arrested.

The secret police would not wear a uniform so it was difficult for people to know when they were being watched.

This fear even caused some people to report their neighbours or colleagues to the police to show their loyalty to the government.

Ultimately, this gave each of those governments more control over people's lives.

One example of an individual affected by the German police state was Carl von Ossietzky.

He was a journalist living in Germany in the 1930s who opposed or publicly disagreed with the Nazis.

His publications were burned by the Nazis and in 1933, he was arrested in his home by the secret police for speaking out against the Nazis.

Carl von Ossietzky was then imprisoned in two concentration camps.

These are the German labour camps in the 1930s.

During this period, he was actually awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his writing on the importance of maintaining peace between countries, but was not able to collect this award due to his imprisonment.

He remained in the concentration camps until he became extremely ill because of the harsh conditions there.

He was allowed into a hospital, but remained under the surveillance or watch of the secret police until his death in 1938.

This provides you just one example of how individuals could be treated in a police state.

I would now like you to think about the following question based on the lesson so far, what methods of control were used in Germany and the Soviet Union? The pictures are there to help you remember if needed.

So you can now pause the video and write down two or three methods of control used by Germany and the Soviet Union.

Okay, well done.

Hopefully you've remembered a couple of the methods used.

So this could have included the police or secret police, making arrests and labour camps.

You could also have mentioned the creation of fear.

Excellent work if you got some of those correct.

Now it's important to realise that although both Germany and the Soviet Union were police states during the 1930s, and they did use similar methods, there were also some differences in the way the police forces were used to gain control in the Soviet Union and Germany.

Which you will learn more about in today's reading.

In a minute or so, you'll be able to complete this reading to answer today's comprehension questions.

So I will briefly talk you through them now.

So firstly, who were the dictators of Germany and the Soviet Union during the 1930s? Second, name one method used to control people in a totalitarian state.

Third question is, what were the names of the secret police forces in Germany and the Soviet Union? The fourth asks, what happened in the Gulag and concentration camps? So they were the labour camps in the Soviet Union and Germany.

And the challenge question today is what was the impact of the police state on ordinary citizens? So how did living in such a state affect the lives of ordinary people? So I would like you to now pause the video, complete the reading and answer the questions at the end.

And there is a glossary to provide you with some definitions of the keywords.

And once you have finished, you can return to the video.

Okay, welcome back, everybody, and very well done for completing those questions.

So we will now go through these answers together and remember that my answers may look different to yours, which is absolutely fine.

You may want to pause the video after each question to tick through your work or to make any changes.

So the first question was, who were the dictators of Germany and the Soviet Union during the 1930s? And you could have had as your acceptable answer, Hitler and Stalin.

Good answers would put this into a full sentence.

So during the 1930s, Hitler was the dictator of Germany and Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union.

So also explaining which dictator was the leader of which country.

Second question asked, name one method used to control people in a totalitarian state.

So there's lots of acceptable answers you could have had here.

So well done if you got either fear, the police state, using informants, arrests or labour camps.

A good answer will again, describe this in a little more detail.

So one method used to maintain control in a totalitarian state is the creation of a police state.

This means a state in which the government uses the police or secret police to monitor and control what people do and what people say.

What were the names of the secret police forces in Germany and the Soviet Union? So the correct answer is the Gestapo and the NKVD.

Good answer will again link these to each country.

So the Gestapo was the secret police force in Nazi Germany and NKVD was the secret police force in the Soviet Union.

The fourth question was, what happened in the Gulag and concentration camps.

So acceptable answer could be that people were imprisoned there and forced to work.

A good answer could be, the Gulag and the concentration camps were used by the Soviet Union and Germany to imprison their opponents.

So the conditions in these camps were extremely poor and many prisoners were forced to complete hard, physical work there.

Your challenge question was, what was the impact of the police state on ordinary citizens? So you could have had that it caused people to fear the police, or you could say that it caused people to conform, or to do what their leaders told them to.

A good answer again will put this into full sentences with a little bit more description.

So, the police state had a large impact on ordinary citizens as it created fear amongst the population.

As many people were afraid of being arrested, they obeyed the law without question and conformed in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Some citizens even denounced their colleagues or neighbours through fear of being arrested.

So you now may want to spend a few minutes just adding some extra detail to your answers and if so, you can pause the video again here.

Well done for completing those questions, everybody.

So, we are now going to return to the inquiry and think about how people were controlled in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

For this task, I'd like you to complete this table and to answer the following question, how similar were the police states in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union? In the left hand column, I'd like you to write down some similarities between the police states in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

For example, I have written that both countries had a secret police, the Gestapo in Nazi Germany and the NKVD in the Soviet Union.

So I've realised that this is a similarity between the two countries.

Now in the right hand column, I'd like you to write down some differences between the two police states.

For example, I've written that Stalin used show trials to remove his opposition as this was something utilised widely by Stalin in comparison to Hitler.

You can now pause the video here to complete the task and see if you can write down maybe at least four examples in your table.

So resume the video once you're finished to check your answers.

Okay, welcome back, everybody.

Excellent work for completing your tables.

I'll now run through some answers with you.

Remember, these may be slightly different to yours.

So if you don't have some of these, you can pause the video to include them in your own tables.

So in the similarities column, I have written, both states had a secret police, the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, and the NKVD in the Soviet Union.

I've written that ordinary citizens were monitored very closely.

Both states imprisoned their opponents in labour camps.

And informants were used by the police force to target their opponents.

In the differences column, I've written that Stalin used show trials to remove his opposition.

And that Stalin attacked many members of his own party, as well as ordinary citizens.

So you can now pause the video to tick through your work and make any corrections if necessary.

And again, really well done for completing this table.

So to conclude our lesson, we're going to look at what you'll be learning about in the next few lessons of our inquiry.

So today you have seen how police states were established in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1930s to provide the leaders with greater control over people's lives.

In your next lesson, you will look at how leaders used economic policies in the 1930s to strengthen their economies and again, to gain greater control.

And the last two lessons of the inquiry, you will look at the use of persecution and propaganda in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

So you have now completed today's lesson.

Thank you so much for your hard work and really well done for completing today's tasks.

Please now complete the end of the lesson quiz to check your understanding.

And I look forward to teaching you in your next history lesson soon.