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The home front during the war - Coggle Diagram
The home front during the war
Evacuation
Just like in Britatin, the Germans planned to evacuate Children from major cities
At first, families did not send their children away, but as allied bombing became worse, mass evacuation of children started during 1942
About 2.5 million children were sent to Bavaria as part of the KLV (Kinderlandveschikung programme)
Children were not placed into homes, instead were placed evenly across 9000 camps ran by the Hitler youth
When the war would end, a lot of children would be sent to orphanages, as they would find their families dead.
Rationing
The first rationing started in August 1939, and included meat, dairy, soap and clothing
Then, the Nazis introduced a food stamp policy
A certain number of stamps were given to people. If someone was caught stealing food stamps, this would result in jail time
When you bought food, it didn't matter how much money you had, you still had to provide the appropriate amount of stamps to acquire that food
Rationing of food was working, but other items, such as tobacco, toilet paper, coal and clothing were almost non existent.
later during the second world war, as import into Germany was reduced, food shortgaes happened more often.
This was especially true at the end of the war, when 3 million East Germans fled to the West side of Germany when the Russians took over. This caused the rations in Germany to be uneven due to the influx of people in one area, causing even more shortages.
Total war in Germany: causes
In June 1941, Operation Barbarossa was launched by Hitler, which was the invasion on the Soviet Union
The Nazis managaed to ivade a large part of the Soviet Union, taking over Stalingrad in the south and Leningrad in the south, and almost taking over moscow
However, during November, the attack was being slowed down, as the winter was extremely harsh in Germany. Oil in the tanks of the Nazis froze. Soldiers died of Hypothermia due to the lack of sufficient clothing. Water and other food froze.
The Soviets used this to their advantage, and they adopted a scorched earth policy while retreating from the Germans
This meant that they burnt any crops or resources as they retreated, so that the Nazis couldn't use them to their advanatage
2 million German soldiers died during operation Barbarossa died due this
Due to the failure of Operation Barbarossa, it became evident that Germany was doomed to lose the war, so Goebbels informed the country that it was now Total war
This means that the entire country had to be devoted to helping Germany win the war.
Total war in Germany: events
Nazis faced shortage of labour by forcing 7 million Russian prisoners to work for the German industry by 1944
From 1943, All men and women above the age of 16 were forced to work something
Small businesses were all closed, as they did not provide anything that would help Germany win the war
Working weeks were increased to 60 hours, along with holidays being banned
Every form of entertainment was closed
Postal services were closed to preserve fuel for tanks
The Volksturn was set up in every city to protect it from attacks from other countries. Boys as young as 12 were forced to join the Volksturn for their cities.