Activity 4: Some Facts

Because the Nazi Government wanted to control the population living under their authority, the right to free speech/expression was denied.  Severe punishments were put in place for those who tried to speak out against the regime. 

The Nazis banned all other political parties in 1933 so that they would face no opposition to their supremacy.  They took over control of newspapers and radio broadcasts so that views that ran counter to their own would not be heard.  The limits placed on freedom of speech were also a method by which they hoped to hide their crimes from the rest of the world. 

During the war, Jews in the ghettos and concentration camps were forbidden to maintain links with the outside world.  This was in order for the Nazis to be able to carry out their plans for the “Final Solution” more easily.  Many Jews living in Hungary, the last European country to be invaded in 1944, knew very little, if anything, of what had happened to Jews in other countries.  In this way, the Nazis managed to ensure that the secrecy surrounding the eventual fate of the Jews was maintained so that those being taken to the camps did not try to escape or fight back.