How did Nazi Germany treat free speech?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

Cyridius

There was no legal opposition in Nazi Germany - everything from liberals to communists to trade union organisers to various church institutions were banned, suppressed, and frequently sent to concentration camps where they were either executed or worked to death.

Non-Violent anti-fascist movements in Nazi Germany, such as the White Rose(whose activities were limited exclusively to leafleting and graffiti) were arrested by the Gestapo and either imprisoned or executed. Anything seen as political agitation against the regime, its course or its ideas was a punishable act.

Another example to be given could be the case of August Landmesser, who is pictured here not doing the Nazi salute at a rally to mark the launch of a naval vessel. Landmesser was in a relationship with a Jewish woman, and so was arrested as a result of the Nuremburg Laws, sent to a concentration camp and then forced into penal military service where he was killed in action.

The word totalitarian is applied to Nazi Germany for a reason - it had total control over the social, cultural and political life of society, and and things which deviated from that were punishable acts.