Before the outbreak of war, the main objective of Nazi penal innovations was to suppress internal opposition to the new regime, and to render life intolerable for the Jews. During the early years of the war, the Nazi jurists were largely concerned with legal problems incident to the occupation of Poland, France, and the other nations overrun by the Wehrmacht. The extension of German law to the occupied areas, and the outrages committed thereunder, constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity on a grand scale, which will be described in due course. German criminal law was also applied extensively to acts committed outside the Reich, even when committed by foreigners.[29] Acts committed by a foreigner outside the Reich could even constitute treason against the Reich. But the war also brought a mass of new criminal legislation within Germany. This new legislation was influenced by the necessities of war, but also contained matured concepts of National Socialist criminal policy. The principal aim was to guarantee the security of the Nazi regime, and bolster the economic and military strength of Germany, through extremely harsh criminal punishments. The chief weapon was the unsparing and almost indiscriminate use of capital punishment. Later on, as Germany’s military situation worsened, the death penalty became an ordinary sentence for a great variety of offenses. The increased severity of air raids resulted in capital punishment or long prison sentences for crimes committed during black-outs, even very minor looting. Economic hardship and shortages of materials were accompanied by laws prescribing penal servitude, or even death, for anyone who destroyed or removed food or other supplies. Toward the end of the war, a desperate attempt was made to cope with the growing defeatism by imposing the death penalty for spreading rumors, listening to foreign broadcasts and even for the most minor derogatory remarks about the Hitler regime or pessimism concerning Germany’s chances of military success.