[8] Due to Hitler's oppression of their German counterparts, communists and socialists supported a continuation of the League of Nations administration, and a delay in the plebiscite until after the Nazis were no longer in power in Germany.

[9] In 1933, Sarah Wambaugh, one of the members of the Plebiscite Commission, stated that complaints of a Nazi "reign of terror" had been made by non-Nazi Saarlanders and by the foreign press.

[10] The complaints included allegations that the Nazis engaged in intimidation, "espionage, secret denunciations, kidnappings ..., ... interception of letters and telegrams, [and] listening-in to telephone conversations", among other things.

[12] Jakob Pirro, the Nazi leader in the Saar, told his followers to obey the strictest discipline and implemented harsh penalties for any infractions.

According to Guenter Lewy, the people of the Saar increasingly preferred to stay in France because of the suppression and harassment of the Catholic Church in Germany by Nazi authorities.

[13] Voters were outraged by the killings of two prominent Catholic leaders, Erich Klausener and Adalbert Probst, in the Night of the Long Knives.

[13] The Nazis made an effort to combat concerns about their anti-clericalism by appealing to the voters' anti-communism; pro-German newspapers printed pictures of atrocities from the Soviet Union, contrasting them to the "peace and prosperity" of the German Reich.

However, ultimately the National Socialists mainly focused on intimidation, with Nazi paramilitaries "threatening retribution to all those who might dare to vote against return to the fatherland".

[16] The Sunday Mail of Adelaide, South Australia, reported that the opponents of the Saar's return to Germany were "hounded off the streets and even blockaded in homes".

[18] In addition, socialist and separatist newspapers such as the Volkstimme and Volkszeitung were taken down, and there were reports of illegal seizures and confiscations of documents by the members of the Deutsche Front.

Guenter Lewy reports that the prosecution of the Catholic Church in the Saar was even worse than in the rest of Germany, as the Reichskonkordat did not apply to the territory.