Nazi Germany Racial Policy 1933-1945

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  • Nazi racial policy 33-45'
    • Ideologies
      • Social darwinism
        • Purify the stronger race (Aryan) by eliminating the degenerates  and asocials.
        • The germ of Jews had to be eliminated -  threat to the German Volk.
      • Volksgemeinschaft - ' a peoples community'
        • to qualify as a Volk had to be a pure German.
        • Protecting the Volk by removing un-German elements e.g Jews
        • Groups excluded: racial enemies (Jews,), those with hereditary defects and asocials.
      • Lebensraum - 'living space'
        • conquering the East, inferior Slavs for farm land and raw materials.      .
        • More space for: bringing lost Germans back into the Reich. Battle ground for racial annihilation
      • Aim: to create a pure Volk state without 'germs' infecting it e.g. Jews.
      • Mein Kampf: racial ideas that Aryan races are superior to Jews (subhumans)
        • Basis of the Nazi racial policy - ideologies since 25'
    • 33-35':  Violence and legislation
      • 1 April 1933 - Boycott of Jewish shops by SA
        • negative reaction from citizens and abroad.
      • April 1933 -Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
        • Jews dismissed from civil service - Hindenburgs exemption lessened impact of law. (2/3 of Jews in civil service)
          • the law effected them economically and psychologically
        • voluntary emigration 1933: 37,000 Jews left
      • Legal discrimination - 1935 Nuremberg Laws.
        • 15th Sept: The Reich Citizenship Law - German citizen only if they had pure blood
        • The Law for the protection of German Blood and Honour: outlawed marriage between Aryans and non-Aryans.
        • November 1935: The First Supplementary Decree on the Reich Citizenship Law - defined what was a 'Jew' - 3 Jewish grandparents.
        • Position of Jews weakened - no political rights against Nazi's.
      • April 1933 - Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities
        • Education: Jews restricted from attending Aryan schools (Nazi aim was for segregation not denying them of an education) - Jewish children seen as a waste of money.
        • Propaganda: danger of a well educated Jew.
      • Laws for legal professions.
        • Doctors: local authorities removing them from posts. Banned in April 1933. Propaganda portrayed them as 'dangers'.
      • October 1933 - The Reich Press Law: censorship and closure of Jewish publications.(Some Jews left)
      • Discrimination
        • overt discrimination: ban on Jews using swimming pools, businesses ban Jews, society gone into 'internal exile'
    • 36-40'
      • 36' Berlin Olympics: anti-Semitic propaganda hidden for arrivals of people abroad. a lull in racial policy.
        • 36-37': a decrease in Anti-Semitic activity and little action.
        • September 37': Hitler gave a speech attacking the Jews.
      • Reichkristallnacht (9-10 Nov) 1938: violence increases in Germany - a turning point.
        • 20,000-30,000 Jews placed in detentions, houses, shops & synagogues set ablaze, 91 killed.
        • munich putsch anniversary, propaganda portrayed 'national soul being boiled' -  Goebbels organised violence.
        • reactions: horrified, Germans knew it was organised by the state,
          • Decree for the restoration of the street scene: Jews had to pick up costs for repairs (1 billion reichsmarks).
          • 12th November 1938:The Decree Excluding Jews from German Economic Life. increased aryanisation of Jewish businesses.
      • March 1938: Anschluss, 'bloodless victory' - influenced more radical policies
        • April 1938: The Decree of Registration of Jewish property provided confiscation of 5000 marks.
          • 1938: 40,000 Jewish businesses. 1939: 8000 avoided being closed down.
        • Jews banned from working as security guards, travel and estate agents - 30,000 travelling salesman lost their jobs.
          • Jews denied access to public welfare - reliant on Jewish charities.
            • October 1938: passports stamped with a   large J,           1939: compelled Jewish men to be named Israel and women as Sarah.
      • late 1938: radical policies - emigration.
        • Voluntary emigration: 1933-1938 150,000 Jews left Germany.  9000 Jewish children sent to Britain in 38'-39.
          • Controlled emigration: the Central Office for Jewish Emigration set up in march 1938.
            • 45,000 out of 180,000 Austrian Jews forced to emigrate.
        • September 1939-41: Nazi policies radicalised due to war (invasion of Poland).
          • War provided with: a way for the Germinisation of the occupied territories in Poland and a 'jew-free' empire, propaganda machine, new territories.
          • Nov 1939 - Feb 1940: ** attempted to deport 1 million Jews east.
          • Madagascar Plan: Madagascar taken away from France after Nazi occupation in May 1940 - Nazis worked with Jewish Zionists in attempt to take the Jews to Palestine (a British colony thus it didn't work).
          • August 1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact - U**R wouldn't intervene in the invasion of Poland.
          • radio sets confiscated, banned from buying chocolate.
          • 1940: restricted from entering shops 4pm-5pm only, excluded from wartime rationing allowances
          • 1941: Jews had to have a police permit to travel, december - jews had to wear the yellow star of David.
          • Ghettoisation: first set up in 1940 Lodz -  conditions were horrible & overcrowded = no food, medicine, 6 people shared a room, 15 in a flat, no hot water, disease and lice infestations.
            • largest was Warsaw: over 400,000 Jews, food rations at starvation levels, 300 calories per day, designed so huge mass of jews died from starvation, cold and disease.
            • 1940-41: more than 100,000 Jews died, 500,000 Jews died in ghettos.
          • Einsatzgruppen: eliminate communist officials, red army commissars, partisans and Jewish-Bolshevist intelligentsia (played a role in ethnic cleansing).
            • killed 1/2 a million soviet jews, in 1941, (temp units), played a part in 'ethnic cleansing', killed 15,000 in Poland.
    • 42-45: mass organisation and extermination.
      • Wansee conference, Jan 1942: a meeting on the final solution of the Jewish question. Half of all Jews died in death camps in 1942-1943.
        • mass killings accelerated, radical propaganda increased, Jewish population rounded up for deportation.
          • 1944: Germany's defeat had caused the final solution to continue operating.
      • camp systems: death camps were designed for extermination, Chelmo was first centre in Dec 1941.
        • The use of Zyklon B was developed in early 1942 - 145,000 died there. Majdanek - 200,000 people died, 60% weree Jews.
        • Treblinka - 1 million Jews murdered, 300,000 Jews from Warsaw. Sobibor - Jewish revolt led to the escape of 800 Jews. The camp closed down.
      • Jewish resistance
        • groups of partisan fighters carried out acts of sabotage on German occupiers (10,000 active in Lithuania)..
        • Bielski brothers = resistant group, 1200 partisans,  provided refuge for escaping Jews.
        • revolts in ghettos and camps = Bialytstok (largest), messages were passed to allies about  the camps (allies didn't have any practical way to stop it).
        • Untitled
        • myth that Jews were passive during the holocaust   - there was resistance.
      • death camps: 1944 = frantic programme of evacuations and long marches westwards.
        • caused terrible suffering: in the freezing winter, most were malnourished, many died of illness + exhaustion, others shot by guards due to slowness.
        • 250,000 - 400,000 died from death marches, mainly women.
        • responsible for the holocaust
          • Or was it German society, acting as puppets to Hitler?
          • Hitler = dominated all aspects of power, his ideology of war towards the Jews, Germans supported his ideas + other officials.

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