Germany's Jews and Minorities

• Only Aryans could belong to the Volksgemeinschaft
• According to the Nazis, Jews were bent on 'world domination'
• Hitler was convinced that Russian Communism was controlled by Jews
• Nazis also thought Jews had conspised to win control of Germany's financial institutions

Germany's Jewish Community:

• 1993 - only 0.7% of Germany's population were Jewsih
• They didn't dominate German business life as the Nazis alleged

Persecution of Germany's Jews 1993-1939 :

• Local SA units beat up Jews and destroyed Jewish property
• 7th April 1933 0 first anti-Jewish decree
• 1935 - Hitler announced two new anti-Jewish laws:
  • Reich Citizenship Law - depriving Jews of German citizenship
  • Law for the Protection of German Blood - outlawed marriage between Jews and non-jews
• 1938 - Anti-semitic laws, excluding Jews from German economic life

Towards Genocide:

• The einsatzgruppen (task forces) butchered over 50,000 Polish resisters - most Jewish
• Jews were herded into Ghettoes, where many died from malnutrition
• 1941 - Jews were specifically targeted, 1 million+ died
• Concentration camps were fit with gas chambers for mass murder

Other Minorities (Roma and Sinti, disabled people and homosexuals):

• Roma and Sinti - gypsies, deemed to be non-Aryans, many sent to concentration camps; the number killed was between 220,000-500,000
• Disabled people - 'unfit' to belong to the National Community as they were a source of weakness, described as a burden on society and lead to mass sterilisation
• Homosexuals - were seen as 'deviants' who were failing their duty by not producing children, around 15,000 homosexuals were sent to concentration camps