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Nazi Persecutions of Minorities & Jews

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Nazi Persecutions of Minorities & Jews Nazi persecution of Jews & Minorities Warning: • Some of the following images might be upsetting as well as the content of today’s lesson Nazi racial beliefs • Nazi policies would make the German state as strong as possible, the way to do this was to make the German population strong, to do this they had two strands… Eugenics Racial Hygiene Eugenics • Selective breeding: Selecting the best parents or preventing reproduction from ‘unsuitable’ parents • Eugenics was a subject at school • Sterilisation was used to stop ’unsuitable’ reproduction Racial Hygiene • Eugenics was taken further and it was decided that only Aryans were superior and suitable • Policies were adopted to make Germany as Aryan as possible – Schools, Hitler Youth, Propaganda • Aryans should only reproduce with other Aryans • Laws were passed to prevent mixed race marriages • Herrenvolk (Master race) – tall, blond, blue-eyed, athletic • Untermenschen (sub-humans) – Slavs, gypsies, Jews “Untermenschen Lebensunwertes” Sub-humans unworthy of life Anti Semitism Anti Jewish • Their religion, customs and looks make Jews stand out as ‘different’ • Some Christians hated Jews, blaming them for Jesus’ death • Some Jews were very successful in finance and business, creating jealousy • German Nationalists opposed Germany’s historical enemies – British Empire, Communism, and minority groups like the Jews • German Nationalists blamed the Jews for defeat in WWI, Versailles, Hyperinflation, and the Great Depression • Hitler too, hated the Jews • Moderate Germans were influenced by Propaganda and turned a blind eye or participated in the Nazi persecutions The Eternal Jew, 1937 Minority Groups: Draw this time line on a clean page, as we go through the following information, add any event related to Minority Groups or Jews to your timeline 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Jews: Slavs: Gypsies Persecution of Minorities Homosexuals Disabled On another clean page, set yourself up a mind map similar to this and add relevant information to it as we go through this lesson Slavs: • Ancient tribes who emigrated into Europe from the East • Untermenschen – as taught in schools • Different origin from Aryans so should be treated differently • Lebensraum – Slavic lands should be taken and used for Germans extra ‘living space’ • Slavs were persecuted less than some other minorities before WW2 Gypsies: • 26,000 in Germany in the early 1930s • Nazis believed they didn't work enough or contribute enough taxes • They also posed a threat to the racial purity of Germany • 1933: Often arrested as ‘social nuisances’ and sent to camps • 1936: Forced to live in cramped camps with no electricity and little water • 1938: Banned from travelling in groups, put on a register, tested for racial characteristics which if they failed they lost their citizenship & social benefits • 1939: All gypsies should prepare for deportation Homosexuals: • Nazis believed homosexuals lowered moral standards and spoiled the purity of the German race • 1935 – Laws against homosexuality led to 766 males being imprisoned • 1936 – 4000 imprisoned • 1938 – 8000 imprisoned • 5000 German homosexuals died in concentration camps • Homosexuals were often castrated Disabled & Mentally Ill: • They were a burden on society & weakened racial purity • 1933: The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was passed - leading to compulsory sterilisation (400,000 by 1939) • Mentally ill, alcoholic, deformed, epileptic, deaf, blind • Babies with mental or physical disabilities should be killed by starvation or lethal injection, eventually up to 17 year olds were included – T4 Programme https://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=3MKmgAOX • 5000 children with disabilities were killed gxI&t=97s Remember the Maths question in schools? This genetically ill person will cost our people's community 60,000 marks over his lifetime. Citizens, that is your money. Read Neues Volk, the monthly of the racial policy office of the NSDAP Persecution of the Jews 1933-1939 There were only 437,000 Jews in Germany (1%) but Hitler had stated action against them was a priority Add the following events to your timeline on the bottom half Propaganda films began immediately, most famously ’The Eternal Jew’ portraying Jews as vermin and filth. Key events timeline • March 1933: Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses • April 1933: Banned from government jobs, civil servants and teachers were sacked • September 1933: Jews banned from inheriting land • 1934: Jews banned from parks and swimming pools, yellow park benches provided to keep ’normal Germans’ safe • May 1935: Jews were banned from the army • 15 September 1935: Nuremberg Laws - Only those of German blood could be German citizens - Jews lost their citizenship and became aliens - Required to wear a yellow star so Germans could easily recognise them - Jews could not marry German citizens - Jews could not have sex with German citizens • March 1938: Jews had to register all of their possessions & carry Identity cards • 9-10 November 1938 - Kristallnacht The Shop boycott, March 1933 Kristallnacht – 9-10 November 1938 • A German, Von Rath was shot by a Polish Jew in Paris which led to Goebbels ordering local papers of the shooter’s hometown, Hanover, to condemn him • SA, SS and Gestapo attacked local synagogues and houses • 9th November saw the violence from Hanover go nationwide. • Police were told not to prevent any violence against Jews, as many Jews were to be arrested as could fit in the prisons • Jewish property was smashed and burned by Hitler Youth and SA, a Jewish teenager was thrown from a 3rd floor window! • Some Germans were horrified, others joined in, at least 100 Jews were killed • Jews were fined 1 billion marks to pay for the damage • By 12th November 20,000 Jews had been rounded up and sent to camps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbQ 6hnzqLkg Create a flowchart for the events of Kristallnacht Why so little opposition?: By January 1939, it was decided to evict all Jews from Germany. • The Nazi Government kept some of the atrocities secret • Most of what was happening was well known both within Germany and abroad • Many Germans took part in the persecution • No-one did anything to stop it, within Germany or abroad • People who criticised the Nazis were severely dealt with, they may have therefore been too scared • Others convinced themselves that the suffering inflicted on the Jews was not real, or ignored it entirely • Many Germans seem to have become convinced by ideas at the time that this was justified, leading to support and involvement 1939-45: The Holocaust • Persecution continued culminating in the ‘Final Solution’ in 1942, plans for the extermination of the Jews by gassing in Concentration camps • 6 Million Jews were killed • The following images give an insight into the horrors and devastation the ‘Holocaust’ would witness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIBs27l_NyQ Jewish women, some holding infants, are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators. Post 1939 A German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution. Post 1939 Post 1939 Post 1939.
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