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Nazi Germany Unit 7: Interwar Period

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Nazi Germany Unit 7: Interwar Period Nazi Officials Joseph Goebbels • Minister of Propaganda Oversaw all media in Germany Contributed to Hitler’s popularity • Intensely anti-Semitic One of the architects of the Holocaust Personally oversaw deportation of Jews Heinrich Himmler • Led the SS • Led the Gestapo • Formed the Einsatzgruppen with Heydrich • One of the architects of the Holocaust • Created and controlled the concentration camp system Hermann Goering • Commander of the Luftwaffe • Created the Gestapo • Mobilized the German economy to support the war • Might have been the real Reichstag arsonist • Ordered Heydrich to organize details of the Final Solution Reinhard Heydrich • The main designer of the Final Solution • Created the Einsatzgruppen with Himmler • Organized Kristallnacht • Described by other high- ranking officials as the most vile among them Hitler himself called Heydrich heartless Josef Mengele • SS doctor at Auschwitz • Performed inhumane experiments on prisoners • Personally evaluated all incoming prisoners to Auschwitz Decided who was gassed, who worked, who to experiment on • Prisoners called him the “Angel of Death” Ernst Kaltenbrunner • Established the Mauthausen concentration camp • Personally oversaw Nazi discrimination of homosexuals • Oversaw most Nazi activities in Austria • An architect behind Anschluss • Along with Heydrich, generally considered among the most vile of all Nazis Adolf Eichmann • One of the architects of the Holocaust • Managed the logistics behind the mass deportation of Jews to camps Nazi Germany New Germany • Hitler’s new gov’t referred to as Third Reich Supposed to last 1,000 years • First concentration camp (Dachau) established immediately to Exploit labor Imprison threats to Nazi rule outside of legal oversight • Government stresses conformity to Reich at all costs https://youtu.be/OQ4nA0JlKIY Gestapo • Secret police Did not need to follow laws • Operated undercover to identify and eliminate political enemies and undesirables Planted evidence, blackmail, torture • Investigated denunciations from German citizens Schutzstaffel (SS) • SS originally were bodyguards for Hitler • Later became org. responsible for all security- related matters Police Genealogy Intelligence Concentration camp admin Carrying out Final Solution Nazi Power Struggles • 1933, SA had over 3,000,000 members Ernst Rohm (leader of SA) became increasingly power hungry SA members were typically lower-class; very radical • Goering and Himmler disliked Rohm due to competition Task Heydrich with forging documents that Rohm was planning a coup • Hitler also feared Rohm’s power • Night of the Long Knives: SS troops arrested, executed Rohm and other SA leaders in 1934 SA declined until absorbed by SS Road to the Holocaust Unit 7: Interwar Period Government involvement The “Jewish Question” • Hitler and Nazis begin debating “Jewish Question” How should Jews be treated? Are they citizens? Do they follow the same laws? What about undesirable non-Jews? • 1933-1935, Nazis begin addressing Question with legislation Answer to the “Jewish Question” •At some point (exact origin unknown), Nazi officials devised the Final Solution Plan to annihilate Jewish people Holocaust • Systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of peoples deemed inferior and detrimental to the Third Reich; primarily the genocide of Jews • Non-Jewish targets include: Gypsies Homosexuals People with disabilities (intellectual and physical) People with chronic illnesses Slavic peoples Communists and socialists Final Solution = idea Holocaust = application 1933 • SA begins to terrorize Jewish businesses; German police unsuccessfully try to stop attacks • Nazis organize boycott of Jewish business • Law is passed requiring Aryan heritage to work in gov’t Jewish judges, lawyers, teachers, other civil servants fired Hindenburg tells Hitler to exempt WWI veterans from law Nuremberg Laws (1935) • Jews defined as anyone with 3-4 Jewish grandparents • Jews are no longer German citizens • Jews forbidden to marry, have sexual relations with persons of German blood • Couples wanting to marry must be approved by German health ministry Those with hereditary illnesses, physical defects rejected • Later expanded marriage restrictions to include Gypsies and blacks Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” • Nazi officials and German civilians destroyed Jewish-owned businesses, homes, synagogues Kristallnacht • Aftermath 30,000 Jews taken to camps Jews blamed for riots, heavily fined Jews forbidden from most private professions Jews expelled from German schools Jews lost driver’s license, right to own car Jews removed from public (cannot use public transportation; cannot attend movies, concerts, plays) Jewish businesses sold to Aryans Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” • Nazi officials and German civilians destroyed Jewish-owned businesses, homes, synagogues • Significance Nazi regime believed German public ready for more radical anti-Semitic measures Anti-Semitic policies increased rapidly Children and the Disabled • “It is unbearable to me that the flower of our youth must lose their lives at the front, while that feeble-minded and asocial element can have a secure existence in the asylum.” • Gov’t registered all babies born with disabilities Down syndrome; low IQ; malformations of any kind; seizure disorders • Reich officials took away children, told parents their kids were receiving improved treatment Children euthanized via injection; death reported to parents as pneumonia Suspicious parents threatened with camps if they refused • >5,000 children euthanized Used as test subjects for various methods of mass murder Cover-up • 1936 Summer Olympics held in Germany Intended to prove racial superiority Intended to hide Jewish persecution • Some citizens of other countries called for boycott • Anti-Semitic propaganda removed from public areas • Groups of poor undesirables moved out of public eye • Mostly successful Dozens of countries recognized Hitler’s rule as legitimate Public Involvement Children • Hitler Youth established to ensure future of Nazi Germany Millions of children indoctrinated with Nazi values • Doctrine included: “Germany must live” even if they must die Aryan superiority Jews = parasitic “bastard race”; rats; vermin; pests Devotion to Hitler • Hitler’s birthday becomes national holiday • Books unaligned with Nazi ideology banned, burned • Toys and textbooks used as propaganda Discussion With your table group, discuss the following: •Why would ordinary German citizens participate in carrying out the Holocaust? Motivations How could ordinary German people have participated in the Holocaust? • Fear • Gain Jewish property and businesses confiscated and sold to “pure” Germans Psychological satisfaction of revenge against a common enemy • Respect for authority Statistically, people will abandon their morals if ordered to do so by an authority • Peer pressure and rationalization By nature, people do not like to rock the boat People have a psychological need to rationalize their choices to avoid guilt Milgram Experiment Yale University, 1961 • Aim Test how far people would go in obeying instruction if it involved harm to another • Procedure Participants instructed to give shocks to a learner for each wrong answer; the shocks increase each time up to 450 volts (extreme danger) • Results All 40 participants went up to 300 volts (extreme shock); 65% went up to 450 volts (potentially fatal) • Conclusion Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure even to the extent of killing an innocent human being https://youtu.be/yr5cjyokVUs.
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