Holocust Flashcards
1
Q
Persecution of Minorities
A
- The Nazis believed in the superiority of the Aryan race.
- within their 12 years of power:
+ they persecuted members of other races, and many minority groups such
as travellers, homosexuals and mentally handicapped people - why? because they challenged Nazi ideas:
+ Homosexuals were a threat to Nazi ideas about family life
+ The mentally handicapped were a threat to Nazi ideas about Germans being a perfect master race
+ Travellers were thought to be an inferior people
2
Q
Why the Jews?
religious + economic reason.
A
- Anti-senitism means hatred of Jews and this can be traced back to ancient and medieval times
- They were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ
- also they tended to be well educated and thus held well-paying jobs or ran successful stores and businesses
3
Q
Why the Jews?
political anti-jewish sentiment
A
An 1879 pamphlet claimed that the newly-founded German
state was at war with Jews living in its borders – and that
one would not survive unless the other was destroyed
4
Q
Why the Jews?
Anti-Semitic conspiracies in Germany during and after World War One
A
- Regularly blamed for sabotaging the war effort
- Scapegoatism flourished during the desperate 1920s
5
Q
Why the Jews?
Hitler’s reason.
A
- he hated them intensely
- in his years of poverty, he became obsessed with the fact that Jews ran most of the successful businesses, particularly large department stores
+ offended his idea of the superiority of Aryans - he also blamed Jewish businessmen + bankers for Germany’s defeat in ww1
6
Q
Attack on the rights of Jews
A
- 1933 to1939
- a gradual process with aim to remove all Jewish rights.
- the first two years of Nazi rule there was little organized persecution of the Jews. Hitler was setting up his dictatorship and using anti-Jewish propaganda to turn Germans in favor of his policies
7
Q
1933
A
- Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops and business
- a new law that excluded Jews from government jobs
- therefore thousands of Jewish civil servants, lawyers +uni teachers were sacked
8
Q
1934
A
- anit-jewish propaganda increased
- local councils banned jews from public spaces (parks, fields and pools)
9
Q
1935
A
- nazi party began to step up their campaign
- jews forbidden to join army
- Nuremberg Laws were introduced on 15th September 1935
10
Q
1936
A
- Lull in anti-Jewish propaganda due to Germany holding the
Berlin Olympic Games. - Professional activities of Jews banned or restricted – this included vets, dentists, accountants, surveyors, teachers and
nurses
11
Q
1937
A
- For the first time in 2 years, Hitler made an outspoken attack on Jews
- aryanisation of business = Jewish businesses taken over
12
Q
1938
A
- serious increase in anti-jewish policies:
+ jews had to register their property = easier to confiscate
+ j doctors, dentists and lawyers were prevented to treat Aryans
+ j children excluded from German skls and uni
+ j with non-jewish first names had to add and use the name ‘Israel’ (male) & ‘sarah’ (female)
+ Jews had to have a red letter ‘J’ stamped on their passport
13
Q
1939
A
- jews no longer allowed to run shops or businesses
- jews forbidden to own radio or buy cakes and chocolate
14
Q
Kristallnact
A
- aka ‘Night of Broken Glass’
- nov 1938, young jew killed a german diplomat in Paris
- Nazi’s used this as an excuse to launch violent revenge on Jews
- Plain-clothes SS troopers were issued with pickaxes and hammers and the addresses of Jewish businesses.
- 91 Jews were murdered
- Hundreds of synagogues were burned
- Twenty thousand Jews were taken to concentration camps
15
Q
the Ghettos
A
- The persecution intensified after the outbreak of WW2 in 1939.
- After defeating Poland, the Nazis set about ‘Germanising’ western Poland.
- This means transporting Poles from their homes and replacing them with German settlers.
- Almost one in five Poles died in the fighting as a result of the racial policies of 1939-45.
- Polish Jews were rounded up and transported to the major cities.
+ Here they were herded into sealed areas, called ghettos.
+ The ale-bodied Jews were used for slave labor but the young, the old
, and the sick were simply left to die from hunger and disease.
16
Q
prelude to the final solution
A
- 1941, germany invaded USSR and were successful
- thus found themselves in control of 3 million russian Jews
- this was in addition to the jews in all the other countries they invaded
17
Q
mass murder
A
- german forces were ordered to round up and shoot Communist Pary activists + jewish supporters
- this shooting was done by special SS unit called Einsatzgruppen
- by autum 1941, mass shootings were taken place all over occupied easten Europe
- in Gernamy, Jews were made to wear the Star of David on their clothing to mark them out
