Racial Beliefs and Jewish Persecution Flashcards
(19 cards)
Hitler was keen to increase the number of ‘pure’ Germans…
who were Aryans, blond-haired, blue-eyed, tall and athletic.
How did they attempt to grow the Aryan race?
‘race farms’ were set up where Aryan men and women met to have Aryan children. The SS were central to the Nazi master race, as they only recruited Aryans, and were forced to sleep with other Aryan women to strengthen the future generations.
Nazi racial heirarchy:
The Aryans = the ‘master race’
Other white western Europeans
Eastern Europeans - slavs - seen as sub-human
Black people and gypsies - also seen as sub-human
Jews - seen as the lowest of sub-human races and blamed for Germany’s problems
What was the term used for inferior people, such as the Slavs, gypsies, black people and Jews?
Untermenschen
What were the Nuremberg Laws?
Prevented Aryans from marrying gypsies, black people or Jews.
Mixed raced people were…
sterilised.
After 1933, many ‘gypsies’ were arrested and sent to…
concentration camps.
Other undesirables:
- homosexuals - sent to prison or concentration camps or subjected to medical experiments to correct their ‘disorder’.
- Disabled people - sterilised.
- Mentally and physically disabled babies were killed.
- Vagrants were seen as lazy and were put in concentration camps.
What was the Law that forced disabled people to be sterilised?
The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring in 1933
Why were Jewish people persecuted?
Associated with communism - Karl Marx
Suspicious of those who weren’t Aryan
Jealous of their financial success
Blamed for Germany’s defeat in the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles - especially since most of the politicians were Jewish
Used as scapegoats for Germany’s problems
Why did non-Jewish Germans allow for the persecution to happen?
- brainwashed by propaganda
- fear of the Gestapo and SS if they spoke up
- long-standing distrust and subtle anti-semitism was common across Europe.
What were the Nuremberg Laws and when were they made?
1935 - passed against Jewish people to persecute them even further - had a detrimental impact.
Nuremberg Laws: The Reich Law on Citizenship
- only those of German blood can be citizens
- Jews must become subjects not citizens
- Jews cannot vote or work for the government
- Jews must wear a Star of David for ease of identification
Nuremberg Laws: The Reich Law for the Protection of German blood and honour
- No Jew must marry a German citizen
- No Jew is allowed to have sexual relations with a German citizen
What was known as the Night of the Broken Glass?
Kristallnacht
Events of Kristallnacht - 7th and 8th November?
A 17 year old Polish Jew entered a German embassy in Paris and shot a German.
Goebbels quickly seized the opportunity to stir up resentment against Jews - propaganda - attacking homes and synagogues in Hanover.
Events of Kristallnacht - 9-10 November
Goebbels and Hitler decided to increase the violence to a nationwide attack, and used the shooting as an excuse.
Groups of uniformed and non-uniformed members of the Party, Gestapo and SS members destroyed homes, shops, businesses and synagogues.
It appeared like it was civilians, and although civilians were involved it was primarily Nazi officials.
As a result of Kristallnacht:
100 Jews were killed
814 shops were destroyed
171 homes were destroyed
191 synagogues were destroyed
Consequences of Kristallnacht
Goebbels blamed the Jews for starting the trouble on Kristallnacht and ordered them to pay damaged, in a 1 billion marks fine - they also arrested about 300 000 Jews that night.
