RACIAL STATE

Question 1

Radicalisation- Phase 1

Answer 1

Legal revolution 1933-34
- Dependent on political allies until Enabling Act March 1933
- power consolidated through legal means and terror
- August 1934- Nazi regime secured

Question 2

Phase 2

Answer 2

• Creating New Germany 1934-37
• Nazi regime legally secure by August 1934
• Worry about public opinion nationally and internationally
  > Berlin Olympics 1936: Anti-Semitism clamped down, signs banning Jews temporarily removed
• 1934-37- Hitler avoided confronting powerful groups like army and Churches
• Germany not yet ready for war

Question 3

Phase 3

Answer 3

• Radicalisation of the state 1938-39
• 1937- economy recovered, SS had complete control of police system, militarily ready for war
• 1938-39: Hitler took control of the war- sacking Blomberg and Fritsch
• Radical persecution of racial enemies

Question 4

Social Darwinism

Answer 4

• used to justify racial superiority and eugenics
• 19th-20th century used to justify European imperialism due to being more advanced
• Sweden- influential scientists sought to eliminate disabilities through population planning and birth control
  > incorporated into Nazi ideology
• Hitler believed in a “biological struggle”- fitted with views of Jews; saw Jews, blacks, and Slavs as inferior- Northern Aryans superior
• Himmler later justified the killing of all Jews with Hitler’s ideas that they had to be eliminated as they posed a deadly threat to the German volk
• This also justified the sterilisation and killing of the mentally and physically disabled- Roma, homosexuals, pacifists, etc

Question 5

Volksgemeinschaft

Answer 5

• “people’s community”
• Volk- only true Germans in terms of loyalty, health, and racial purity- all others excluded
• Groups excluded:
  > Political enemies
  > Asocials
  > Racial enemies (different races and hereditary defects)

Question 6

Lebensraum- living space

Answer 6

• not new nor originated by Hitler- European thinkers had proposed opening up space for expanding the white race
• Germany- widespread support that country was over-populated and that farmers needed more land, support in conquering the eastern, inferior Slav people
• Hitler’s view focused on race- provide the Germanisation of eastern lands, bring back the “Lost Germans” and provide battleground for racial annihilation

Question 7

Mentally and Physically disabled

Answer 7

• Biological outsiders- threat to future of Aryan race
• Borrowed from science of eugenics (selective breeding)
  > popular after WW1: declining birth rates, loss of healthy young men, improvements to medicine prolonging life of those with hereditary diseases caused concerns

Question 8

Sterilisation

Answer 8

• Before Nazis, State government of Prussia drew up a draft law to allow voluntary sterilisation of those with hereditary diseases
• 1933- Law for Prevention of Hereditary diseases made sterilisation compulsory for some inferiors (such as schizophrenics and hereditary malformations); abortions permitted when women suitable for sterilisation were pregnant in 1935- ban on abortion for Aryan women and girls
• Decisions about sterilisation made at Hereditary Health Courts- most judges were strongly in favour of the law
• 400,000 people sterilised during the Third Reich

Question 9

EUTHANASIA- context

Answer 9

• October 1939- euthanasia legalised for mentally and physically disabled seen as an “unproductive burden”
• Nazi propaganda emphasized need to get rid of this “burden”- “merciful” death for disabled children- development of sterilisation policy that was supported
• First programme originated from a badly disabled child in early 1939- his father had written asking Hitler to allow him to be put to sleep
  > Führer sent SS doctor Brandt to examine the baby, and the report advised euthanasia; it was approved and Hitler announced he’d personally protect doctors from prosecution
  > catalyst for euthanasia programme

Question 10

Dr Philipp Bouhler

Answer 10

• Used his control over letters to convince Hitler to allow the euthanasia programme
• Chief of Führer’s Party office- given authority to deal with cases of euthanasia
• Along with Karl Brandt-chief architects of killing programme Aktion T4

Question 10

EUTHANASIA STATS

Answer 10

• ~5,000 handicapped babies and kids 1939-45
• ~70,000 mentally ill patients gassed 1939-41 (temporarily stopped due to outcry, began with more secrecy)
• Historians estimate 250,000 died at hands of program
  > Propaganda encouraged this, “life only as a burden”, religious messages- God not wanting ill to reproduce
• Gypsies- 5/6 Gypsies in Germany killed

Question 11

Dr Karl Brandt

Answer 11

• Senior SS doctor, part of inner circle
• founded Euthanasia programme with Bouhler in 1939
• Became Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation
• Key in medical experiments during the war

Question 12

Aktion T4 programme

Answer 12

• Secret organisation to protect members from prosecution
• Petitions for euthanasia went through Chancellery of the Führer
• Medical staff had to report on children suffering- they were then sent to special hospitals and starved or injected with lethal shots
  > questionnaires hidden as simply statistical- emphasis on ability to work
• Despite secrecy and falsified records the public gained knowledge
• Bishop of Munster protested the killings in 1941 and the process was halted
• Continued in 1942 with more secrecy
  > “Final Solution” used resources from T4 programme to murder Jews in German-Occupied Europe

Question 13

ASOCIALS

Answer 13

• Criminals, work-shy, prostitutes, beggars, homosexuals
• September 1933- homeless lined up- those “orderly” given permits and forced to work for accomodation, those convicted of crimes “disorderly” sent to concentration camps
• 1936 pre Olympics- tramps and beggars rounded up from street to present a good image
• 1936 “asocial colony” set up- Hashude, to re-educate asocials and integrate them
• 1938- round up of asocials including pimps and gypsies- sent to Buchenwald concentration camp- few survived
• Asocials were all labelled with badges

Question 14

HOMOSEXUALS

Answer 14

• Outlawed before 1933 as most European countries- but liberal climate caused it to flourish in large cities
• May 1933- Nazi students attacked gay organisation Institute of Sex Research and burnt its library- collected list of names and addresses for future persecution
• 1934- Gestapo began compiling lists of gay people- also eliminated Röhm and other SA homosexuals
• 1935- law on homosexuality amended to widen definition and impose harsher penalties- over 22,000 arrested 1936-38
• 1936- Himmler created Reich Office for Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion
• Overall- 100,000 arrested, 50,000 convicted: even after serving sentences they were immediately rearrested and held in concentration camps
• Wore pink triangle- 60% of gays died in camps
• Many imprisoned subject to voluntary castration- those who would not abandon orientation sent to concentration camps
• Lesbians considered asocials rather than degenerates

Question 15

RELIGIOUS SECTS

Answer 15

• some christian sects had been established- Jehovah’s witnesses, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists
  > international links caused suspicion, most banned in November 1933- some lifted when they demonstrated willingness to cooperate with regime but Gestapo still spied on them
• Jehovah’s only group willing to show uncompromising hostility- refused to do salute, swear loyalty, participate in parades
  > saw prosecution as test of faith and became more resistant- many arrested and refused to obey orders: by 1945 10,000 had been arrested and many died- refused to break resistance and had converted some prisoners in camps
• Seventh-Day Adventists gave positive welcome to regime and described it as beginning of Germany’s rebirth- ban on sect removed in 2 weeks as it began displaying flag in churches, concluded service with Heil Hitler, removed Jewish language of Old Testament
  > removed “race enemies” from its welfare organisation
  > Other sects like mormons did the same

Question 16

GYPSIES

Answer 16

• 30,000 in Germany
• Legal discrimination before 1933- local authorities often harassed them; Nazis made persecution more systematic
• 1935- Nazi legal experts ruled Nuremberg Laws extended to Gypsies
• 1936- Reich Central Office for Fight against Gypsy Nuisance- Dr Ritter became scientific adviser on the process of locating and classifying Gypsies
  > specifically against part-Gypsies who were seen as a threat to racial purity
• December 1938- Decree for Struggle against Gypsy Plague led to more systematic classification
• 1939 after war- Gypsies deported to Poland