Minority Groups in Nazi Germany

Persecution of Minorities

• The Nazis believed in the superiority of the Aryan race.• Through their 12 years in power they persecuted

members of other races, and many minority groups such as gypsies, homosexuals and mentally handicapped people

• They persecuted any group that they thought 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• Gypsies were thought to be an inferior people

Why the Jews?

• Anti-Semitism means hatred of Jews. • Examples of this hatred can be traced back to ancient and

medieval times• One reason for this persecution was religious, in that

Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ.• Also Jews tended to be well educated and therefore held

well-paid professional jobs or ran successful stores and businesses

Why the Jews?

• There are examples of anti-Jewish sentiment in German politics since the 1800s• 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

• Anti-Semitic conspiracies continued in Germany during and after World War One• Regularly blamed for sabotaging the war effort• Scapegoatism flourished during the desperate 1920s

Why the Jews?

• Hitler hated the Jews insanely.• In his years of poverty in Vienna, he became obsessed by

the fact that Jews ran many of the most successful businesses, particularly the large department stores.• This offended his idea of superiority of Aryans

• Hitler also blamed Jewish businessmen and bankers for Germany’s defeat in the First World War. • He thought they had forced the surrender of the German

army‘To read the pages [of Hitler’s Mein Kampf] is to enter a world peopled by hideous and distorted shadows. The Jew is no longer a human being, he has become a mystical figure, a grimacing leering devil invested with infernal powers, the incarnation of evil.’

Attacks on the rights of Jews (1933-1939)

This was a gradual process with the aim of removing all Jewish rights. For the first two years of Nazi rule there was little organised persecution of the Jews. Hitler was

setting up his dictatorship and using anti-Jewish propaganda to turn Germans in favour of his policies

Attacks on the rights of the Jews (1933-1939)

1933• Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses• A new law excluded Jews from government jobs• Thousands of Jewish civil servants, lawyers and university teachers were

sacked

1934• Anti-Jewish propaganda increased• Local councils banned Jews from public spaces such as parks, playing fields

and swimming pools

1935• Nazi party began to step up their campaign• Jews were forbidden to join the army• Nuremberg Laws were introduced on 15th September 1935

Nuremberg Laws

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour was one of the so-called ‘Nuremburg

Laws’, passed by the Nazis in September 1935.

Nuremberg Laws

Thoroughly convinced by the knowledge that the purity of German blood is essential for the further existence of the German people and animated

by the inflexible will to safe-guard the German nation for the entire future, the Reichstag has resolved upon the following law unanimously,

which is promulgated herewith:

Section I

Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they are concluded abroad.

Section II

Relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden

Nuremberg Laws

Section III

Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred blood in their households

Section IV

1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the colours of the Reich

2. On the other hand they are permitted to present the Jewish colours. The exercise of this authority is protected by the State.

Section V

3. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 1 will be punished with hard labour

4. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 2 will be punished with imprisonment and hard labour

5. A person who acts contrary to the provision of section 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine or with one of this penalties

Attacks on the rights of Jews (1933-1939)

1936• 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

1937• For the first time in two years Hitler made an outspoken

attack on the Jews• The Aryanisation of business was stepped up. More Jewish

businesses were taken over

Attacks on the rights of Jews (1933-1939)

1938• There was a serious increase in anti-Jewish policies:• Jews had to register their property, making it easier to

confiscate• Jewish doctors, dentists and lawyers were forbidden to treat

Aryans• Jewish children were excluded from German school and

universities • Jews with non-Jewish first names had to add and use the name

‘Israel’ for males or ‘Sarah’ for female• Jews had to have a red letter ‘J’ stamped on their passports

Attacks on the rights of Jews (1933-1939)

1939• Jews were no longer allowed to run shops or businesses • Jews were forbidden to own radio or to buy cakes and

chocolates

Kristallnacht

• Also known as ‘The Night of Broken Glass’• In November 1938, a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris• The Nazi’s used this as an excuse to launch a 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• The Nazi-controlled press presented Kristallnacht as the

spontaneous reaction of ordinary Germans against the Jews.