Nazi Policies towards Minorities

Learning Intention:1. We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups

in Nazi Germany2. We will be able to understand the how the Holocaust was actually able

to happen. 3. How Jewish people were affected socially, politically and economically

VolksgemeinschaftLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Volksgemeinschaft was an idea stressed by the Nazi Party. This idea meant a people’s community of healthy, vigorous Aryans working for the good of the nation.

This concept was reinforced by its opposite: outsiders who did not belong and who had to be excluded from the people’s community. These outsiders were classified on three main grounds:

• Ideological: those threatening the political unity of the nation, such as Communists

• Biological: those whose genes posed a threat to a healthy, pure German race, such as Jews and people with hereditary illnesses

• Social: those whose behaviour conflicted with the norms of the national community, such as the workshy. (Some Nazis would include some of these in the second category, arguing that such behaviour was genetically determined.

Who were the undesirables in Nazi Germany?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

The Undesirables – The mentally ill

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

For the Nazi’s race, not class, was the key to history. A healthy, pure race would gain mastery in the struggle for survival in the world. Unhealthy genes weakened the race. The mentally ill were ‘burdens on the community’, ‘life without life, worthless life’ and ‘unworthy of life’

• One of the first laws allowed for the compulsory sterilisation of the mentally ill. (1933)

• In the next 12 years – 350,000 people were sterilised, with 100 deaths

• By 1939 this evolved to murder – ‘mercy killings’ or euthanasia

(ii) Anyone is hereditarily ill within the meaning o this law who suffers from one of the following illnesses:a) Congenital [hereditary]

feeblemindednessb) Schizophreniac) Manic depressiond) Hereditary epilepsye) Huntington’s choreaf) Hereditary blindnessg) Hereditary deafnessh) Serious physical deformities(iii) In addition, anyone who suffers from chronic alcoholism can be sterilised

The Undesirables – Homosexuals

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Nazi motives:

‘There are homosexuals who take the view: what I do is my business. However, all things which take place in the sexual sphere are not the private affair of the individual, but signify the life and death of the nation…The people which has many children has the candidature for world power and world domination. A people of good race which has too few children has a one-way ticket to the grave.”

Heinrich Himmler – February 1937

Nazi actions:During the Nazi period, between 10 and 15 thousand homosexuals were imprisoned. They were then either castrated or subjected to medical experiments to ‘correct’ their sexuality

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Hitler hated the Jews. He considered them communists and war profiteers who had ‘stabbed Germany in the back’ at the end of World War One. So where did these ideas come from?

Became very poor and so attracted to

communism, which scared the wealthy

Became very rich by setting themselves up as moneylenders (a profession closed to

Christians) so they were hated by the poor.

or

Politically – denied basic rights in many Christian

countries.

Economically – excluded from professions.

As a result, they either:

Jews were historically blamed for killing Christ, so they were:

What did Hitler have to say about the Jews?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

“The Jews inhabited Hitler’s mind. He believed that they were the source of al evil, misfortune and tragedy. They were devils whom he had been given a divine mission to destroy…”Lucy Dawiodowicz, 1975

“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]

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

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.

1933• Hitler orders 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

Attacks on the rights of Jews [1933 – 1939]

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

1935• Nazi party began to step up

their campaign• Jews were forbidden to join

the army• Nuremberg Laws were

introduced on 15th September 1935

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, teachers

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]

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

1938• There was a serious increase in

anti-Jewish policies:• Jews had to register their

property• Jewish doctors, dentists and

lawyers were forbidden to treat Aryans

• Jewish children were excluded from German schools 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

1939• Jews were no longer

allowed to run shops or businesses

• Jews were forbidden to own radio or to buy cakes and chocolates

KristallnactLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• 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.

The GhettosLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• The persecution developed in intensity after the outbreak of war in 1939.

• After defeating Poland in 1939, the Nazis set about ‘Germanising’ western Poland.

• This mean transporting Poles from their homes and replacing them with German settlers.

• Almost one in five Poles died in the fighting and as a result of 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 labour but the young, the old and the sick were simply left to die form hunger and disease.

Abraham Lewent – Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=1085

Prelude to the Final Solution

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR.

• The invasion was a success and the Nazis found themselves in control of 3 million Russian Jews

• This was in addition to the Jews in all the other countries that they had invaded

Mass MurderLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• German forces had orders to round up and shoot Communist Party activists and their Jewish supportes.

• The shooting was carried out by special SS units called Einsatzgruppen.

• By the autumn of 1941, mass shootings were taking place all over occupied eastern Europe.

• In Germany, all Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David on their clothing to mark them out.

Wannsee ConferenceLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

How was the Final Solution going to be organised?

Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war effort

Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes

The Jews living in these Ghettos were to be used as a cheap source of labour.

Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the hope of better conditions

On arrival the Jews would go through a process called ‘selection.’

The remaining Jews were to be shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the East.

Women, children, the old & the sick were to be sent for ‘special treatment.’

The young and fit would go through a process called ‘destruction through work.’

How did the Nazis decide who was Jewish?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• At the Wannsee conference it was decided that if one of a person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish.

• However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German.

The Final Solution – Phase 1

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Shooting: Einsatzgruppen• Himmler sent four specially trained SS units called

“Einsatzgruppen battalions” into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews

• Victims were told they were being relocated then taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and then shot one by one.

• When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwersHimmler sent four specially trained SS units called “Einsatzgruppen battalions” into German occupied territory and shot at least 1 million Jews

• Victims were told they were being relocated then taken to deserted areas where they were made to dig their own graves and then shot one by one.

• When the SS ran out of bullets they sometimes killed their victims using flame throwers

The Final Solution – Phase 1

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

The Final Solution – Phase 2

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Gas Vans• Again, Jews were rounded up

and told they were to be relocated in vans

• The vans were equipped so that the van’s exhaust was piped into the back of the van

Problems with Phases 1&2

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• The Nazis encountered several problems with the executions and gas vans

• First, they were both taking too much time• Second, resources such as gas and munitions were

becoming scarce• Third, soldiers involved were beginning to have

psychological problems with what they were doing.

The Final Solution – Phase 3

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• Nazi leaders decided to drastically speed up the Final Solution

• There were two different types of camps:• Concentration

Camps• Extermination

Camps• Jews from all over

occupied Europe were to be brought here.

The Final Solution – Phase 3

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

The work of the Einsatzgruppen

Location of Death Camps

The Final Solution – Phase 3

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Concentration CampsLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• 100 of these in Nazi-occupied Europe• Prisoners used for forced labour• Prisoners usually lasted less than half a year• Jews, communists, homosexuals, criminals, social-democrats,

artists, gypsies, blacks, religious fanatics• First camp was opened in 1933, right after Nazis came to power

Ravensbruck• Camp for women only• Run by German women who

were criminals• Prisoners worked on

remodelling furs• 50,000 killed• 14,000 rescued by Swedish

diplomat

Theresienstadt• Most humane camp• Well connected Jews and war

veterans• Jews married to Aryans could

pay to go to this camp• Red Cross inspected this

camp, good rating• Was a stop over on the way

to Auschwitz

Death CampsLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• Started out as ordinary concentration camps• Later modified with gassing installations for use of humans, became

‘Death Camps’• Two sub-groups:

• Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau• Operation Reinhard Camps and Chelmno

Auschwitz• Started operations in January

1940 (Poland)• Himmler chose Auschwitz as

the place for the Final Solution• Had 4 gas

chambers/crematories by 1943• Mass killings with Zyklon B gas• Commanded by Rudolph Hoess• Recorded 12,000 kills in one

day

Dr. Josef MengeleLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• Arrived in Auschwitz in May of 1943

• SS Doctor who had power of life & death

• Performed medical experiments on Jewish children

• Interested in studying why Germans were the ‘master race’. What is it inside them that elevates them?

Medical Experiments• Sterlisation of men and women• Endurance of pain to high and low temperatures and pressure• Experiments on twins to increase number of multiple births to Aryan

women• Injections of phenol to kill patients• Dr. Mengele attempted to sew children together to make Siamese twins

Tactics used by Nazis – get Jews to leave

Ghettos?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Tactics

Starvation

The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were only fed a 1000 calories a

day .

A human being needs 2400 calories a day to maintain

their weight

Terror

The SS publically shot people for smuggling food

or for any act of resistance

Deception

The Jews were told that they were

going to ‘resettlement

areas’ in the East.

In some Ghettos the Jews had to purchase their

own train tickets.

They were told to bring the tools of their

trade and pots and pans.

Hungry people are easier to

control

New arrivals at the Death camps

were given postcards to send to their friends.

SS Tactics: Dehumanisation

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• The SS guards who murdered the Jews were brainwashed with Anti-Semitic propaganda.

• The Jews were transported in cattle cars in terrible conditions.

• Naked, dirty and half starved people look like animals, which helped to reinforce the Nazi propaganda.

• The SS used to train their new guards by encouraging them to set fire to a pit full of live victims – usually children.

Tactics used by Nazis – new arrivals

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Deception & Selection

At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a

mock up of a normal station.

The Jews were helped off the

cattle trucks by Jews who were

specially selected to help the Nazis

At some death camps the Nazis

would play records of classical music to help calm down the

new arrivals.

At Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed

down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music.

All new arrivals went through a

process known as ‘selection.’

Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent straight to the

‘showers’ which were really the gas

chambers.

The able bodied were sent to work camp where they

were killed through a process known as

‘destruction through work.’

Entrance to AuschwitzLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

AuschwitzLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

Map of Auschwitz

New Arrivals

‘Destruction Through Work’

‘Showers’

The Gas ChambersLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• The Nazis would force large groups of prisoners into small cement rooms and drop canisters of Zyklon B, or prussic acid, in its crystal form through small holes in the roof

• The gas chambers were sometimes disguised as showers or bathing houses

• The SS would try and pack up to 2000 people into this chamber

Ruth Meyerowitz – Describes surviving a selection for the gas chambers -

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=2932

Destruction through WorkLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat off the

Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day

Destruction through WorkLI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

This is the same group of men six weeks later

Was the ‘Final Solution’ planned from the start?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

• Historians have intensely debated as to whether or not the ‘Final Solution’ was the result of a long-term plan of Hitler’s

• Internationalists believe the whole process was planned• Structuralist’s argue that there was no clear plan and that the policy of

mass murder evolved during the war years.• Part of the problem is the lack of evidence

• Hitler made speeches in which he talked about the annihilation of the Jews

• However he never signed any documents or made any direct orders relating to the extermination of the Jewish population.

• However historians ultimately agree that Hitler was responsible• They also point to others who bear some of the responsibility as well.• The holocaust would not have been possible without:

• The Civil Service bureaucracy – collected and stored information about Jews

• Police forces in Germany and occupied lands• The SS• The Wehrmacht (German armed forces)• Industry• The German People

Was the ‘Final Solution’ planned from the start?

LI: We will be able to describe how the Nazi party treated minority groups in Nazi Germany

“The extermination of the Jews is the most dreadful chapter in German history, doubly so because the men who did it closed their senses to the reality of what they were doing by taking pride in the technical efficiency of their actions and, at moments when their conscience threatened to break in, telling themselves that they were doing their duty…others took refuge in the enormity of the operation, which lend it a convenient depersonalisation. When they ordered a hundred Jews to get on a train in Paris or Amsterdam, they considered their job accomplished and carefully closed their minds to the thought that eventually those passengers would arrive in front of the ovens of Teblinka.”

American Historian, Gordon Craig, 1978