Life for Jews and other

minorities in Nazi
Germany
1933-39
What do you need to know?
1. The persecution of minorities:
 Nazi racial ideas and policies
 the treatment of minorities: gypsies, homosexuals and those with disabilities

2. Nazi persecution of the Jewish community:

 the boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
 the Nuremberg Laws
 Kristallnacht
 the impact of Nazi actions and policies on the lives of the Jewish community by 1939
 the effectiveness of Nazi actions and policies by 1939
Race in the 20 Century. th

 Many doctors and scientists taught that some races were superior to
others.

 This type of thinking trickled down and formed a partially accepted

opinion in some sections of German society even before the Nazis.

 From this backdrop Nazi racial policies became a generally accepted

German belief.
  The Nazis believed in racial superiority of the

Nazi
master race or Aryan race and they wanted to
strive to achieve a racially pure Germany.

racial  Hitler believed that the Germans were distinct

and superior to all other races.

ideas  Those who were not of Nazi blood were

and considered to be Untermenschen (sub-human).

English, Danes and French = not so bad (some

policies Germanic blood)

Africans and Asians = Nazis believed to have come

 from union between Eve and a demon.

Slavs = Nazis believed they were only fit to be slaves

Who were the ‘master race’?
 Tests were developed to decide who were
ideal Aryans.

 They included matching hair colours and

measuring the dimensions of the face. They
were also socially useful and not work shy.

 The Nazis believed prevent what they saw

as pollution of the perfect German through
‘eugenics’ (Nazi Eugenics).
Others forms of preventing racial
‘pollution’…
 Mothers were encouraged to have as many children as possible.
 Those who were deemed unfit to have children were sterilised.
 The Nazis enacted policies to prevent opponents from
reproducing.
 Eventually opponents were sent to concentration camps,
treated harshly and often murdered.
Ernst Rudin –psychiatrist.

Post WW2 he was referred to as…. ‘one

of the most evil men in Germany’.

He was a champion of keeping the

German race ‘pure’.

Rudin wrote the Law for Prevention of

Hereditarily diseased offspring (July
1933)
1. The persecution of
minorities…
 By 1939 many
minorities were send to
concentration camps
where they became
prisoners.

The prisoners were

forced to wear a
coloured triangle
representing their
crime.
Asocial Germans
• Asocial Germans included the “work shy”,
beggars, alcoholics, pacifists and prostitutes.

• In 1933 the Nazis organised a ‘Beggars

Week’ to round up many ‘asocials’.

• Many Asocial Germans were sent to

concentration camps where they were
brutally treated and died from starvation,
disease, gassing, hanging, torture or
execution.
Mentally and physically disabled
• Included people who were deaf or blind.
• Killed mentally disabled babies and mentally ill patients under
the Diseased Offspring Law of 1933.
• 100,000s were also sterilised under the Nazi eugenics
programme.
• After 1935 doctors could terminate a pregnancy of a disabled
person.
• Genetic Health Courts - Over 350,000 women had been sterilised
by 1939.
• Between 1939-41 a programme of euthanasia was carried out.
 Cleansing
Hartheim Castle was turned into an
‘asylum’ where disabled children
were murdered by gas or lethal
injection.

Smoke could be seen from the

chimney of the Hadamar
Euthanasia Centre.
Mentally and physically disabled

• In concentration camps disabled

people wore a black triangle with Blod
Blod (Stupid).
• Nearly 72000 mentally ill patients
were killed during WW2 with
300,000 sterilised from 1934-45.
Gypsies (Roma Community)
• The Nazis thought “Gypsies” were as a
danger as the Jews.
• Persecution against Gypsies started in
1936 when they were rounded up and
sent to Concentration Camps.
• By 1938, Himmler was looking for a
solution to the “Gypsy Question”.
• Roughly 233,000 Roma people were
killed in Europe.
 There was an
organised
persecution by the
SS and the Roma
holocaust is known
as the Porajmos
(cutting up).
Homosexual men
• In 1933 the Hitler Youth attacked the
Institute for Sex Research, which
studied homosexuality.

• 100,000 homosexual men were

arrested with 15,000 sent to
concentration camps.

• Some were castrated; others were

experimented on to try to find a “cure.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses
• There were about 25,000 Jehovah’s
Witnesses in Germany.

• Their religion was banned and they were

placed in prison or put in mental institutions

• 2,000 were sent to concentration camps and

250 were executed.

• To be left alone, Jehovah Witnesses, unlike

the Jews had to denounce their religion.
Career Criminals
• Career criminals (or gangsters) were sent to
labour camps.

• Some were used by the SS to beat and bully

fellow inmates.

• Ordinary crimnals were sent to prison, where

conditions were brutal.

• During WW2 prisoners were required to

defuse unexploded bombs or executed when
prisons were overcrowded.
Political opponents
• Political opponents of the Nazis
were sent to very first
concentration camps from 1933
following the Reichstag fire.

• Brutal treatment included floggings,

“standing cells” and “pole hanging”.

• Many political prisoners were

studentts and intellectuals and
many died.
 TASK 1:

Using the
information on the
treatment of
minorities,
complete the table.

Find on WHS
Campus.
2. Nazi persecution of
the Jewish community
 Hitler publically hated
the Jews from the 1920s!
“To read the pages (of Hitler’s Mein Kampf) is to enter
a world of the insane, a world populated by hideous
and distorted shadows. The Jew is no longer a human
being, he has become a mythical figure, a grimacing
leering devil invested with infernal powers, the
incarnation of evil.”

A Bullock, A Study in Tyranny, 1990

What does this tell us about Hitler’s
views of Jewish people?
 Hitler outlining his aims for the Jews in 1922 (11
years before he came to power).

“As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after

gallows erected … Then the Jews will be hanged one after
another, and they will still be hanging until they stink.”
Why was Hitler anti-Semitic?
There are many theories.
-a Jewish master at Art College rejected Hitler and this may
have sparked hatred as he was a very keen artist.
- a Jewish doctor failed to save his sick mother
-his paternal family had Jewish connections
-he had to clear streets in Austria in the area populated by the
rich Jews of the city and hated the humiliation.

See video
Hitler publically blamed the Jews for:
- Defeat in 1918 and the humiliating Treaty of Versailles. Hitler had
fought in WW1 and was shocked when the war ended in German defeat
- Economic problems of Weimar as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and
the greed of the Jews who he felt took money away from the Germans.
- The fact that Jews represented less than 1% of the population but there
were over represented professionally. 10,000 Jewish doctors and 16% of
lawyers and 17% of bankers were Jewish led to resentment at them as a
community
- Weakening of the Aryan race
- Degeneration of German art, philosophy and entertainment
- He believed that Jewish businessmen were plotting to take over the world
- He believed that Communism was Jewish in its origins and the two were
closely linked and working together.
 Persecution of Jews,
1933-1939
Persecution of Jews began once Hitler
came to power and increasingly
escalated.

Hitler wanted to intimidate Germany’s

Jewish population and isolate German
Jews to prevent them having any
influence on society.
 Task 2:

Complete the
timeline
summarising the
persecution of the
Jews 1933-39.

OR THE ONE ON CAMPUS

March 1933 – The Enabling
Act
 Jews were sacked from the Civil
Service and banned from
joining the army.
 Jews were excluded from
Schools, Universities,
broadcasting and newspapers
 Some large firms such as
Krupps steelworks followed
suit and sacked Jews.
 April 1933 –
There was a one day
boycott of Jewish
businesses which
prevented Jews from
making money on that
day.

"Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity

propaganda, buy only at German shops!" and "Germans,
defend yourselves, buy only at German shops!"
 April 1933 –
Jews were banned
from Government jobs
and so prevented from
earning money. Jewish
teachers were sacked.
September 1933 -
Jews were banned
from owning
land/farms.
October 1933 –
Jews were
banned from key
media jobs.
 May 1935 –
Jews were
forbidden to
serve in the army
and so were
prevented from
earning money.
Summer 1935 –
Many towns and
villages put up
“Jews not wanted
here” signs in
public places,
parks, swimming
pools and cafes.
 September 1935 –
Nuremburg Laws. These
laws deprived Jews of
many political and
economic rights.

The Nazis would use the

Nuremburg Laws as the
legal basis for further
discrimination against the
Jews throughout the 1930s
and during WW2.
Nuremberg Laws
1. The Reich Citizenship Laws which included the following:
-Withdrawing their citizenship, meaning that they could not call themselves German. They were
instead ‘subjects’ and so no longer citizens.
-They became wards of the state.
-They lost their civil rights, including the right to vote.
-Other economic restrictions were also placed on the Jews e.g. jobs.

2. Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour which included the
following:
-Segregation and even forbidden from a variety of public places.
- Yellow star began to be displayed to identify Jewish establishments and would later be worn by
Jews themselves.
- It was illegal to marry outside their race or to engage in sexual relations outside their race.
- The penalty was death for breaking these laws or being used for slave labour or sent to
concentration camps
 August 1936 –
The persecution of
the Jews eased off
during the 1936
Olympic games,
which were held in
Berlin.

TEMPORARY!
 January 1937 –
Jews were banned
from key professions,
including teaching,
accountancy and
dentistry.
 April / June 1938 -
Jews had to register
their property,
making it easier for
the Nazis to take it off
them. Jews were not
allowed to own land
 July / August 1938 –
Jews had to carry
identity cards and
wear a Star of David on
their clothing in public
places.
September 1938 –
Jews were banned
from all legal
practices.
 October 1938 -
Jewish passports
were stamped with a
“J”. Jews were also
forced to use new
names – men were
to use “Israel” and
women “Sarah”
See BBC Video on Campus

November 1938 –
Kristallnacht – The night
of the broken glass.

This took place on 9th /

10th November
1938The murder of a
Nazi diplomat by a Jew
in Paris led to a
spontaneous wave of
terror against Jewish
premises.
Kristallnacht
 Jewish homes, shops (7500) and
Synagogues (400) were destroyed – 91
Jews were killed.
 30,000 were sent to concentration
camps. The Nazi fined the Jews 1 billion
marks for the damage caused on
Kristallnacht.
 Thousands emigrated – Albert Einstein
 Jews fined 1 Billion Marks to pay for the
damage [£20,000] and were forced to
clean up the street on their hands and
knees.
 The creation of the Office of Jewish
Emigration, more formally established in
1939 –

Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration

was established for the whole of Germany
and later Nazi occupied Europe. It was
headed by the SS and the plan was simply to
encourage as many Jews to leave Nazi
controlled Europe. However, once the Nazis
conquered eastern Europe there were
millions of Jews who would eventually be
sent to ghettos then death camps.
 November 1938 –
The remaining Jewish
businesses were
confiscated or closed
down. Jewish children
were not allowed to
attend German schools.
 January 1939 –
Jews were
encouraged to
emigrate from
Germany. Jews were
forbidden to own a
radio. Jews moved to
Ghettos.
 1939 on –
Millions of Jews
were sent to
concentration
camps. Many of them
were killed.
Ensure you know …
1. Boycott of Jewish businesses
2. Nuremberg Laws
3. Kristallnacht

They are in blue in the previous slides

 Task 3:
Categorise the events in your timeline (from task 2)
by colour coding and labeling them as one the
following forms of persecution;

 Economic
 Civic rights
 Exclusion
 Violence
 By 1939 the Nazi actions against the Jewish community had
a significant impact!
1. Jewish quality of life was damaged – the Jews were
The impact constrained, isolated and oppressed. Many Jews were all but
prisoners in their own homes.
of Nazi Example: Summer 1935 – Jews not wanted signs in many
actions and localities
policies on
the lives of 2. Jews were stripped of their rights.
Example: The Nuremberg Laws
the Jewish • Lost jobs.
community • Lost basic rights.
by 1939… • Lost their freedoms.
• Lost their Citizenship.

3. The Nazi persecution on Jews had a massive effect on

their self esteem. Many Jews fled Germany for their safety.
Example:
The scientist Albert Einstein fled Germany.
Impact continued.
Nazi policies and Source A: Account from the Diary of Ann Frank, a Dutch Jewish girl.
actions impacted
every facet of Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees:
Jews lives in Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in
Germany by
1939. their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use trams; Jews were forbidden
to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping
Over 400
separate between 3 and 5pm; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets
regulations between 8pm and 6am; Jews were forbidden to go to theatres, cinemas,
shaped life for use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or an athletic field;
German Jews. Jews could not sit in their garden or someone else’s after 8pm; Jews
were forbidden to visit Christians in their home.
Task 4: GCSE POD
Jews and minorities Worksheet – see campus.
 Jewish Resistance

The Jews did not simply go ‘as sheep to

slaughter’.
Task 5:
1. Armed resistance See
2. Emigration and hiding resistance
3. Non-violent resistance
worksheet.
4. Cooperation
5. Personal heroism and survival
 Effective Ineffective
The
Anti-Semitic propaganda A Jewish presence remained
effectivenes had stoked up support for in Germany
Nazi policy.
s of Nazi Not all young people
Ignorance or fear allowed conformed to the Nazis
actions and Nazi actions against the Jews educative endeavours.
to continue.
policies by Jewish resistance (see
The Nazis influence over previous slide)
1939… education was effectively
influencing attitudes
towards the Jews.
The Jewish
community’s role in
German life was
successfully strangled
by the economic, Task 6:
• Please read the table above. This table is not complete.
political and social
• Create this table in your notebook and add to it from
policies introduced by
the Nazis. your own knowledge of the topic.