3. Nazi racial policy; anti-Semitism: policy and practice to 1939

Question 1

what does the anti-semitism concept mean?

Answer 1

Jewish race was inferior, in every respect, to the Aryan race.

Question 2

who were Aryans?

Answer 2

blue-eyed and blond-haired, to fit with a cultural and biological superiority that could be traced back to the Teutonic Knights

Question 3

what debate exists?

Answer 3

whether it was a long term goal of the Nazis

Question 4

what do Intentionalists historians say?

Answer 4

argue that it was Hitler’s long-term aim all along to wipe out Jewish race.

Question 5

evidence from intentionalist historians?

Answer 5

*early Nazi propaganda and Mein Kampf, right from start regime targeted Jews

Question 6

what do structuralist say?

Answer 6

that fate of the Jews was due to the steady radicalization of the regime. It was regime’s structure that led to holocaust, not pursuit of longtermgoal.

Question 7

evidence from structuralist?

Answer 7

*lack of specific direction given by Hitler to policy-making, ‘working towards the fuhrer.

Question 8

What were Jews blamed for during depression?

Answer 8

blamed for inspiring a ‘Jewish international conscipracy’ against Germany and indirectly became responsible for the ‘stab in the back’

Question 9

What did Hitler demonstrate in Mein Kampf?

Answer 9

a virulent hatred of the Jews due to his down and out days in Vienna, which shaped his anti-Semitic policies

Question 10

Hitler’s anti-Semitism led to?

Answer 10

led to Holocaust and murder of 6 million Jews across Europe

Question 11

why were anti-Jewish laws introduced?

Answer 11

to humiliate Jews, who were banned from public places, forced to resign from certain professions and thrown out of many schools and unis

Question 12

what was introduced in 1935?

Answer 12

Nuremburg Laws introduced and Jews could no longer be German citizens. Sex and marriage between Jews and Non-Jews made illegal

Question 13

what were these new laws called?

Answer 13

Reich Citizenship Act

the Blood Protection Act

Question 14

Cause of Crystal Night (Kristallnacht) or The Night of the Broken Glass?

Answer 14

7 Nov 1938, German diplomat Ernst von Rath was killed by Jew in Paris

Question 15

What did Hitler do on hearing news of murder of german diplomat?

Answer 15

, Hitler encouraged ‘spontaneious’ anti-Jewish attacks in Germay

Question 16

what happened with Crystal Night?

Answer 16

Jews were attacked, synagogues burnt, Jewish shopfronts smashed and Jewish homes torched

Question 17

why was Jewish property taken by Nazis and redistributed to German citizens ?

Answer 17

punishment for ‘causing’ the damage during Kristallnacht

Question 18

What does S H Roberts say about Germans reaction to such anti-Semitic activities?

Answer 18

“…I expected many to argue that it was an unwelcome necessity, forced upon them by propaganda or by pressure of events, but this was not the case…I met nobody in Germany who adopted an apologetic attitude”