4.17 The Radicalistion Of The State Flashcards
What was phase 1 for the Nazi regime?
Legal revolution 1933-34. Hitler has come to power dependent on political allies. He could not completely prevent the SA violence but controlled it as much as he could. He consolidated his power by legal means
What was phase 2 for the Nazi regime?
Creating a new Germany 1934-37
By August 1934 the Nazi regime was secure but Hitler still cared about public opinion at home and abroad, e.g the Olympic Games in Berlin 1936. Before the games the Nazi anti-Semitism was put under wraps whilst Nazi propaganda projected the image of a civilised German society.
Between 1934 and 1937 Hitler avoided confronting powerful groups such as the army or churches
What was phase 3 for the Nazi regime?
Radicalisation of the state 1938-39
By the end of 1937 the economy has recovered, SS completely controlled the police and Hitler felt Germany was ready for war
What is the social Darwinism race theory?
Adapted Darwin’s scientific principles of natural selection to unscientific theories about human society to justify ideas of racial superiority and Eugenics
Describe Hitler’s hierarchy of races?
Jews, blacks and slavs were inferior
Aryan people of Northern Europe was the master race
Volksgemeinschaft def
People’s community
What is needed for people to qualify as part of the volk
Have to be German and have ‘German features
(Reserved for Aryans only)’
Who were excluded for the Volksgemeinschaft
Political enemies
Asocials (didn’t fit norms imposed by Nazis)
Racial enemies(those of a different race and with hereditary defects such as disease and disabilities
What is Lebensraum
Living space for the expanding population of the Aryan race in Germany
Widespread support for the idea in Germany as the country was already over populated and the industrious farmers needed more land (people viewed Germany as doing this through expansion to the East)
Lebensraum would bring lost Germans back into the Reich
What is Eugenics?
Unscientific racist idea that mental and physical characteristics of human race can be improved by choosing who had children
Promotes selective breeding for ‘desirable characteristics’
What is the law for prevention of hereditary diseases?
Introduced compulsory sterilisation for certain categories of ‘inferiors’
(Later amendments permitted sterilisation or kids over 10 years and the use of force to carry it out after 14 years with no right to legal representation)
Where was the decisions on sterilisation made?
Hereditary health courts
How many people were sterilised during the 3rd Reich
400,000
When was Euthenasia authorised?
October 1939
How were children killed in the euthanasia program?
Sent to special hospitals to be starved to death or given lethal injections (parents assured their child had died in spite of receiving the best treatment (killed more 500 kids)
What was the euthanasia program called?
T4 program
The end of the T4 programme?
Rome declared it was against the positive law of God in December 1940
Was halted in August 1941
Who are asocials?
Covered a wide range of people deemed as social outcast
What was the policies against asocials?
September 1933: round up of tramps and beggars many of whom were homeless(differentiate with ‘orderly’ and ‘disorderly’ homeless
Orderly forced to work for accommodation
Disorderly sent to concentration camps
1936 before Olympic Games held in Berlin, police rounded up large number of ‘tramps and beggars’ from the streets of the capital in order to project an image of hard-working and dynamic society to the world
1936 an asocial colony was set up in northern Germany -aim of colony was to re-educate the asocials to be integrated into society
-1938 here was an even bigger round-up of ‘beggars, tramps and gyosies’-send to Buchenwald concentration camp
When the Nazis began of homosexual organisations and literature?
1933
Nazi policies against homosexuals?
-May 1933 attacked institute of Sex Research a gay organisation and burned its library
1934- the gestapo began to compile list of gay people (in the same year SS eliminated Röhm and other leaders of the Nazi SA who were homosexuals
Law on homosexuality amended in 1935, definition changed with harsher penalties (22,000 men arrested and imprisoned 1936-38)
-1936 Reich office for combatting homosexuality and abortion
What were the effects of the Nazi anti homosexuality laws?
100,00 men arrested for homosexuality (50k convicted)
Gay men who did not abandon sexual orientation sent to concentration camps 60% died
Polices to religious sects: November 1933
Jehovah’s Witness, Christian scientist, Mormons , Seventh-Day Adventist with members of the new apostolic church
Who were the only religious group to show uncompromising hostility to the Nazi state?
Jehovah’s Witness 30,000
Refused to give Hitler a salute regarded persecution as a test of their faith
By 1945 10,000 in prison with many dead
How many gypsies were in Germany
30,000
What did Nazi legal experts decide in 1935?
Numbermburg laws applied to Gypsies
What did Nazis do about Gypsies in 1936
Ss set up a new Reich central office for the fight against Gypse nuisance
What did Himmler issue in December 1938
Decree for the struggle against the Gypse plague which led to more systematic classifications of gypsies
Gypsies were deported to Poland after war broke out
3 phases in development of the Nazi regime?
- Legal revolution 1933-34
- Creation of new Germany 1934-37
- Radicalisation of the state 1938-39
What is social Darwinism?
Adapted Dawins scientific principles of natural selection to unscientific theories to justify racial superiority and the theory of Eugenics
Volksgemeinschaft def
People’s community
Who was excluded from the volksgemeinschaft
-political enemies
-asocials
-radical enemies (different race + hereditary defects)
What is Lebensraum
Living space
What is eugenics?
Unscientific racist idea that the mental and physical characteristics of human race could be improved by controlling who has kids
What was the law for the prevention of hereditary diseases and when was it produced
July 1933
Compulsory sterilisation for “inferiors”
Decisions about it made at Hereditary health courts
During the course of the third Reich 400,000 were sterilised
When was Euthenasia authorised for those with mental health problems?
October 1939
What was the T4 programme?
October 1939 rapidly expanded and moved to new larger quarters in Berlin (Euthenasia programme)
What caused the end of the T4 programme?
Rumours had spread by 1941- protests from churches
Pope denounces what the Nazis are doing-Hitler holds the programme after being alarmed by the hostile public reaction
Who are asocials?
People Nazism deemed as social outcasts
What were the Nazi policies against the asocials?
Sep 1933: mass round up of tramps and beggars(300k-500k beggars)-not enough space in concentration camps so separated into disorderly and orderly
Orderly forced to work
Disorderly sent to camps
1936: before Olympic Games police round up beggars and tramps from streets to project themselves as a hardworking society
1936: asocial colony sent up known as Hashude in northern Germany-re-educate asocials so they could be integrated into society
1938: even larger round up of beggars and gypsies-sent to Buchenwld concentration camp-few survived
When did the Nazi purge against homosexuality begin?
1933
Describe in detail the persecution of homosexuals?
1934: gestapo compile lists of gays
1935: law on homosexuality ammended to widen definition and impose harsher punishment for conventions. Law changes over 22,000 arrested and imprisoned 1936-38
1936: Himler creates Reich office for combatting of homosexuality and abortion
Gays who did not give up sexual orientation sent to camps
Overall 100,000 arrested 50,000 convicted
Who were the only group to show uncompromising hostility to Nazis
Jehovah’s witnesses-they could only obey God(not Nazis)
30,000 in Germany
33% arrested by 1945
Legislation against gypsies?
Decided 1935 Nuremberg laws apply to them
1938 decree for struggle against the gypsies plague
