Anti Semitism Flashcards
Why did Hitler hate Jews?
They killed Jesus
They were blamed for losing the war by causing the revolution at home.
They were blamed for the treaty of Versailles
They were closely linked to his enemy communism.
They were scapegoats
Many Germans felt they were disproportionately wealthy and were happy for them to be blamed for all of Germany’s economic crisis eg. some banks had been owned by Jews/ Wall Street crash
There was a tradition of anti semitism in Europe for 100s of years.
Personal hatred.
Support from the Germans due to propaganda, education, ignorance and fear ensured that the persecution of Jews was allowed to go ahead.
What happened to Jews on April 1933?
1 day boycott of Jewish Shops
Jews banned from government shops.
What concessions were given to to Jews on October 1933
Jews banned from media Jobs eg journalists
Race science lessons to teach that Jews were untermensch.
What was the enabling law?
When was it passed?
March 1933
Jews had to register their property, making it easier for Nazis to confiscate.
Jewish teachers were sacked.
Jewish doctors, dentists and lawyers were not allowed to treat or work for Aryans.
How many Jews left in 1934?
150,000, or 30% of German Jews left. 350,000 stayed, living with anti semitism was a way of life for them.
When were the Nuremberg laws passed?
What law was it passed under?
1934
Passed under the umbrella for the law for the protection of people and state.
Sept 1935, how did the Nuremberg laws affect the Jews? (6 things)
- Jews were deprived of political and economic rights.
They lost the right to vote or go to university - It was illegal for Jews and Aryans to marry each other or engage in sexual relations outside marriage. (For the protection of German blood and honour)
- A German citizen was defined as one who is pure of blood.
- Only citizens of the Reich enjoy full rights of citizenship
- Marriages between citizens and non citizens were forbidden.
- A Jew was defined as someone who had 3/4 Jewish Grandparents.
When were Jews banned from joining the army?
1935
When did persecution of Jews ease for a time?
Who became in charge of Jewish policy after and what did he do?
1936
Persecution of Jews eased during the 1936 Olympics which were held in Berlin.
Himmler was appointed Reich Fuhrer SS. He was now in charge of Jewish policy. Jews moved to towns and to Jewish quarters of towns. Jewish business confiscated.
What were Jews required to carry and include in their names?
When were these rules introduced?
1937
Jews had to carry identity cards and have their passports stamped with a J symbol. Jews were forced to use new names, Israel for men and Sarah for women. X
When was the night of the broken glass?
What happened?
November 1938
The murder of a Nazi diplomat by a Jew in Paris on Nov 7 was the excuse for a massive outbreak of Jewish persecution. It became known as the night of the broken glass. (KRISTALLNACHT). More than 400 synagogues and 7,500 shops were destroyed. 91 Jews were killed and over the following months 20,000 were sent to concentration camps. The Nazis also fined the Jews one billion marks for the damage caused on kristallnacht. They also had to go clean up the streets.
What concessions were given to Jews in 1938?
The remaining Jewish businesses were confiscated or closed down.
Jews could not be doctors
Jewish children were forbidden to go to school
They were also encouraged to emigrate from Germany.
Hitler spoke of future the annihilation of the Jews.
Soon they were forced to emigrate, and 1/4 million Jews (half their population) left Germany.
When did Germany invade Poland?
What concessions were given to Jews in this period?
1939
Jews were forbidden to own a business or radio. Jews were forced to live in ghettos.
3 million Jews were inherited by Germany after their invasion of Poland.
What were polish ghettos?
Nazi policies on Poland were brutal.
16,000 pols were executed in mass shootings.
In late 1939, the Nazi leadership considered using the area around Lublin as ‘Jewish reservation’. Adolf Eichmann was tasked with organising the first deportation of Jews.
Plans to resettle placed a great strain on food and transport - a number of ghettos were created in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin.
Jews were to be used for slave Labour.
From 1940 ghettos were sealed to prevent the spread of epidemics.
It was only a temporary measure, and more of a case of desperation than design. In the first two years of war half a million Jews died.
What is operation Barbarossa?
In late 1940, Hitler ordered his Generals to prepare the invasion of the Soviet Union.
It was seen as a racial War.
The mobile killing squads moved in behind advancing armies. These 4 ‘action units’ (A,B,C and D) would ’round up’ local Jews and murder them in mass shootings- it is estimated that they killed 0.7 million Jews in western Russia during the winter of 1941-42. The most infamous being Babi yar where 30,000 people were killed in a mass shooting in just 2 days.
Hitler saw the USSR as the centre of communist and Jewish power. He wanted this destroyed!
