Aspects Of Life In Germany And West Germany Nazis Flashcards
What did a ‘racially pure’ Germany mean and how was this enforced?
- A Germany of Aryan Germans only
- Getting rid of elderly and disabled, even if they were pure-blood
- Violent persecution
- Laws to control breeding
What programme was started on what day and what did this consist of?
- 1 Jan 1934 –> Compulsory sterilisation programme
- Doctors and hospitals had to report those they saw as ‘unfit’ to breed to a Hereditary Health Court, which were set up all over Germany
Who was sterilisation initially aimed at, but who did it later extend to?
- Hereditary defects
Later included: - Jews
- Gypsies (Roma and Sinti)
- Criminals
- Black and mixed race people
How was the law widened and when did this happen?
- Jun 1935
- Allowed abortion of unfit people
Give examples to show how open sterilisation was:
- Publicised in press
- Taught at schools, using books and films
Give stats for sterilisation between 1934 and 1945:
- Between 1934 and 1945 –> About 400,000
- At least 5000 died from procedure, most of them women
- Unknown how many died after leaving clinics
What is sterilisation?
Making them infertile
In what two ways did the Nazis begin to separate Jews from the community?
- Legal separation –> Removing Jews from jobs + separating them from non-Jews in public spaces
- Bans and boycotts on Jewish shops and businesses –> imposed w/ escalating violence
When was the first national boycott, how did the SA enforce this, how successful was it and how did these boycotts escalate?
- 1 Apr 1933
- Stood outside roughly urging people not to enter
- Didn’t stop people from using shops and businesses
- Violence used escalated
What changes were made in 1933 that restricted Jews even further?
- Apr 1933 –> Series of laws restricting number of Jewish uni students, banning Jews from athletic and sporting grps & stopped people w/ Jewish names from sending telegrams
How many Gypsies, elderly, mentally ill and disabled people were killed in Holocaust?
- 200,000 Gypsies
- 200,000 elderly, mentally ill and disabled
What were the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935?
Laws to exclude Jews from many areas of life
Which types of people counted as Jewish?
Anyone w/ 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents
Give examples of how the Jews were excluded by organisations even before the exclusion laws:
- Regional Govs had their own anti-Semitic laws
- Yellow star on Jewish-owned shops which encouraged random violence
- Propaganda urged separation of everything to prevent contamination eg. park benches, restaurants
What was one of the first large-scale organised acts of violence against Jews and their synagogues?
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht:
- Night of Broken Glass
- 9 Nov 1938
- Nazis organised attacks
- Over 260 synagogues burned + Jewish-owned homes and shops looted
- Over 20,000 Jews arrested and taken to concentration camps
- Taxed 1 bill Reichsmark for repairs that were never carried out
Between 1933 and 1939, what was the standard of living like?
- Sharply divided between pure Germans and the ‘undesirables’
Besides ethnic minorities, who else was seen as ‘undesirable’?
- Disabled
- Asocial families eg failure to pay rent, alcoholics
What did doctors, nurses and midwives have to do and when were they told this?
- 18 Aug 1939 –> All doctors, nurses + midwives had to report any babies under 3 showing physical/mental disability
What happened in Oct 1939?
- Oct 1939 –> Nazis mounted T4 campaign to get rid of disabled children up to 17
- Parents given chance to send them to specialist clinic, where they were killed
Later on, T4 was extended. To whom and when did this happen?
Jan 1940 onwards –> Extended to other hospitals and institutions for old, chronically sick and mentally ill
Overall how many died under T4 programme?
Over 70,000
What happened to asocial families and what did this include?
- Sent for around a yr to be re-educated at Hashude
- Included lectures and classes, living to schedule, visists at any time by officials
What percentage of population were the working class in 1933?
46%
What were the positives in terms of living standards for an ordinary worker when Nazis first came to power and how did this change?
Positives:
- Unemployment dropped
- Real wages rose
However:
- Wages regulated so little spending money as industry focused on arms rather than consumables
- Pay still did not reach pre-Depression levels between 1933 and 39
- Take home pay only increased because workers were putting in more hours
- They suffered due to destruction of TU movement
Why did Hitler want to curb the working class?
- Ensure rearmament runs smoothly w/ no disruption of strikes
- Independent organisations are the ones who ended Kaiser’s gov
Give some examples to show the drop in standard of living:
- Amount of milk, eggs, fish, tropical fruit and beer consumed fell between 1927 and 1937
- Avg working week rose from 43 to 47 hrs between 1933 and 1939
- Avg hourly wages were 3% lower in 1933 compared to 1932
- Avg hourly wages were 2% lower in 1939 compared to 1932
What did the Strength Through Joy (Kdf) programme provide the ordinary worker?
Subsidised:
- Sport training, gym classes, sailing lessons
- Theatre and opera tickets
- Hiking trips, weekend breaks and package holidays
- Set up art exhibitions
- Loans
By 1937 what was the Kdf’s budget and how many short holidays did it subsidise?
- RM29 mil
- Subsidised more than 1.7 mil
What were the negatives of Kdf holidays and entertainment?
- Basic facilities w/ no privacy and poor sanitation
- Little choice in entertainment
What social welfare programme was set up, when, what was its aim and what did it do?
- National Socialist People’s Welfare
- 1933
- Aimed to create a healthy nation rather than welfare
- Ran Mother and Child programmes, creches and kindergartens to influence childrens’ upbringing
- Responsible for housing
By 1939, how many voluntary workers did NSV have and block wardens who were responsible for how many households?
- Over a mil voluntary workers
- About 500,000 block wardens each reponsible for 30 - 60 households depending on the area
What did NSV run yearly and what did it do?
- Winter Relief Campaign
- Distributed food and clothing
- Ran soup kitchens at emergency centres
On the following day after Hitler encouraged donation on its launch, how much money had been donated? However, what was the implication of this?
- RM2 mil
- People were essentially forced to s block wardens would come dressed in SA uniform asking for donations
- Some factories took ‘voluntary’ donation from wages
What was the People’s Car Scheme, how could you sign up to it, what was the main purpose and how was this flawed?
- Scheme set up by DAF where workers saved money in a state-run bank account to buy a car
- Subscribe to 5 marks a week
- Purpose: Reduce danger of inflation by boosting savings and cutting domestic expenditure
- No-one received their cars or their money back as factories had been converted to war production
How many people entered the scheme and how much money was given to the bank as a result?
- 270,000 entered
- RM110 mil given
In 1938 what did the DAF organise and how many workers attended it?
- Vocational training courses
- Ordensburg Nazi Party training schools
- 2.5 mil workers
What slogan did the Nazis adopt and what were they against?
- Kinder, Küche, Kirche
- Against church membership
What did the Nazis believe the role of women was?
- Bear next gen of Aryan race
- Nurture children
- Responsible consumers –> women did 80% of domestic shopping
- No political role
- Sexually attractive w/ natural look
What was the Nazi organisation for women, when was it established, why, what was the wider movement of this and what did it do?
- NSF (National Socialist Womanhood)
- 1931
- Attract female support
- Movement: German Women’s Enterprise
- Organised activities for non-party members
What was provided for families with children, what were they granted and how did they select those who were suitable for it?
- Help w/ school frees and transport fares
- RM100 for each child
- Through an interview
BDM:
- League of German Girls
- Older female Nazi youth grp
How did the Nazis encourage women to have children?
Implemented laws
What law was introduced on in 1931, when was this amended and what changed?
- 31 Dec 1931 –> SS Marriage Order
- Members of SS can only marry Aryan women
- Amended in 1936 –> All SS men must have at least 4 children
What laws were introduced in Jun 1933 (w/dates)?
- 1 Jun –> Law to Reduce Unemployment
- 30 Jun: All married women in civil service w/ wage-earning husbands to be dismissed. Lower wages for the rest of the women
- 14 Jul: Law for the Prevention of Offspring w/ Hereditary Diseases
What was the Law to Reduce Unemployment?
- Interest-free marriage loan of RM600 to Aryan couples if woman gives up job + is fit to have children
- Loan reduced by a quarter for every child (loan cleared after 4)
What was the Law for the Prevention of Offspring w/ Hereditary Diseases?
Can sterilise those with:
- Mental/physical disabilities
- Women w/ many partners/illegitimate children
- Male/female alcoholics
What is the Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health of the German People?
- Fitness-to-marry certificate
- Proves neither couple is racially impure
What was the Blood Protection Law?
Forbade marriage between Germans and Jews (as well as black ppl + gypsies)
What was introduced in the years 1936, 37 and 38?
- 1936 –> Women excluded from working in the law, expect administrative posts
- 1936 –> Lebensborn programme
1937 –> Women can work and also be awarded marriage loan due to increasing war production - 1938 –> Marriage Law extends grounds for divorce to infertility, abortion and refusal to have baby
What was the Lebensborn programme, who ran it, how many clinics were there in GER and AUS and what support did it provide?
- Selected members (usually SS) mated w/ as many diff racially pure young women as possible (usually from BDM)
- Ran by special branch of SS
- 13 Lebensborn clinics
- Free maternity care for unmarried women and mistresses of SS
How were the children born there treated and what happened to them?
- Had its own hospitals, clinics and homes for these children
- Adopted by fit Germans who g had trouble conceiving