chapter eighteen Flashcards
between 1933 and 1939 the nazi regime began an intensive campaign of persecution and
legal discrimination agsint jews in germany
during this period hitler and the nazi leadership set about a scheme
of anti semetic legislation
at the same time a relentless propaganda campaign was launched to ‘ educate ‘ the German people about the
need to purge jewish infuelnces from German society
on the 1st April 1933 , the nazi regime imposed a boycott of jewish shops and business , hitler claimed this action was justified retaliation against
jews in Germany and abroad who had called for a boycott of German goods
Goebbels organised an intensive propaganda campaign to
maximise the impact of the boycott , which was carried out by gangs of brown shirt SA men
the SA marked out which places of business were to be
targeted and stood meaningfully outside to intimidate who would be customers
shops were the main target of the boycott but it also applied dto
jewish professionals such as doctors and lawyers
court proceedings involving jewish lawyers and judgers were
disrupted in berlin , Breslau and elsewhere
many jewish lawyers were attacked in the street and had their
legal robes stopped from them , jewish doctors , school teachers and university lecturers were also subjected to similar treatment
the boycott made a big public impact t and featured prominently in news coverage both in
Germany and foreign countries but it was not an unqualified success
it was unclear in many cases what was a
‘jewish business ‘ and what wast
many business were half jewish / half German in ownership and many others were
controlled by foreign creditor or German banks
a number of German citizens deifnelty used Jewish shops to show their
disapproval of the nazi regime
the boycott was banned after one day although it was meant to last
indefienetly
at the time , the boycott seemed to show the unleashing of nazi violence by an
aggressive new dictatorship flaunting its power just a week after the enabling act
the real situation was rather diffrent , hitler was not at all enthausatic about a rveoloution from below bringing chaos in Germany . he was anxious to keep the
SA under control and he was concerned about adverse reactions from his conservative allies in gemrnay or from foreign public opinion
it is possible that hitler only ever intended the boycott to be a brief affair , from his perspective
hitler allowed the boycott to ho ahead only as a limited grudging concession to radical activists
hitlers main aim was to avoid instability while he carried out a legal revolution , however hitler was willing to allow
a considerable degree of nazi intimidation
- it was useful to him as an expression of ‘ spontaneous public anger ‘ that only his new gov could satisfy
for hitler anti semitic violence was a two edged sword , just enough and the nazis could claim that only they could maintain order in an unstable germany , and too much and
Hitlers position might be threatened by the conservative elites on whom he still depended
