development of anti-semetic policies; 1938-40 Flashcards
What was the long-term ambition of German nationalists that was achieved in March 1938?
The Anschluss (union) with Austria, but it had previously been banned under the Treaty of Versailles.
What was the reaction of the Austrian people after the Germans took over?
They welcomed it enthusiastically, and the takeover was achieved without a shot being fired.
What did the ‘bloodless victory’ of the Austria takeover encourage Hitler and the Nazis to do?
It emboldened them to pursue their ambitions in foreign policy and to adopt more radical racial policies in the Greater Germany they’d created.
What did Hitler do to Nazi groups in Austria after 1933?
Encouraged them to agitate for a union between Austria and Germany.
What did the Austrian government do in return to Nazi groups agitating them for a union?
They banned Nazi demonstrations and called a plebiscite in March 1938 to show that the majority of Austrians were opposed to union.
Why did the government of Austria resign?
It became clear that Britain, France and Italy would not intervene to support Austrian independence, they resigned and Hitler ordered a German invasion.
Who did Hitler target after his ‘bloodless victory’ in Austria?
Czechoslovakia, which included a large German minority in the area known as the Sudetenland.
How did Hitler risk war with Britain and France in September 1938?
He demanded for the Sudetenland to be handed over to Germany.
How did Hitler achieve another ‘bloodless victory’ over the Sudetenland?
Britain and France agreed to a German takeover, and then later in March 1939 he achieved another success in the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia.
When was the non-aggression pact signed? What was it known as?
August 1939, known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact mean?
That the USSR agreed not to oppose the German invasion of Poland.
When did Germany invade Poland and what did this lead to?
September 1st 1939, leading to a war between Germany and Britain and France just 2 days later.
What happened to those in the Nazi Party who had been urging caution by late 1937?
Schacht in economic policy, Blomberg and Fritsch in the military, were all swept aside and balance of power shifted towards more radical elements.
Why had Schacht argued strongly against radical anti-Semitism?
Because in the economic field he did not want to alienate foreign investors.
What war Goering determined to do in response to Schacht’s argument?
He had no care for foreign opinion and wanted to remove Jews from businesses as soon as possible.
What were Nazis in Austria allowed to do to Jews? What did this prompt Goering to do?
Act against them without any constraint. This prompted him to take more radical action in Germany itself.
What did the April 1938 Decree of Registration of Jewish Property do? What was this the starting point for?
Provided for the confiscation of all Jewish-owned property worth more than 5000 marks.
It was the start for the Aryanisation of Jewish property and businesses.
How many Jewish businesses had there been in April 1938, and how many were there a year later?
There had been 40,000 and a year later only 8000 had avoided being closed down or “aryanised”.
What jobs did further legislation ban Jews from doing?
Working as travelling salesmen, security guards, travel agents and estate agents.
What else did Jews lose rights to in 1938?
Entitlement to public welfare.
What did the increasing number of unemployed and poor Jews depend on?
Completely depended on charities set up by the Jewish community, such as the Central Institution for Jewish Economic Aid.
What did Jews have to do to their passports from October 1938?
Stamp them with a large ‘J’ to make them easily identifiable.
What law did the drive to make Jews easily identifiable and strip them of their individuality lead to?
One that meant Jews who were deemed to have non-Jewish names had to change them. Jewish women to Sarah and Jewish men to Israel.
When did the practice of making Jews wear a yellow star in public come into practice?
Not until 1941, Hitler had turned it down before then.
What does Reichkristallnacht stand for?
The Night of the Broken Glass.
When was the Reichkristallnacht?
9th-10th November 1938.
What happened on Reichkristallnacht?
Jewish homes and businesses were looted and vandalised, synagogues were set ablaze and thousands of Jews were arrested, beaten up and killed.
What can the Reichkristallnacht be described as?
An uncontrolled outpouring of anti-semetic feeling amongst radical elements of the Nazi movement, partly supported by German public opinion.
What propaganda did the Nazis put out about the Reichkristallnacht?
They announced that ‘the National Soul has boiled over’ meaning that this was what the people wanted.
Why were some people in the Nazi hierarchy worried about the Reichkristallnacht?
They were concerned about the violence running out of control.
What did Hitler give Hermann Goering in the days after the Reichkristallnacht?
A coordinating role to ‘sort things out’.
What other event did the Reichkristallnacht appear similar to?
The SA boycott in April 1933 which the regime had to rein in.
Who was the Reichkristallnacht actually orchestrated by in reality?
Nazi leadership with the majority of those involved having been SA and SS men who’d been instructed not to wear uniform.
Who was Ernst vom Rath and how did the Nazis use his murder to unleash the Reichkristallnacht?
He was a German official in Paris who’d been killed by a young Polish Jew angry at the treatment of his parents by the Nazi regime on 9th November. His murder was used as an excuse to unleash anti-Jewish terror.
Who was the chief instigator of the Reichkristallnacht?
Joseph Goebbels.
What instructions did Goebbels give to Nazi officials on the Reichkristallnacht?
To organise violence and vandalism in their regions but be careful to make it appear as if it had not been orchestrated by the Nazi Party.
Why did Goebbels pick the 9th November as the date for the Reichkristallnacht?
It was the fifteenth anniversary of the 1923 Munich Putsch and he’d hoped to please Hitler by marking this occasion with a spectacular event.
How many Jews were killed in the violence of the Reichkristallnacht?
91 with thousands injured.
How much did the damage of buildings on the Reichkristallnacht amount to?
Millions of marks.
What orders had the SS given to police on the Reichkristallnacht?
To not interfere against demonstrators and were ordered to place 20,000 to 30,000 Jews in ‘preventive’ detention.
What was the concern of fire brigades on the Reichkristallnacht?
They watched and did nothing to stop synagogues from burning to the ground, only concern being to stop fires from spreading to other buildings.
What was public reaction to the Reichkristallnacht?
It was not received with universal approval, some had joined in with SA men but many were horrified with the destruction.
What was the reaction of local people in Leipzig after the Reichkristallnacht?
There were reports of silent crowds as they took in the sight of the burnt-down synagogue and looted shops the morning after.
What did many people all over Germany understand about the violence of the Reichkristallnacht?
That it had been organised by the State and was not spontaneous.
What did Hermann Goering move quickly to do after the events of the Reichkristallnacht?
Prevent insurance companies from paying out compensation to Jewish victims.
What did the Decree for the Restoration of the Street Scene mean?
That Jews had to pick up the costs of repairs for their damaged Jewish businesses after the Reichkristallnacht.
What else did the Jews have to do in the aftermath of the Reichkristallnacht?
They were forced to make a 1 billion reichmark contribution as a community for the disruption they ‘caused’ to the economy.
How many Jews left Germany in 1933? Which cultural figure did this include?
- Included Albert Einstein.
How many Jews voluntarily left Germany between March 1933 and November 1938?
150,000.
What factors made it easier for some Jews to make the decision to leave Germany?
If they had transferable skills to other countries and if they had family members in another country.
Why did most German Jews wish to stay?
Many felt that they were thoroughly German, especially the older generation. They believed that Nazi persecution was just another example of surges in anti-Semitism that had come and gone.
Why was making the Reich ‘Jew free’ through emigration not straightforward?
Difficult to find foreign countries willing to accept large numbers of Jews as many had started to raise barriers to limit Jewish immigration
Why could Palestine only receive a limited number of Jews?
Because the British were worried about Arab hostility to mass Jewish immigration.
How were Nazi policies contradictory with their desire for Jews to emigrate?
They pressured them to emigrate but made it harder for them to do so by stripping their wealth.
When did many Jews realise that the situation had worsened for them and needed to find safe refuge?
After Reichkristallnacht, with many seeing the obvious dangers they were now facing by staying in Germany.
What did many Jewish parents do after Reichkristallnacht?
They were keen to get their children out of Germany and into safe countries.
How many Jewish children were sent to Britain between 1938-39?
Around 9000.
How many Jews in Austria had been forced to leave after Heydrich set up the Central Office for Jewish Emigration?
45,000 of the 180,000.
How was the forced emigration of poorer Jews funded?
Through illegal seizure of Jewish property.
What did Heydrich take charge of in January 1939?
The Reich Office for Jewish Emigration. He had the task of promoting Jewish emigration by every possible means.
What did the SD combine all Jewish organisations into? What was this modeled by?
A single ‘Reich Association of the Jews in Germany’.
Was modeled by methods used in Austria by SS emigration expert Adolf Eichmann in 1938.
What did German conquering of western Poland mean for the Jews?
That there was new territories in which they could be settled, as well as bringing many more Jews under Nazi control.
What had brought about the final radicalisation of Nazi race policies?
The breakout and continuation of war from September 1938 shaped race policies.
What did war provide the Nazis with which contributed towards radicalisation of race policies?
- National emergency that enabled them to act with more dictatorial power and in greater secrecy
- Propaganda machine to whip up patriotism and hatred of Germany’s enemies
- New territories to the Reich under the expanding bureaucratic power of the SS
- Way of the Germanisation of occupied territories in Poland and a ‘Jew-free’ Nazi empire
What three separate areas did the conquest of Poland carve into?
- Eastern Poland was occupied by the USSR, in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact
- Western parts of Poland, Upper Silesia, West Prussia and the Warthegau were incorporated into the German Reich
- Area in between was designated the ‘General Government’ of Poland under Nazi Govenor Hans Frank.
What was the Nazis plan with lebensraum in Poland?
By driving Poles and Jews out of west Prussia and Warthegau so that ‘empty’ lands could be completely ‘Germanised’ and ethnic Germans could live there.
How many Jews had come under Nazi control after their conquest of Poland?
1,901,000 out of the 3,115,000. (61%)
How were Polish Jews different to the Jews in Germany?
They were more Orthodox and poor, their appearance fitting the Nazi stereotype of racially inferior people.
Why did the Jews in Poland cause problems for the Nazis after the German takeover?
Because there were so many it posed strategic problems for the Nazis.
How did the Nazis intend to use the General Government district?
As a dumping ground for Poles and Jews displaced from the areas that were to be colonised by the ethnic Germans.
What did Hitler inform Alfred Rosenberg at the end of September 1939?
That all Jews including those from the Reich were to be moved to the area between the river Vistula and the river Bug.
What did Heydrich report about at the end of September 1939?
That the area between Warsaw and Lublin, a reservation or ‘Reich ghetto’ had been established to contain deported Poles and Jews.
What were the conditions of the ghetto between Warsaw and Lublin like and why?
The Nazis had intended to make them very poor so that most people deported there would die.
What did Muller instruct Eichmann to do in October 1939?
Arrange for the deportation of 70-80,000 Jews from the district of Katowice in Germanised Poland.
Where did Eichmann extend his deportation orders of Jews in Katowice to?
He expanded it to include Czech Jews from Reich Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia.
What did Hitler demand on top of Eichmann’s orders to deport Polish and Czech Jews?
That 300,000 Jews were to be deported from Germany and all Jews from Vienna too.
Why was there issues with Muller, Eichmann and Hitlers deportation demands?
Dealing with Jews already in Poland was posing problems so these orders were impossible to implement.
How many people had the SS attempted to deport east between November 1939 and February 1940?
1 million, 550,000 of which were Jews.
Why did Governor Hans Frank complain to his superiors in Berlin?
Authorities in the General Government could not cope with mass deportations from Germany and Austria at the same time, complaining that they could not take any more Jews.
Where did the idea of removing Europe’s Jews to Madagascar originate from?
French anti-Semites in the late 1930s. It had merely been an idea without any prospect of becoming reality.
What did the foreign ministry’s department for Internal German Affairs propose after German occupation of France in 1940?
That Madagascar should be taken away from France to become a German mandate.
What was Vichy France responsible for?
Resettling the French population of 25,000 in Madagascar to make the island available for a solution to the Jewish question.
How many Jews did the Nazis plan to send to Madagascar?
4 million.
What types of people would be first to be sent off to Madagascar? Why?
Farmers, construction workers and artisans up to age 45 as they would get the island ready for the mass influx of Jews.
How would the initial costs of the Madagascar Plan be financed?
Through the selling of remaining Jewish property in Europe.
What were the living conditions of Madagascar intended to be like?
Much like the Polish ghettos, they were intended to be harsh to lead to the natural elimination of Jews.
Why had Madagascar been a better emigration plan than the original 1936 plans of Palestine?
Palestine was a small territory under British rule and was not so far from Europe. Madagascar was far away and there was no serious political problems surrounding it.
Why did the Madagascar Plan not seem viable after early Autumn of 1940?
As Germany had not succeeded in ending the war with Britain and so this meant that any attempt of mass transportation of Jews by sea to Madagascar could be disrupted by the British Royal Navy.
Where did attention of emigration of Jews turn to in October 1940?
Back to the East as Hitler was already planning for Operation Barbarossa, and the Madagascar Plan was abandoned in favor of sending Europe’s Jews deep into Siberia after the conquest of the USSR.
What does the Madagascar Plan reveal about Nazi intentions in 1940?
That the Jewish question was still open to debate and it can be said that the decision to exterminate all Jews had not yet been made.
However it can be argued that there was an intention in the long-term that the Jews would slowly die through harsh conditions, and could be regarded as proof that sending Jews to die was always in the plan just the location and method had not been made yet.
