Final Flashcards
How does the start of WW2 affect outsider persecution?
Increase in number of persecuted minorities and allows outing of more groups
- ideological enemies, biological enemies, asocials (homosexuals)
How does eugenics help regime?
Lends credence to biological exclusion
- Galton advocates for better breeding, Hoche + Binding advocate elimination of bad traits
- German scientists incentivized to rig tests in favor of eugenics as rest of the world discarding idea
Different types of asocials
Homosexuals (can’t breed), gypsies (despite some Aryan heritage, justified as moved around too much and didn’t have fixed jobs), vagrants, prostitutes, work-shy (lazy and didn’t contribute)
1933 sterilization law
Enacted July 14, 1933
- Continuation of sterilization laws in Weimar and other countries
- Compulsory sterilization for variety of defects (up to 350k ppl)
- Eventually justifies killing as sterilized no longer contributing to state (esp those in state institutions)
T4 euthanasia overview
Enacted 1939
- Prompted by the Knauer baby (father who writes to Hitler asking for permission to kill deformed baby)
- First child euthanasia program (overdose / starved to look natural, 5k deaths) then adult (gassed, 200k)
T4 process
Meldebogen evaluation (forms filled out by doctors, most of the time don’t see the patients), patients taken to institutions and examined by doctor who gives source of death, gassed, letters sent to families saying died of disease
End of T4 program
Mistakes in remains sent to families (example: ring in ashes for unmarried person)
August 1941 Bishop von Galen accuses regime of killing Germans and gets lower priests to read sermon too
Significance of T4
Lets regime know not to operate death camps in German heartland, not to leave paper trail
Shows that even at height of power in 1941 German people still had influence over regime actions
1933 Civil Service Law
Enacted April 7, 1933 and removes them from public jobs and other professions (continually expanding)
Accelerates impoverishment of Jewish pops
1935 Nuremburg Laws
Enacted September 1935, defined Jew (2 gen removed from Jewish ancestors), prevents mixed marriage with Germans, took their German citizenship and rights
Created crime called Rassenschande (race defilement), easy accusation and humiliating punishment
1938 Kristallnacht
November 9-10, 1938
- Justification was Jewish assassination of German diplomat in Paris, so afterward Jews had to pay atonement fine
- Carried out by SA, trashing of Jewish stores and torching of synagogues. First state-sponsored physical violence against Jews
- International alarm but no real action taking
- Regime did not get public support that it wanted but it realized that most people would be indifferent so empowered further violence
Aryanization
Ridding of Jews in economy
- Tried 1933 with boycott against Jews but failed as Germans continued to go to services that they always used. Also early fears about economic collapse if no Jews
Completed November 12, 1938 where Decree for Exclusion of Jews forced them to sell businesses to Aryans at fraction of value, etc.
Hitler’s 3 points in Mein Kampf for domination
Internal consolidation (alliance with Italy, destroy Versailles, dictatorship)
War with France (try to ally UK, war of revision to regain A-L)
War with USSR (war of conquest to get lebensraum + resources to conquer world)
When does Hitler want to go to war by?
1943-44 to avoid other countries catching up to war machine
Economic prep for war
Overarching goal of guns and butter (Schact says impossible) to keep morale up at home
Public works job creation, army rebuilding to equip soldiers
Goering Office of 4 year plan to get war ready, advocates for synthetics development but not enough quantity or quality produced
Diplomatic prep for war
1933 withdraws from League of Nations (using pretense that UK + France would not equally disarm)
1935 rearmament and conscription announced
1936 Rhineland re-militarized against advisor advice (UK + France don’t contest, empowers Hitler’s ego later)
1937 anti-Comintern pact with Italy
1938 Anschluss (gamble again), Sudetenland annexation (Munich conference)
1939 annexes Czechoslovakia, Pact of Steel, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland invasion late August
Difference between Eastern and Western front
Racial affinity in West prevents worst atrocities, there is mutual respect
Sub-human view of Slavs, geographic isolation in East and USSR non-signatory of Geneva prompts lax rules of war and common atrocities vs POWs and civs
Blitzkrieg
Lightning war tactic
- First strike by planes for confusion, then tanks –> motorized –> infantry
- Objective to encircle and destroy army, can take objectives later
- Cheaper warfare and force concentration allows for partial modernization to still be successful
- Younger German officer corps implements unlike other countries
Polish war + occupation
Lasted Sept 1-27, 1939. USSR invades Sept 17
- 200k vs 45k casualties, but Germans lost 80% ammo
Directly annexed old German provinces, rest made protectorate under Hans Frank
- Attempted German resettlement and reproduction in former Polish homes
- Expanded police power and creation of Einsatzgruppen
Evolution of western front
Spring 1940 invasion of Denmark, Norway, Benelux after being allowed to regroup in phony war
- Some local cooperation before war turns (Quisling in Norway, Denmark helps with food)
June 22, 1940 Fall of France (6 week war)
- May 27 - June 4 Dunkirk evac of over 300k troops
- Vichy under Petain created to paint Hitler as more benevolent and prompt British surrender (occupied Nov 1942)
Operation Sea Lion planned
- August 8 Battle of Britain, less UK planes but radar + cipher evens battle
- August 24-25 Blitz shifts from targeting of airfields to London, boosts British morale and US sympathies
- Sea Lion postponed Sept 17
Planning for eastern front war
March 1941 Hunger Plan (living off land)
13 May 1941 Barbarossa decree (execute Soviet civilian resistance)
19 May 1941 Issuance of guidelines for troop conduct
6 June 1941 Commissar Order (captured troops won’t be treated as POWs)
Evolution of eastern front
3.2 million Germans vs 2.7 million Soviets but many more USSR troops in reserve
Soviets hindered by officer purge but Germans hindered by length of front and scorched earth supply
Soviet tanks easier to maintain and produce
Operation Valkyrie
July 20th 1944 plot by von Stauffenberg and Beck to assassinate Hitler via briefcase bombs in meeting
One bomb doesn’t go off, other moved so Hitler just injured
Not all rebels go through with planned government takeover so 5k executed
Influenced by Nazi incompetency not war crimes
Other German resistance groups
Kreisau Circle (1940-43, group of intellectual talking about what will happen post-Nazi state)
White Rose (1942-43 by Hans and Sophie Scholl, distributed flyers about Jewish persecution and only movement to do so. Discovered and executed ‘43)
