Jewish Community And Minorities Flashcards
List two German disasters that the Nazis blamed on the Jews
- The Great War
- The High-run Inflation of 1923 and economic crisis of 1929 (Wall Street Crash)
Economic actions against Jews (3)
- 1st April 1933 : There was a one-day Boycott of Jewish shops. This prevented Jews from making money that day
- April-June 1938 ; Jews were ordered to register all their wealth, property and businesses. This made it easier to confiscate them
- November 1938 - The remaining Jewish businesses were confiscated or closed down. Jewish children were not allowed to attend school
Describe the Nuremberg Laws (2)
September 1935: Two main parts to it
- The Reich Citizenship Law: Jews were deprived of many political and economic rights and were made enemies of the state
- The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour: It became illegal for Jews and Aryans to marry or engage in sexual relations outside marriage
Nazi policies to exclude Jews from society: (4)
- Summer 1935: ‘Jews not wanted here’ signs put up in public places in many towns and villages
- January 1937: Jews were banned from key professions, including teaching and dentistry
- July/August 1938: Jews had to carry identity cards
- January 1939: Jews were encouraged to emigrate from Germany. Hitler spoke of future annihilation of Jews, if they caused a world war. Until 1941 50% of German Jews emigrated
What was the catalyst in 1938 for a massive outbreak of anti-Jewish persecution?
7th November 1938 - The murder of a Nazi diplomat by a Jew in Paris. This became known as Kristallnacht
Describe the aftermath of Kristallnacht (4)
- More than 400 synagogues, 7,500 shops and many homes were destroyed
- 91 Jews were killed and over the following months 20,000 were sent to concentration camps
- Nazis fined the Jews 1 billion marks for the damage caused on Kristallnacht
- They also made them clean up the streets in the aftermath of the attacks
How many Jews were killed in gas chambers and other forms of execution?
6 million
What did Nazis believe about marriage or relationships between people of different races?
That it was wrong and would ‘pollute’ German blood
The Nazis concluded that many people were simply Untermenschen (sub-human)
Role of Ernst Rüden (2)
- He was a psychiatrist and one of the leading champions of keeping the German race ‘pure’
- He wrote the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring of 1933 which set up the Genetics Health Courts
Treatment of asocial Germans (3)
- Described as people who didn’t fit into the Volksgemeinschaft
- Included work shy, alcoholics and prostitutes
- A ‘Beggars Week’ in 1933 rounded up as many asocials and thousands of asocial Germans were sent to concentration camps where they were brutally treated and died from starvation, hanging, torture or execution
Treatment of people with mental and physical disabilities and illnesses (3)
- The Diseased Offspring Law of 1933 allowed sterilisation of the disabled and after 1935 doctors were allowed to terminate pregnancies by force
- From 1939-1941 the Nazis conducted a Programme of euthanasia against them
- Estimated 72,000 mentally ill patients were killed and 300,000 men and women were sterilised
Treatment of Roma (3)
- Nazis thought the ‘Gypsies’ were a great danger to Aryan blood purity
- Persecution began in 1936 when many Roma were rounded up and sent to concentration camps in ‘crime prevention’ campaigns
- The Roma holocaust is called the Porajmos (cutting up). Around a third of the estimated 700,000 Roma people in Europe were killed
Treatment of homosexual men (4)
- In 1933 the HY attacked the Institute for Sex Research which studied homosexuality
- 100,000 homosexual men were arrested and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps
- Some were castrated, others were experimented on to try and find a ‘cure’
- Nazis forbade lesbianism but classified it as an asocial rather than criminal act
Treatment of Jehovah’s witnesses (3)
- There were about 25,000 active Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany, but they were known as ‘Bible students’
- 1933 they declared in public that they didn’t oppose the regime but they refused to swear allegiance to Hitler or join the army
- Their Religion was banned and they were placed in prison or put into mental institutions
Treatment of political opponents (3)
- They were sent to concentration camps from the very start of the Nazi regime
- Brutal treatment included floggings, ‘standing cells’ and ‘pole-hanging’ prisoners by their hands tied behind their backs
- Many political prisoners were students and intellectuals and many died
