Minorities, Why the Nazis Persecuted them and what Happened to them. Flashcards
A-social Germans
Why Nazis persecuted them: They were regarded as ‘useless mouths’ by the Nazis.
What happened to them: sent to concentration camps where they were brutally treated and died from starvation, disease, gassing, hanging, torture or execution
People with disabilities
Why Nazis persecuted them: didn’t fit into the Aryan race
What happened to them: mentally disabled people were sent to concentration camps and were made to wear a black triangle with the word ‘Blöd’ (‘stupid’). Estimated Nazis killed 72,000 mentally ill people during the Second World War and 300,000 men and women were sterilised from 1934 - 1945.
The Roma
Why Nazis persecuted them: The Nazis thought ‘Gypsies’ (the Roma people) were as great a danger to Aryan blood purity as Jewish people.
What happened to them: sent to concentration camps in ‘crime prevention’ campaigns. The Roma Holocaust is called the Porajmos (‘cutting up’); a third of the estimated 700,000 Roma people in Europe were killed.
Homosexuals
Why Nazis persecuted: saw them as a-social. ( unfit for their community life, don’t engage in activities)
What happened to them: 100,000 gay men were arrested; 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. Some were castrated; others were experimented on to try to find a ‘cure’. The Nazis forbade lesbianism, but classified it as an asocial rather than criminal act.
Jehovah’s witnesses
Why Nazis persecuted: In 1933 they declared in public that they did not oppose the regime and were ‘in agreement with its goals’, but they refused to swear allegiance to Hitler or join the army.
What happened: Their religion was banned and they were placed in prison or put into mental institutions. 2,000 were sent to concentration camps and 250 were executed.
Political opponents (communists, socialists)
Why persecuted: Eliminating Hitler’s opponents means that Hitler doesn’t have to worry about the competition against him.
What happened: sent to concentration camps from the very start of the Nazi regime. They suffered brutal treatment which included flogging, ‘standing cells’ that forced the prisoner to stay permanently in an uncomfortable position and ‘pole hanging’- prisoners had their hands tied behind their backs. Many had died.
Career criminals (gangsters)
Why persecuted: posed threat to the nation they were trying to create.
What happened: sent to labour camps; there, some were used by the SS as ‘prisoner-policement’ and were given special privileges to beat and bully the inmates. Ordinary criminals were sent to prison, where conditions were brutal.
