Nazi Policies Towards The Jews (1933-37)

Question 1

When was the Nazi boycott of Jewish shops and businesses?

Answer 1

1st April 1933

Question 2

How did Hitler justify the boycott of Jewish shops?

Answer 2

He claimed it was justified in retaliation to Jews at home and abroad calling for a boycott of German goods

Question 3

What was Goebbel’s role in the boycott of Jewish shops?

Answer 3

Organised an intensive propaganda campaign to maximise its impact

Question 4

How did the boycott of Jewish shops work?

Answer 4

SA marked out which places of business were to be targeted and stood menacingly outside to intimidate would-be customers

Question 5

Who was affected by the boycott of Jewish shops?

Answer 5

. Businessmen
. Professionals such as doctors and lawyers

Question 6

How were Jewish professionals treated during the period of Jewish boycott of shops?

Answer 6

. Court proceedings involving Jewish lawyers and judges disrupted in Berlin, Breslau and elsewhere
. Jewish lawyers attacked on streets and had legal robes stripped from them
. Jewish doctors, teachers and university lecturers received similar rough treatment

Question 7

How was the boycott clearly badly planned?

Answer 7

. It was unclear what a ‘Jewish’ business was as many were half-jewish or half-German owned. Many businesses were also controlled by German banks, was this ‘Jewish’?
. Boycott was abandoned after only one day

Question 8

How did the idea of a Hitler myth help the boycott go ahead?

Answer 8

There was a clear division between the actions of Hitler’s men (SA) and Hitler himself.
- Hitler was seen to desire a ‘legal revolution’ and not this violent revolution from below that the SA were bringing
- Hitler only really involved himself in concerns on foreign public opinion and not day-to-day Nazi-led actions. This meant he wasn’t assumed to be aware of the violence and chaos the SA were bringing

Question 9

Why was it important that Hitler didn’t go all-out on the anti-Semitic violence in the boycott of Jewish shops?

Answer 9

It only occurred a week after the enabling act and anti-semitism wasn’t ingrained in many German citizens just yet
- Hitler was genuinely concerned about foreign public opinion and negative reactions from conservative allies/elites that he still heavily depended on
- Hitler had to avoid instability while he carried out his ‘legal revolution’

Question 10

How was it clear that many German citizens didn’t agree with the idea of boycotting Jewish shops and what does this suggest?

Answer 10

Many German citizens defiantly used Jewish shops to show their disapproval of these violent, anti-Semitic Nazi policies.
Clearly Hitler was going to have to force legislative action to get anti-semitism going as it wasn’t a popular concept at this time

Question 11

How did Hitler try and get a good balance of taking action against Jews while preventing German instability and anti-Nazi feeling during the boycott of shops?

Answer 11

. Hitler may have only intended the boycott to be brief (unconfirmed)
- possibly just wanted a quick burst of violence and authority to outline how the Nazis were going to maintain order in an unstable Germany
. Hitler was willing to allow quite a good degree of Nazi intimidation but was aware of the historical negative effects of SA violence on Nazi opinion (hence the use of the Hitler myth to keep Hitler out of anti-Nazi accusations)
. Hitler probably just wanted it to be a ‘spontaneous expression of public anger’ against planned Jewish boycotts of German goods

Question 12

How did Hitler take legal action first after the failure of the Jewish boycott?

Answer 12

April 1933 - Law for the Restoration of the professional civil service, dismissing Jews from the civil service

Question 13

Why was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service hard to carry out?

Answer 13

There was no objective, scientific definition of who was racially Jewish physically (no racial state yet) so people were considered ‘non-Aryan’ if either of their parents or grandparents were Jewish
- this was hard to trace back and identify who to dismiss from the civil service

Question 14

How was Hindenburg a hassle in carrying out the civil service laws of 1933?

Answer 14

He insisted on exemptions from Law for Restoration of Professional Civil Service for German Jews who served in WW1 and for those whose fathers died in the war
- this amendment applied for up to 2/3 of Jews in the civil service
- Hitler couldn’t argue with this and it stayed in place until his death, complicating the civil service law

Question 15

How did the Civil Service Law have a big impact on starting up later anti-Jewish Nazi policies?

Answer 15

The law awfully impacted middle class Jews economically and psychologically, contributing to increasing levels of Jewish emigration which was one of the Nazi’s next policies

Question 16

How many Jews left Germany in 1933?

Answer 16

37,000. Not that many as most had no clue what was to come from Nazi policies

Question 17

What are all the anti-Semitic legislative laws the Nazis created in 1933?

Answer 17

March 31st - Decree of the Berlin city commissioner (suspended Jewish doctors from Berlin’s social welfare services)
April 7th - Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service
April 7th - law on the admission to the legal profession (forbids Jews from getting into bars)
April 25th - law against overcrowding in schools and universities
July 14th - Denaturalisation law (takes citizenship of naturalised Jews and ‘undesirables’
October 4th - Law on Editors (bans Jews from editorial posts)

Question 18

How much of Germany’s legal profession was made up of Jewish lawyers?

Answer 18

Around 16% - often worked in family firms

Question 19

Was the exclusion of Jewish lawyers a fast process?

Answer 19

No, of the non-Aryan lawyers practicing in 1933, 60% kept working in spite of new regulations against them.
- regime had to impose stricter regulations over several years to close the ‘loopholes’ that were keeping Jews as lawyers

Question 20

How much of Germany’s doctors were Jews?

Answer 20

Over 10%

Question 21

How did local authorities exclude Jewish doctors from Germany?

Answer 21

. Nazi officials at local levels (Gauleiter’s) initiated own anti-Semitic measures on doctors
- some local authorities started removing Jewish doctors from their posts

The movement against Jewish doctors on a local level allowed the Nazis to push along legislation against Jewish doctors

Question 22

How did Nazi propaganda portray Jewish doctors?

Answer 22

. ‘A danger to German society’
. Propaganda created the impression that Jewish doctors treating Aryans was like spreading a disease and spoke of the malicious actions the Jews performed on the Aryans

Question 23

What legislation did Nazis reach against Jewish doctors after all the local measures and was it successful?

Answer 23

April 1933 - ban on Jewish doctors
- theoretically, only Jewish patients could be treated by Jewish doctors, but many Jewish doctors carried on their normal practices as the anti-Semitic opinion hadn’t completely infected the German citizens yet

Question 24

What did the Law against overcrowding of German schools and universities do and why did it help the Nazi’s plan for children?

Answer 24

. Restricted number of Jewish children who could attend state schools and unis
- allowed Aryan students to receive more resources and attention as it was seen as a waste of time to educate Jews who would ‘grow up to be the enemies of Germany’

Question 25

How did Nazi propaganda picture educated Jews and how did this influence German children?

Answer 25

Stressed the dangers of a well-educated Jew to Germany
- German children were told and came to believe that their former jewish friends and classmates were unworthy of being in the same school and were a burden /threat to Germany

Question 26

Was the removal of Jewish children from state schools immediate?

Answer 26

Not at all, process wasn’t completed till 1938 (peak Jewish persecution)
- Jewish children could still attend private education and Jewish schools

Question 27

In terms of education, what was the primary immediate aim for the Nazis?

Answer 27

To segregate Jewish children from Aryan children so the ‘enemy from within’ couldn’t influence Aryan citizens

Question 28

What were conditions like in Jewish schools?

Answer 28

. Didn’t receive much funding at all and didn’t maintain goof academic standards

However, at least Jews had some kind of education in 1933 and Jewish teachers could possibly finally find some work

Question 29

How were Jewish professors treated in universities?

Answer 29

Many came under pressure from students (clearly they are brainwashed already) and local government officials, with many losing their jobs
- this created a path for German academics to replace them easily

Question 30

When was the Reich Press Law and what did it do?

Answer 30

October 1933, allowed Nazis to apply strict censorship and close down publications they disliked

Question 31

What was scary about the closing down of the free press in the Reich press law?

Answer 31

It wasn’t just a regulation, many instances of violence and intimidation came against Jewish editors and journalists

Question 32

Why was the Reich press law so impactful to Germany?

Answer 32

In Weimar Germany, Jews had played a significant role in journalism and publishing, but now many of them were forced to leave the country and german press was almost completely nazified now

Question 33

When was the turning point towards extreme anti-Semitic Nazi legislation?

Answer 33

Nuremberg laws 1935 (at annual Nuremberg rally)

Question 34

Why did the Nuremberg laws occur?

Answer 34

Many extremist anti-Semitic Nazis felt that Jewish persecution hadn’t gone far enough and wanted Hitler to go further and faster

Question 35

How did Hitler announce that it was clear that he wanted to take an extreme approach to anti-semitism during the Nuremberg rally of 1935?

Answer 35

He said he wanted to ‘deal once and for all with Jewish-Bolshevism’

Question 36

When were the Nuremberg Laws introduced and what were they?

Answer 36

15th September 1935
- Reich Citizenship Law
- Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour

Question 37

What did the Reich Citizenship law do?

Answer 37

Individuals could only become German citizens if they had purely German blood and could prove it. Jews and non-aryans were subjects and had fewer rights than citizens (stripped of the rights of citizenship)

Question 38

What did the law for the protection of German blood and honour do?

Answer 38

. Outlawed marriages between Aryans and non-aryans
. Outlawed citizens to marry Jews
. It was illegal to have sexual relations with a German citizen

Idea of stopping the spread of the Jewish ‘parasite’

Question 39

How closely did the German citizens/public follow the Nuremberg race laws?

Answer 39

. Many Aryan to non-Aryan relationships were voluntarily denounced to the Gestapo
. Some local authorities and private companies wouldn’t employ ‘full Jews’
. Civil servants, judges and the Gestapo were primarily concerned with enforcing these laws

Question 40

How were the Nuremberg race laws extended over time?

Answer 40

Extended to almost any physical contact between Jews and Aryans
A simple allegation of Jews would almost certainly justify conviction
Punishments for Jews were very harsh (often humiliating too)
Men convicted under Law for Protection of German Blood and Honour were often re-arrested after release by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps (not death camps yet)

Question 41

How did the Nuremberg Laws affect the lives of Jewish Germans?

Answer 41

. Aryan women were indirectly pressured to leave their Jewish husbands as many husbands had lost their jobs through the anti-Semitic legislation and stripping of rights, making them a burden on their partners.
. Without citizenship rights, these jews had to oblige to the state while also having no power against the Nazi state and no political rights
. Mischlinge were able to continue okay lives and could even serve in low military ranks

Question 42

How was the definition of a Jew more concise in 1935 but what was the main problem?

Answer 42

November 1935: first supplementary decree on the Reich citizenship law defined a ‘full Jew’ and a ‘Half Jew’ (Mischlinge)
- however, as the definition of a Jew was related to ancestry, it was inconsistent to classify Jews as many Jewish parents etc converted to Christianity and some Jews got falsified documents on the black market to appear to have Aryan ancestry

Question 43

What constituted a ‘full jew’?

Answer 43

Three Jewish grandparents OR two Jewish grandparents and married to a Jew

Question 44

By the end of 1935, what was a priority of Jewish people to try and live normal lives?

Answer 44

Possessing documentary proof of ancestry, with many non-practicing Jews trying to prove their Aryan ancestry.
- being able to prove Aryan ancestry would stop you from being stripped of all your citizenship rights

Question 45

What is an example of local Jewish discrimination in Nazi Germany and what was the impact of this local discrimination?

Answer 45

14th July 1935 - anti-Jewish demonstrations in swimming pool in Heigenbruken had 15-20 young bathers chanting for the removal of Jews from the baths.
- local agitation like this here resulted in mayor issuing ban on Jews using the swimming pool

Question 46

What are examples of local Germans discriminating Jews and indirectly motivating Nazi racial policy?

Answer 46

. Pubs and businesses started putting up signs saying Jews not welcome
. Pro-Nazi activists pushed for anti-Jewish measures in local schools and all areas of public life

Clearly the Nazi propaganda of Jews was convincing the public and coming across as a truth

Question 47

Is it clear that local discrimination through signs against Jewish entry really indicated a hatred of Jews?

Answer 47

No, there is much evidence to suggest that the terror state meant locals just wanted to keep the Nazi officials happy out of fear.
- one Jewish customer was assured a sign at the pub saying no Jewish entry was just for show and can be ignored
. Open opposition to the discrimination was rare and people just retreated into ‘internal exile’

Question 48

Where was local discrimination against Jews very real?

Answer 48

Case of Albert Herzfeld (middle-class Jew from Germany army):
- barred from his artists’ club in 1935
- later barred from his favoured restaurants and spa in Wiesbaden

It’s crazy that someone from the Germany army was discriminated so badly considering the nationalistic nature of Germany

Question 49

How is it clear that many Germans were embarrassed by the open discrimination against Jews?

Answer 49

. Many didn’t want to break off from family doctors they trusted just because they were Jews
. When Nazi activists in Leipzig demanded removal of statue of great composer Felix Mendelssohn, even local party boss blocked the proposal

Question 50

What is ‘internal exile’ in the context of the German public in Nazi Germany?

Answer 50

Many people mentally switched off from the nazified outside world and preferred to experience the non-Nazi world in their own homes and private thoughts

Question 51

What was the entailed farm law in September 1933?

Answer 51

Law banning Jews from owning farms