Persecution & Anti-Semitism

Question 1

Describe the laws used to affect Jewish lives (9)

Answer 1

• 1st April 1933: Jewish owned shops and businesses were boycotted for one day
• 7th April 1933: Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
• 4th October 1933: Law for the Exclusion of Jewish journalists
• September 1935: Nuremberg Laws. Reich Citizenship Law and Law for the Restoration of German Blood and German Honour
• 5th July 1938 - Decree prohibiting Jewish doctors practising medicine
• 28th October - decree to expel 17,000 Polish Jews resident in Germany
• 15th November 1938: Decree to exclude Jewish pupils from schools and universities
• 3rd December: Decree for the compulsory closure of all Jewish businesses
• 1st September 1939: Curfew for all Jews

Question 2

Describe the role of propaganda (8)

Answer 2

• Goebbels founded the newspaper ‘Der Angriff’
• The Propaganda Ministry ensured that cinema reflected anti-Semitism such as in The Eternal Jew and Jud Süß. They censored cinema, theatre, music and literature to ensure all culture reflected Nazi thinking and played propaganda clips before movies
• Schools conformed to new revised textbooks and teaching materials
• posters and signs were put in public places in villages such as ‘Jews not wanted here.’
• Nuremberg Rallies. They were light, sound and costume propaganda shows held every August that created crowds up to half a million people. This was to display the Nazis power and their ideals to the public
• in Berlin, the writings of over 2500 authors were banned and in May 1933, 20,000 books by banned authors were burned
• Posters used powerful images and slogans to convey Nazi messages
• Nazis took control of all radio stations while foreign radio stations couldn’t be picked up by their ‘People’s Receivers’ radios made by the Reich Radio Company. By 1939 70% of households owned one
  Impact of propaganda and censorship on the German people

Question 3

What two world events were the Jews blamed for?

Answer 3

• The Great War

- The High-run Inflation of 1923 and economic crisis of 1929 (Wall Street Crash)

Question 4

What did editors have to do during the Nazi regime?

Answer 4

Attend daily Propaganda Ministry briefings to be told what to print

Question 5

Which law held writers accountable for the content of their newspapers? When was it introduced ?

Answer 5

The Editors’ Law, October 1933

Question 6

Describe the violent action against the Jews (3)

Answer 6

• The SA took advantage of their power at a local level to use violence against the Jews e.g damage property, intimidation and physical attacks
• A Jew shot a Nazi official in Paris and this was the catalyst for violence against Jews. Goebbels orchestrated the response by the SS. Kristallnacht involved the destruction of numerous Jewish homes and 100 deaths. There were attacks on 10,000 Jewish shops and businesses, the burning down of 200 synagogues and deportation of 20,000 to concentration camps. Jews were also made to pay for the damages
• Anschluss in March 1938 resulted in thousands of attacks on the 200,000 Jews in Vienna

Question 7

Describe the policy of forced emigration (4)

Answer 7

• At the beginning, many Jews opted to leave voluntarily, such as Einstein
• But from 1938 the Central Office for Jewish Emigration was established in Vienna and it was overseen by Adolf Eichmann
• Jewish property was confiscated to finance the emigration of poorer Jews and within 6 months, Eichmann had forced the emigration of 45,000 Jews
• Nazi persecution led to about half of the Jewish population leaving before the war