Racial Policies Flashcards
Gypsy policies
- the 30,000 gypsies in Germany were not seen as a threat unless they ‘infected’ the German blood pool
- In 1938 the Decree for the Struggle against the Gypsy Plague was put in place
- Gypsies were sent to camps before being expelled to Poland from 1939
- 11,000 gypsies were gassed
- 2800 gypsies were transported to Auschwitz in 1940
- measures drawn up against Jews were applied also to gypsies in 1941-2
Homosexual policies
- gestapo ordered local police to keep a list of homosexuals in 1934
- legal definition of criminal homosexual acts covered intent or thought from 1935
- In 1936 the Reich Central Office for Combatting Homosexuality and Abortion was formed
- Gestapo ordered convicted homosexuals to be sent to concentration camps in 1938
- From 1933-45, 100,000 homosexual men were arrested, and 15,000 sent to concentration
Asocial policies
Vagrants
- 500,000 vagrant given work, the orderly ones, or imprisoned, the disorderly, and marked with black triangles
- 1000s were sent to concentration camps
- as time went on, more vagrancy convictions were made
- as for religion, the Nazis were unable to make much impact on christianity, but they did persecute minority sects
How undesirables were dealt with - political undesirables
- concentration camps
- re-education
- long-term imprisonment
- execution
How undesirables were dealt with - asocial undesirables
- imprisonment
- employment
- sterilisation
- euthanasia
- concentration camps
- extermination
How undesirables were dealt with - biological undesirables
- economic persecution, through laws
- social segregation, through marriage laws and housing projects
- violence/intimidation
- imprisonment leading to death
- genocide
- sterilisation
- euthanasia
Sterilisation and Euthanasia policies
Law on the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring (1933)
- gave a list of diseases, infirmities and handicaps that could be compulsorily sterilised against
- 350,000 sterilised over Hitler’s era
- forced euthanasia was included in this policy from 1939 - murder
- T4 was established to murder disabled children from 1939, later being extended to adults
- by 1944, 200,000 had been murdered
Who classified as an undesirable - political
- socialists
- communists
- people/groups actively against Nazism
Who classified as an undesirable - asocial
- alcoholics
- beggars
- prostitutes
- homosexuals
- work-shy peoples
effectively anyone who did not fit the Volk
Who classified as an undesirable - biological
- non-aryans, e.g. Slavs, Africans, Jews, gypsies
- mentally ill
- physically handicapped
- those with hereditary diseases
Jewish policy - pre-1935 pressure
- leadership wanted to respond to pressure from below to keep the people under control
- boycott of Jewish businesses and shops in April 1933
- more radical NSDAP members wanting 25-point programme enacted
- Jews were excluded from civil service in the Law for Restoration of the Civil Services
- following pressure from Gauleiters and radical Nazi members the Nuremberg Laws were announced
Jewish Policy - Nuremberg Laws 1935
Law for Protection of German Blood and German Honour
- mixed marriages and sexual relations between Aryans and Jews banned
Reich Citizenship Law
- removed German citizenship from Jews
Law for the Protection of Genetic Health
- fitness to marry certificates required
Jewish Policy - 1936-38
- Himmler was put in charge of Jewish emigration in 1936, which was the preferred policy for dealing with the Jewish question
- Hitler made a violent speech attacking Jews in September 1937
- from then the regime began to radicalise
- due to the economic consequences, Schacht was against anti-Semitic measures
- Goering was more influential in the economy from 1936
Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass)
9-10th November
- spontaneous uprising of Germans against jews following the assassination fo germans by a jews in Paris
- homes, businesses and synagogues were attacked
- 91 Jews murdered across Germany
- hundred of women raped
- 20,000+ jews arrested and sent to camps
- Heydrich ordered synagogue records to be seized
Consequences of Kristallnacht
- government blamed Jews for the event and charged the community 1 billion reichmarks for damages
- more anti-Jewish decrees to exclude Jews from economic activities followed Kristallnacht
- decrees banned Jews from unis, schools, cinemas and sports
