Radicalisation Of The State

Question 1

What were the three distinct phases in the development of the Nazi regime?

Answer 1

1. Legal revolution (1933-34)
2. Creating the new Germany (1934-37)
3. Radicalisation of the state (1938-39)

Question 2

Where was social Darwinism prominent?

Answer 2

Not just in Germany, all over 19th century Europe after the publishing of the origin on the species and Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

Question 3

What is social Darwinism?

Answer 3

Applying Darwin’s theory of natural selection to humans to create pseudosciences and unscientific theories that could justify ideas of racial superiority and the theory of eugenics

Question 4

Which countries applied social Darwinist theories before Germany?

Answer 4

. Imperialist powers such as Britain used social Darwinism to justify the advancement and ruling of ‘backwards’ colonial peoples
. In Sweden, there were a group of scientists seeking to eliminate disabilities through population planning and birth control
- these ideas influenced Nazi ideology

Question 5

What was Hitler’s idea of a ‘biological struggle’ between different races?

Answer 5

Saw humanity as a hierarchy of races:
. Inferior races: Jews, black people and Slavs
. Herrenvolk (master race): Aryan people’s of Northern Europe

Question 6

How strict was Hitler’s concept of social Darwinism?

Answer 6

He believed there could be no compromises or exceptions as the inferior races were ‘poisoning’ the purity of the Aryan race and were a deadly threat to the German volk
- conversion to Christianity or medals won in WW1 couldn’t make a difference to the purity of your ‘racial hygiene’

Question 7

Who are the Untermenschen?

Answer 7

Impure Nazis that are inferior and sub-human. They threatened the existence of the master Race

Question 8

How does the 25 point programme show there was always a racist Nazi plan from the start?

Answer 8

1. Only those of German blood may be members of the nation
   - could lead all Jewish rights to going out the window
2. Foreign nationals should be deported from the Reich if livelihood can’t be provided for all pure citizens

Question 9

How was Nazi race theory used to justify outrageous ideas?

Answer 9

. Ideas of ‘racial hygiene’ justified the sterilisation of the mentally and physically disabled, the Roma and Sinti and other ‘racial undesirables’
. Himmler used the idea of ‘racial hygiene’ and eliminating the impure germs to justify the killing of Jewish women and children as well as men (policy of no exceptions)
Nazi propaganda helped make these pseudoscientific ideas appear convincing facts

Question 10

How did Nazis believe impure races could ‘infect’ pure Germans?

Answer 10

Through inter-marriage with ‘degenerate races’, leading to a policy almost like selective breeding

Question 11

What are eugenics?

Answer 11

A pseudoscience with the idea of selective breeding to ‘improve’ the human race

Question 12

How did Nazi propaganda make eugenics seem convincing?

Answer 12

Measuring facial features and eye colour using tools and equipment that make it seems scientific
Often Nazis dressed in lab coats would make them seem more scientific
In truth, it was all just a pseudoscience that lacked any scientific rigour

Question 13

What does the volksgemeinschaft translate to?

Answer 13

‘People’s community’

Question 14

How was the concept of a national community in the Volksgemeinschaft twisted to support Nazi racial policies?

Answer 14

Anti-semitism and racial thinking made it exclusive to certain groups in Germany

Question 15

What was the origins of the Volksgemeinschaft used for?

Answer 15

During WW1 as Germans rallied to support the war effort. Idea of uniting people across all classes to achieve a national purpose and identity (the concept got very twisted and exclusive by the Nazis)

Question 16

What was the ‘Volk’ part of Volksgemeinschaft in Nazi policy?

Answer 16

‘Volk’ is the membership in the people’s community
To be a member of the ‘Volk’ you had to be a true German in terms of racial purity and loyalty to Germany

Question 17

How did Nazi racial policy protect the members of the ‘Volk’?

Answer 17

Ruthlessly eliminating all un-German elements, especially Jews, to protect the ‘Volk’

Question 18

How did Nazis decide to identify members of the ‘Volk’?

Answer 18

By identifying and eliminating racial enemies that needed to be excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft rather than identifying those who naturally belonged to it
- this is somewhat where Nazi policy of extermination and sterilisation came from

Question 19

How was the Volk and Volksgenossen difference?

Answer 19

. The Volk are the entire collection of racially pure Germans, simply excluding the undesirables
. The Volksgenossen (‘national comrades’) were members of the Volk who were perfectly aligned with the goals of the Nazis state (Aryan race) and worthy of membership in the Volksgemeinschaft

Question 20

Who were excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 20

. Political enemies
. ‘Asocials’
. Racial enemies:
- those of a different race (gypsies and Jews)
- those with hereditary defects such as disabilities or disease

Question 21

Where did the origins of Lebensraum come from?

Answer 21

Late C.19, many European thinkers proposed opening up space for the expansion of populations of the superior white race (prioritising white populations to create living space for them)

Question 22

How were Germans easily convinced and supportive of the idea of Lebensraum?

Answer 22

. There was already widespread support for the idea that Germany was already over-populated and the industrious German farmers needed more land
. Many Germans believed the destiny of Germany lay in the east, conquering the inferior Slav peoples of Poland and the former Russian empire to get access to fertile farmland and raw materials

Question 23

How did Hitler twist the idea of Lebensraum to align with Nazi ideals and racial theory?

Answer 23

.Lebensraum wouldn’t just allow the ‘Germanisation’ of the eastern lands and bringing the ‘lost Germans’ back to the Reich
. It would importantly provide the battleground for a war of racial annihilation, wiping out the inferior Slav races and smashing Bolshevism in Russia

Question 24

Why were disabled people excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 24

Their hereditary conditions were a threat to the future of the Aryan race

Question 25

Where did Nazi thinking on disabilities come from?

Answer 25

The pseudoscience of eugenics which became influential in Europe and USA from late C.19, especially after WW1

Question 26

How did eugenicists propose improving a race?

Answer 26

Through selective breeding e.g sterilisation of those with hereditary conditions

Question 27

How had sterilisation been on the cards in Germany even before the Nazis were in power?

Answer 27

State gov in Prussia had drawn up a draft to allow voluntary sterilisation of people with hereditary conditions

Question 28

How did the Nazis very quickly drive the idea of sterilisation forward?

Answer 28

July 1933 - Law for prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny (sterilisation law)
- compulsory sterilisation for certain categories of ‘inferiors’
- specified which ‘hereditary diseases’ sterilisation applied to

Question 29

What were the examples of ‘hereditary diseases’ in the July 1933 sterilisation law?

Answer 29

. ‘Feeble-mindedness’
. ‘Epilepsy’
. ‘Chronic alcoholism’
. Hereditary blindness and deafness

Question 30

How was the July 1933 sterilisation law later extended?

Answer 30

. To being allowed on children over 10 years, and the inviolable right to force the sterilisation after 14 years
. 2 years later, permitted abortions where people suitable for sterilisation were already pregnant

Question 31

How were women Aryan vs non-Aryan treated in terms of sterilisation?

Answer 31

Non-Aryan: 1936 - x-ray sterilisation of women over 38 introduced due to higher risk of being born with disabilities
Aryan: ban on contraception and abortions for women and girls to increase birth rate of Aryan children

Question 32

Where were decisions on sterilisation decisions made and what was wrong with them?

Answer 32

Hereditary health courts:
. Judges mostly all in favour of sterilisation policies
. Decision often took only 10 mins

Question 33

How did sterilisation operations get away with it and how long did they take?

Answer 33

. The convincing nature of eugenics made it look scientific
. Parents were often told their child had an injury etc and needed to be hospitalised and tragically died
. Operation forcibly took place by 2 weeks of the decision

Question 34

How else was sterilisation decisions determined aside from hereditary disease?

Answer 34

‘Moral insanity’ - excuse to prevent births among asocials and the ‘criminal underclass’

Question 35

How is it clear that the people sterilised weren’t usually truly for hereditary reasons but simply for the advancement of the Aryan race?

Answer 35

60% of those sterilised were due to ‘feeblemindedness’ (suffered from idiocy or imbecility)

Question 36

How many people sterilised during the course of the Third Reich?

Answer 36

400,000

Question 37

What were the main Christian sects established by the time Nazis came to power and why were they questioned by Nazis?

Answer 37

. Jehovah’s witnesses
. Mormons
. Members of the New Apostolic Church

They were internationally linked and widespread religions now, making Nazis questions the religions loyalty to Germany

Question 38

How did Nazis first make it clear that they weren’t happy with the huge number of Christian sects in Germany?

Answer 38

November 1933: most religious sects banned

Question 39

How was the Nazis ban on religious sects adapted over time?

Answer 39

Bans were systematically lifted on sects that were willing to cooperate with the Nazi regime
- however, even those with the bans lifted had Gestapo agents attend sect meetings and report back to the Nazis on any anti-Nazi movements

Question 40

Which religious sect were the biggest threat to the Nazi state?

Answer 40

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Question 41

What were the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses and why were they a threat?

Answer 41

.They were only allowed to obey good, meaning this conflicted with the need for Nazis to swear the oath of loyalty to Hitler
- they also refused army conscription and refused to Nazi salute

Question 42

How is it so surprising that the Jehovah’s witnesses were such a threat?

Answer 42

In 1933, there were only 30,000 members in Germany but they were extremely committed