Topic 4 Changes In Society Flashcards
Hitlers aim was to
Create a new unified community based on blood and race and sharing a common world view Weltanschauung
Members would be Volksgenossen aryan,genetically healthy,socially useful and politically committed to the regime making Germany fit for world domination
Volksgemeinschaft or people’s community
Not a major change in social structure but a change in mind set of the german people
This included hostility to outsiders who were to be removed from the new community
A certain contradiction from the outset
Ideal german portrayed as traditional peasant working and living close to beloved german soil but hitlers military ambition was a modern industrial economy
Outsiders
Ideological threat to political unity eg communists
Biological threat to healthy pure german race eg Jews people with illness
Social behaviour conflicting with social norms eg workshy
Mentally ill
Seen as burdens on society
Policy of sterilisation at first 1933-45 350 000 cases
After 1939 mercy killings policy or euthanasia
By 1944 200,000 deaths by starvation injection or gas
Anti semitism
Was not a new idea nor confined to Germany and the nazis
However it is true to say it was at the heart of nazi ideology
Hostility was reinforced by resentment at the wealth and position of Jews and were used as scapegoats for Germany’s troubles post 1918
Nazis actually favoured
Emigration as a means of removing Jews from Germany until 1931 but the outbreak
Real of war made this difficult
Also life became much more brutal so that objections to mass murder were reduced paving way to final solution
It is important to understand systematic murder wasn’t the policy from the outset
Boycott
1 April 1933 nation wide boycott of german businesses intended to be infinite but not popular and ignored in many areas and pressure from govts of GB France and USA resulted in it being limited to one day
Laws to discriminate Jews
7 April 1933 banned from civil service
11 April 1933 lawyers doctors and dentists banned from practice
Law against overcrowding of schools limited total number of Jewish students to 1.5% of the overall total of young people in education
However all these laws were in response of pressure
By 1934 nazis concerned
by locally inspired anti Jewish violence carried out by SA
pressure continued for removal of Jews from society
The result was the Nuremberg laws
Nuremberg laws
Issued 15 September 1935
Reich citizenship laws Jews were no linger german citizens and couldn’t vote
Law for protection of german blood and german honour marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans forbidden
German image at the
Berlin Olympics meant a quiet period for german Jews in 1936
Success of four year plan also meant attack of Jews were discouraged
