Unit 5 - The Radical State (1933-1941) Flashcards
How had the Nazi state been established from 1933-38?
Terror - Night of the Long Knives, SS/SA/Gestapo
Laws - Nuremberg Laws
Propaganda - Newspapers, Radio, the Hitler Myth
Economic Policies - New Plan, ‘battle for work’, rearmament, Autarky
Social Policies - Schools, Hitler Youth, League of German Girls, DAF, KdF, Churches
Other - The death of Hindenburg
Three Phases in the Development of the Nazi State
The Legal Revolution (1933-1934)
Creating the New Germany (1934-1937)
The Radicalisation of the State (1938-1939)
What was Social Darwinism?
Applied Darwin’s scientific principles of natural selection (‘the survival of the fittest’) to human society.
This was not based on the same scientific research and was used to justify ideas of racial superiority and eugenics.
The key argument for Social Darwinism:
‘Advanced’ Europeans had the right and even responsibility to rule over ‘inferior’ or ‘backward’ colonial people.
This argument, which emerged in the nineteenth century, was then taken into Nazi ideology.
What was Nazi Race Theory?
Hitler saw humanity as a biological struggle between a hierarchy of races; the stronger races needed to be protected by not mixing with those that were inferior.
Jews, black people and the Slavs were inferior to the Herrenvolk (master race) of the Aryan people.
Marriage between Aryans and ‘degenerate’ races threatened to poison the purity of the master race.
How did the Nazis race theory appeal to the nation?
Being classed as in the Volk made the low-morale German population feel superior
Who was included in the Volkemeinschaft?
Aryans (Herronvolk), people who could work, able-bodied people
How did Volksgemeinschaft link with Social Darwinism and race theory?
It was created with the intention of purifying the Aryan bloodline and creating a perfect German master-race
Define Lebensraum:
Living Space
Two reasons Lebensraum was a popular idea before the Nazis were in power
More land for Germany that was reduced by the Treaty of Versailles which took back 13.5% of land from Germany after their defeat in WW1
More room for industrialisation
Policies towards the mentally ill and disabled:
Sterilisation:
1933- Sterilisation Law to apply to certain ‘inferiors’ (Extended to include abortion where sterlisation had been missed)
Administered by Hereditary Health Courts
400,000 were sterilised
Euthanasia:
1939: T4 programme ran by Bouhler targeted at the disabled but was stopped in 1941 due to pressure from the Catholic Church
Who was classed as an ‘asocial’?
Criminals
Homeless people
Alcoholics
Prostitutes
‘Work shy’
Homosexuals
Policies towards homosexuals:
May 1933 - Attack on the Institute of Sex Research
1934 - Gestapo began to compile lists of gay people
1935 - Law on Homosexuality amended to widen the definition
1936 - Reich Office for the Combatting of Homosexuality and Abortion founded
1936–1938 - Over 22,000 men arrested and imprisoned
Policies towards religious sects:
Sects were initially banned but reinstated if they showed they would cooperate with the regime.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were the only group to be openly hostile to the Nazi State. They refused to give the Hitler salute, take part in parades or remove their caps.
1945 - around 10,000 had been imprisoned and many died.
Policies towards the Roma and the Sinti:
30,000 persecuted
1935 - Nuremberg Laws were made to apply to them
1938- Decree for the Struggle against the Gypsy Plague
1939- Deported from Germany to Poland
Nazi Racial Ideology, Source 1
Hitler’s views on the racial struggle, from Mein Kampf
The Jewish people are incapable of establishing their own state. The very existence of the Jews becomes parasitic on the lives of other peoples. The ultimate goal of the Jewish struggle for survival is therefore the enslavement of productive peoples. The weapons the Jew uses for this are cunning, cleverness, subterfuge, malice, qualities that are rooted in the very essence of the Jewish ethnic character. They are tricks in his struggle for survival, like the tricks used by other peoples in combat by the sword.
P - Hitler’s Mein Kampf published in 1925 with deep-rooted Anti-Semitism from the beginning, implementing the idea that Nazi race ideology was important to Hitler from the beginning (also seen in Hitler’s 25-Point Plan released in 1920)
A - Valuable: Extract from Hitler’s own book written by him
Not Valuable: would have had to have been toned town as to slowly introduce the German people to the Nazi race ideology
C - “The very existence of the Jews becomes parasitic on the lives of other peoples.” - Hitler compares the Jewish people to parasites that must be gotten rid of creating value as he is unafraid to discuss his great hatred for the Jews as early on as 1925, almost 10 years before the Radicalisation of the State officially begins
T - Persuasive tone for early indoctrination into the Nationalist Socialist beliefs which were at first not successful (the book was written in prison after a failed coup in Munich)
Nazi Race Ideology, Source 2
Hitler speaking to a Nazi Party meeting in 1920
Do not imagine that you can combat a sickness without killing what causes it, without annihilating the germ; and do not imagine that you can combat tuberculosis without taking care to free the people from the germ that causes racial tuberculosis. The effects of Judaism will never wane and the poisoning of the people will never end until the cause, the Jews, are removed from our midst.
P – 1920s Germany (pre-war) antisemitism, furthering beliefs in theories such as the Structuralist vs Intentionalist argument
A – Valuable: shows how deep-rooted the Nazi’s belief in race theory is as they liken Jews to a disease (“racial tuberculosis”) showing how actions such as the Final Solution was planned (Intentionalist)
Not Valuable: Just propaganda which escalated into the Final Solution (Structuralist)
C – “you can combat tuberculosis without taking care to free the people from the germ” – displays a need for excluding people from the Aryan race (creating the Untermenschen, which was the groups excluded from the Volkgemeinschaft) which led to the creation of antisemitic laws then ghettos and then death camps
T – Cautionary tone when being delivered to the people in the “Nazi party meeting” as to introduce them to the ideals of antisemitism which were built into the party from the beginning
Nazi Racial Ideology, Source 3
A directive from Himmler on the treatment of gypsies, issued in December 1938
Experience gained in combating the Gypsynuisance, and knowledge derived from race-biological research, have shown that the proper method of attacking the Gypsy problem seem to be to treat it as a matter of race. Experience shows that part-Gypsies play the greatest role in Gypsy criminality. On the other hand, it has been shown that efforts to make the Gypsies settle have been unsuccessful, especially in the case of pure Gypsies, on account of their strong compulsion to wander. It has therefore become necessary to distinguish between pure and part-Gypsies in the final solution to the Gypsy question. The aim of the measures taken by the State to defend the homogeneity of the German nation must be the physical separation of Gypsydom from the German people and the regulation of the Gypsy way of life. The necessary legal foundation can only be created through a Gypsy Law which prevents further intermingling of blood.
P – The “directive” from one of the most powerful Nazis – Heidrich Himmler – just before the Second World War was about to begin
A – Valuable: displays Nazi hatred for different races such as “the Gypsy nuisance” that were not in the Volk through propaganda such as this (propaganda and speeches from Nazi leaders tended to boost German morale)
Not Valuable: Could be emphasised for dramatic effect as it is propaganda against the Gypsies.
C – “derived from race-biological research, have shown that the proper method of attacking the Gypsy problem seem to be to treat it as a matter of race” – Social Darwinism had heavy links to the Nazi’s beliefs because it aligned with the idea that a master race can be created, with the master race being the Aryans
T – Angry tone, showing Himmler’s distain for the Gypsies
‘The Nazi concept of Volksgemeinschaft was primarily a mean of justifying the systematic persecution of minority groups in German society’
Assess the validity of this view:
Context: The Volk was created as a primary way to exclude minorities because it promoted the ideals of a “perfect” German citizen, who was an Aryan. Other propaganda was made against the excluded minorities which further isolated them from society.
Balance: It can be argued that the Volk was not made primary to justify the systematic persecution of minority groups, but rather to promote the Nazi belief of Anschluss (the unification of all Germans in Europe). With more land occupied, more people were susceptible to indoctrination and join the Volkgemeinschaft.
Argument: Both sides of the argument are valid, but the points of the Volk being created to justify the systematic persecution of minority groups is a better argument. This is because it was so heavily ingrained into German society, starting at a young age to create children who were dependant on the Nazi-created mould of what a perfect Aryan was and what an Untermenschen was.
Point 1: Propaganda that backed the ideas of the Volk
Goebbels ran propaganda in Germany and promoted the Aryan race and demonized Untermenschen (Jews + other ostracized groups like the Roma and Sinti and asocials)
Volkgemeinschaft was established in 1920s by the Nazi Party to promote racial purity and loyalty to the Fuher (Mention Social Darwinism)
Why is proves the statement is true: The Volk created a sense of superiority within the German people, which provided a great morale boost; it could be argued this spiked Hitler’s popularity
Point 2: Why Point 1 could be invalid
The German people had to consume propaganda based off the same points – racial impurity, loyalty to the Fuher and the importance of the Volk – every day via posters and radio broadcasts which could get boring
By this point in the Nazi party’s development, it was still unclear how to classify who was a Jew which created confusion (not established until September 1935 with the Nuremburg Laws with two sections: Protection of German Honour and Blood and the Reich Citizenship Law)
Why this proves it to be false: Overconsumption of Nazi media dulled the impact of the message
Point 3: The Volk was inspired by Hitler’s need for Anschluss
Instances of Anschluss in the Nazi regime were with the consensual invasion of Austria in March 1938, described as a “bloodless victory”
The Volk could possibly be another instance of this as it created a sense of community for the German people as it unified them (this ideal would have been further implemented the larger the German population got through Hitler’s Lebensraum)
Why this proves the original statement to be false: despite sharing sentiments with the statement, it differs from it and could potentially be more valid than said statement because it focuses on how it convinced the people through means other than the propaganda they would have to consume every day as this could get boring for them to see and hear every day.
Conclusion: On balance, I believe the original statement is the most valid. This is because it presents credible points about that the Volk was founded on the desire to create total devotion to the Fuher by utilising propaganda and promoted as scientifically backed that people included in the Volk were racially superior to the Untermenschen.
What policies were used to develop Volksgemeinschaft?
Youth - Hitler Youth, League of German Girls
Women - Focus on childbirth with Reich Mothers Service, restriction on education
Workers - DAF, KdF
Churches - Reich Church
Nazi Policies Towards the Jews (1933-1937):
April 1933 - Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
April 1933 - Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
April 1933 - Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities
April 1933 - Jewish doctors banned
September 1935 - The Nuremberg Laws
November 1935 - Supplementary Decree on the Reich Citizenship Law
What were the Nuremburg Laws?
Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour (banned interracial marriage and sexual relations between Aryans and Jews)
Reich Citizenship Law (helped give Nazis precise definition of what a Jew was)
also applied to the Roma and Sinti!
By 1935, the Nazis had effectively excluded the Jews from German society’
Assess the validity of this view.
Context: Nazis had excluded Jews from German Society by 1935 because of the banning of Jews from several aspects of German life such as certain professions
Balance: The Nazis were not able to exclude Jews from German Society by 1935 because nobody was certain what a Jew was despite the Nuremburg Laws being implemented by this time.
Argument: On balance the Nazis were able to exclude Jews from German society by 1935 because by this time the Jews were forced to leave their jobs and dignity as they were now classed as Untermenschen.
Point 1: Nazis had excluded Jews from German Society by 1935
Policies towards Jews – The Nuremberg Laws (September 1935) had a build-up from past laws such as the April 1933 ban on Jews working as doctors or lawyers
Nuremburg Laws banned Jews and Aryans having sexual relationships or getting married (Protection of German Blood and Honour)
Relied on Social Darwinism to justify their claims that Jewish people were a sub-human race
Point 2: Nazis had not fully excluded Jews from German Society by 1935
1935 Nuremburg Laws did not define was a Jew really was until the update to the Reich Citizenship Law – the second part of the Nuremburg Laws – in November 1935 with the Supplementary Decree on the Reich Citizenship Law
Shows why this idea is valid: Even the Nazis were confused on what defined a Jewish person as Jewish despite their supposed scientific backing via Social Darwinism
Conclusion: On balance, it is evident the Nazi Party were able to exclude Jews from German Society by 1935. This is because just a year after Hitler had begun the radicalisation of the German state, his Totalitarian government were implementing laws that targeted Jewish people as to remove them from his ideal Aryan race.
What was Anschluss?
March 1938 - The consensual invasion of Austria, described as a ‘bloodless victory’
