Volksgemeinschaft

Question 1

Volksgemeinschaft
Background Fact - how did they see minorities?

Answer 1

The Nazis saw numerous minorities as inferior to the ideal Aryan race, which they created to outcast non-Nazis from the rest of Germany.

Question 2

Volksgemeinschaft
Mentally ill or disabled people - Law

Answer 2

• In July 1933, the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily diseased Offspring was introduced.

✔ This was effective because it was introduced as a law and not just an option. Those who were disabled or mentally ill had to be sterilised.

Question 3

Volksgemeinschaft
Mentally ill or disabled people - Sterilisation

Answer 3

This law forced sterilisation onto those with disabilities or mental illnesses to stop the passing of disabilities to future children of Germany. 350,000 people were sterilised.

✔ This was effective as is stopped disabilities from being passed to Aryan children, populating the Volksgemeinschaft further.

x However, Parents were often threatened to agree to this, causing fear and forcing parents to sterilise their children.

Question 4

Volksgemeinschaft
Homosexuals - Pink triangle

Answer 4

• Gay people, predominantly gay men, were sent to labour camps in which they were forced to wear a pink triangle on their clothes.

✔ This took them from the eyes of the public and reinforced the Volksgemeinschaft in Germany.

Question 5

Volksgemeinschaft
Homosexuals - Castrated

Answer 5

• Gay people were often castrated and experimented on. If SS officers were found to be gay, they were also shot.

✔ This reduced the amount of homosexuals in Germany and those who were still unknown kept it secret, reinforcing the Volksgemeinschaft.

x However, homosexuals could keep their sexuality a secret, unless they were found or denounced.

Question 6

Volksgemeinschaft
Jewish people - Nuremberg laws

Answer 6

• The 1933 Nuremberg laws stopped relations between Jews and non-Jews and Jews were also deprived of their German citizenships.

✔ These laws outcasted Jews from the rest of Aryan society because they were saw as sub-human and non-German (even if they were German nationally).

Question 7

Volksgemeinschaft
Jewish people - Nose tests

Answer 7

• Genetic tests were carried out to determine whether a person was Jewish or not. This included measuring a person’s nose, as Jews had stereotypically large noses.

✔ This reinforced the idea that Jews were sub-human and outcasts from the Volksgemeinschaft.

x However, Jewish businesses were also banned in 1938, which was ineffective as Jewish businesses largely contributed to Germany’s already failing economy.

Question 8

Volksgemeinschaft
Historians - Key element

Answer 8

Micheal Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann - Racial anti-Semitism largely contributed to the recovery of the Aryan race.

Question 9

Volksgemeinschaft
Historians -

Answer 9

Ian Kershaw - The Nazis were successful in creating a Volksgemeinschaft through the removal of Jews from German society. Otherwise, the attempt to create the Volksgemeinschaft was not successful.