Nazi Germany and Antisemitism Lecture Notes

This set of flashcards covers major concepts related to Nazi Germany, antisemitism, and events leading up to and during the Holocaust based on lecture notes.

What is racial antisemitism?

Claims that Jews are biologically distinct and immutable, justifying the stripping of rights and mass murder as a 'biological defense.'

What was the Volksgemeinschaft?

Nazi goal of a unified, class-harmonious Aryan national community framed by inclusion/exclusion policies.

What are the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?

A Tsarist-era forgery alleging a Jewish world conspiracy, significant as a bestseller that fed Nazi propaganda.

What is Social Darwinism?

Misuse of Darwinism to rank peoples/races, underpinning eugenics, sterilization, and exterminatory thinking.

What is Pan-Germanism?

A movement to unite all ethnic Germans into one state, justifying expansion and annexation.

What does Lebensraum mean?

Expansionist doctrine to conquer the East for German settlement, central to Nazi war aims and genocide.

What was the Stab-in-the-Back Myth?

Claim that Germany lost WWI not militarily but was betrayed by leftists and Jews, fueling Nazi revenge politics.

What was the Treaty of Versailles?

Imposed penalties on Germany post-WWI; became a rallying cry for nationalists and a promise by the Nazis to overturn it.

What was the Weimar Republic?

Germany's interwar democracy, marked by fragile coalition politics and crises that enabled Nazi rise to power.

What occurred during the Reichstag Fire?

The parliament building was burned, and Nazis used the opportunity to suspend civil liberties and crush opposition.

What was the Enabling Act?

A law allowing Hitler’s cabinet to legislate without parliament, establishing the legal foundation of Nazi dictatorship.

What does Gleichschaltung mean?

Forced alignment of institutions with Nazi rule, establishing a one-party totalitarian state.

What was the purpose of the SA (Sturmabteilung)?

Nazi paramilitary used for street violence that helped them seize power, later purged in 1934.

What was the significance of the SS (Schutzstaffel)?

Elite organization responsible for police, camps, and genocide under Himmler's leadership.

What happened during the Night of the Long Knives?

Purge of SA leadership and opposition, securing army loyalty and consolidating Hitler's power.

What was the Four-Year Plan?

Göring-led program aimed at rearmament and economic self-sufficiency in Nazi Germany.

What were the Nuremberg Laws?

Laws that stripped Jews of citizenship, banned intermarriage, and defined 'Jew' by ancestry.

What was Kristallnacht?

State-orchestrated pogrom against Jews marked by violence, arrests, and significant property destruction.

What was the Kindertransport?

Rescue operation for about 10,000 Jewish children to Britain amid global reluctance to accept adult refugees.

What occurred at the Evian Conference?

32 nations met regarding Jewish refugees, resulting in minimal commitments and highlighting global reluctance.

What was the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?

Non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR, which allowed for the invasion of Poland.

What were the historical boundaries established after WWI in Central and Eastern Europe?

Creation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic states, which caused minority issues later exploited by Nazis.

What led to the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany?

Combination of reparations pressures, occupation of the Ruhr, and the government’s money printing policies.

Who were the main enemies of the Nazi regime?

Bolsheviks, Slavs, Roma, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and political dissidents.