5. Persecution of minorities

Herrenvolk

Master race, Aryans

Untermenschen

Lesser races: Jews, Gypsies, disabled

Who were the 'Mischling'?

People of mixed race

How did the Nazis persecute gay people?

• Shut down gay organisations

• Banned books by gay authors

• Arrested around 100,000 gay men

• 50,000 sent to prison

• 5,000–10,000 sent to concentration camps

• Forced to wear pink triangles

Why did the Nazis target gay and lesbian people?

• Seen as a threat to Nazi ideas of family life

• Did not fit the ideal of reproducing to grow the Aryan race

• Exploited existing public prejudice

What was the Nazi 'euthanasia programme'?

• Began in 1939

• Targeted babies, children, and adults with disabilities

• At least 5,000 children killed

• 72,000 adults gassed between 1939–41

• Methods included injection and starvation

What happened when the public learned about the killings?

• A public outcry in 1941

• Nazis officially stopped the programme

• Secret killings continued after

How did the Nazis treat the Roma people?

• Viewed as racially inferior

• Targeted for extermination

• 5 out of 6 Roma in Germany killed

Who were considered ‘asocials' by the Nazis?

• Alcoholics

• Beggars

• Prostitutes

• Homeless people

• Habitual criminals

What did the Nazis do to ‘asocials’?

• Rounded up off the streets

• Sent to concentration camps

What is antisemitism?

Hatred towards Jews

Why did Hitler hate Jews?

• Blamed them for Germany’s WWI defeat

• Resented their success in business

• Believed they threatened Aryan racial purity

• Saw them as “parasites” and “enemies of the state”

What was the ‘Final Solution’?

• Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe

• Led to the Holocaust and mass murder in extermination camps

What were the 1935 Nuremberg Laws?

Introduced two major laws:

• Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour:

  • Banned marriage & sexual relations b/w Jews & Aryans

• Reich Citizenship Law:

  • Only Aryans = full citizens

  • Classified people into:

    • Aryans

    • Mischling

    • Non-Aryans

What early actions did the Nazis take against Jewish people in 1933?

• Banned Jews from Civil Service, teaching, and broadcasting

• SA and SS organized boycotts of Jewish shops (marked with Star of David)

• Anti-Jewish propaganda spread through schools and media

• Jewish children were humiliated and later segregated in schools

• Daily discrimination: refused jobs, denied service in shops

When did Kristallnacht occur?

November 1938

What prompted Kristallnacht?

A young Jew killed a G diplomat in Paris and Nazis used this as an excuse to launch violent revenge on Jews

What occurred on Kristallnacht?

• SS troops in plain clothes sent to Jewish businesses

• Smashed Jewish shops

• 91 Jews killed

• 20 000 taken to concentration camps

How did the Nazis advertise Kristallnacht as?

A spontaneous reaction of ordinary Gs against Jews

Who had to pay for the consequences of Kristallnacht?

1 billion marks of damaged property payed by Jews (rented from G owners)

Nazi policies after Kristallnacht?

• Jews banned from G schools

• 1938 Jewish businesses confiscated

• Jews forced to add new first names to their identification papers (Israel and Sarah) to make it easier to identify them

• Stamped red J on passports