Racial Policies of Anti-Semitism and Genocide

Anti-Semitism: The Context

  • Right-wing volkisch nationalism grew post-WWI due to factors like the 'stab in the back' myth and the Treaty of Versailles.
  • By the early 1920s, ~70 right-wing racist parties existed, including the Nazi Party.
  • Factors contributing to anti-Semitism: death of Christ, Jewish wealth/position, need for scapegoats, influx of Jews from Tsarist Russia, and the idea of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
  • Hitler exploited anti-Jewish sentiment, making it a core ideology.
  • The Nazi approach to anti-Semitism was gradual, with early measures not indicating the final result.
  • Opposition to discrimination was difficult due to the established dictatorship.

Legal Discrimination

  • Initial concerns tempered immediate actions against Jewish people.
  • A one-day national boycott on April 1, 1933, targeted Jewish businesses but faced limited acceptance.
  • The Nuremberg Laws formalized anti-Semitism, stripping Jews of civil rights.
    • Reich Citizenship Act: Jews lost citizenship.
    • Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor: banned marriage/relations between Jews and Germans.
  • Subsequent decrees (1938-1939) further excluded Jews from various aspects of life.

Nazi Policies Towards Jewish People 1933-39

  • Persecution escalated, affecting over half a million Jews in Germany.
  • April 1933: Boycott of Jewish shops and professions was largely ineffective.
  • Laws were introduced to exclude Jews from civil service, journalism, and other professions.
  • Nuremberg Laws (1935) formalized anti-Semitism.

Propaganda and Indoctrination

  • Nazis used propaganda to promote anti-Semitism and cultivate hatred towards Jews.
  • Goebbels censored Jewish-associated culture and used various methods (posters, newspapers, cinema) to spread anti-Semitic messages.
  • German youth were indoctrinated through the Hitler Youth and revised school curricula.
  • "Action against the Un-German Spirit" led to book burnings.

Terror and Violence

  • SA violence against Jews became sporadic after June 1934, partly due to the Berlin Olympics and conservative influences.
  • Dismissal of conservatives in 1937 paved the way for more extreme anti-Semitic policies.
  • The Anschluss with Austria led to violence and humiliation for Austrian Jews.
  • Registration of Jewish property was decreed.

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

  • November 9-10, 1938: A turning point marked by systematic violence against Jews.
  • Prompted by the assassination of Ernst von Rath.
  • Included destruction of homes/businesses, burning synagogues, and deportations.
  • Goring exploited Kristallnacht to advance the exclusion of Jews from economic life.

Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration

  • Forced emigration became a key policy.
  • Offices were established in Vienna and later in Germany to facilitate Jewish emigration, often financed by confiscated Jewish property.
  • Approximately half of Germany's Jewish population (250,000) had left before the war.

Conclusion (1933-1939)

  • Nazi anti-Semitism radicalized in 1938 with laws, violence, and forced emigration.
  • Hitler's Reichstag speech on January 30, 1939, threatened the annihilation of the Jewish race if war broke out.

War and Genocide (1939-1945)

  • Policies during the war included ghettos, Einsatzgruppen actions, and the Wannsee Conference.
  • Key events:
    • September 1939: Invasion of Poland, SS Einsatzgruppen deployed.
    • April 1940: First sealed ghetto in Lodz.
    • June 1941: Einsatzgruppen action in the USSR.
    • September 1941: Jews forced to wear the Star of David.
    • January 1942: Wannsee Conference, planning the 'Final Solution'.
    • Spring 1942: Extermination camps established.
    • 1942-44: Transportation to death camps.
    • January 1945: Liberation of Auschwitz.

Policies Towards Jews During the War

  • Emigration was favored until the war, but became difficult afterward.
  • War increased the number of Jews under German control.
  • Poland was divided, with harsh consequences for Poles and Polish Jews.
  • SS Einsatzgruppen targeted resistance and Polish leadership.

Polish Jews

  • Violent persecution, mass shootings.
  • Plans to resettle Jews in the Lublin reservation were abandoned.

Ghettoisation

  • Ghettos were established in cities like Lodz and Warsaw as temporary holding areas.
  • From spring 1940, ghettos were sealed, leading to appalling conditions, malnutrition, disease, and deaths.

Invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa)

  • SS Einsatzgruppen mass murdered Jews and communists.
  • Approximately 600,000 Russian Jews were killed by the end of 1941.

The Final Solution

  • No written order from Hitler for killing Jews has been found.

The Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942)

  • Focused on coordinating logistics and securing agency support for the Final Solution.

Extermination

  • Several camps in Poland were transformed into mass extermination centers (Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka).
  • 6 million European Jews died in total.

Conclusion

  • Hitler’s authority enabled initiatives from below that aligned with his ideology.
  • The Nazis' hatred of Jews evolved into a systematic extermination plan.
  • Systematic extermination policy decided around autumn 1941, endorsed at Wannsee Conference in January 1942.