How Did The Nazis Deal With Minorities?

By Amina and Bethany

How Did The Nazis Deal With Minorities?

In our presentation, we will be answering the question of how did the Nazis deal with minorities. There are many ways in which the dealing of minorities by Nazis could be interpreted:1. Nazi beliefs on race2. Nazi treatment of Jews in

1933-1939 through legal terror and discrimination

3. War Years (1939-45)

What is a minority? A minority group is a group that has less control or power over the members

of the dominant group. In this case the Nazis were the dominant group and the minorities

were anyone who didn’t fit into their race beliefs.

Nazi beliefs on race…Hitler

believed in the

master race, The Aryans.

A large percenta

ge of Slavs, were

willing to be

‘germanised’

Non Aryans consisted of

primarily Jews but

also anyone who didn’t

fit into the Aryan idea.

Non Aryan people were subject to

the law.

Aryans were blonde

with blue eyes.

Hitler believed that non Aryans

weakened the purity

of the race.

Nazi beliefs on race. Hitler believed in the master race, the Aryans. This race consisted of both boys and girls who had certain features to match the idea of what he thought to be right. Hitler said that one of the main reasons that Germany lost the First World War was that the German race had married into

non-Aryans and in the process, weakened the purity of the race.

Appearance of an Aryan. Aryans were tall, long legged and slim. They were narrow faced, and had narrow features including narrow forehead, narrow high built nose and a prominent chin. Their hair

was smooth, straight or wavy, only being curly in childhood. Predominately, they were blonde with blue eyes.

What the Nazis thought of people who weren’t Aryan. Non Aryans consisted of primarily Jews but also anyone who didn’t fit into the Aryan idea. However, a large percentage of Slavs who were willing to be

‘Germanised’ were accepted as Aryans. These people consisted of Poles, Russians and Czechs. Non Aryan people were subject to the laws, although the laws were mainly aimed at Jews in particular.

Gypsies were seen as a huge threat because they were not only non ayran but also thought to be work-shy. The fact that there were only 30,000 in Germany made no difference; the Nazis still thought it was

necessary to prevent the mixture with Aryans. Black people were treated exactly the same.

The group of ‘vagrants’ included beggers, young people who had left home and menmoving whilst trying to find work in different towns. These groups of people were forced to work, the

SS rounding up 11,000 of these vagrants in 1938 and placing them in various concentration camps.

Finally, a mental condition (no matter how serious) was classed as hereditary and could under no circumstances be cured. Nazis actions became all the more extreme after the outbreak of World War

2, setting up the ‘public ambulance service ltd’ to euthanize the mentally ill. By 1945, this had murdered 70,000 people.

Nazi treatment of Jews…

Nazi treatment of Jews in 1933-39 through legal terror and discrimination. There were many ways in which the Nazis discriminated against the Jews.

After 1933, the Jews became known as the ‘untermenschen’ meaning the ‘sub-humans’. Nazi thugs known as the SA and SS were given a free hand on their treatment of Jews. As a

result of this, they stopped the German people from shopping in Jewish shops. The consequence of this was that the Jewish people had less money, gradually reducing their

quality of life.

The Jews were frequently referred to in ‘Mein Kampf’, Hitler’s hate for them being made evident. Many references such as the ‘filthy Jew’ and the fact that Hitler thought the Jews

planned to ‘contaminate’ the blood of pure Germans. By 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with the yellow star of David or had the word ‘Juden’ written on the window. To

deter anyone from entering, SA men would stand outside the shops. This wouldn’t be classed as a violent approach on the Jews – this was yet to come. The reason for this was to

economically bankrupt the Jews and destroy everything the Jews had built up over the years.

On everything from buses to park benches, the Jewish people had to sit on seats especially assigned for them making them feel not only excluded but also embarrassed to be Jewish.

Next, children at school were taught specific anti-semitic ideas. Jews were regularly ridiculed at school by both teachers and bullied by fellow pupils as they would remain

unpunished. If the Jewish children refused to go to school, this was yet another reason for the negative propaganda with the idea that Jews were lazy and could not be bothered to

attend school.

1935-1937 were the years that the Nuremburg laws were passed. This meant that the Jews lost their rights to be German citizens. As well as this, Germans were forbidden to marry

non-Jews. This was a very important aspect in answering the question ‘How did Nazis deal with minorities’ because it was after this law was put into place that the Nazis really began their violence against the Jews openly. Those Jews that could pay a fine would be allowed to leave the country. However, to no surprise, many could not and many shops refused to sell food to those who remained within the country. It was not only food that was refused

to be sold; medicine was also hard for Jewish people to get hold of.

It was in 1938, when it reached a pre-war peak, with Krystallnacht - the night of the broken glass. It was in November 1938 that a Nazi ‘diplomat’ was shot dead by a Jew in Paris. This

caused Hitler to order a seven day campaign of terror against the Jews which would be organised by Himmler and the SS. The 10th of November was when this campaign started. 10,000 Jewish shops were not only destroyed but all the contents were stolen. Homes and

synagogues were set on fire.

At this point, the fire brigades loyalty to Hitler was made evident as they assumed the buildings would burn down, apparently not seeing the point in preventing it. Within this

one year, a lot of damage was done to Jewish property, however the Jewish community was made to pay a one million mark fine to pay for when the eventual clear up took place. Jews

were then forced to scrub the streets clean.

The years after 1939 was when the minorities were segregated in ghettos, after being alienated for years, and shipped to various concentration camps some of which were

Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Flossenburg.

War Years

Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen. The official purpose of the Einsatzgruppen was to kill revolutionary fighters in the Soviet Union, but in practice their main function was to kill Soviet Jews.

They were a specialized German force. Fundamentally, they were mobile killing units, also known as death squads. Their job was to kill mainly Jews, behind German lines on the Eastern front. All Einsatzgruppen groups (A, B, C and D) were posted in different areas behind the eastern front. The Einsatzgruppen mainly consisted of SS parliamentary forces who were primarily employed to eliminate Jews and also communist party officials.

Their purpose was to murder the Jews and more importantly, kill them on the spot – and not only Jews but also communists, gypsies and political leaders were killed with no remorse. Police battalions, Waffen SS units, the Higher SS, and Police Leaders also carried out the mass executions. In 1941, the Soviet territory was invaded.

Final solution

The final solution. Hitler’s only question was how to get rid of the Jews. The murdering of these Jews was classed as the final solution which began in the summer of 1941 and Hitler thought this answered

his question in the process bringing an end to the Jews...precisely what he wanted.

In 1938, Hitler had almost all control over Europe. The Nazis considered this ‘Jewish question’ as no longer a German issue but instead a European issue. Germany then invaded the Soviet Union to gather

up even more Jews.

Most of these Jews were then sent to concentration camps and this was the start of answering the question. At first, the Jews were killed with simple methods such as being fired at with guns and their

bodies being put in pits which they had dug up themselves. However, this killed too few and took up too much time. By summer, 1941, newer techniques were developed and the number of Jews being

assassinated was increasing drastically.

They were sent to concentration camps in loads. It was very common for many people to die along the way of starvation. Many of the others were killed practically as soon as they arrived. Unlike death

camps, more than 6,000 died in the gas chambers alone. Instantly after the death, the bodies were dumped into crematoriums and burned.

Destruction through labour also took place which meant that many people died through physical work. In Hitlers eyes, the Final Solution was a success and so it continued throughout the war. The

sonderkommando were death camp prisoners, composed entirely of Jews who were forced to remove valuables from dead bodies, on threat of their own deaths.