The Racial State

Nazi beliefs • Citizenship:

– Only members of German race had right to be citizens of Germany. – Jews, in particular, should be denied rights of citizenship.

• i.e. to vote or hold public office.

• Racism:

– Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nordic Germans (Aryans) were a Volk, a race – the master race.

– All other races were inferior – arranged in a hierarchy. • Bottom of hierarchy = blacks. Beneath them = ‘non-people’ like gypsies & Jews.

– It was Germans’ duty to keep the German race ‘pure’ by… • Having children only with Aryans. • Restricting what other races could do.

– It was Germans’ destiny to conquer lands of inferior races. • Slavs to the east. • Use to provide resources & living space.

Persecution of minority groups

• ‘Undesirables’

– Nazi’s persecuted min. grps who ref. to conform or they believed threatened ‘purity’ of G race.

– As well as Jews, ‘undesirables’ inc…

• Homosexuals (many sent to CCs)

• Gypsies (CCs where many died – during war foreign gypsies even more so).

• The mentally ill (CCs).

Persecution of minority groups

• Sterilisation Law:

– July 1933 Nazi’s passed Sterilisation Law

– Allowed Nazis to sterilize people with certain illnesse (‘simple mindedness’ & ‘chronic alcoholism’)

– Sep 1933 – massive round-up of ‘tramps & beggars’ – many sterilized.

• 1934 to 1945 = 320 000-350 000 men & women compulsorily sterilized.

Persecution of minority groups

• Concentration camps:

– By 1936 the ‘work shy’, tramps & beggars, alcoholics, prostitutes, homosexuals & juvenile delinquents being sent to CCs.

– Special youth CC est. 1937.

– 1938 – another round-up = 11 000 beggars, tramps & Gypsies (most sent to Buchenwald)

– Many Gs welcomed removal of ‘awkward customers’

Persecution of minority groups • Euthanasia programme

– ‘Euth’ means ‘a quiet & easy death’

– 1939 – H started prog. under his name to kill people with physical & mental disabilities who Ns judged to have lead worthless lives at expense of State.

• >5000 children in clinics killed (starvation or lethal inj)

• >71000 adults killed (inj. or gassing)

– 1941 – H stopped prog. in face of protests started by Catholic priests.

Grafeneck Asylum

Persecution of the Jews

Mein Kampf

...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.

Persecution of the Jews - background • Anti-Semitism common in Europe for centuries

• Early 20th C harsh in Russia – many Russian Jews moved to G & other Euro countries.

• Pre-1933, anti-S feeling less prominent in G than some surrounding countries.

• Many G Jews poor but some had done well.

• 1933 – Jews = <1% of G pop. – Prominent in some professions

• 16% of lawyers = Jews

• 17% of bankers = Jews.

• 10 000 Jewish doctors

Persecution of the Jews - background • From its birth Nazi Party campaigned against the Jews.

– H blamed Jews for… • Gs defeat in 1918

• Inflation of 1923

• Econ. collapse 1929-32

• Many people who voted for Nazis did not think they would act on their ideas.

• First two years of Nazi rule = little organized persecution of Jews (Nazis fearful of middle class & international criticism – later eg. = Berlin Olympics)

• 1935 – H had achieved many of initial aims, felt he was in a stronger position to advance some of Nazi’s more extreme measures – Nuremburg Laws

Persecution of the Jews

• Phases of Nazi racial policy towards the Jews:

1. Vilification

2. Discrimination

3. Separation

4. Extermination

• Start of direct action against G Jews began weeks after Nazis came to power (April 1933 boycott)

The Nuremburg Laws

• Main purpose = to isolate Jews as separate group in G society.

– First law forbade marriage bet. G & Jews

– Second law deprived all G Jews of their citizenship.

– Subsequent law – govt defined what was meant by term ‘Jew’

• Identified not by religion, but by blood of grandparents

‘A Jew is anyone who is descended from at least three grandparents who are racially full Jews…a Jew is also one who

is descended from two full Jewish parents.’

Persecution of the Jews

• Propaganda:

– In schools…

• Children taught to hate Jews.

• Textbooks put across anti-Semitic ideas.

– N controlled newspapers & magazines bombarded adults with anti-Semitic articles & cartoons.

Propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda What a creature is the Jew.

Not even his own women he likes.

To share himself a German wife

He thinks just cute. You bet your life!

Look at Jew and girl right here:

‘Tis sure he can’t be thought her peer!

Compare him with this German Frau.

He cuts a pitiable figure now!

I would the Jew had sense to own

He’d best leave German girls alone.

Try his own “kalle” instead.

Propaganda The Führer’s Youth

The boys who are true Germans

To Hitler’s Youth belong.

They want to live for their Führer,

Their eyes are fixed on the future.

Bigger and stronger they have become.

The German heritage is theirs.

The great and sacred Fatherland

Stands today as it ever stood.

From this picture may be seen,

Hitler Youth in splendid mien,

From smallest to the biggest boy.

All are husky, tough, and strong.

They love their German Führer

And God in Heaven they fear.

But the Jews they must despise!

They’re not like these boys,

So Jews must just give way!

Propaganda

What did Hitler say about propaganda?

Mein Kampf (ch. 6): The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual,

but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision ...

All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole

people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be extended in this direction.

It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance…

Thus we see that propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound ...

What, for example, would we say about a poster that was supposed to advertise a new soap and that described other soaps as 'good'?

We would only shake our heads.

Exactly the same applies to political advertising.

The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to

argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to

serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.

What did Hitler say about propaganda?

Persecution of the Jews

• Emigration:

– 1933-39 – about ½ pop. of Jews in G emigrated.

• Mainly to Palestine, USA & Brit.

• About 250000 (mainly poorest) remained in G

Attack on rights & freedoms, 1933-39

1933

1934

H orders boycott of J shops & bus

SA paint Jude on windows, try to persuade public not to enter

Law to exclude Jews from govt jobs.

Thousands of Jewish civil servants, lawyers & uni teachers sacked.

Local councils ban Jews from public spaces (parks, playing fields, swimming pools)

Attack on rights & freedoms, 1933-39 1935

1936-7

‘Nuremburg Laws’ – Sep 15

The Reich Law on Citizenship – only people of German blood can be citizens (vote, hold govt office etc.)

Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour – forbids marriage bet. Jews & G citizens

Prof. activities of Jews banned or restricted (inc. vets, dentists, accountants, teachers, nurses)

Attack on rights & freedoms, 1933-39 1938

1939

Qualif. Jewish doctors cancelled. Jews w non-J names must change. Kristallnacht – Nov 9 – Following murder of a G diplomat in Paris by a Jew, SA start three-day campaign to destroy Jewish shops, homes, synagogues (90 killed, 20000 arrest. put in CC) Jewish children exc. from schools & unis Jews no longer allowed to run shops & businesses. Forbidden to own radios, buy chocolate & cake.

Kristallnacht Werner Coppel

You must first remember the context of my experience. In 1938, I was 13 years old and had experienced Nazi Germany for the last five years. I was 8 years old in 1933 when the Nazi party took over the German government. Even with this beginning event, my whole lifestyle as a Jewish child changed drastically.

I lived in a small town with a very small Jewish community. There were about 220 Jews in my community, and only about 22 Jewish children. Our whole life centered on a small room in our town’s synagogue, which was our safe haven from the outside world and from Nazi Germany. At this point in time, Jews were not allowed on playgrounds or in parks. We were not allowed entrance to movies or restaurants. There were signs that stated, “Jews and dogs prohibited” or “Jews die in the gutter.”

All the children gathered in the synagogue every day. The cub scouts and girl scouts were put together, based on what training they had. There were Zionist overtones to our community; the ultimate goal was to return to Israel. When we were in the synagogue, we were not bothered with what was going on in the outside world. It was in that very room in the synagogue that I was able to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah in February of 1938. It was a very simple celebration with soft drinks and cake, but it was held in a safe environment.

It happened on November 9th. I had heard 2 or 3 days earlier that von Rath had been shot and killed by a Jewish boy in Paris. I had no idea what would happen later.

All the synagogues in Germany were destroyed. In our town, the synagogue was not burned, because if it was burned it would have burned down the entire block, and the Nazis did not want this. However, no one stopped them from destroying the entire inside of the synagogue. This changed my entire life, as this had been our safe haven. In 1936, every Jewish ID card had to be stamped with the letter “J” for “Jude,” meaning “Jew.” Now with Kristallnacht, every Jewish male had to add the name “Israel” and every Jewish female had to add the name “Sarah.” So, I became Werner Israel Coppel. My entire social life stopped, and life changed direction completely. I was eventually sent to Auschwitz in 1945.

Now as I look back 70 years later, the lesson for all of us is that what happened in Germany was a consequence of racism, hate, and prejudice. Every new generation must be aware that the cancer of hate and prejudice is also with us today. There is no way anyone can walk away from messages that contain racism, prejudice, name-calling, etc. You must always stand up against racism and prejudice, even if you are not being directly persecuted.

Kristallnacht

A few of the laws re: Persecution of the Jews

• Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

• Law Against the Overcrowding of German Schools

• Hereditary Farm Law

• Reich Citizenship Law

• Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour

The ‘Final Solution’

• The Wannsee Conference, January 1942

– Nazi leaders meet to discuss how to kill all European Jews.

– Decided to evacuate them by rail to five secret ‘extermination camps’ to be built in remote areas of Poland & equipped with gas chambers.

Text sources:

• Mason, KJ (2015) Germany 1918-1945.

• Lacey & Shephard (2002). Germany 1928-1945.

• Mason & Leonard (2001). Modern World History to GSCE

Websites

• http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/Der-Stuermer.htm

• https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kampf.html

• http://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/kristallnacht/cincinnati-eyewitness-testimonies/