my friend and i split our nazi germany study notes so i only did the last dot points.
________________________________________________________________
Hitler’s Role in the Nazi State:
- 30th January 1933 Adolf Hitler was sworn into office as Chancellor after a power struggle within the Reichstag. Former Chancellor Papen was to serve as vice-chancellor and there would be few Nazi ministers in the Government. It was in this way that Hindenburg and Papen thought they would be able to control what Hitler did.
- 14th March 1933 Enabling Law passed which enabled Hitler to create laws without consultation with the Reichstag.
-
“ My Fuhrer! … I feel compelled by unceasing love to thank our creator daily for … giving us and the entire German people such as wonderful Fuhrer…”
- an extract from a typical letter sent to Hitler in 1936
(cited in I. Kershaw, The Hitler Myth, 1991, p. 81
Fuehrer Prinzip (Leadership Principle) and Fuehrer Myth encouraged tremendous loyalty to Hitler. The Fuehrer Myth created a heroic image of Hitler, crafted for him by the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Josef Goebbels. The public was lead to believe that Hitler was an altruistic (selfless) individual who sacrificed his personal happiness by working tremendously long hours, day and night, for the good of the nation. Hitler was presented as being personally responsible for numerous achievements ranging from ending employment to planning the military victory over France in 1940.
- 2nd August 1934 President Hindenburg died. Hitler combined the roles of President and Chancellor and gave himself the title “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor”. The army swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
Oath of Allegiance
‘I will render unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the supreme commander of the armed forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to stake my life at any time for this oath’
-
Hitler had become a dictator, with the army’s and SS support to instil authority through terror and fear.
Nazism as Totalitarianism:
- Totalitarian: relating to a centralised dictatorial form of government requiring complete subservience to the state
- Structure/Hierarchy of the Nazi Party
HITLER
GAULEITERS (district leaders)
KREISLEITERS (area leaders)
ORTSGRUPPEFREHRER (local group leaders)
ZELLENLEITERS (cell leaders)
BLOCKLEITERS (block leaders)
- As Hitler was Fuehrer all party officials reported to him
- Complete loyalty to the party was expected: if not, one would be liable to persecution by the SS and Gestapo
- Indoctrination ensured that younger generations would remain loyal to the Nazi Party
- 7th April 1933 Hitler put Nazi officials in charge of the local governments which ran Germany’s provinces. The beginning of Hitler’s Gleichschaltung (coordination). This ensured that Hitler had control over all of Germany.
- 2nd May 1933 Hitler closed down trade unions, took away their funds and put their leaders in prison.
- 14th July 1933 Hitler made the Law against the Formation of New Parties, this said that the Nazi Party was the only part allowed to exist in Germany. Germany had become a one party state.
The role of propaganda, terror and repression; SA and SS; opposition to Nazism:
- The role of propaganda was to promote Nazi ideology and its aim was to persuade large numbers of people to agree with Nazi ideology.
Josef Goebbels Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda said in 1937: “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.”
- Propaganda served as the initial way that Hitler and the Nazi Party gained entry to Parliament, as Goebbels had designed massive amounts of propaganda (i.e Hitler over Germany) to hammer home the message “Vote Nazi”
- Goebbel’s most spectacular form of propaganda was the mass rally – The Nuremburg Rallies.
- Only pro-Nazi ideas were allowed to spread, censorship ensured this.
- The Nazis used the idea of pre-empting risks to the regime. They did this by taking people before they had the chance to damage the Party’s popularity. Local Police Units and the Gestapo (Secret State Police) kept tabs on people who might be “Enemies of the State”
- The SA (brown shirts) were originally used to outlaw opposition in the acquisition of power. After the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) its influence became diminished
The SS (black shirts) were used as Hitler’s body guard in the early years. Eventually they were involved in many ways of instilling terror and repression throughout Germany. They SS also became involved in running concentration camps and the persecution of Jews.
“I regard the Reicswehr now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilisation as well, in future is the task of the SA”
- From a letter by Rohm to Hitler
(Rohm cited in R. O’Neil, The German Army and the Nazi Party, Cassel and Co. Ltd, 1966.
- 30th June 1934 The Night of the Long Knives:
o the SA wanted to implement socialist aspects of the Nazi program and Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA, wanted to replace the army as Germany’s main defence force
o
This worried Hitler, who then gave Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, his approval for an attack on the SA
o 200 murders, including 50 SA members
o Hitler’s involvement with mass murder served only to strengthen his popularity as more people believed it demonstrated Hitler’s determination to uphold law and order
- Some opposition to Nazism included:
o Political opposition: in spite of the destruction of political parties and the imprisonment of socialists and communists, there was resistance, albeit symbolic. To Hitler it never amounted to more than a policing problem.
o The Church, after dismantling the Lutheran Church, a Confessional Church appeared that directly undermined Hitler’s Reich Church: The Pope also spoke out against Hitler’s going against the concordat (agreement) with the Catholic Church – which resulted in the killing of many priests
o Youth:The White Rose – students printed an anti-Nazi newsletter and distributed leaflets detailing SS atrocities on the eastern front
o Male youth gangs: The Eidelweiss Pirates – minor acts of vandalism, bashing Hitler Youth and refusing to join in prescribed activities
o The ‘swing’ movement: Jazz and swing music was banned after 1940 as degenerate. But young adherents showed their dislike of Nazi conformity and grew their hair long, wore English clothes, the ‘Swing-Judend’ were indifferent to Nazism, undermining Hitler’s notion of volksgemeinscaft (national community)
o The military: A small number of senior officers in the Germa Armed Forces plotted unsuccessfully to remove Hitler.
o Conservatives and elitists: By 1941 something like a grand coalition of political and conservative opponents had taken shape, culminating in an attempt on Hitler’s life: Kreisau Circle: A member of the Circle masterminded the bomb plot of 20 July 1944, an attempt to kill Hitler at his headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb exploded and Hitler was lucky to escape with minor wounds. The conspirators suffered sift and terrible reprisals.
- Two broad phases of resistance: the first being the clandestine (secret or underground) dealings of political organisations of the Weimar Republic. The second stage consisted of groups of individuals loosely connected to one another at a personal or social level. For example, The Kreisau Circle and Leadership Circle of the United Trade Unions
- Methods of resistance:
o Hiding Jewish people
o Printing and distributing underground literature
o Occasional instances of open agitation
o Clandestine (secret) resistance by the suppressed political parties of the left-wing
o At least 46 attempts on Hitler’s life between 1921 and 1945 (source: Hoffmann, Hitler’s Personal Security, pp 268-9)
Social and cultural life in the Nazi state: role of Hitler Youth, women, religion:
- Social and cultural life in the Nazi state:
o During the election campaigns leading up to 1933, Hitler had promised the voters “work and bread”, therefore his most urgent task was to find them jobs
o Hitler’s set up a National Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD) which gave men jobs in public works schemes – the biggest public works schemes was the building of a network of motorways – the autobahnen
o Men in the RAD had to wear military uniform and live in camps and they were only given pocket money as wages – however for most this was better than life with no work at all
o March 1935 compulsory military service for young men – the men enlisted were considered as employed
o Hitler abolished trade unions and set up the German Labour Front in their place. It was run by Doctor Robert Ley.
o Doctor Ley’s changes include:
§ Bosses couldn’t sack employees on the spot
§ Workers couldn’t leave a job without the government’s permission
§ Only government-run labour exchanges could arrange new jobs
§ Abolished the right of workers to bargain for higher wages
§ Strikes outlawed
§ Abolished limitations of the number of hours a person could work
“Workers! Your institutions are sacred to us National Socialists. I myself am a poor peasant’s son and understand poverty …. Workers! I swear to you we will not only keep everything which exists, we will build up the rights protection of the workers even further.” – Doctor Ley, a speech in 1933, the day after the trade unions were abolished.
- Strength through Joy (Kraft Durch Freude – KDF) had the job of organising leisure activities for the people
o The KDF was run by Doctor Ley
o Doctor Ley worked out that there are 8 760 hours in a year, and that the average German spent one third of them sleeping and a quarter of them at work. That left nearly half the time – 3 740 hours – free for leisure
o Doctor Ley wanted to make sure these hours were not wasted: “people with nothing to do in their free time would get bored and frustrated” and “Happy people with plenty to do in their free time would be more likely to work hard at their jobs” (red booklet).
o The KDF and Doctor Ley drew up massive leisure programmes for working people – the biggest programme provided workers with cheap holidays
o The KDF controlled most forms of entertainment
o The KDF was also involved in a plan to provide workers with cheap cars: Hitler ordered that a “People’s Car” – a Volkswagen must be built at a price that anyone could afford. Doctor Ley started a hire-purchase scheme: workers paid 5 marks a week until 750 marks were in the bank, then they would be given an order number entitling them to car as soon as it was made: the whole scheme was a swindle. Not a single Volkswagen was made for a German customer
- “The weak must be chiselled away” – Hitler
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future” - Hitler
Hitler Youth:
o indoctrination for Nazi ideals
o Make Aryan youth typically swift, tough and very hard
o Make loyal supporters for later years
o Young people were encouraged to spy on parents and report anti-Nazi sentiments
- Women:
o 1933: Law for the Encouragement of Marriage: the government would give all newly married couples a loan of 1000 marks. When their first child was born they could keep a quarter of the money, on the birth of their second child they could keep the second quarter. They could keep the third quarter on the birth of a third child and on the birth of a fourth child they could keep the entire amount.
“The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him. In exchange, the male takes care of gathering the food and stands guard and wards off the enemy”
- Josef Goebbels speaking in 1929
(cited in J. A. Cloake, Germany 1918 – 1945, 1997. p. 81)
o
‘The three K’s’
§ Kinder – Children
§ Kirche – Church
§ Kuche – Cooking
o Within months of Hitler coming to power many women doctors and civil servants were sacked from their jobs – by 1939 very few women were left in professional jobs
o The only thing women were actively encouraged to do was to have children
o Motherhood Cross – awarded to the woman who had the most children, awarded on Hitler’s mother’s birthday 12 August
o Lebensborn: government set up homes for unmarried mothers – a combination of a maternity home and a brothel. An unmarried woman could go there with the aim of becoming pregnant and would be introduced to ‘racially pure’ SS men
- Religion:
o Religion did not prosper under Nazi rule
o Protestant and Catholic churchmen were badly treated by the Nazis
o The National Reich Church set up in 1936 was the only approved religion in Nazi Germany
“In the National Reich Church … only national ‘Orators of the Reich’ will be allowed to Speak.
The National Reich Church demands an immediate stop to the printing and sale of the Bible in Germany.
The National Reich Church will remove from the alter of all churches the Bible, the cross and religious objects.
On the alters there must be nothing but Mein Kampf, and to the left of this a sword.”
Nazi racial policy; anti-Semitism: policy and practice to 1939:
- Hitler’s desire for a Herrenvolk (master race) – Nazis believed Aryan race was
- “None but those of German blood … may be members of the German nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the German nation”
- Taken from Hitler’s 25 point programme released in 1920 for the Nazi Party
Nazis wanted to created a racially pure, strong and healthy volksgemeinschaft (national community) that excluded racial enemies (Jews) and those of physical and other abnormalities.
- Hitler hated Jewish people and believed they were responsible for Germany’s defeat in the Great War and that Jewish businessmen were plotting to take control of the world
- Hitler believed Jews were an “inferior” race and should not be allowed to mix with the “superior” Aryan Germans
- Hitler viewed Jews as Untermanschen (sub human)
The Jew was “outside the law as not he was not a human being.”
Supreme Party judge, Walter Buch declared in 1938 in the publication Deutche Justiz,
-
September 1933: The SS supervised a boycott of Jewish shops
- 14th July 1933 – Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny was introduced – the Nazis had taken the idea from eugenicists. The law resulted in the sterilisation of more than 300 000 Germans because of their physical and other abnormalities.
- 1934: Jews were forced to wear a yellow star of David or the word “Juden” – German for Jew.
- Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service (1934) gave Hitler the power to remove Jewsand Nazi-opposed individuals from government positions
- 1935 Nuremburg Laws stripped Jews of basic rights: 1st law stripped Jews of their German citizenship while the 2nd law forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews
- Jews couldn’t attend German schools or universities, they were excluded from the professions, prohibited from teaching and forbidden to own land.
- November 1938: Jewish businesses forced into bankruptcy or “Aryanisation” – their businesses were sold at low prices to Aryan firms or individuals. Personal property was also taken away.
- “The perpetrators [of Kristallnacht], principally SA men, killed approximately one hundred Jews and hauled off thirty thousand more to concentration camps…. In small towns, the SA men were greeted by man willing locals who availed themselves of the opportunity to join the assault on the Jews….”
- H. Glaser, cited in D. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Little, Brown & Co., 1996
Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) 9th/10th of November 1938: a week of terror against Jews triggered by the death of a Nazi official at the hands of a Jew. Over 800 Jewish shops were destroyed (some sources report it up to 10 000), 191 synagogues were burnt and 74 Jews were murdered – around 20 000 arrests were made. Cost of damages: 25 million marks – Nazi’s ordered Jewish community to pay a fine of 1 billion marks. All surviving Jewish businesses were confiscated by the state.
- 1938: euthanasia program commenced – it arranged for the “mercy killing” of people deemed “life unworthy of life” – program was known as “T4” due to its operations being directed from number 4 Tiergartenstrasse in Berlin. T4 was responsible for the killing of at least 140 000, including 6 000 children. T4 pioneered the use of gas for mass killings.
________________________________________________________________
NAZISM IN POWER
Hitler’s Role in the Nazi State:
- 30th January 1933 Adolf Hitler was sworn into office as Chancellor after a power struggle within the Reichstag. Former Chancellor Papen was to serve as vice-chancellor and there would be few Nazi ministers in the Government. It was in this way that Hindenburg and Papen thought they would be able to control what Hitler did.
- 14th March 1933 Enabling Law passed which enabled Hitler to create laws without consultation with the Reichstag.
-
“ My Fuhrer! … I feel compelled by unceasing love to thank our creator daily for … giving us and the entire German people such as wonderful Fuhrer…”
- an extract from a typical letter sent to Hitler in 1936
(cited in I. Kershaw, The Hitler Myth, 1991, p. 81
Fuehrer Prinzip (Leadership Principle) and Fuehrer Myth encouraged tremendous loyalty to Hitler. The Fuehrer Myth created a heroic image of Hitler, crafted for him by the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Josef Goebbels. The public was lead to believe that Hitler was an altruistic (selfless) individual who sacrificed his personal happiness by working tremendously long hours, day and night, for the good of the nation. Hitler was presented as being personally responsible for numerous achievements ranging from ending employment to planning the military victory over France in 1940.
- 2nd August 1934 President Hindenburg died. Hitler combined the roles of President and Chancellor and gave himself the title “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor”. The army swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
Oath of Allegiance
‘I will render unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the supreme commander of the armed forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to stake my life at any time for this oath’
-
Hitler had become a dictator, with the army’s and SS support to instil authority through terror and fear.
Nazism as Totalitarianism:
- Totalitarian: relating to a centralised dictatorial form of government requiring complete subservience to the state
- Structure/Hierarchy of the Nazi Party
HITLER
GAULEITERS (district leaders)
KREISLEITERS (area leaders)
ORTSGRUPPEFREHRER (local group leaders)
ZELLENLEITERS (cell leaders)
BLOCKLEITERS (block leaders)
- As Hitler was Fuehrer all party officials reported to him
- Complete loyalty to the party was expected: if not, one would be liable to persecution by the SS and Gestapo
- Indoctrination ensured that younger generations would remain loyal to the Nazi Party
- 7th April 1933 Hitler put Nazi officials in charge of the local governments which ran Germany’s provinces. The beginning of Hitler’s Gleichschaltung (coordination). This ensured that Hitler had control over all of Germany.
- 2nd May 1933 Hitler closed down trade unions, took away their funds and put their leaders in prison.
- 14th July 1933 Hitler made the Law against the Formation of New Parties, this said that the Nazi Party was the only part allowed to exist in Germany. Germany had become a one party state.
The role of propaganda, terror and repression; SA and SS; opposition to Nazism:
- The role of propaganda was to promote Nazi ideology and its aim was to persuade large numbers of people to agree with Nazi ideology.
Josef Goebbels Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda said in 1937: “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.”
- Propaganda served as the initial way that Hitler and the Nazi Party gained entry to Parliament, as Goebbels had designed massive amounts of propaganda (i.e Hitler over Germany) to hammer home the message “Vote Nazi”
- Goebbel’s most spectacular form of propaganda was the mass rally – The Nuremburg Rallies.
- Only pro-Nazi ideas were allowed to spread, censorship ensured this.
- The Nazis used the idea of pre-empting risks to the regime. They did this by taking people before they had the chance to damage the Party’s popularity. Local Police Units and the Gestapo (Secret State Police) kept tabs on people who might be “Enemies of the State”
- The SA (brown shirts) were originally used to outlaw opposition in the acquisition of power. After the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) its influence became diminished
The SS (black shirts) were used as Hitler’s body guard in the early years. Eventually they were involved in many ways of instilling terror and repression throughout Germany. They SS also became involved in running concentration camps and the persecution of Jews.
“I regard the Reicswehr now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilisation as well, in future is the task of the SA”
- From a letter by Rohm to Hitler
(Rohm cited in R. O’Neil, The German Army and the Nazi Party, Cassel and Co. Ltd, 1966.
- 30th June 1934 The Night of the Long Knives:
o the SA wanted to implement socialist aspects of the Nazi program and Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA, wanted to replace the army as Germany’s main defence force
o
This worried Hitler, who then gave Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, his approval for an attack on the SA
o 200 murders, including 50 SA members
o Hitler’s involvement with mass murder served only to strengthen his popularity as more people believed it demonstrated Hitler’s determination to uphold law and order
- Some opposition to Nazism included:
o Political opposition: in spite of the destruction of political parties and the imprisonment of socialists and communists, there was resistance, albeit symbolic. To Hitler it never amounted to more than a policing problem.
o The Church, after dismantling the Lutheran Church, a Confessional Church appeared that directly undermined Hitler’s Reich Church: The Pope also spoke out against Hitler’s going against the concordat (agreement) with the Catholic Church – which resulted in the killing of many priests
o Youth:The White Rose – students printed an anti-Nazi newsletter and distributed leaflets detailing SS atrocities on the eastern front
o Male youth gangs: The Eidelweiss Pirates – minor acts of vandalism, bashing Hitler Youth and refusing to join in prescribed activities
o The ‘swing’ movement: Jazz and swing music was banned after 1940 as degenerate. But young adherents showed their dislike of Nazi conformity and grew their hair long, wore English clothes, the ‘Swing-Judend’ were indifferent to Nazism, undermining Hitler’s notion of volksgemeinscaft (national community)
o The military: A small number of senior officers in the Germa Armed Forces plotted unsuccessfully to remove Hitler.
o Conservatives and elitists: By 1941 something like a grand coalition of political and conservative opponents had taken shape, culminating in an attempt on Hitler’s life: Kreisau Circle: A member of the Circle masterminded the bomb plot of 20 July 1944, an attempt to kill Hitler at his headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb exploded and Hitler was lucky to escape with minor wounds. The conspirators suffered sift and terrible reprisals.
- Two broad phases of resistance: the first being the clandestine (secret or underground) dealings of political organisations of the Weimar Republic. The second stage consisted of groups of individuals loosely connected to one another at a personal or social level. For example, The Kreisau Circle and Leadership Circle of the United Trade Unions
- Methods of resistance:
o Hiding Jewish people
o Printing and distributing underground literature
o Occasional instances of open agitation
o Clandestine (secret) resistance by the suppressed political parties of the left-wing
o At least 46 attempts on Hitler’s life between 1921 and 1945 (source: Hoffmann, Hitler’s Personal Security, pp 268-9)
Social and cultural life in the Nazi state: role of Hitler Youth, women, religion:
- Social and cultural life in the Nazi state:
o During the election campaigns leading up to 1933, Hitler had promised the voters “work and bread”, therefore his most urgent task was to find them jobs
o Hitler’s set up a National Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD) which gave men jobs in public works schemes – the biggest public works schemes was the building of a network of motorways – the autobahnen
o Men in the RAD had to wear military uniform and live in camps and they were only given pocket money as wages – however for most this was better than life with no work at all
o March 1935 compulsory military service for young men – the men enlisted were considered as employed
o Hitler abolished trade unions and set up the German Labour Front in their place. It was run by Doctor Robert Ley.
o Doctor Ley’s changes include:
§ Bosses couldn’t sack employees on the spot
§ Workers couldn’t leave a job without the government’s permission
§ Only government-run labour exchanges could arrange new jobs
§ Abolished the right of workers to bargain for higher wages
§ Strikes outlawed
§ Abolished limitations of the number of hours a person could work
“Workers! Your institutions are sacred to us National Socialists. I myself am a poor peasant’s son and understand poverty …. Workers! I swear to you we will not only keep everything which exists, we will build up the rights protection of the workers even further.” – Doctor Ley, a speech in 1933, the day after the trade unions were abolished.
- Strength through Joy (Kraft Durch Freude – KDF) had the job of organising leisure activities for the people
o The KDF was run by Doctor Ley
o Doctor Ley worked out that there are 8 760 hours in a year, and that the average German spent one third of them sleeping and a quarter of them at work. That left nearly half the time – 3 740 hours – free for leisure
o Doctor Ley wanted to make sure these hours were not wasted: “people with nothing to do in their free time would get bored and frustrated” and “Happy people with plenty to do in their free time would be more likely to work hard at their jobs” (red booklet).
o The KDF and Doctor Ley drew up massive leisure programmes for working people – the biggest programme provided workers with cheap holidays
o The KDF controlled most forms of entertainment
o The KDF was also involved in a plan to provide workers with cheap cars: Hitler ordered that a “People’s Car” – a Volkswagen must be built at a price that anyone could afford. Doctor Ley started a hire-purchase scheme: workers paid 5 marks a week until 750 marks were in the bank, then they would be given an order number entitling them to car as soon as it was made: the whole scheme was a swindle. Not a single Volkswagen was made for a German customer
- “The weak must be chiselled away” – Hitler
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future” - Hitler
Hitler Youth:
o indoctrination for Nazi ideals
o Make Aryan youth typically swift, tough and very hard
o Make loyal supporters for later years
o Young people were encouraged to spy on parents and report anti-Nazi sentiments
- Women:
o 1933: Law for the Encouragement of Marriage: the government would give all newly married couples a loan of 1000 marks. When their first child was born they could keep a quarter of the money, on the birth of their second child they could keep the second quarter. They could keep the third quarter on the birth of a third child and on the birth of a fourth child they could keep the entire amount.
“The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him. In exchange, the male takes care of gathering the food and stands guard and wards off the enemy”
- Josef Goebbels speaking in 1929
(cited in J. A. Cloake, Germany 1918 – 1945, 1997. p. 81)
o
‘The three K’s’
§ Kinder – Children
§ Kirche – Church
§ Kuche – Cooking
o Within months of Hitler coming to power many women doctors and civil servants were sacked from their jobs – by 1939 very few women were left in professional jobs
o The only thing women were actively encouraged to do was to have children
o Motherhood Cross – awarded to the woman who had the most children, awarded on Hitler’s mother’s birthday 12 August
o Lebensborn: government set up homes for unmarried mothers – a combination of a maternity home and a brothel. An unmarried woman could go there with the aim of becoming pregnant and would be introduced to ‘racially pure’ SS men
- Religion:
o Religion did not prosper under Nazi rule
o Protestant and Catholic churchmen were badly treated by the Nazis
o The National Reich Church set up in 1936 was the only approved religion in Nazi Germany
“In the National Reich Church … only national ‘Orators of the Reich’ will be allowed to Speak.
The National Reich Church demands an immediate stop to the printing and sale of the Bible in Germany.
The National Reich Church will remove from the alter of all churches the Bible, the cross and religious objects.
On the alters there must be nothing but Mein Kampf, and to the left of this a sword.”
Nazi racial policy; anti-Semitism: policy and practice to 1939:
- Hitler’s desire for a Herrenvolk (master race) – Nazis believed Aryan race was
- “None but those of German blood … may be members of the German nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the German nation”
- Taken from Hitler’s 25 point programme released in 1920 for the Nazi Party
Nazis wanted to created a racially pure, strong and healthy volksgemeinschaft (national community) that excluded racial enemies (Jews) and those of physical and other abnormalities.
- Hitler hated Jewish people and believed they were responsible for Germany’s defeat in the Great War and that Jewish businessmen were plotting to take control of the world
- Hitler believed Jews were an “inferior” race and should not be allowed to mix with the “superior” Aryan Germans
- Hitler viewed Jews as Untermanschen (sub human)
The Jew was “outside the law as not he was not a human being.”
Supreme Party judge, Walter Buch declared in 1938 in the publication Deutche Justiz,
-
September 1933: The SS supervised a boycott of Jewish shops
- 14th July 1933 – Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny was introduced – the Nazis had taken the idea from eugenicists. The law resulted in the sterilisation of more than 300 000 Germans because of their physical and other abnormalities.
- 1934: Jews were forced to wear a yellow star of David or the word “Juden” – German for Jew.
- Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service (1934) gave Hitler the power to remove Jewsand Nazi-opposed individuals from government positions
- 1935 Nuremburg Laws stripped Jews of basic rights: 1st law stripped Jews of their German citizenship while the 2nd law forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews
- Jews couldn’t attend German schools or universities, they were excluded from the professions, prohibited from teaching and forbidden to own land.
- November 1938: Jewish businesses forced into bankruptcy or “Aryanisation” – their businesses were sold at low prices to Aryan firms or individuals. Personal property was also taken away.
- “The perpetrators [of Kristallnacht], principally SA men, killed approximately one hundred Jews and hauled off thirty thousand more to concentration camps…. In small towns, the SA men were greeted by man willing locals who availed themselves of the opportunity to join the assault on the Jews….”
- H. Glaser, cited in D. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Little, Brown & Co., 1996
Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) 9th/10th of November 1938: a week of terror against Jews triggered by the death of a Nazi official at the hands of a Jew. Over 800 Jewish shops were destroyed (some sources report it up to 10 000), 191 synagogues were burnt and 74 Jews were murdered – around 20 000 arrests were made. Cost of damages: 25 million marks – Nazi’s ordered Jewish community to pay a fine of 1 billion marks. All surviving Jewish businesses were confiscated by the state.
- 1938: euthanasia program commenced – it arranged for the “mercy killing” of people deemed “life unworthy of life” – program was known as “T4” due to its operations being directed from number 4 Tiergartenstrasse in Berlin. T4 was responsible for the killing of at least 140 000, including 6 000 children. T4 pioneered the use of gas for mass killings.