G35+Racial+Policy


 * 3 Nazism in power**


 * Nazi racial policy; anti-Semitism: policy and practice to 1939

Text: Chapter 9.1 "Anti-Semitism" and 9.2 "The pre-war treatment of the Jews"
 * Anti-semitism** was widespread throughout Europe. In Germany there were about 500,000 Jews (1% of pop) who were a well-established part of the German people. They enjoyed equality during the Weimar Republic.

Before the Nazis came to power, anti-semitism was expressed in Germany through the extreme nationalist Völkisch movement which developed ideas of racial purity later adopted by Hitler. Heinrich von Treitschke: “Die Juden sind unser ungluck”.

Anti-semitism was stronger in rural areas than the large cities.


 * Hitler’s Anti-Semitism**

A central part of Hitler’s beliefs was racial purity. The Jews were destroyers of culture, the Aryans were creators of culture. The Jew was a “parasite”. Judaism was linked to Communism/Bolshevism. It was a world conspiracy. (See Document Study 9.1 p.200)

Richard Overy: Vilification; Discrimination; Separation; Extermination Vilification: through anti-semitic propaganda; demonstrations; boycotts; abuse Discrimination: through legislation.

April 1933 Law against the overcrowding of German schools – limited Jewish children attending school. September 1933 Hereditary Farm Law – Jews could not own farmland. Jews expelled from cultural institutions, sporting teams. Sept 1935 **Nuremberg laws**. Germans and Jews could not marry; Jews were stripped of citizenship. Nov 1935 Definition of a Jew: three full Jewish grandparents.

Persecution eased for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Persecution intensified from 1937. Vilification increased. Jews were removed from economic life: Registration of all Jewish businesses. Some were taken by the state. Jews excluded from many public places. Identity papers stamped with a red J. Jewish doctors could not treat Germans. All Jews to add either Israel or Sarah as middle names.

Anti-semitic magazine **Der Stürmer** and school reader **The Poisonous Mushroom** (Der Giftpilz) See Doc 9.3 p.202.

Daniel Goldhagen: Nazism tapped into anti-Semitism of German people who willingly accepted the increasingly radical racial policies of the Nazi regime.

9 Nov 1938 – widespread attacks on Jewish property and synagogues, sanctioned by the government. 90 killed, 1000 shops and businesses looted, 191 synagogues destroyed. 20,000 rounded up and sent to concentration camps over ensuing days. Kristallnacht demonstrated a radicalisation of German racial practice.
 * Kristallnacht – Night of Broken Glass**

Between 1933 and 1939 250,000 German Jews emigrated (some unfortunately to Eastern Europe).