The persecution of minorities
Hitler and the Nazis had firm views on race. They believed that certain groups were inferior and were a threat to the purity of the A person of European descent - not Jewish - often with blond hair and blue eyes. The Nazis viewed Aryans as the superior human race. race. There were many groups who were targeted for persecution, including Slavs (Eastern Europeans), A member of a travelling community usually with dark skin and hair., homosexuals and the disabled - but none more so than the Jews.
Nazi racial beliefs
The Nazis鈥 racial philosophy taught that Aryans were the master race and that some races were 鈥榰ntermensch鈥 (sub-human). Many Nazi scientists at this time believed in The science of using controlled breeding or genetic manipulation to simply produce desired qualities or features., the idea that people with disabilities or social problems were Immoral or inferior people. whose genes needed to be eliminated from the human bloodline. The Nazis pursued eugenics policies vigorously.
Policy of persecution
- Sterilisation - In order to keep the Aryan race pure, many groups were prevented from reproducing. The mentally physically and disabled, including the deaf, were sterilised, as were people with Passed on from parents to offspring through genes. diseases.
- The murder of people with disabilities - The Nazis鈥 false belief in genetic superiority led to the persecution and murder of people with disabilities. Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person鈥檚 life to relieve suffering. However, this is very different to the Nazi euthanasia programme, which was the systemic and state sponsored murder of people with disabilities. At least 200,000 people with disabilities were murdered by the Nazi regime.
- Concentration camps - Homosexuals, prostitutes, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, alcoholics, Someone who is completely opposed to any kind of violence and will not participate in any aspect of war., beggars, hooligans and criminals were often rounded up and sent away to camps. During World War Two 85 per cent of Germany's gypsies died in these camps.
The Nazis鈥 persecution of the Jews
The group most heavily targeted for persecution by the Nazis were the Jews of Germany. The outbreak of World War Two brought the horror of mass killings and the Final Solution, but the period 1933 saw a gradual increase in persecution, reaching a turning point during Kristallnacht in November 1938:
1933
- Nazis organised a boycott of Jewish businesses.
- Books by Jewish authors were publicly burnt.
- Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers were sacked.
- Race science lessons were introduced, teaching that Jews were sub-human.
1935
The The Nuremberg Laws were anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany. formalised anti-Semitism into the Nazi state by:
- Stripping Jews of German A person's nationality.
- Outlawing marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans.
- Taking away from Jews all civil and political rights.
1938
- Jews could not be doctors.
- Jews had to add the name Israel (men) or Sarah (women) to their name.
- Jewish children were forbidden to go to school.
- Kristallnacht - 9 November. The SS organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in retaliation for the assassination of the German ambassador to France by a Jew.
1939
- Jews were forbidden to own a business, or even a radio.
By the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939, the Jews were stateless, their employment options in Germany were severely restricted and they feared for their safety.