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GCSE History: Germany Part VI - Coggle Diagram
GCSE History: Germany Part VI
Minorities
The Nazis' racial philosophy taught that Aryans were the master race and that some races were Untermensch (subhuman). They believed that those with disabilities or social problems needed to be eliminated from the human bloodline.
Disabled people:
The Nazis believed that having a disability was a disease that could be passed on from generation to generation. They were a threat to Germans being a perfect race
Homosexuals:
A threat to Nazi ideas on traditional family life.
Gypsies:
They were viewed as a problem because they were not Aryan, moved around too often and didn't hold down steady jobs.
Black people:
They were dealt in a similar way too Jews. Marriages between Germans and blacks were made illegal and children that were already born from a mixed race couple were sterilised.
Sterilisation and Euthanasia
Sterilisation
In order to keep the Aryan race pure, many people were prevented from reproducing. The disabled were sterilised.
Euthanasia:
Disabled children were killed during WWII either by injection or starvation. 72k mentally ill patients were gassed but Germans protested against this and it was stopped.
Concentration camps:
Homosexuals, gypsies, alcoholics and prostitues were sent to concentration camps. Many gypsies were killed too.
In 1936 the pressure relaxed a bit due to the Olympics being held in Berlin and the Nazis wanted to be presented positively.
1939:
Jews are not allowed to own radios and must be home at 8pm in winter and 9pm in summer
1938:
Jews could not be doctors, jewish children could not go to school or run businesses.
Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass): A German diplomat in France was killed by a jewish student. Goebbels used this to his advantage to get back into Hitler's good books . SS men smashed jewish businesses,burned synagogues and homes. 91 jews were murdered and thousands were taken to concentration camps. Many fled Germany and a scheme to evacuate Jewish children to Britain,
Kindertransport
, began
1935
: Nuremberg laws = Jews cannot be German citizens or marry aryans. All civil rights are taken away
1933:
, books they wrote were burnt, banned from certain jobs such as being lawyers, teachers and civil servants.
Persecution of Jews
Ghettos
After defeating Poland, jewish poles were sent to ghettos were they lived in terrible conditions and many died due to starvation and disease such as Warsaw.
Mass killings
The Einsatzgruppen were a special SS squad that executed jews.The victims were taken to the edge of towns and villages, forced to dig mass graves and then shot and buried in huge numbers. Some were driven around in vehicles containing gas.
The Final solution
The Nazis realised that their methods were inefficient to solving the 'Jewish problem' as more countries came under German occupation. In 1942 Reinhard Heydrich held a conference in the Wansee suburb of Berlin with major Nazi people. At this meeting it was agreed all jews under German occupation would be brought to Poland where those fit enough would work and the rest exterminated. This led led to the death camps. The biggest was Auschwitz where 2.5 million jews were murdered. They were taken into shower rooms where they were gassed to death using Zyklon B. In these gas chambres 2000 people could be killed at once. Altogether around 6 million jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
Blame
Police Force
Many victims of the Nazis such as Anne Frank were actually taken by the police than the Gestapo of SS
Industries
Companies such as Volkswagen and Mercedes had their own slave labour camps. Chemical giants such as IG Farben competed in producing Zyklon B gas which was used in gas chambers.
The Wehrmacht
The army leaders were fully aware of the events but didn't do anything
Civil service bureaucracy and German peopls
Collected and stored information on jews
Many of the German people supported anti-semitism and ignored what was going on.