The persecution of minorities
Nazi racial beliefs
The Nazis believed that people belonged to different 'races', and that Germans were part of a superior race. They claimed other groups were inferior, and a danger to the German people.
These beliefs were false and had no scientific basis, but the Nazis used them to justify persecution. They wanted a of 'racially pure', healthy Germans, and excluded anyone who did not fit.
Their hatred of Jewish people was at the centre of these beliefs.
Key terms
The persecution of Jewish people, 1933–35
In 1933, less than 1% of Germany's population was Jewish.
- 1 April 1933: the Nazis organised a . SA men stood outside, telling people not to buy from them.
- April 1933: Jewish people were dismissed from jobs in the civil service, including teachers.
- 15 September 1935: the took away Jewish people's German citizenship, and banned marriages between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans.
Significance: Jewish people were now separated from other Germans by law.
Remember
Persecution of Jewish people grew step by step: boycott (1933), Nuremberg Laws (1935), (1938).
Key terms
Kristallnacht, 9–10 November 1938
In November 1938, a young Jewish man shot a German diplomat in Paris. The Nazi leadership, led by Goebbels, used this as an excuse to organise attacks on Jewish people across Germany.
On the night of 9–10 November 1938, hundreds of synagogues were set on fire, and thousands of Jewish shops and homes were attacked and wrecked. Up to 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps. Hundreds of Jewish people died as a result of the violence and its aftermath, including in the camps. Afterwards, the Jewish community was made to pay a huge fine.
It became known as , 'the night of broken glass'.
Significance: this was a turning point, from discrimination to open, organised violence. Many Jewish people who could leave Germany now did.
Key terms
The persecution of other minorities
- Slavs, such as Poles and Russians, were seen as inferior. Nazi plans for in Eastern Europe threatened them.
- Roma and Sinti were registered, restricted, and in many cases sent to camps. The Nuremberg Laws were applied to them too.
- Gay men: the law against homosexuality was made harsher in 1935, and thousands of men were imprisoned, many in concentration camps.
- Disabled people: a law of 1933 allowed people with certain illnesses and disabilities to be sterilised against their will, and hundreds of thousands were. From 1939, the Nazis began secretly killing disabled people.
Significance: the Nazis persecuted everyone who did not fit their idea of the 'national community'.