HISTORY IGCSE CONTENT - 20TH CENTURY OPTION - DEPTH STUDY GERMANY: THE NAZI REGIME - THE NAZI AND THE GROUP PERSECUTIONS.

1. DEPTH STUDY
GERMANY
THE NAZI REGIME
WHY DID THE NAZIS
PERSECUTE MANY GROUPS
IN GERMAN SOCIETY?
4

2. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
INTRODUCTION
During the years of the Third Reich, the Nazis persecuted a wide
range of people including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, prostitutes,
drunkards, beggars, the aged, and the mentally handicapped.
All these groups were considered incompatible with either Nazi
ideas about a master race or ideas about the efficient operation of
the Nazi state.

3. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIHU3OdWmT8

4. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE MASTER RACE THEORY
In Hitler’s view the German people constituted a race, the Aryan
race.
He also believed that Aryans were naturally superior in terms of
intelligence, physique, and work ethic.
This would ensure that Germany would rule the world.
To take account of setbacks such as Germany’s defeat in the First
World War on the economic crises of 1923 and 1930-1933, Hitler
argued that potential Aryan supremacy had been undermined by
Jews intent on undermining the German state.
To preserve the purity of the Aryan race, it was essential to maintain
its separateness from other races and discourage contact between
Germans and non-Germans.

5. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvCkw87FLZk

6. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE MASTER RACE IDEOLOGY
In his speeches and writings, Hitler said that his Aryan race must
remain pure in order to one day take over the world.
For Hitler, the ideal "Aryan" was blond, blue-eyed, and tall.
When Hitler and the Nazis came to power, these beliefs became the
government ideology and were spread in publicly displayed posters,
on the radio, in movies, in classrooms, and in newspapers.

7. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE “SCIENCE” BEHIND MASTER RACE
The Nazis began to put their ideology into practice with the support
of German scientists who believed that the human race could be
improved by limiting the reproduction of people considered "inferior."
Beginning in 1933, German physicians were allowed to perform
forced sterilizations, operations making it impossible for the victims
have children.
Among the targets of this public program were Roma (Gypsies), an
ethnic minority numbering about 30,000 in Germany, and
handicapped individuals, including the mentally ill and people born
deaf and blind. Also victimized were about 500 African-German
children, the offspring of German mothers and African colonial
soldiers in the Allied armies that occupied the German Rhineland
region after World War I.

8. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
TEACHING HUMILIATION
Hitler and other Nazi leaders viewed the Jews not as a religious group,
but as a poisonous "race," which "lived off" the other races and
weakened them.
After Hitler took power, Nazi teachers in school classrooms began to
apply the "principles" of racial science.
They measured skull size and nose length, and recorded the colour of
their pupils' hair and eyes to determine whether students belonged to
the true "Aryan race" and Romani (Gypsy) students were often
humiliated in the process.

9. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
SINTI AND ROMA (GYPSIES)
The Nazis considered the Sinti and Roma a socio-racial “problem” to
be expurgated from the German nation.
Nomadic Sinti and Roma were subjected to special depredations; their
fate was tantamount to that of the Jews.
Of the 44,000 Sinti and Roma who lived in the Reich, thousands were
sent to concentration camps after the war began.
Others were concentrated in transit camps before being sent to
ghettos and extermination camps during the war.
Between 90,000-150,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered by the
Germans throughout Europe.

10. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
German schutzpolizei (municipal police) arresting a gypsy in Poland

11. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
HOMOSEXUALS
Homosexuals were stripped of their civil rights because the Nazis
considered homosexuality an affront to their goal of encouraging
natural population growth and normal family life.
Approximately 15,000 homosexuals were imprisoned in camps and
thousands perished.

12. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE DISABLED
Between 200,000-350,000 mentally and physically disabled
individuals were forcibly sterilized until 1939.
Beginning in 1939, approximately 200,000 were murdered during the
“Euthanasia” program either by gassing, lethal injection or starvation.
The Nazis sought to increase the proportion of healthy and racially
superior members of the national community (Volksgemeinschaft) by
quickly and unsentimentally eliminating the sick and the weak.

13. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
Extermination wing - Nazi Euthanasia Centre at Bernburg (left) and Staff of the Euthanasia Center in
Bernburg, sitting in the front is Karl Hauenschild, and behind him is Karl Poetzinger (right).

14. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
GOEBBELS ABOUT THE EXTERMINATION
OF THE DISABLED
On 31 January 1941, Joseph
Goebbels wrote in his diary:
"Discussed with Bouhler the
question of the silent
liquidation of the mentally ill.
40,000 are gone, 60,000 must
still go. This is difficult, but
necessary work. And it must
be done now. Bouhler is the
right man to do it."
Philipp Bouhler was also the SS
official responsible for the
Aktion T4 euthanasia program
that killed more than 250,000
disabled adults and children in
Nazi Germany, as well as co-
initiator of Aktion 14f13, also
called "Sonderbehandlung"
("special treatment"), that
killed 15,000–20,000
concentration camp prisoners.

15. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Beginning in 1933 the Nazi regime arrested thousands of members
of the German Catholic central party, as well as Catholic priests.
They disbanded schools and Catholic institutions as part of the
totalitarian policy of the regime and its attempts to eliminate any
competing authority.
This took place despite the “Concordat” that had been signed with the
Vatican in 1933. During World War II Catholic organizations were
oppressed and thousands of Catholic priests were imprisoned and
murdered throughout the areas occupied by the Nazis.

16. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
JEHOVA’S WITNESSES Another small minority that was
oppressed because of their
unique religious beliefs were the
Jehovah’s Witnesses.
They believed that non-members
of the group would be judged,
they opposed military service and
took a clear stance opposing the
regime.
As a result, many of the group’s
members were arrested and
some were incarcerated in
concentration camps.
Jehova’s Witness Gertrud Poetzinger
holding a child in the Oranienburg
Concentration Camp, Germany.

17. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE NUREMBERG RACE LAWS 1935
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis
announced new laws. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich
citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual
relations with persons of "German or related blood."
The Nuremberg Laws did not define a "Jew" as someone with
particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four
Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether
individual identified himself or herself as a Jew.
Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found
themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish
grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews.

18. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D

19. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DamUkVBqi3c

20. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
ARYANIZING JEWISH BUSINESSES
In 1937 and 1938, the government set out to impoverish Jews by
requiring them to register their property and then by "Aryanizing"
Jewish businesses. This meant that Jewish workers and managers
were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was
taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices
fixed by Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews,
and Jewish lawyers were not permitted to practice law.
Like everyone in Germany, Jews were required to carry identity
cards, but the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a
a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews
who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names—"Israel" for
males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify
Jews easily.

21. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
TIMELINE NUREMBERG LAWS
September 15, 1935 - Nuremberg Laws are instituted
October 18, 1935 - New marriage requirements instituted
The "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German
People" requires all prospective marriage partners to obtain from the
public health authorities a certificate of fitness to marry.
November 14, 1935 - Nuremberg Law extended to other groups
The first supplemental decree of the Nuremberg Laws extends the
prohibition on marriage or sexual relations between people who
produce "racially suspect" offspring (relations between "those of
German or related blood" and Roma Gypsies, blacks, or their

22. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
KRISTALLNACHT – NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASSES
Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the
"Night of Broken Glass."
The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which
took place on November 9 and 10, 1938.
This wave of violence took place throughout Germany, annexed
Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently
occupied by German troops.
Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that
German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the
windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses
plundered and destroyed during the violence.

23. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y0uwd9QAYE

24. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D

25. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
KRISTALLNACHT – 91 DEATHS
The pogrom proved especially destructive in Berlin and Vienna, home
to the two largest Jewish communities in the German Reich.
Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking Jews in their houses
and forcing Jews they encountered to perform acts of public
humiliation. Although murder did not figure in the central directives,
Kristallnacht claimed many Jewish lives between 9 and 10 November.
The official figure for Jewish deaths, released by German officials
the aftermath of Kristallnacht, was 91, but recent scholarship
that there were hundreds of deaths,

26. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
SS guards force
Jews, arrested
during Kristallnacht
(the "Night of
Broken Glass"),
to march through
the town of
Baden-Baden.
Onlookers watch
from along the
street and walls.
Baden-Baden,
Germany.
November 10, 1938.

27. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
KRISTALLNACHT – AFTERMATH
In the immediate aftermath of the pogrom, Hermann Göring
criticized the extensive material losses produced by the antisemitic
riots, pointing out that if nothing were done to intervene,
German insurance companies—not Jewish-owned businesses—
would have to bear the costs of the damages.
Göring and other top party leaders decided to use the opportunity
to introduce measures to eliminate Jews and perceived Jewish
influence from the German economic sphere.
The German government made an immediate pronouncement that
“the Jews” themselves were to blame for the pogrom and imposed
a fine of one billion Reichsmark (some 400 million US dollars at 1938
rates) on the German Jewish community.