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Volksgemeinschaft - Nazi racial policies

The Nazis persecuted numerous groups they deemed as threats to their vision of a Master Race, including Jews, the mentally ill, homosexuals, Roma people, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. They implemented forced sterilization, imprisonment in concentration camps where many were experimented on or killed, and later began the Holocaust against Jews in particular. Historians disagree on whether Hitler explicitly planned the Holocaust from the beginning or if anti-Semitic policies escalated chaotically over time.

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Nazi racial policies: persecution of Jews and other ‘outsiders’
To achieve a Master Race, the Nazis persecuted numerous groups, including: • Mentally ill/disabled • Asocials • Homosexuals • Roma and Sinti people • Jehovah's Witnesses • The Jews
Mentally ill/disabled In July 1933, the Nazis introduced the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. This introduced forced sterilisation for people suffering from problems such as epilepsy, depression and alcoholism. 350,000 people were sterilised. “Sterilisation is liberation, not punishment”
The Nazis eventually extended their actions into euthanasia. From 1939, doctors and nurses were to report any children under three affected by conditions including Down’s Syndrome. The children were then killed under the Aktion T4 programme. Parents were often threatened to get their agreement for this. 1938 poster saying that this person costs Germany 60,000RM over his life.
Asocials Asocials were people that did not fit in to the expected norms of society. This included people who refused to work, or other groups such as prostitutes or beggars. They were sent to labour camps – being forced to wear a Black Triangle – and eventually sterilised and murdered.
Homosexuals Homosexuals were seen as asocial. Large numbers were sent to prison camps and forced to wear a Pink Triangle. Many homosexual men were castrated or forced to undergo experiments to ‘cure’ them. Homosexual members of the SS were shot.
Even before the Nazis took power, it was illegal for men to be gay in Germany. Scientific books about homosexuality were burned by the Nazis. The police also closed down pubs and clubs where gay people went, and kept lists of gay men.
Roma and Sinti people The Roma and Sinti people (often referred to as ‘gypsies’) had faced prejudice in Germany since before Nazi rule. In Weimar Germany, a law was passed preventing ‘gypsies’ from travelling to Bavaria. They also had to carry ID cards when in Prussia.
Roma and Sinti children were often taken from their parents and sent to ‘special schools’. Others faced bullying in mainstream schools. During the 1936 Olympics, the Nazis forced them to leave their camps and live in certain areas. They were also sent to work in armaments camps.
The Nazis eventually opened special ‘internment camps’ where Roma and Sinti people were sent to live. When in these camps, they were often used for medical experiments by Nazi scientists, including children. Around 500,000 died under Nazi rule.
Jehovah’s Witnesses The Nazis struggled to control the mainstream churches due to many Germans’ personal religious beliefs. Small religious groups could be targeted though. Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to joined the army or let their children join the Hitler Youth.
Meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses were broken up by the Nazis. Offices belonging to Jehovah’s Witnesses were also ransacked. The Gestapo also spied on suspected Witnesses. Many were arrested and taken to concentration camps (around 6000 by 1939).
The Jews Obviously the group most commonly associated with Nazi persecution is the Jews. Anti-Semitism was prominent in Germany and Europe since before the Nazis took power. Many Germans believed that Germany’s WW1 defeat and 1920s problems were caused by Jews.
There were numerous steps taken to at first isolate and then exterminate Jews. Initial laws focused on Jews ostracising the Jews from society, forcing many to leave Germany. Eventually this became the Holocaust, although this did not begin until during World War Two.
Numerous steps were taken in 1933 after the Nazis first took power in Germany. In April a boycott of Jewish shops started, although lasted only one day. Further actions that year banned Jews from working in the Civil Service (with some exceptions) and from owning farms.
By 1935 there were unofficial attacks taking place on Jews. As a result in September 1935 the Nazis passed the so-called Nuremburg Laws: • Marriage and sex was banned between Jews and Aryans • Jews were stripped of German citizenship • Aryan genetic tests started
From 1936, the Nazis actively began encouraging Jewish emigration, although eventually only allowed this on payment of high taxes. After Anschluss with Austria in March 1938, there were 150,000 more Jews within Germany’s control. They were also forced to emigrate.
1938 saw various extreme actions to hurt Jewish people. A variety of laws were passed: • Jewish lawyers and doctors could not have Aryan clients • Jews must add Sarah (women) or Israel (men) to their names • Jews could not own businesses • Jews banned from schools
November 1938 saw the infamous Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). The Nazis unofficially organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. 91 Jews were killed and 20,000 sent to prison camps, and Jews were even forced to pay fines for damage.
By the time that World War Two started in September 1939, the Jews had no rights in Germany. Hitler openly referred to the “extermination” of the Jews, Jews were being forced to move into ghettos and the euthanasia programme started in October 1939.
Historians disagree on whether Hitler planned the Holocaust. Although there was no official order given, it fitted in with Hitler’s rhetoric. The killing was officially kept secret from Germans. However at least 100,000 Germans were involved, and others are likely to have known.
Historians’ views • Lisa Pine: Once in power Hitler’s intense personal hatred of the Jews “became central to state policy”. • Richard J Evans: From September 1935 anti-Semitism became “a principle governing private as well as public life”. • David Cesarani: Anti-Jew policies – especially the Holocaust – were probably not planned and instead the result of chaotic, especially after the outbreak of World War Two. • Jill Stephenson: National community was all about race.