History

• Reducing unemployment was a priority for Hitler, for political and economic reasons
• Methods used by the Nazis to reduce unemployment

  1. National Labour Service

  2. Autobahn project

  3. Rearmament
• Nazi Germany also had 'invisible unemployment'
• Changes to the standard of living of workers in Nazi Germany

  • Unemployment
  • Wages
  • Prices
  • Consumption of luxuries
• Labour Front


  Including Strength through Joy and the Beauty of Labour, also affected the standard of living of German workers
• Eugenics


  The science of selective breeding, became popular in Europe from the 1880s
• Racial hygiene


  The idea that Aryan Germans should only reproduce with other Aryans, to make their offspring 'pure' Aryan
• Nazi policies were intended to make the German state as strong as possible
• The Nazis believed that, to make the German state strong, the German population needed to be strong
• Eugenics became a subject in schools and the Nazis encouraged reproduction by the 'best' Germans and prevented those they considered 'unsuitable'
• The Nazis believed the Aryan race was superior to all others
• In schools, in the Hitler Youth and in propaganda, the Nazis taught racial hygiene
• The Nazis passed laws to prevent mixed-race marriages
• Herrenvolk


  Master race, portrayed as tall, blond, blue-eyed and athletic
• Untermenschen


  Sub-humans, such as the Slavs of Eastern Europe
• Lebensunwertes


  Unworthy of life, the worst of the Untermenschen were 'gypsies' and Jews
• Anti-Semitism had been common throughout Europe for many centuries, for many reasons
• By the 1930s, anti-Semitism had become particularly strong in Germany
• Hitler was one of many nationalist politicians in Germany who hated the Jews
• Nazi propaganda turned people against Jews, portraying them as different, ugly, sinister, cruel, money-grabbing supporters of communism
• Germans with more moderate views allowed themselves to be influenced by Nazi propaganda and turned a blind eye to - or even participated in - Nazi persecution of the Jews
• Nazi propaganda and school lessons constantly told Germans that the Slavs were Untermenschen - sub-humans
• The Nazis threatened to invade Slav countries in Eastern Europe for Lebensraum - extra living space - for Germany's people
• After 1933, 'gypsies' were often arrested as social nuisances and sent to concentration camps
• In 1938, 'gypsies' were banned from travelling in groups and rounded up, put on a register and tested for racial characteristics
• In 1939, orders were given to prepare all 'gypsies' for deportation
• The Nazis believed that homosexuals lowered moral standards and spoiled the purity of the German race
• In 1935, the Nazis strengthened the laws against homosexuality and many homosexuals were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps
• The Nazis believed that people with disabilities were a burden on society and weakened racial purity
• In 1933, the Nazis passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which made it compulsory for people to be sterilised if they were mentally ill, alcoholic, deformed, epileptic, deaf or blind
• In 1939, the Nazis ordered that babies with severe mental or physical disabilities should be killed by starvation or lethal overdose of drugs, which became known as the T4 Programme
• There were only 437,000 Jews in Germany in 1933 - less than 1% of the population
• Hitler: 'If I am ever in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. I shall have gallows after gallows erected in Munich. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging till they stink... Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew.'
• As the Nazis gradually took control of education, the press and the Arts, Nazi propaganda, calling Jews 'vermin' and 'filth' and describing them as evil and scheming, flooded Germany through schools, newspapers and films
• From April 1933, Jews were banned from government jobs and Jewish civil servants and teachers were sacked
• From September 1933, Jews were banned from inheriting land
• From May 1935, Jews were banned from the army
• From 1934, some local councils banned Jews from parks and swimming pools, and provided separate yellow park benches for Jews
• On 30 March 1933, the Nazi Party announced that, from 10 a.m. on 1 April, an official boycott would begin of all Jewish businesses, doctors and lawyers
• On 15 September 1935, a set of changes called the Nuremberg Laws were passed, which increased the persecution of the Jews