Discrimination

• Untermenschen


  Inferior people or sub-humans, the term used by Nazis to describe Slavs, gypsies, black people and Jews
• Treatment of Untermenschen

  • In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws banned Aryans from marrying minorities mixed-race children sterilised
  • After 1933 many gypsies were arrested and sent to concentration camps
  • 1938 all gypsies had to be registered and were banned from travelling
  • 1939 they were told they would be deported
• Other undesirables persecuted by the Nazis

  • Homosexuals were sent to prison or concentration camps and subjected to medical experiments to correct their 'disorder'
  • Mentally handicapped people were sterilised
  • Mentally and physically handicapped babies were killed
  • Vagrants were seen as 'work shy' and put in concentration camps
• Reasons why Jews were persecuted

  • Believed they were associated with communism
  • Jealous of their success - many Jews were professionals or owned businesses
  • Blamed for Germany's defeat in First World War and the Treaty of Versailles (especially as some politicians involved were Jewish)
• Reasons why most non-Jewish German people let the persecution happen

  • The influence of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda
  • The fear of the Gestapo and SS if they did speak out
• Timeline of persecution of Jewish businesses

  1. 1933 The SA organised a one-day boycott of Jewish shops, they painted a yellow star on doors and discouraged people from going inside

  2. 1937 Jewish businesses were taken over by Aryans

  3. 1938 Jews had to register their property, Jewish shops were set on fire or vandalised (Kristallnacht)

  4. 1939 Jews were barred from owning businesses
• Timeline of persecution of Jewish professions and other aspects of life

  1. 1933 Jews were sacked an prohibited form jobs, SA one-day boycott

  2. 1934 Some Jews were banned from public places like parks and swimming pools, other benches were painted yellow specifically for Jewish people

  3. 1935 The Nuremberg Laws

  4. 1936 Jews were restricted acting as teachers and nurses

  5. 1937 Jewish passports had to be stamped with a 'J' or 'Sarah' had to be added to Jewish names

  6. 1939 The Reich Office for Jewish Emigration was set up with the purpose of expelling all Jews from Germany
• Nuremberg Laws, 1935


  A new set of laws passed to make it easier to persecute Jews, including the Reich Law on Citizenship which stripped Jews of citizenship, and the Reich Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour which banned Jews from marrying or having sexual relations with Germans
• Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass), 1938


  A 17-year-old Polish Jew entered the German embassy in Paris and shot a German, Goebbels used the event to stir up resentment against Jews by attacking homes and synagogues in Hanover, Goebbels and Hitler decided to increase the violence to a nationwide attack, groups of uniformed and non-uniformed gangs ran amok amongst Jewish communities, destroying and burning homes, shops, businesses and synagogues, 100 Jews were killed, 614 shops were destroyed, 171 homes were destroyed, 191 synagogues were destroyed
• Goebbels blamed the Jews for starting the trouble on Kristallnacht and ordered them to pay damages, Jews were fined 1 billion marks