Questions to Consider: (1) How did the Nazis encourage support for the Holocaust? (2) To what extent were average German citizens aware of the Holocaust? (3) How was this accomplished?

Handout: Nazi Germany: To what extent were average German citizens aware of or involved in the Holocaust?

Questions to Consider: * How does hatred occur? * Why do certain people hate other people? * How did this happen in Germany?

Are There Psychological Reasons for Why This Happened? -Gordon Allport’s, a psychologist and sociologist -Developed a “Scale of Prejudice and Discrimination” or “Allport’s Scale of Prejudice” - From the book, The Nature of Prejudice

Scale (Progression) of Prejudice 1 – “Antilocution” – when a group believes negative images of people outside one’s own group (begins with predilection, forming preferences) 2 – Avoidance – avoiding the minority group; no direct harm in initiated, but psychological harm may result from exclusion 3 – Discrimination – Calculated harm, denying opportunities (examples, Jim Crow laws or Apartheid in South Africa) 4 – Physical Attack – violent attack begins, could also include vandalism 5 – Extermination – genocide, complete elimination of other group * Prejudice? * Discrimination? * Violence? * Hatred?

What is Genocide? The legal definition is … “… the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.” From: Office of the High Commission for Human Rights. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Wikipedia.org

Eugenics False science of racial identity based on physical features. Jews were considered racially inferior to “Aryans.”

Why Did People Support Hitler? ** Hard to truly answer this question!!! No simple answers.

Why Did People Support Hitler? ** Hard to truly answer this question!!! No simple answers. (1)Propaganda - Scapegoat (2)Existing Anti-Semitism - “Pogroms” (3)Economic Prosperity under Hitler (4)Fear of being a target yourself Other Possible Explanations: - German peoples hatred of the Treaty of Versailles?? - Lack of strong democratic tradition??

Unemployment Rates The German Recovery: -Large-scale borrowing for public expenditures -Railroads, canals, & the Autobahnen -Large-scale wage controls ** For both U.S. & Germany, industrial production dropped 50% from 1929 to 1933

VIDEO:“THE PATH TO NAZI GENOCIDE” (20:00 – 37:25) (1) What caused the German people to trust Hitler? (2) Summarize the progression of Nazi persecution and murder towards Jewish peoples after the invasion of the Soviet Union?

Propaganda “You will think the way I tell you to think.”

Aryan supremacy was one goal. Lebensraum “living room” or “living space” the other.

Nazi Germany & Adolf Hitler Already discussed major events bringing him to power Hitler’s Ideology In Mein Kampf (1923), major points … [1] – Uniting all German-speaking people [2] – Racial purification and a master “Aryan” race [3] – Germany needs “lebensraum” or living space for national expansion

Youth were indoctrinated to see Hitler as a loving protector.

What a greedy Jew looks like… [ from “The Poison Mushroom” required reading in elementary schools under Nazi authority ] 1930’s Children’s Book

"Just as it is often hard to tell a toadstool from an edible mushroom, so too it is often very hard to recognize the Jew as a swindler and criminal..." 1930’s Children’s Book

“How Jewish traders cheat us. ” From “The Poison Mushroom” 1930’s Children’s Book

“The eternal Jew” always taking money [ German propaganda poster, 1935]

What a proper German looks like…

Nazification replaces education in schools Book burning Fewer academics Physical conditioning "Hitler our last hope"; "Therefore come to us!" Austrian political poster

Public burning of “un-German” books in Berlin, May 10, SA officers and college students. SA stands for Sturmabteilung, or Storm Troopers. Nazi academics had been eager to eliminate books that promote thinking outside Nazi belief, including religion, communism…Jewish authors, in particular.

Students engaged more in physical and military training exercises, less in academics.

By 1937, 95% of teachers belonged to the Nazi Teachers’ League Peer pressure, fear, job security, just make things easier.

"The Jew is our greatest enemy! Beware of the Jew!"

Slide comparing racially mixed man with healthy “Aryan” man Linking the idea of racially identifiable Jews with Bolshevism, Communism, inferior physical and moral characteristics – a constant theme.

Propaganda posters on public display

Postcard showing Nazi soldier waving large swastika flag standing on a mountain ridge, overlooking a valley.

Huge rallies were staged and broadcast via radio Hitler ordered all but the official Nazi radio transmission to be cancelled. There was no television, computer, cell phone or other electronic visual technology in the home. “We are yours” is depicted in the stadium.