Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany By Josh Curtis

The Nazi Beliefs Hitler and the Nazi’s believed that the German people were the master race. The Nazi’s believed was that the Germanic racial group (the Aryans) were superior to all other groups of people. Pride in one’s racial background is a common phenomenon, but the Nazi’s took this belief to extreme lengths. Race farms were set up, where carefully selected women were mated with ideal males in a form of selective breeding to produce ‘super-Germans’. Even before Hitler came to power, he had set out his racial views in ‘Mein Kampf’ and in speeches and Nazi literature.

Discrimination Not only did the Nazi’s believe that their race was the best, but they also believed that others were inferior beings. Jews, eastern Europeans and blacks were ‘Untermenschen’ (lowlife) who were believed to not be worthy of respect. The Nazi’s believed that the Jews were not only an inferior race, but they had also joined with the communists to undermine Germany’s efforts in the First World War. Since 1918, according to Hitler, the Jews had continued trying to ruin the German economy.

The Public’s Response At first, few people accepted Hitler’s views on race. After all, many German Jews had fought with great bravery for their country in the Great War. But as Nazi propaganda continually reinforced the message, more and more people seemed prepared to accept the Jews as a scapegoat for all that had gone wrong in Germany between 1918 and 1933. Once in power, Hitler wasted little time in putting his anti-Semetic policies into action.

Persecution On 1 April 1933 the SA organised a boycott of Jewish shops throughout Germany. Sometimes Stormtroopers stood outside shops and physically prevented people entering. In 1935 Jews were banned from public place such as swimming pools, restaurants, parks and cinemas, but much more serious were the Nuremberg laws passed in the same year.

The Nuremberg Laws There were two of these laws; The Reich citizen law deprived Jews of the German citizenship. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour outlawed marriages and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. These were followed by persecution as hundreds of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

The German Jew’s responses Large numbers of Jews decided to emigrate from Germany: In the 1930’s half the German Jewish population left the country. Many others felt that they could not leave their homeland and hoped that thing would not get worse. But in 1938 they did…

Night of Broken Glass A Jewish student shot dead a German diplomat in the embassy in Paris. The authorities in Germany reacted by ordering widespread attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. In this ‘Kristallnacht’ (night of broken glass) 8000 Jewish homes and shops were attacked and synagogues were burned to the ground, over 100 Jews were killed and thousands were sent to concentration camps. When he heard of the cost to German insurance companies of all the damage, one leading Nazi said ‘we should have smashed fewer windows and more heads’.

More Persecution Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) was followed by a new set of anti-Semitic laws. The Jewish community had to pay a fine of 1 billion marks for the murder of the diplomat in Paris. Jews were no longer allowed to run businesses and Jewish children were banned from school. It seemed things could get no worse, and few people could have imagined what was in store for Jews all across Europe in years to come.

Thank you for listening.