1. Prewar Nazi Germany: Overview 3 Dr. Maccalupo Holocaust/Milkweed Unit Language Arts 7

2. Germans Accept Anti-Jewish Propaganda  1925 – Jews made up less than 5% of officials in the German gov’t.  1930 – less than 8% of directors of German banking companies were Jewish.  1932 – Germany’s 85 major newspapers had fewer than ten Jewish editors.

3. Nuremberg Laws  1935 – took away the citizenship of Jews born in Germany.  These laws defined Jews not by their religion, but by the religious affiliation of their grandparents.

4. T-4 Program  between 1933-1935 the Nazi’s passed laws creating involuntary sterilization programs aimed at reducing the number of genetically “inferior” Germans  Hitler ordered he elimination of the mentally handicapped because they were “useless eaters.”  The T-4 program (Berlin’s Tiergartenstrasse 4) took the handicapped to extermination centers and gassed them with carbon monoxide.

5. Other Groups  The Roma (Gypsies) – they were sterilized and prohibited from marrying Germans  Homosexuals (mostly males) – were sterilized or imprisoned in concentration camps  Children of mixed African and German racial background were sterilized.  Jehovah’s Witnesses – singled out because they were pacifists

6. SS Gain Power  Hitler’s ordered a purge of the SA (storm troopers) by the SS (the elite group of soldiers who served as his personal bodyguard  Communists, Catholics, Jews, intellectuals, and others were the targets of the Gestapo, or secret police

7. Dachau  The first concentration camp  It was built to hold political dissenters and “enemies of the state”

8. Kristallnacht  “Night of Broken Glass” – throughout Germany fires and bombs were used to destroy synagogues and shops.  Dr. Josef Goebbels, the propaganda minister, claimed the “spontaneous demonstration” was in reaction to the shooting of a lower-level diplomat at the German embassy in Paris

9. Anschluss, or Uniting  March 1938 – Austria became a part of greater Germany  September 1, 1939 – German forces marched into Poland and crushed all organized resistance  World War II begins

10. Source of Information  Material on this slide presentation adapted from:  The Holocaust: A North Carolina Teacher’s Resource  Published in cooperation with the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust  Copyright 2002 by the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust  http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/holocaustcouncil