Bad Social Conditions
Due to the treaty of Versailles the economy had collapsed. Inflation was high and money was worthless. A price of bread rose from 0.54 to 201 000 000 000 marks. This was the scale of the problem. There was high unemployment and so the basic necessities were considered as luxuries. Social conditions were very bad.
Poor political leadership
Until 1924 the political leadership was very poor. Inflation was high; unemployment was high so the politicians were really struggling.
But in 1924 aided by the Dawes plan (Dawes plan was an arrangement drawn up to set more reasonable amounts of reparations aided by foreign countries and it also included the withdrawal of allies from the industrial Ruhr region) the German economy experienced a revival under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann and he also enabled Germany to have international respect once again. It joined the League of Nations in 1926 and prospered during the next 4 years.
In 1929 the shares at the US stock exchange collapsed which caused a worldwide depression. Gustav Stresemann, the best person who could have coped with this depression, also died in the same year.
It hit Germany hard and millions became unemployed. They became disillusioned by democracy and started to look at communism and the national socialists (Nazis) which was led by Adolf Hitler.
Emergence of Hitler
Adolf Hitler was a soldier in world war one. He proved a dedicated courageous soldier but he never got promoted beyond private first class because his superiors thought he lacked leadership qualities!
After losing World War 1 Hitler was gutted by the lost and he felt the German leaders had betrayed Germany. He hated USA, Britain and the Soviet Union as well as Jews. In 1919 he joined the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) party who had very nationalist views. They had very patriotic policies such as believing the Germans were the strongest and all others were inferior.
It was a fairly small party when Hitler joined; it had only 25 members and had no power and influence in Germany. The party’s beliefs mirrored that of Hitler’s including the belief that the Jews were responsible for the downfall of Germany during world war one. The party’s polices compromised of a mixture of exaggerated nationalistic demands, corruption of socialist ideas, and racist and anti-Semitic doctrines.
The party’s extremist policies did not appeal to the German public because it was a time when most Germans wanted stability. But after several months the Germans realised that nothing was happening so they also started adopting he party’s extremist ideas. They thought ‘This guys right. It is the Jews that are to blame for everything bad that is happening.’ They started persecuting the Jews.
Hitler then became leader of the Nazi’s and through his elegant style of giving speeches he persuaded the German people to accept his racist policies.
He promised the German people that he will give them the jobs that the Jews were doing, whom he depicted as villainous, to deserving Germans and he promised them that Germany will one again become strong militarily and economically. In return he wanted people to pledge their obedience to him as their leader. To strengthen his message he sent SS members to attack communists and Jews. During the depths of depression the Nazis were the largest party and in 1933 Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany.
Reversal of the Treaty of Versailles.
Once Hitler came in power he scrapped the treaty of Versailles.
He stopped paying back the huge amount of reparations in 1923.
He started to economically develop Germany. He put most unemployed people in the army and organised a propaganda system through publishing and teaching. He became dictator and banned all political parties other than Nazism. People were happy because Germany was a strong country. He started pumping money into oil, coal, and army etc
Unemployment virtually vanished as he put them to work in industries related to warfare. He got the Rhine back and also Alsaice and Lorraine. Nobody stopped him. All the threats by the other countries were empty.
By 1939 trade was booming and Germany had a powerful army and was in an excellent military position.
Propaganda/Scapegoats
Propaganda is an organised programme of publicity, selected information etc which is used to propagate a certain doctrine, practice, idea etc
It can be said and written and as you hear or read about it day after day you start to believe it.
Hitler had part of his government devoted to propaganda.
Paul Joseph Goebbels was put in charge of propaganda. Goebbels used all media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims including the hatred of Jews and non-Aryans. The Nazis also used the Jews as scapegoats (Deliberately blame a group (usually minority group) or person for something that they never did) and said that the Jews were bad. They portrayed Jews as stingy, rich sub-humans who were responsible for everything bad that happened to Germany. Although Jews had also fought for Germany on the battlefield this constant repetition of what Jews were like got into the German mind. The Germans started to believe him because he was their leader, so they respected him. All German newspapers and radio were controlled by Nazis. They only published what they saw good to their policies. As the Germans read or heard everyday the accepted it even if it was bad.
The papers were cheap and available nationally. Therefore their ideologies were easily spreadable and the German people’s confidence shot up. Propaganda was spread by poster, radio, film, whispering, newspapers, speeches etc
Nuremberg laws
This was an anti-Jewish legislation passed by the Nazi government in 1933.
By this time Hitler had become a dictator and nobody minded him becoming dictator. This meant that he had absolute power and nobody could advise him. He could do what ever he wanted and he directly controlled all fields of government. This dictatorship led to direct persecution of the Jews, as anti-Semitism was Hitler’s main focal point.
Hitler identified the Jews as the root of all Germany's social, economic, and international problems after World War I, and was able to draw on anti-Semitic prejudices within Germany and Austria.
When the Nazis came in power they had violent attacks against Jews and they also encouraged others to do the same.
From 1933 the Nuremberg laws were passed which meant that all Jewish shopkeepers, lawyers, doctors, dentist etc were not able to practice. Jewish students were also kicked out of universities.
In 1935 Germans were not allowed to marry Jews because it was said that this would corrupt their pure German blood. Anyone who had Jewish grandparents and were not religious themselves were still considered Jewish.
In 1938 Jewish students were kicked out of universities and kicked out of their houses.
Section B
Continuation of Nuremberg laws
1939 Hitler invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia. All the Nuremberg rules now applied to all the Jews living in the invaded countries. And as Hitler invaded the rest of Europe and a bit of Russia he has millions of Jews in his hands.
All the Jews in the invaded countries had to give up their businesses.
In 1939 any money that was left in a Jewish bank account was frozen and were taken by the Germans.
At this point plans were under way to remove the Jews from their homes by force. There were curfews not allowing Jews to go out after 8pm.
This is when the persecution picked up a gear.
In 1940 the Jews were made to work for no money and they all had to wear a yellow Star of David clearly showing that they were Jews.
In 1942 a special conference was held by Hitler to discuss how to get rid of the Jews.
Ghettos
Ghettos are now considered to be run down areas of town were the ethnic minorities usually live and are considered very hostile places.
The Jews were forced by the Germans to live in ghettos by law.
The Germans would build huge walls around them to isolate them and for them to die.
The Jews would starve to death but it was considered to slow for the Germans because it took a couple of weeks but the benefit was that it didn’t cost the Germans a lot to kill Jews like that.
Death Squads
Hitler decided that using ghettos was too slow so he organised groups of individuals who were directly ordered by Hitler and his deputies.
These death squads were known as the SS and were also called brown shirts, which was their uniform.
They were there to eliminate any threats and they also killed communists and others that Hitler despised as well as Jews.
The SS were allowed to use force and were commanded to eliminate the disables, anyone that stood up to Hitler, gypsy, homosexuals, blacks and finally their main target were the Jews and they killed plenty of them. 2 million Jews died through ghettos and death squads.
Although shooting them was a quick way to kill them the cost of bullets were expensive. Hitler decided that the Jews were not worth the bullets and he thought why should the German economy pay for the killing of the Jews so he and his staff decided upon the ‘final solution’ which was the pinnacle of the holocaust.
Concentration Camps
Concentration camps were specific locations like prison camps away from the town and cities for the purpose of imprisoning people.
The concentration camps differ from prison in the way that there is no differentiation of men women and children, how long they stay in there is not fixed and finally camp authorities are able to exercise what they want.
The reason that they were away from town and cities is because Hitler did not want the Germans to know about these and if they were near the town the Germans would be able to see what atrocities were committed inside these labour camps.
The camps were in places that were invaded and a few notorious ones are Auschwitz ,Burgen-Belsen and Natzweiler.
Jews were forcefully taken there and those who weren’t, were told that trains would take them out of the country so they eagerly got on because the wanted to get away from this persecution. But instead of going out of the country they were taken to concentration camps.
These camps were first used for labour but that was considered too slow so they just changed to concentration camps and sanctioned killing took place.
The Jews had their head shaved, which was used for stuffing pillows. They had any gold teeth taken out which could be melted and converted to gold.
They were all stripped naked and some were even given a piece of rock, which had a soapy covering so they genuinely thought they were going for a shower.
The ‘shower’ was packed and instead of water deadly poisonous syonide was released for 30 seconds. After about 20 minutes when the screaming stopped the Nazis new that they were all dead. They could kill 2000 in one go. It was cheaper and much more effective.
Mass graves were built and they were all flung inside or they were burnt but that was too expensive.
6 million Jews died in the concentration camps.
This was the ‘final solution’.
Conclusion
In this assignment I have found out how and why the Jews were persecuted before and during the Second World War.
I have analysed 10 sources as well as researching about the persecution of Jews and I have laid the facts clearly in this essay.
I have seen how the Nazis had prejudice ideas about Jews and how they discriminated against them and finally they started to persecute them, which led to the horrors of the holocaust. They used propaganda effectively to indoctrinate the German masses with their ideology and then they carried out their plans with ease.
I personally think that the holocaust was a very bad thing but that the way in which Hitler used propaganda to convince the Germans was a very clever thing. He made millions of Germans believe what he wanted and made them do what he wanted. It just shows us that propaganda can be a very useful yet deadly tool.
He used the Jews as scapegoats and the cause of their problems and this is what the Germans wanted. They wanted to blame someone and Hitler said blame the Jews and so they did.
I also think that it would have been good to get more of the German side of the story because what we know now is mostly from the allied viewpoint.
I have also found out how prejudice discrimination and persecution is related.
Prejudice Discrimination Persecution
Prejudice leads to discrimination which can lead to persecution.
Prejudice is an ideology that you have about a person or group.
Discrimination is when you put that idea into actions.
Persecution is when you turn the actions into violent actions.
Now I’ll give an example of each:
Prejudice- Germans not liking Jews because they see them as the cause of loss of WW1.
Discrimination- Jews not allowed going to school or having certain jobs.
Persecution- 6 million Jews killed in concentration camps.
Most people have prejudices but they leave it there. But others go one step further and actually put their prejudices in to action, as did the Nazis.
Outsiders are usually the scapegoats. Outsiders as the minority in the community and insiders the majority. E.g. Jews outsiders Germans insiders.
When society is under stress like Germany was they use outsiders as causes of their problem like the Germans blamed Jews. Because outsider groups are often less in number they are in a weak position e.g. Jews
Outsider groups also have a different religion because they have migrated from other countries. E.g. Jewish
You are not born with prejudice ideas but you learn them from your family, friends media etc like the Germans were not born to hate Jews but people like Hitler encouraged them to hate Jews.
