To what extent were the lives of Jews and other persecuted minorities affected by the Nazi policies implemented between 1933 and 1939?

Francesca Eales KAA 19.03.2004

The Nazis had very specific racial theories and ideals, which were extremely important to them as a party, and to Hitler himself. They believed that the highest racial class was that of the Aryan race from Northern Europe, and all other races were inferior. They considered the lowest people to be those of mixed or adulterated blood, the gypsies, the Slavs of Eastern Europe and, most importantly, the Jews. The Nazis believed that the Aryan race was superior to all of mankind, and that they were the only group of people who were capable of true civilisation and culture. They adopted a rather right-winged theory known as ‘Social Darwinism’ which involved the idea that human society was composed of strong and weak races, fighting for survival, and so engaged in programmes to create a master race, physically superior to all other races, to secure the survival of the Aryan race. Along with this, they planned to destroy the inferior races to create more living space (Lebensraum) for the Aryans, and also to destroy any opposition which could affect the purity and racial superiority of the Nazis ‘master race’.

There were three main types of outsiders that the Nazi party focused on persecuting. Firstly there were ideological enemies, these were people that held and preached beliefs considered dangerous and a threat to public morale by the Nazi party. Secondly there were the ‘asocials’. These were people labelled socially inefficient or who offended the National Community (Volksgemeinschaft) by their behaviour. Lastly, there were the biological outsiders, these were seen as a threat because they had hereditary defects or because of their race. The biological outsiders were split into two categories; there were those who were socially undesirable due to their race, and there were those who had hereditary defects which were regarded as a threat to the future of the German race and, therefore, made them socially ineffective. These three main categories were to be greatly effected by the imposition of Nazi ideology during the years 1933 to 1939.

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Anti-Semitic views have been held for centuries, mainly in Christian countries, where Jews were considered to be a threat to religion and culture. Hitler picked up on the negativity towards Jews during his teenage years spent in Vienna pre-World War One. In ‘Mein Kampf’, Hitler explained and justified his anti-Semitic ideas and why he felt that the Jews were responsible for problems in Germany. He claimed that the Jews hid behind religion instead of admitting themselves as a race because that way, they could gain from any country they lived in like parasites. The Jews were seen by many Party activists as a scapegoat that they could lay all their problems on. The German nation was not particularly anti-Semitic and the Nazis were voted for between 1930 and 1933, because people believed Hitler could solve Germanys’ severe economic and political problems, mainly brought about by the First World War, not because they strongly opposed the Jewish Community established in Germany.

In 1933 there was a population of just 500,000 Jews in Germany, making up only 0.76 percent of the population. However, around 70 percent were concentrated in the main cities, working in well paid, high power jobs such as in the media, legal industries and in the medical professions. Jews accounted for a lot of Germany’s economic income and so, when Hitler came to power in January 1933, he did not attempt to attack and disrupt Jewish businesses as this could affect economic recovery which was his main aim. Severe measures against the Jews may have also resulted in strong objections from his conservative allies or even from the general public and his dictatorship was not yet secure enough to deal with such strong opposition.

Nazi activists were not so concerned about rocking the boat with the conservatives and so began severe attacks against the Jewish people, their businesses and professions. Hitler realised that he could not deny his party their desire for anti-Jewish measures, but wanted one of his main claims to be that he had restored law and order in Germany. Therefore, he arranged a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses and professions, beginning on April 1st which Hitler passed off as an act of aggression against the Jews, for their anti-German propaganda in the foreign press. Party leaders claimed the boycott a success even though there was little public support, with many people using Jewish businesses in defiance of the pickets.

On April 7th 1933 anti-Jewish legislation was introduced by the government. The Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service and the Law Concerning Admission of the Legal Profession, meant that many Jewish businessmen – apart from those who had served in the First World War, on command of President Hindenburg - were forced out of their jobs, along with all other ‘non-Aryans’. On April 22nd 1933 the Decree Regarding Physicians’ Services prevented Jewish doctors working in the state health system – again, apart from those who served in the First World War, as requested by Hindenburg – and in June this was also extended to dentists. On April 25th 1933 the Law Against Overcrowding German Schools restricted the amount of Jewish youths in a school or University to 5 percent. Due to Hindenburg’s’ requests, that those Jews who served in the First World War should be made exempt from the April laws, there was little effect at first on the Jewish community, leaving 70 percent of lawyers and 75 percent of doctors still in their jobs. Party activists were not impressed by the little effects the laws had had and continued their campaign of terror on the Jews. Propaganda Minister Goebbels declared war on ‘Jewish Intellectualism’ by holding book burning ceremonies in May and the Reich Chambers of Culture created in September, allowed him to expel Jews from the arts and media, there was enormous loss to Germany’s cultural life as a result.

In 1934 there was little discriminatory legislation passed and the number of Jews leaving Germany fell from 37,000 in 1933 to 23,000 in 1934. 10,000 Jews actually returned to Germany, but there was still a strong anti-Semitic feeling with posters claiming “Jews not welcome” being common. Many Jews were also put under pressure to resign from professional organisations, clubs and societies.

In 1935, Nazi activists were becoming frustrated by the lack of anti-Semitic progress being made. Local marriage officers were put under pressure to stop mixed marriages and examples were made of those who engaged in sex with a Jewish person. In May, Party branches organised more boycotts and campaigns of violent terror which continued now and then for four months. Hitler wanted action and so, two days before the annual Party rally in Nuremburg was supposed to finish, he ordered his Interior Minister to create laws banning German and Jewish mixed relationships. On September 15th 1935 the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour banned marriages and sex between Germans and Jews; it also stopped Jews employing female German servants under the age of 45. The Reich Citizenship Law also denied Jews German citizenship; these laws defined the Jews as second class citizens and this meant that they had to be classified.

As Hitler wanted to define the Jews as a race, not as a religion, they were classified as someone with three or more Jewish grandparents and those with two were labelled part-Jews. Civil servants who had held their jobs due to Hindenburg’s clause were dismissed and Jews were banned from all state service. The Nuremburg Laws now made it essential for Germans to have proof of Aryan ancestry with ‘racial experts’ taking physical examinations of questionable cases. Applicants for the SS had to prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1650.

On July 14th 1933, a law was passed that forced those who were considered to be suffering from hereditary or mental illnesses to be compulsorily sterilised. The definition of hereditary diseases was also widened to include alcoholism and even ‘moral feeble-mindedness’ which was very vague and so interpreted widely by the authorities. An estimated 320,000 to 350,000 people were sterilised due to the law and there was little opposition, this indicates that the Nazi’s ideas on eugenics had been accepted by society. A secret committee was set up by Philip Bouhler on Hitler’s request, to examine all cases of deformed births and decide if the child should live or die. After war broke out, Hitler allowed this programme to be extended to adults and by 1941 when the programme was suspended; around 100,000 mentally ill people had been killed.

The Nazi’s claimed that anti-social behaviour was inherited and that criminal classes were over breeding. Many had to undergo ‘criminal-biological’ investigations by experts who decided whether the men should be castrated. Himmler defined the asocials as, “persons who demonstrate through behaviour towards the community that they will not adapt themselves to the community”. This definition was very vague so the police could arrest a wide range of people; who were rounded up in raids and in April 1938, were taken as cheap labour, to concentration camps. Homosexuals were also discriminated against, 10,000 to 15,000 being sent to concentration camps during the Third Reich because they were considered a menace to society as they had “renounced their duty to procreate” and affected public morality. Homosexuality was already illegal in Germany, but in 1935, the laws were widened so it was easier for them to be incriminated.

Gypsies were severely discriminated against, even before 1933, because they did not have regular jobs and moved around so much. The Nazis saw them as ‘carriers of alien blood’ resulting in many being rounded up and sterilised. In December 1938 a register of all gypsies was created to prevent German blood mixing with Gypsy. They were then confined to specific places and in 1939 after Germany’s defeat of Poland, many were taken there.

The Nazi policies from 1933 to 1939 greatly affected the Jews and the persecuted minorities. Businesses were ruined, jobs were lost, lives were taken or not able to begin and there was a great deal of grief for them. Relationships between Aryans and the minorities were banned causing heart ache and many lives were lost. The Nazis attempt to rid Germany of the persecuted minorities was an ongoing struggle and the Nazis brutality shocks the world. After 1939 there were many more atrocities, such as the holocaust where the minorities suffered torture and death just for being who they were. The persecution of the Jews and minorities deeply effected Germany and the world and should never be repeated.

Concentration Camp