Adolf Hitler
wrote the book called Mein Kampf "My Struggle", in this book he described how he thought that God wanted him to kill Jews because they didn't believe in God.
Anti-Semitic Beliefs- his hatred of Jews
Hated Democracy- he thought Democracy gave the people too much power
Living Space in Russia for the German People
Great Depression brought Nazis back into power because of tough times
Hitler is appointed chancellor, head of the government because government officials thought they could control him if they made him a head of government
Hitler used Nazi propaganda to fool people into thinking his ways were good and right.
Joseph Goebbels was in charge of propaganda for Germany and the Nazi Government.
Holocaust
Genocide- systematic killing of one specific group of people.
Holocaust was thought to be a Genocide, although never was officially called a Genocide.
Every 2 out of 3 Jews were killed in the Holocaust
6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust
Killed in the Holocaust were:
- Jews (6 million)
- Gypsies (500,000 to 1.5 million)
- Mentally/Physically Handicapped (75,000 to 250,000)
- Soviet Troops/POWs/Slavs (16.5 million)
- Poles (2.5 million)
- Homosexuals (5,000-15,000)
- Communists/Socialists (no exact number)
- Dark skinned people (death and forced sterilization)
- Mixed Races- Hitler's worst fear
- Jehovah's Witness (2,500-5,000)
Aryan Race- blonde hair, blue eyed, tall, muscular (misused by Nazis, original term refers to a people speaking a Indo-European dialect.
Lebensborn-Fount of Life (blonde hair, blue eyed women were taken in and had relations with soldiers to produce blonde haired, blue eyed babies) women volunteered to do this because they were taken care of by the German government and they felt that they were helping their country.
Hitler's Jewish Question 1933- What to do with the Jews?
- First concentration camps were set up
- Jews were prohibited from working as civil servants
- temporarily suspend civil liberties for all citizens and were never restored
Nuremburg Laws 1935
- took away German citizenship from Jews, making Jews 2nd class citizens by removing their basic rights
- established membership in the Jewish race as being anyone who either considered themselves Jewish or had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents. People with 1 or 2 Jewish grandparents were considered to be mixed race, eventually anyone with at least 1 Jewish grandparent was at risk in Nazi Germany
- Jews could only marry Jews to avoid mixing bloodlines
- No sexual relations between non-Jewish Germans and Jews
1936
- Nazis boycott Jewish-owned businesses in effort to take away their livlihood
Kristallnacht-1938 "Night of the Broken Glass" (November 9-10 1938)
- Germans went around breaking the glass of the Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and synagogues and stealing things from them
- In all, 101 synagogues were destroyed and almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destoyed.
- 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps
- Jews were physically attacked and beaten and 91 died in the attack
1938
- All Jewish children are expelled from public schools in Germany and Austria.
- Nazis take control of Jewish-owned businesses
1939
- Hitler orders the systematic murder of the mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria
- Jews are required to wear armbands or yellow stars
1940
- Nazis begin deporting German Jews to Poland
- Jews are forced into ghettos
- Nazis begin the first mass murder of Jews in Poland
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