Nazi Persecution

Hitler had firm racial policies and believed that non-Germans should not have any citizenship rights. There were many groups of people who were targeted by Hitler's policies, but none more so than the Jews.

Who did the Nazis persecute?

The Nazis believed that only Germans could be citizens and that non-Germans did not have any right to the rights of citizenship.

The Nazis racial philosophy taught that some races were untermensch (sub-human). Many scientists at this time believed that people with disabilities or social problems were genetic degenerates whose genes needed to be eliminated from the human bloodline.

The Nazis, therefore:

• Tried to eliminate the Jews.
• Killed 85 per cent of Germany's Gypsies.
• Sterilised black people.
• Killed mentally disabled babies.
• Killed mentally ill patients.
• Sterilised physically disabled people and people with hereditary diseases.
• Sterilised deaf people.
• Put homosexuals, prostitutes, Jehovah's Witnesses, alcoholics, pacifists, beggars, hooligans and criminals - who they regarded as anti-social - into concentration camps.

How the Nazis persecuted the Jews: key dates

1933

• Boycott of Jewish businesses.
• Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers sacked.
• Race Science lessons to teach that Jews are untermensch.

1935

• 'Jews not wanted here' signs put up at swimming pools etc.
• Nuremberg laws (15 September) Jews could not be citizens. They were not allowed to vote or to marry a German.

1938

• Jews could not be doctors.
• Jews had to add the name Israel (men) or Sarah (women) to their name.
• Jewish children forbidden to go to school.
• Kristallnacht (9 November) - attacks on Jewish homes, businesses andsynagogues.

A shop damaged during Kristallnacht

1939

• Jews were forbidden to own a business, or own a radio.
• Jews were forced to live in ghettoes.

1941

• Army Einsatzgruppen squads in Russia started mass-shootings of Jews.
• All Jews were forced to wear a yellow star of David.

1942

• Wansee Conference (20 January) decided on the Final Solution, which was to gas all Europe's Jews. The main death camps were at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor.

Question time: Why and how did the Nazis persecute many groups in German society?

Source: BBC GCSE Bitesize