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Nazi Ideas about Race and Religion

Nazi Germany


Learning objectives


How Hitler’s ideas about the ‘master race’ affected his treatment of Jews, tramps, homosexuals and the handicapped.

How Hitler’s feelings about the Christian faith affected his treatment of Catholics and Protestants.

What we will learn in this presentation:

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Nazi Ideas about Race


Social Darwinism: the European context


Social Darwinism: the global context


The Nazis took Social Darwinism even further by arguing that conflict between races of people was inevitable.

Hitler believed in an Aryan 'master race' of ‘blue-eyed, white-skinned, fair-haired people’.

He felt this race was undermined by toleration of:

(a) ‘undesirable’ other races, such as Jews and Gypsies

(b) ‘undesirable’ Aryan specimens, such as the mentally ill and people with disabilities.

In order to create a strong 'Volk', Hitler believed it was necessary to rid Germany of both groups of ‘undesirables’ (“Victory goes to the strong; the weak must be eliminated”).

This presentation will deal with how Hitler treated these ‘undesirables’.

Social Darwinism: the Nazi context


Hitler hated the Jews. He considered them communists and war profiteers who had ‘stabbed Germany in the back’ at the end of World War I. Where did these ideas come from?

Jews were historically blamed for

killing Christ, so they were:

Politically – denied basic rights in many Christian countries.

Economically – excluded from professions.

As a result, they either:

Became very poor and so attracted to

communism, which scared the wealthy

Became very rich by setting themselves up as moneylenders (a profession closed to Christians) so they

were hated by the poor.

or

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?


“The Jews inhabited Hitler’s mind. He believed that they were the source of all evil,

misfortune and tragedy. They were devils whom he had been given a divine mission to

destroy…” Lucy Dawidowicz, 1975.

What did Hitler think of the Jews?


What did Hitler think of the Jews?


As soon as he came to power, Hitler began a systematic state-led attack on the German Jews.

In 1933 he organized a boycott of Jewish businesses. SA members barred entry to Jewish shops.

Jews were made to use separate seats on buses and trains, and were banned from public places like parks and cafes.

Jews were excluded from many professions. Jewish civil servants and teachers were sacked and Jews were not allowed to edit newspapers or study law.

Jews could not join the Chamber of Culture or the German Labour Front, further removing them from public life.

Nazi anti-Jewish policies 1933–39


Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London.

This cartoon is from a German school book from the inter-war period.

What message do you think this cartoon is trying to give to German school children?

Nazi anti-Jewish policies 1933–39


The Nuremberg laws 1935


In November 1938, a high-ranking Nazi was shot by a Jewish man in Paris. Hitler used this as an excuse to organize a week of violence against the German Jews.

On 10 November, Himmler and the SS led attacks on Jewish businesses. 10,000 shops were looted and 200 synagogues burnt down.

91 Jews were killed during the seven-day campaign of terror, and 20,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

To add insult to injury, Hitler then fined the Jewish community a billion marks to pay for the damage caused.

Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass


Many Jews left Germany during this period. When do you think most Jews

would have left, and why?

Many Jews nevertheless chose to stay. Why do you think that this was?

The Jewish Exodus


Other ‘Undesirable’ Groups


Nazi motives:

Nazi actions:

Anyone who demonstrates through behaviour towards the community … that they will not adapt themselves to the natural discipline of a Nazi state [should not be allowed to have children]. Himmler, 1935

By 1945, 350,000 men who were considered vagrants had been forcibly sterilized. 100 of these died as a result of the “Hitler cut”.

Tramps


Nazi motives:

Nazi actions:

There are homosexuals who take the view: what I do is my business. However, all things which take place in the sexual sphere … signify the life and death of the nation ... A people of good race which has too few children has a one-way ticket to the grave. Himmler, 1937

During the Nazi period, between 10 and 15 thousand homosexuals were imprisoned. They were then either castrated or subjected to medical experiments to ‘correct’ their sexuality.

Homosexuals


Nazi motives:

Nazi actions:

[Doctors can] decide whether those who have – as far as can be humanly determined – incurable illnesses should, after the most careful evaluation, be granted a mercy death. Hitler, 1939

By 1945 the ‘mercy killing’ of people who were ill or disabled had resulted in nearly 280,000 deaths. The euthanasia programme set a dangerous precedent that paved the way for the Holocaust.

The disabled


Discussion points


Nazi Ideas about Religion


Hitler was in two minds about what his policy towards the Christian churches should be.

On the one hand, the churches could be a powerful ally. The Catholic Church had supported the Nazis because it saw them as a bastion against Communism.

On the other hand, the Church represented a rival authority to the Führer. Catholics were required to give their allegiance to the Pope, and the Protestant churchman Martin Niemoller, had openly spoken out against the Nazis.

Hitler’s attitude


The Catholic Church


Hitler united the Protestant churches into one organization led by the pro-Nazi Bishop Muller.

Its members were called 'German Christians' and their slogan was “The swastika on our breasts and the cross in our hearts”.

Over the course of the next few years the churches came increasingly under attack. By 1939, RE lessons had been abolished and all church schools closed.

What do you think the slogan of the German Christian Movement

was getting at?

The Protestant Church


In 1934 the German Faith Movement was set up. This became the state religion and was based around the Hitler Myth. It aimed to promote the Aryan people and Nazi ideology.

"The National Reich Church demands an immediate stop to the printing and sale of the Bible in Germany ... On the altars must be nothing but Mein Kampf, and to the left of this a sword."

From the rules of the National Reich Church.

The German Faith Movement


Plenary

© Boardworks Ltd 2006 1 of 25 These icons indicate that teacher’s notes or useful web addresses are available in the Notes Page. This icon indicates that.

Documents

race slide

treatment of jews

german jews

nazi context slide

learning objectives

european context slide

global context slide

nazi ideas