Nazi Racial Policies During the War

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Policies Towards the Jews During World War Two and the Final Solution

As the war continued, policies towards the Jews became more radical.

Policy before the Final Solution

Before the Final Solution, there was no uniform policy for dealing with the Jews.
Local initiatives drove the Holocaust.

Ghettos

The creation of ghettos was very random and was not uniform across Poland and other countries in Europe.
Ghettos were overcrowded, short of water, food, electricity. Disease, starvation and even dying of thirst were rife.
For example in Warsaw, the ghetto was 15% of the city's housing stock but housed a third of the city's population.

Wannsee Conference

At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, a more systematic approach to exterminating Europe’s Jews was planned as opposed to mass shootings.

Historical Assessment of the Wannsee Conference

Roseman (2002): "Wannsee emerges as an important act…in the process of turning mass murder into genocide."
Kershaw: "The idea of racial cleansing…had become, via Hitler’s leadership…institutionalised in all aspects of organized life in the Nazi state."
Browning (2005) On 12 December 1941: ‘"Hitler] made it clear that the entry of the United States into the war would not delay implementation of the Final Solution."

The 'Final Solution'

Death camps were created in occupied Europe where Untermenschen would be gassed. The most infamous camp is Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The Einsatzgruppen had used gas in the T4 euthanasia programme. Now gas chambers were built in death camps, plus railways to deliver Jews and others.
Upon arrival, Jews were divided into those who would be gassed and those who could work until they dropped or until they were of no more use and then gassed.

Impact of the Final Solution

The majority of Jews were killed after 1942.
40% of the total Jews killed in the Holocaust were killed by mass shootings or burning. 60% were killed by gassings.
Over 6 million Jews were killed as part of the ‘Final Solution.’ Other Nazi victims included Russians, Poles, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political opponents and countless other asocials, mentally ill, physically handicapped people.
Historians such as Friedlander have noted that no one in the world spoke up to defend the Jews during the Holocaust.

Historical assessment

Ulrich Herbert (1999): '... elements of particular situations and gradual processes of radicalization are joined, in a multiplicity of ways, with equally varied goals and basic ideological convictions. Nationalist Socialist extermination policies thus proved not to have been a secret event but part of the policy of conquest and occupation throughout Europe.'

Historical assessment continued

Thomas Sandkuhler (1999) studied the Galicia region of Poland in 1941/2 and he shows how ghettoes were often built in reaction to local circumstances.
- In 1941 after the invasion of the Soviet Union the Germans realised they could not deal with the 'Jewish Problem' by deportation to the USSR.
- Jews were put into a ghetto in Lvov which was overcrowded and full of hunger and disease. Local authorities hoped that this would encourage the Nazis to take more extreme measures against the Jews.

Historical debate over why people acted in the Holocaust

Friedlander: 'Redemptive Anti-Semitism' drove behaviour by the German people. Argues the ideology was central to the Holocaust.
Aly: A functionalist interpretation. Argues that the Holocaust was driven by materialist concerns - to free up living space for the resettlement of Germans.
Kershaw: The German population knew about the Holocaust. Until 1943 no one openly discussed it. After the Allied Bombings in 1943, the Germans compared the Holocaust to their own suffering.

Historical debate over who acted in the Holocaust

Gross: It was not just Germans who drove the Holocaust but ordinary citizens in Eastern European countries. Using evidence from Poland he shows how neighbours helped kill Jews.
- This suggests that the Holocaust was driven by local populations as well as the Nazis.
Goldhagen: Every German in the army was a 'willing executioner' of the Jews motivated by Anti-Semitism.
Browning: 'Ordinary men' in the army were not solely driven by an obsessive anti-Semitic ideology.

Policies Towards the 'Untermenschen' During World War Two

‘Untermenschen’ means subhuman, anyone who threatened the purity of the German Volk on racial, asocial or medical grounds. They were persecuted by. the Nazis in Europe.

Treatment of Untermnschen

In all occupied territories, Untermenschen were separated out and marked for persecution and either slave labour or in extermination camps.
The Generalplan-Ost saw Slavs, Serbs and Slovenes as fit for enslavement or extermination. Eastern Europeans of German ethnic descent were ‘Germanised.’
In Poland, the USSR and Yugoslavia, adults resisting Germanisation were executed, children put up for adoption.

Slovenia

46,000 ethnic Slovenes (southern Slavs) were taken and used as slave labour for the German war effort.
Ethnic Germans were resettled on their land.

Serbia

Serbian schools were shut. Orthodox Christian Serbs were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism.
Massacres of Serbs were carried out by Croatians.

Poland

The Nazis first killed 60,000 Poles who were leaders in their fields. The aim was to get rid of any Polish leadership before enslaving or killing Poland’s masses.
In October 1939 all Slavic Poles over 14, and Jews over 12, could be used as forced labour.
Up to 2.9 million Slavic Poles were killed as Untermenschen as were gypsies, the mentally ill, disabled and asocials.
Germans were moved into Poland to be resettled as part of Lebensraum.

1Political & Governmental Change, 1918-1989

1.1Creation & Collapse of Weimar, 1918-1932

1.1.1Creation of a Republic

1.1.2Strengths & Weaknesses of Weimar Constitution

1.1.3Overcoming Challenges to the Constitution

1.1.4The Great Depression

1.1.5The Collapse of Democracy

1.1.6The Collapse of Democracy 2

1.1.7Hitler Becomes Chancellor

1.2Nazi Dictatorship, 1933-1945

1.2.1Establishing a Dictatorship

1.2.2Consolidating Power

1.2.3Nature of Government

1.2.4Government in Wartime

1.2.5Top Grade AO2/3 - Political & Governmental Change

1.3Return to Democratic Government, 1945-1989

1.3.1Creation of the FRG, 1945-1949

1.3.2Consolidation Under Adenauer

1.3.3Consolidation Under Erhard

1.3.4Maintaining Stability Under Brandt

1.3.5Maintaining Stability Under Schmidt

1.3.6Maintaining Stability Under Kohl

1.3.7Top Grade AO2/3 - Return to Democratic Government

2Opposition, Control & Consent 1918-1989

2.1Opposition to Government, 1918-1989

2.1.1Impact of Versailles

2.1.2Political Extremism & Crises, 1918-1932

2.1.3Opposition & Dissent in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

2.1.4Political Dissent from the Left, 1949-1989

2.1.5Political Dissent from the Right, 1949-1989

2.1.6Top Grade AO2/3 - Opposition to Government 1918-89

2.2Controlling the People, 1918-1989

2.2.1Attempts to Control Extremism

2.2.2Repression, 1933-1945

2.2.3Censorship & Propaganda, 1933-1945

2.2.4De-Nazification Policies of Western Allies, 1945

2.2.5Constitutional & Legal Response to Extremism, 1949

2.3Popular Support, 1918-1989

2.3.1The Nature of Support for the Weimar Government

2.3.2Support for the Nazi Regime

2.3.3The Nature of Support for Democracy, 1945-1989

2.3.4Top Grade AO2/3 - Controlling the People

3Economic Developments & Policies, 1918-1989

3.1Reacting to Economic Challenges, 1918-1932

3.1.1Economic Crises & Government Response, 1918-1923

3.1.2Economic Loans, 1924-1928

3.1.3Policies for Recovery, 1924-1929

3.1.4The Great Depression

3.1.5Change in Living Standards

3.1.6Top Grade AO2/3 - Reacting to Economic Challenges

3.2Controlling the Economy, 1933-1945

3.2.1Attempting Economic Recovery

3.2.2Creating a Command Economy

3.2.3Change in Living Standards

3.2.4Impact of War

3.2.5Impact of War 2

3.2.6Top Grade AO2/3 - Controlling the Economy

3.3Creating the Social Market Economy, 1945-1989

3.3.1Economic Recovery, 1945-1955

3.3.2The Economic Miracle, 1955-1966

3.3.3Surviving the Recession, 1960-1969

3.3.4The Oil Crisis

3.3.5Integration into the European Economy

3.3.6Change in Living Standards

3.3.7Top Grade AO2/3 - Creating Social Market Economy

4Aspects of Life, 1918-1989

4.1Attitudes Towards Women, 1918-1989

4.1.1Role & Status of Women in the Weimar Republic

4.1.2Impact of Kinder, Küche, Kirche

4.1.3Impact of WW2 on Women

4.1.4Role & Status of Women in the FRG

4.1.5Top Grade AO2/3 - Attitudes Towards Women

4.2Education & Cultural Developments, 1918-1989

4.2.1Education in Weimar

4.2.2Cultural Experimentation in Weimar

4.2.3Education Under the Nazis

4.2.4Nazi Culture

4.2.5Education in the FRG

4.2.6Generational Conflict

4.2.7Top Grade AO2/3 - Education & Cultural Development

4.3Position of Ethnic Minorities, 19189-1989

4.3.1Ethnic Minorities in the Weimar Republic

4.3.2Nazi Racial Policies, 1933-1939

4.3.3Nazi Racial Policies During the War

4.3.4Ethnic Minorities in the FRG

4.3.5Top Grade AO2/3 - Position of Ethnic Minorities

5Historical Interpretations

5.1Influence of German History

5.1.1Influence of German History

5.2Hitler & Foreign Policy

5.2.1Hitler & Foreign Policy

5.3Contribution of Other Nations to WW2

5.3.1Weak Nations

5.3.2Appeasement

5.3.3The Rise of Fascism

5.4Reasons for Invading Poland

5.4.1Reasons for Invading Poland

5.4.2Top Grade AO2/3 - Historical Interpretation

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