How and why did Adolf Hitler rise to power in German?

Why was the Holocaust allowed to happen?

WEIMAR GERMANY AND THE HOLOCAUST

JEWS CONSTANTLY TARGETS

• Through most of ancient history, Jews resided in the area which is now the modern state of Israel.

• 70CE the Roman Empire conquered Palestine (The Roman name given to the area), and forced the Jewish people into exile.

• Due to the Jews proximity to the sea and trade routs, Jewish communities spread all round the Mediterranean but were still constant targets of racial violence though the centuries of European history.

• Think about different instances of violence or discrimination against Jews in Europe?

• http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/HistoryJewishPersecution/

RACIAL UNDERSTANDING: PERPETUATING A LIE

• In Germany, Ernst Haeckel, a biologist,

popularized “race science” by combining it with

romantic ideas about the German national

identity. In a book called Riddle of the Universe,

he divided humankind into races and ranked

each. People of European descent were called

Aryans.* Not surprisingly, Aryans were at the

top of his list and Jews and Africans at the

bottom.

• Haeckel was also taken with the idea of

eugenics—breeding “society’s best with best”—

as a way of keeping the “German race” pure.

Scientists who tried to show that there was no

“pure” race were ignored.

• Studies refuting Haeckel were discarded and

later banned in Germany.

START OF JEWISH DISCRIMINATION IN

GERMANY

• In the late 1800s, when race science was gaining

popularity, most German Jews defined themselves

as being “from Germany,” and their identities were

shaped by the culture and geography of this place.

Assimilated Jews living in Germany spoke

German, volunteered for the German army,

attended German schools and universities,

listened to German music, and had participated in

German sporting events. They were confident that

once they were “more German” discrimination

would end. Yet, racists turned “being Jewish” into a

permanent, inferior condition. Neither assimilation

nor conversion to Christianity altered one’s race;

Jews would always be Jews because they

belonged to a different “race.” This theory was

used, at first, to justify discrimination against Jews,

then the isolation of the Jewish community, and

eventually the deaths of millions of Jewish

children, women, and men.

WWI AFTERMATH IN GERMANY

• The German people knew nothing about Germany’s surrender until November 9th, the day the Kaiser (the Monarch ruling Germany) fled to the Netherlands and the political party of the Social Democrats declared Germany a republic.

• The Social Democrats learned that the Allies expected Germany to give up its armaments including its navy and evacuate all troops east of the Rhine River. If German did not accept those terms within 72 hours the Allies threatened to invade the nation.

• Germany’s new leaders convinced civilians that they had to accept the truce .

• The German people were shocked that they lost the war . Leaders in the German Army claimed Germany had been “stabbed in the back” by traitors at home known later as the November Criminals.

• The Social Democrats met in the city of Weimar–hence the new German democracy was called the Weimar Republic.

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

• Germany lost territory to Belgium,

Czechoslovakia, Poland and France.

• All colonial possessions of Germany were

turned over to the League of Nations

• War guilt clause

• Reparations of $77 billion

• Germany was forbidden to have submarines

or a Luftwaffe.

• The navy could have six battleships,

and an army of no more than 100,000

men

• Germany could not put any troops in

the Rhineland (50 mile strip bordering

France)

SET UP OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

• First democracy in German history with a constitution, elections, a parliament and

separation of powers.

• 459 elected representatives made up the parliament known as the Reichstag

• A President would be elected by a popular vote and the Chancellor (2nd in power) would

be appointed by the President.

• Multiple political parties would be represented. Not a two party system like in the USA.

POLITICAL PARTIES OF WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Center/Moderate Right/ConservativeLeft/ Liberal

Communist Party (KPD)Catholic Center Party

Social Democrat Party (SPD)

German National

Peoples Party

(DNVP)

National Socialist

German Workers Party

(Nazi)

STAB IN THE BACK THEORY AND NOVEMBER

CRIMINALS

Theory made by right

wing parties and

former military

members as to why

Germany lost WWI

Politicians and essentially the center parties of the

Reichstag were to blame for the surrender and end to the

war. Thus the name November Criminals due to the

armistice being signed in November of 1918.

NAZI PARTY PLATFORM 1920

• Nazi Party formed from the German Workers Party

• In 1920, the Nazi Party could not get enough votes from the German people to get one

seat in the Reichstag.

• By 1933, the Nazi Party would occupy 288 seats in the Reichstag.

REPARATIONS PAYMENTS CAUSE PROBLEMS

• Initially was 269 billion Marks ($77 billion)

• Reduced to 132 billion Marks ($33 billion)

• The Weimar Republic accepted the new payment amount

• In response to the reparations the German army was severely limited in size

• Thousands of young officers were left unemployed, many joined the ranks of the FreiKorps (Free Corps) a right wing paramilitary group

• March of 1920 the Free Corps marched on Berlin demanding the disbanding of the Weimar Republic.

• The coup d’etat collapsed within weeks, but established political violence in Germany as a norm.

• Throughout the 1920’s Right-wing terrorists carried out hundreds of attacks on left and center groups. Rarely were they prosecuted by largely right wing judges.

“The German Army does not

fire upon the German Army”

Foreign Minister

Walter Rathenau

1923 BEER HALL PUTSCH

• Nazi Party was a fringe party in Germany in 1923 but gained some notoriety based on a

failed attempted to start a rebellion in Munich Germany.

• Adolf Hitler demanded that political leaders in Germany support a coup d’etat of the

Weimar Republic.

• The Nazi’s took to the streets where they met resistance from the Bavarian Police.

• Hitler was arrested and convicted of sedition and treason. He was sentenced to 5 years in

prison. He would only serve 9 months.

• In jail, Hitler would dictate his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

MEIN KAMPF

• On Racial Purity:

• “The stronger must dominate the weaker and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness…All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning…”

• On the Jews:

• “With every means he (the Jew) tries to subjugate…Culturally he contaminates art, literature, the theater, makes a mockery of natural feeling, overthrows all concepts of beauty and sublimity, of the noble and the good, and instead drags men down…”

• On Germany’s Defeat:

• “The defeats on the battlefield in August 1918 would have been child’s play to bear. They stood in no proportions to the victories of out people. It was not the defeats which caused our downfall: NO, it was brought about by that power (Jews and Marxists) which prepared these defeats by systematically over many decades robbing our people of the political and moral instincts and forces…”

REPARATIONS AND THE RUHR

• Germany was having a hard time keeping

up with reparations payments to victorius

countries

• Without a military the government urged

citizens to fight back though nonviolent

means

• German workers in the Ruhr went on

strike and refused to cooperate with

the French and Belgians.

• The German Government supported

the strikers by printing more money

• Sparked an economic crisis in

Germany

HYPERINFLATION • Printing of money for workers in the Ruhr caused

an economic crisis

• At the end of the war the Mark was valued at 3.4:1

to the US Dollar

• By November 1923 the Mark was worthless as a

currency

• People in Germany saw their life savings wiped

away in a matter of months.

• A new Mark replaced the old at a valuation of 1

trillion to one

WEIMAR THRIVES FOR A PERIOD

• After the crisis of hyperinflation was dealt with

Germany experienced a period of prosperity

between 1924-1929.

• Fueled by loans from American banks.

• Under the leadership of Independent President

Paul von Hindenburg, Germany’s economy grew,

culture thrived and a general optimistic tone

prevailed in the country.

• Berlin was seen as the new Paris, the leader in arts

and culture in Europe.

• Germany joins the League of Nations

STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929

• When the American economy collapsed in 1929 so to did the German economy

• When the German economy was good the SPD kept workers happy with benefits and pay raises.

• When the economy collapsed those benefits and pay raise were taken away. Workers blamed the SPD and Center Parties.

• The German Government fell into massive debt

• The Reichstag was thrown into turmoil and forced to enact Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution granting emergency powers to President Hindenburg to fix the economy.

• Extremist political parties (Communists on the left and Nazi’s on the right) began to gain strength in Germany.

• Organized violence from these parties fought regularly on the streets of Germany

WEIMAR REPUBLIC PRIMARY SOURCES

• By yourself or with a partner you need to accomplish the following with the primary source documents I pass out:

• 1. On you own sheet of paper you need to come up with 15 understandings about the Weimar Republic, socially, economically and politically. Bullet the information out and put a capital S, E, and/or P at the end of each bullet.

• 2. Come up with five questions that go beyond the documents that you want to know about. Example: How did the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 change the social structure of Germany?

• 3. Answer the following question(s):

• With the gift of hindsight, what would you have done differently if you were drafting the Treaty of Versailles after WWI?

• Why do you think that people gravitated toward radical political parties on the Left and the Right during the late 1920’s in Germany?

9. What was Weimar

Germany like between

1924-1929 economically

and culturally? What

brought an end to this?

8. What caused the

economic collapse in 1923?

6. Who were the Free

Corps?

5. What were at least three

platforms of the Nazi Party

in 1920?

3. Who were the November

Criminals?

2. What role did Ernst

Haeckel have in

perpetuating Jewish

stereotypes in Germany?

7. Why was Hitler arrested

in 1923?

4. What were the provisions

of the Treaty of Versailles in

regards to Germany?

1. What were three causes

of WWI?

REICHSTAG ELECTION

NOVEMBER 6 1932

Party vote %

National Socialist 11,737,000 33.1

Social Democratic 7,248,000 20.4

Communist 5,980,000 16.9

Center 4,231,000 11.9

Nationalist 2,959,000 8.8

Bavarian People's 1,095,000 3.1

Other parties 2,635,000 7.6

REICHSTAG ELECTION

MARCH 1933

Party vote %

National Socialist 17,277,000 43.9

Social Democratic 7,182,000 18.3

Communist 4,848,000 12.3

Center 4,425,000 11.7

Nationalist 3,137,000 8.0

Bavarian People's 1,074,000 2.7

Other parties 1,533,000 3.8

8 STAGES OF GENOCIDE

“GENOCIDE”

• “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to

destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:

• Killing members of the group;

• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical

destruction in whole or in part;

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

CLASSIFICATION

SYMBOLIZATION

DEHUMANIZATION

ORGANIZATION

POLARIZATION

PREPARATION

EXTERMINATION

DENIAL

Nazi Propaganda Against Jews

DER GIFTPILZ

• Audience (What group of Germans was this directed

toward?)

• Target (What was the goal of this propaganda?)

• Evidence (Quote exemplifying what the reading was about?)

• Meaning/Impact (What impact do you think this reading

had on German society?)

THE POISONOUS

MUSHROOM

HOW TO TELL A JEW

HOW THE JEWS CAME TO US

WHAT IS THE TALMUD?

WHY THE JEWS LET

THEMSELVES BE BAPTIZED

HOW A GERMAN PEASANT WAS

DRIVEN FROM HOUSE AND FARM

HOW JEWISH TRADERS

CHEAT

THE EXPERIENCE OF HANS

AND ELSE WITH A STRANGE

MAN

INGE’S VISIT TO A JEWISH

DOCTOR

HOW THE JEW TREATS HIS

DOMESTIC HELP

HOW TWO WOMEN WERE

TRICKED BY JEWISH LAWYERS

HOW JEWS TORMENT

ANIMALS

WHAT CHRIST SAID

ABOUT THE JEWS

MONEY IS THE GOD OF THE

JEWS

HOW WORKER HARTMANN

BECAME A NATIONAL-SOCIALIST

ARE THERE DECENT

JEWS?

WITHOUT SOLVING THE

JEWISH QUESTION—NO

SALVATION FOR MANKIND