The Other 6 Million

1. The Other 6 Million

2. Key Terms • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Sinti • Roma • “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases” • Eugenics

3. Lecture Outline • I. The Other Six Million A. Jehovah’s Witnesses B. Sinti and Roma C. Homosexuals D. Handicapped E. Poles

4. Jehovah’s Witnesses • Jehovah’s Witnesses was founded in the United States in the 1870s and they sent missionaries to Germany seeking converts in the 1890s. • By the early 1930s, only 20,000 Germans were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

5. Jehovah’s Witnesses (con.) • Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to swear allegiance to any worldly government. • In April 1933, four months after Hitler became chancellor, Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in Bavaria and by the summer in most of Germany.

6. Jehovah’s Witnesses (con.) • In 1936 a special unit of the Gestapo began compiling a registry of all persons believed to be Jehovah’s Witnesses. • By 1939, an estimated 6,000 Witnesses were detained in prisons or camps.

7. Jehovah’s Witnesses (con.) • In the Nazi years about 10,000 Witnesses were imprisoned in concentration camps. • An estimated 2,500 to 5,000 Witnesses died in camps or prisons.

8. Sinti and Roma • In 1939, 30,000-50,000 “Gypsies” lived in Germany and Austria. • Gypsies are believed to have arrived in Europe from Northern India in the 1400s. They were called Gypsies because Europeans thought they came from Egypt.

9. Sinti and Roma (con.) • Under the July 1933 “Law for Prevention of offspring with Hereditary Defects,” physicians sterilized against their will an unknown number of Gypsies. • Under the “Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminal” of November 1933, the police arrested many Gypsies along with others the Nazis viewed as “asocial.”

10. Sinti and Roma (con.) • During the war Gypsies were sent to ghettos in Poland and then to death camps. • Many children died as a result of cruel medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele and other SS physicians.

11. Sinti and Roma (con.) • Approximately 225,000-500,000 Sinti and Roma were killed. • After the war discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Europe continued.

12. Homosexuals • In 1934, a special Gestapo division on homosexuals was set up. • An estimated 1.2 million men were homosexuals in Germany in 1928.

13. Homosexuals (con.) • Between 1933 and 1945 an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals and of these some 50,000 officially defined homosexuals were sentenced. • Most of these spent time in regular prisons, and an estimated 5,000-15,000 were incarcerated in concentration camps.

14. Homosexuals (con.) • Some homosexuals were also victims of cruel medical experiments. • After the war, homosexual concentration camp prisoners were not acknowledged as victims of Nazi persecution, and reparations were refused.

15. The Handicapped • The “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases,” proclaimed July 14, 1933, forced the sterilization of all persons who suffered from diseases considered hereditary.

16. The Handicapped (con.) • Nazi Germany was not the first or only country to sterilized people considered “abnormal.” Before Hitler, the United States led the world in forced sterilizations.

17. The Handicapped (con.) • Advocated of sterilization policies in both Germany and the United States were influenced by eugenics. • Eugenics is the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.

18. The Handicapped (con.) • The forced sterilizations began in January 1934, and altogether an estimated 300,000-400,000 people were sterilized under the law.

19. The Handicapped (con.) • In October 1939, Hitler initiated a decree which empowered physicians to kill patients considered incurable. • Between 200,000 and 250,000 mentally and physically handicapped people were murdered from 1939-1945.

20. Poles • It is believed that between 1.8 and 1.9 million Polish civilians were victims of German occupation policies and the war.

21. AP p. 880-897 • Causes and effects of US prosperity • Yalta Conference • “containment doctrine” • Truman doctrine • Marshall Plan

22. AP p. 897-905 • National Security Act • NATO • General Douglas MacArthur • Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) • NSC-68 • Korean War