HITLER AND THE NUREMBERG LAWS

1. HITLER AND THE NUREMBERG LAWS

2. HITLER’S WELTANSCHAAUNG • “That nobody from Bohemia” • Alois Schickelgruber • Klara Pozl • Hutler  Hitler • Family and school background • Death of both parents while in his teens  inheritance

3. Vienna • Academy of Arts • Cosmopolitanism and culture • opera • Presence of Galician Jews  anti-Semitism • Street artist • Homeless shelters • Politicization • Karl Lueger • Elements of mystical German nationalism • Aryan ideal • Swastika

4. Munich – on the run for A-H authorities • June 28, 1914 • Enlisted in German army

5. Wartime service • Bicycle messenger • Promoted to corporal • Awarded Iron Cross • 1918 surrender… • Weimar Republic  “November Criminals”

6. 1919-1923 • Many Germans disillusioned by defeat in First World war; ex-soldiers felt they were ‘stabbed in the back’ and had not been defeated on the battlefield. Many joined right wing groups (Freikorps or the Nazi party). • The Spartacists, amongst others, led to fear of a Communist revolution in Germany. People looked to right wing groups to act against this, Freikorps in particular. • Economic hardship coupled with humiliation as a result of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Right wing groups gained popularity by saying they would not adhere to its terms.

7. Military uniforms demonstrated strength when the gov’t was weak • Use of force against communists and trade unionists popular with business • Populist policies and rhetoric employed to discredit opponents and develop support • References to traditional values and reminders of “who was to blame” for the economic crisis built support…

8. Post-WW1 – Hitler remains in German army as a “mole” to spy on various communist organizations • One group– German Workers Party became the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in 1919 (NSDAP), w/ Hitler as the leader • Munich – Bier Hall Putsch (1923) • Failure of the Beer Hall Putsch demonstrates power needs to be taken through legal means

9. Hitler on trial – sedition • A political circus – sympathetic judge, minimal sentence… • Landsberg Prison • Mein Kampf • Lebensraum • Biological/ Racial anti-Semitism

10. New approach – NSDAP as a “leader party”  focus shifted to propaganda, electoral success, winning the support of big business • “First power, then politics” • The “Germany Flights”

11. 1924-1929 • Focus: traditional values • Built on fear of left wing groups • Continued use of military imagery • Lack of electoral support due to relative prosperity in Germany at the time • 1929-1932 - A Change in Fortunes • Wall Street Crash leads to end of effective financial assistance from USA • Unemployment rises rapidly • Hyperinflation recurs • Threat of Communism increases • Coalition government fails to address problems successfully

12. Nazis used force to prevent uprisings • Rhetoric played on people’s fears • Big business won over through revised economic plans • Emphasis on military power won support of many soldiers and traditionalists. • Weak coalition governments enabled Nazis to gain political strength • Propaganda and shows of might impressed the masses

13. Seats won in Reichstag  1932 a NSDAP plurality • Rohm’s Brown Shirts in the streets…

14. 1933 the push for total power began: Reichstag burned down, creating opportunity for Hitler • Blame placed on the communists; authorized crackdown began… • Nazis still failed to gain a majority in subsequent elections, but w/ their supporters pushed thru the Enabling Law • Hindenburg forced to appoint Hitler Chancellor (other politicians believed Hitler can be manipulated easily) = Day of Potsdam • President Hindenburg’s eventual death allowed Hitler to assume presidential powers

15. March 21, 1933 – staged photo of Hindenburg and Hitler after Hitler had won the March 5 elections • Potsdam church – where Prussian kings were crowned • So Hindenburg in full uniform (military tradition) • Hitler in civilian clothes and bowing not a military coup • Goebbelswanted to create continuity popular support – the fact all this was in a church further legitimized it –the image showed that the army ready to accept Hitler – army worried him the most • given the symbolism, little resistance – legitimacy instead of a revolution!

16. 1933, Nazi dictatorship began: • other political parties outlawed • Reich Church organized: Nazism + Protestantism + Paganism) • trade unions and social organizations disband • Gestapowas established, given unlimited powers; concentration camps built including Dachau • one of their 1st actions, along w/ Himmler’s SS, was to take out problematic Brown Shirts and leader Ernst Rohm--Night of the Long Knives

17. Massive state propaganda program was implemented, e.g., Nuremberg Rallies Goebbels, as Minister of Truth and Enlightenment, created the Big Lie Unacceptable ideas were stamped out; Burning of the Books

18. Weimar Constitution & civil rights were suspended; Nuremberg Laws enacted later in the 1930s • Included the Civil Service Law and the Preservation of Blood and Honour Laws • ARTICLE 2 • A citizen of the Reich may be only one who is of German or kindred blood, and who, through his behavior, shows that he is both desirous and personally fit to serve loyally the German people and the Reich. • German Jews were systematically denied rights of citizenship and pushed out of the German nation

19. Nazi racial thinking – German national community drew strength from pure blood and sacred German earth • Bureaucracy grew – 1933 and later laws excluded Jews from this utopian vision: Civil Service Law, Physicians Law, disbarring of lawyers, Law against Overcrowding of German Schools, Law for Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (sterilization program/T4), Reich Flag Law (swastika as symbol), Citizenship Law, Law for the Defence of German Blood and Honour, Law for Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People (outlawed Hebrew, any kind of sexual contact b/n Aryans and non-Aryans) • Goebbels ran the Aryanization Campaign – Jews pushed out of the arts; he decided fates of individual composers and tunes

20. Jews allowed own culture but in exclusion (Kulturbund) • For most Germans the economy was the issue – Hitler had to be pragmatic: Jewish doctors allowed to practice until enough Aryan doctors guaranteed…economic boycott varied • Hitler moderated actions – didn’t want to turn Jews into economic burden; aimed to assimilate mischlinge thru several generations; didn’t want weak war potential • Similarly, anti-Jewish actions decreased during the Olympics • (Mischlinge of the 1st degree – ¼ Jewish  1 grandparent (volljuden had 3 Jewish grandparents) – complex and changing laws: Question of “race” after temporary contact w/ Jews – if a German converted to Judaism, then left, he was German again – but his children were considered mischlinge …

21. The Nazis had to figure out a way to implement the Nuremburg Laws: layers of fault/blame in implementation portrayed in a bull’s eye pattern…(D. Bankier) Innermost layer – Hitler/Nazi core … The idealists/careerists - SS/Gestapo Someone in the Ministry of Welfare makes the rule Jews can’t redeem vouchers for glasses  Jewish opticians have limited customer base (“micro” details don’t come from the top, instead from a bureaucrat working for promotion) An opera director is fired because he is a Jew, and his replacement takes the job, even if thinks that it might not be fair… The racial laws, inc. the Civil Service Law, have the effect of tranquilizing the situation (the law is not the fault of the bureaucrats – the gov’t passed it – but it is the role of the bureaucrats to implement it)

22. Late 30s period of stabilization, except for radicals who expected more… • 1938: fateful year as concept of Greater Germany (Austria and Czechoslovakia) “Jewish Solution” closer • Hard-core Nazis confront average people’s “complacency”; worried Jewish values penetrated bourgeoisie, people’s enthusiasm for Nazi values merely perfunctory • Fact Jews were criticized and ostracized not enough; still there and paralyzing minds of average Germans – anti-Semitic policy must be radicalized KRISTALLNACHT : violence was followed by a 1 billion DM indemnity… Nazis wanted the all to play a greater role in anti-Semitic policies; Nazis shared Jewish wealth with all; appealed to common stereotype of the wealthy Jews

23. Nazis let the “laws” of market go after Jews • Nazis go to companies, offer to buy “x” amount, and ask if was it “fair” they should sell to Jews as well… • Nazi boycott led companies to deny sales to Jews • Nazis extort individual merchants  forced Jews into bankruptcy –sell at low prices • 5% the Jewish merchant would get he couldn’t take if he emigrated (emigration: a major goal of Nazis, e.g., 1930s Madagascar scheme, Havarah Agreement)  most Jews realistically faced restrictions of the Evian Conference…

24. Economic shift key to the Aryanization • 40% of the buyers unscrupulous profiteers, 40% were the sleeping partners, 20% were the well-meaning, sympathetic business owners who tried to be fair • Average 80% took advantage not anti-Semitic but wanted to get richer  Nuremberg Laws sold, Holocaust set in motion • Hitler did this to eliminate Jews; redistribution of property appeased people • Holocaust can for Bankier be traced to economic determinism

25. Hitler was lionized as der Fuehrer, and Third Reich born His political popularity grew from ongoing propaganda, economic growth (autobahn), foreign policy successes

26. Germany Invades the RhinelandMarch 7, 1936

27. The Austrian Anschluss, 1936

28. The “Problem” Sudetenland

29. The Spanish Civil War: 1936 - 1939 Francisco Franco

30. The Spanish Civil War:A Dress Rehearsal for WW II? Italian troops in Madrid

31. “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso

32. Appeasement: The Munich Agreement, 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.

33. The Nazi-SovietNon-Aggression Pact, 1939 Foreign Ministers von Ribbentrop & Molotov