Reichstag Fire

Started by a communist so it helped the Nazis to build a platform against them

Decree for the Protection of the People and the State:

Suspended important basic rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly.

-Reichstag Fire paved the way for it

The Enabling Act:

Passed by vote of 440-9. Suspended parliament and all other checks and balances of the government. Made it a dictatorship, intially for 4 years.

Boycott of Jewish stores.

To test the waters of German population against Jews and possibly how rest of the world felt about it as well. Also when they began labeling shops.

Civil Decree that officials of "non-Aryan" descent were to be retired 

--> Defined "non-Aryan" as any person who ad a Jewish parent or grandparent

The law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring allowed for sterilization of anyone recognized as suffering from supposedly hereditary diseases, such as; feeble-mindedness, schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, severe alcoholism, genetic epilepsy, blindness, deafness

-       About 200,000 people were sterilized between mid-1933 and the end of 1937. End of the war= 400,000

Naming Hitler fuhrer after Hindenburg’s death

"Night of the Long Knives" 

Murder of Ernest Rohm and other SA leaders

Jews were forbidden access to pools and bathing facilities.

-Some Nazis stayed in guest houses owned by Jews until they went into Aryan hands

First largew wave of anti-Jewish incidents. Anther violent wave came in July 1935. 

Led by citizens and Hitler Youth so much so that Hitler issued orders to stop the anti-Jewish aattacks as it demonstrated a loss of control.

--> Second Degree: Persons descended from one Jewish grandparent

--> First Degree: Persons descended from two Jewish grandparents and not belonging to Jewish community of married to a Jew

-Hitler always remained careful of Mischlinge because of popular opinion knowing they had fully German families

Hitler was summoned from Berlin to Nuremburg to prepare a law dealing with marriage & extramarital relations between Jews & Aryans & the employment of Aryan female help in Jewish families

Final parade of the annual Nuremburg Party congress, marched past Hitler

Hitler asked Reichstag to adopt 3 laws from Goring:

-       Reich Flag Law: Black, red & white were national colors & swastika flag was national flag

-       Citizenship Law: established as fundamental distinction between “citizens of the Reich” who were entitled to full political & civil rights, and “subjects” who were now deprived of those rights

o   Only those of German or related blood could be citizens; in terms of civil rights, Jews had a similar status to that of foreigners

-       Law for the Defense of German Blood & Honor: forbade marriage & extramarital relations between Jews & citizens of German/related blood

o   marriages contracted in disregard of law or outside of Germany were considered invalid

Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People: aimed at registering “alien races” or racially “less valuable” groups & imposed obligation to a marriage license stating partners were (racially) “fit to marry”. Alien races: “Gypsies, negroes & their bastards”

-       reinforced by Law for Protection of German Blood and Honor

First Supplementary Decree of Reich Citizenshi Law:

--> Everyone was defined as Jewish if...

1) 3 or more Jewish grandparents

2) 2 Jewish grandparents and belong to Jewish community

3) 2 Jewish grandparents and married to a Jew

--> All others with Jewish blood were "mishlinge"

The police & SS assembled and transported Jews to the vicinity of the Polish town of Zbaszyn and sent them over the river/border

-       Polish border guards sent them back and for days they were in the rain without food and shelter à ended up in concentration camp near Zbaszyn, some were allowed back in Germany

-       16,000 Polish Jews were expelled

-Kristallnacht: Night of the Broken Glass

-Some 91 Jews died in attacks, about 7,500 shops lay in ruins, 267 synagogues destroyed. All synagogues burnt down, Jewish houses and apartments smashed [not looted] and all fit strong Jews arrested and taken to concentration camps/prison

-       Caused by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish Jew. His family was being treated poorly [part of Jews being expelled over the river to Poland], he went to German Embassy in Paris and shot a German diplomat; killed Ernst vom Rath, first secretary

After The Night of Broken Glass many fit, strong Jews were taken to concentration camps.

-It was the first time in the war that the camps were used to house Jews

-The camps had originally been for Polish Political enemies

All Jewish kids expelled from German schools--only allowed to attend Jewish schools

Jews banned from all: theaters, cinemas, sports facilities, cabarets, concert/conference halls, exhibition halls, museums, fairs, public & private bathing facilities

The Reich Labor Exchange & Unemployment Insurance issued a decree ordering all unemployed Jews who were fit to work to register for compulsory labor

Strict orders issued by Gestapo headquarters to all stations on western borders of the Reich to prevent illegal crossings of Jews into neighboring countries

-       Illegal crossings continued well into Spring 1939

Goring ordered cessation of all Jewish business activity; Jews had to sell their enterprises, land, stocks, jewels and artworks

8^th supplementary Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law: forbade Jews to exercise any paramedical & health related activities particularly pharmacy, dentistry & veterinary medicine

Hitler met with Reichstag; “I have been a prophet most of my life and laughed at…”

-       Put blame on nations who will compete in world war

o   Since they challenged him, he will kill all the Jews

Wehrmacht occupied Prague, Czecho-Slovakia ceased to exist.

-       118,000 more Jews were now under German domination

Germany & Italy signed a defense treaty

-       While Great Britain & France were conducting hesitant & noncommittal negotiations with Soviet Union

o   Hitler opened negotiations of his own with Stalin

German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was signed; an attached secret protocol divided a great part of Eastern Europe into areas to be eventually occupied and controlled by the 2 countries in case of war

-       Hitler believed Great Britain & France would be deterred from any military intervention

Heydrich issued following guidelines to commanders:

-       Rounding up & concentration of Jews in large communities in cities close to railway lines in view of the end goal

o   End goal most likely meaning deportation of the Jewish population of the Warthegau & later of Western & Central parts of former Poland to eastern most of General Government, Lublin district

-       Establishment of Jewish councils in each Jewish community to serve as administrative links between German authorities & Jewish population

-       Cooperation with military command & civil administration in all matters relating to Jewish population

-       Few days later, Heydrich announced that the fuhrer had authorized the expulsion of Jews over the demarcation line (between German & Soviet occupied areas)

183 faculty members of Jagiellonian University in Krakow were summoned by Gestapo, arrested & deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

-       Few months later older ones released & younger ones sent to Dachau

o   13 of imprisoned scholars died, no Jews set free

In address to Reichstag, Hitler taunted England with “peace offer”—3 days later, in radio broadcast, Lord Halifax, rejected German proposal & vowed his country would fight

-       Roosevelt nominated as Democratic candidate; America still favoring isolationism

Tripartite Pact signed, between Germany, Italy & Japan, meant to be a warning to the U.S. and Soviet Union

Hitler’s annual speech; statement that could have meant complete segregation, deportation and total extermination of Jews—“put an end to Jewry’s role in Europe”

Roosevelt signed Lend-Lease Bill

-       Within days British ships carrying “lent” American weapons & supplies across Atlantic

o   In early summer, similar assistance to Soviet Union started

On Hitler’s command, Heydrich and the quartermaster general of the armed forces, General Eduard Wagner, drafted an agreement granting the SS full autonomy for maintaining security behind the front, in newly occupied territories

- Invoking the Monroe Doctrine & need to defend Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt sent American troops to Greenlandà 2 months later U.S. forces established base in Iceland

Germany invaded Soviet Union; Operation Barbarossa

-       War began—extermination of Jews

coordinated efforts of previously independent Jewish Welfare agencies throughout Poland

-       tried to set priorities, children & elderly= neediest

-       helped some 160,000 people in Warsaw by distributing food & necessities

-       Notwithstanding smuggling, self-help, house committees, and packages that—until June 1940—arrived mostly from the Soviet Union or Soviet occupied Poland and the majority went hungry

o   Number of deaths from starvation & disease between closing of the ghetto in November 1940 & beginning of deportations in July 1942 may have been as high as 100,000

First victims of Lithuania were 201 mostly Jewish men of small border town of Gargzdai

-       Jewish women & children (~300) were spared at the outset and locked up in barns and shot in Mid-September

o   Few days later, killings started in main cities Vilna & Kovno

§  Waves through the summer & fallà Jewish population in small towns and villages entirely exterminated

Earliest large-scale massacre of Romanian Jews in Lasi, capital of Moldavia, in retaliation for 2 Soviet air raids

-       Thousands killed, several hundred thousands more packed on freight train on journey for days

o   1400 Jews suffocated or died of thirst, 1,194 bodies recovered from 2^nd train, total number of victims exceeded 10,000

Heydrich ordered execution of all Jewish prisoners of War

-       First weeks: mostly Jew men killed, then all Jews without distinction were murdered

-       By end of 1941 ~600,000 Jews murdered in newly conquered Eastern territories