Religion in Nazi GermanyPart 2 Terror and Force: Nazis in

Power

What will I learn?

• The ways in which Hitler controlled the Church

• The ways that the Nazi Government controlled the Jewish population

I can…

• Summarise the KU and analysis on religion into my essay plan

Why was Hitler worried about religion?

Religion

• Hitler believed that control of the churches was important to the maintenance of maintenance of Nazi authority.Nazi authority.

• Most Germans were practising a religion in the 1930s – the churches had influence

• Religion posed a real threat to Nazism in that it offered the people an alternative set of beliefs.

• Also, churchmen were likely to criticise the regime if it went against their beliefs

Hitler and Religion - Background

• Born a Catholic.• Ended up rejecting

religion – thought ideas like forgiveness, resurrection and salvation were weak nonsense.

• Detested Christianity as it championed the weak, ill and racially inferior.

Catholic Church

• In 1933, a ConcordatConcordat or agreement was reached with the Pope of the Catholic Church.

• This meant that if the Church did not upset the regime – the Church and its members would not be harmed.

Protestant Churches

• Decided to amalgamate them into a new German church – National Reich Church.

• Put under the control of the Reich bishop.

• Taught that Hitler was the new Messiah sent to save the world from the Jews.

• Only church ministers who supported the Nazis were allowed to continue working.

Protestant Church continued

• The bible was removed from the altars – in their place appeared a copy of Mein Kampf Mein Kampf and a sword to symbolise the new order.

Religion - AnalysisReligion - Analysis

• Not even the churches were safe from the Nazi control of German society

• Pastors, priests, clergy arrested and sent to camps – their alternative views too dangerous to Nazi officials

• Without clergy and religious figures to speak out against the Nazis, they they were able to stay in powerwere able to stay in power

Anti-Semitism

Nazis in Power

Anti - Semitism

•Prejudice, hatred or discrimination against Jews due to their religion

• Hitler had made no secret of his anti- Semitic beliefs

• The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew’

Adolf HitlerMein Kampf

• As soon as the Nazis came to power in 1933 they set about persecuting the Jewish population

• This was done gradually, so as to minimise opposition

Anti Semitism – 3 stages

1.1.Harassment 1933Harassment 1933

2.2.Nuremberg Laws Nuremberg Laws 19351935

3.3.Kristallnacht Nov Kristallnacht Nov 19381938

Anti-Semitism

• It was not just Jews who were persecuted in Nazi Germany but many races, religions and ways of life.

• For example: gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals etc.

The Nazis gloried in their racism:

Jews and Gypsies

African, Slavs etc

Asian, South American

Celts etc

Aryan, Nordic, Anglo-Saxon

Stage 1 1933: Stage 1 1933: Petty Harassment of Jews

• Low level intimidation and violence.• One day boycott of Jewish shops 1933• Painting or smashing the windows of

Jewish shops.• Public Burning of Jewish books 1933• Yellow park benches for Jews.• Not being allowed to sit down on a bus or

tram.

Stage 1 1933: Stage 1 1933: Petty Harassment of Jews

• Shops and restaurants refusing to serve Jews

• Jews banned from swimming pools• Synagogues and Jewish shops vandalised• “Jews not welcome” signs on shops,

beaches or the outskirts of towns• Constant anti- Jewish propaganda which

built on existing anti – Semitism and reinforced Jewish stereotypes

Yellow park bench marked 'Only for Jews'

Stage 2: Stage 2: The Nuremburg Laws 1935

• Nazi Racial Laws which institutionalised anti – Semitism (made it the law)

• ‘Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour’

I. Marriages between Jews and Aryans illegal

II. Sexual intercourse between Jews and Aryans illegal

III.No females of German blood to be employed in Jewish households (unless 45+)

IV.Jews can no longer be German citizens (no longer protected by law or allowed a passport)

V. Jews must carry special identity

papers stamped with a JJVI.Jews forbidden to fly German flag

Stage 3: Stage 3: Kristallnacht November 1938

• In ‘retaliation’ for the murder of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jew – the Nazi leader Goebbels organised nationwide violence against Jews

• 9- 10 November 1938• ‘Crystal Night’ or the ‘Night of Broken Glass’• Over 7500 Jewish shops destroyed• 400 synagogues burnt down• 91 Jews killed• 20,000 sent to camps

• The Nazis claimed Kristallnacht to be the voluntary actions of the German population

• Goebbels wrote about this in a Nazi controlled newspaper

• Jewish community fined 1 billion marks• An order from Nazi Government signed

9 Nov 1938 had authorised the attack

Analysis: Anti SemitismAnalysis: Anti Semitism

• There was anti-Semitism in Germany and so some Germans approved of Nazi actions against undesirable minorities like the Jews or Gypsies.

• During the petty harassment stages and even the Nuremberg Laws, most Germans felt that because Jews were not being treated violently that the discrimination could be tolerated – allowing the Nazis to stay in powerallowing the Nazis to stay in power

Analysis: Anti Semitism Analysis: Anti Semitism contd.contd.

• The Nazis managed to cover up a lot of the attacks on Jews due to effective propaganda and censorship

• By Kristallnacht in 1938 most Germans were appalled at the treatment of minorities – but by that point were so scared of camps etc. that they dared not speak up

• This helped the Nazis stay in powerThis helped the Nazis stay in power

Nazis in PowerTerror/ Force

ReligionKU:

A:

Video Clips

• Kristallnacht