Social Impact

Jewish Deaths

The vast scale of the Nazi program of mass murder is reflected in the fact that for many months in 1942, 1943 and 1944 the Nazis cold-bloodedly killed more than 100,000 people per week from all parts of Europe in the concentration camps, mainly Jews.

Around 80% of the Jews in German-occupied Europe were killed. Of the 6 million Jews, 2.7 million were Polish, and 700,000 were Soviets. The rest came from Hungary, Romania, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, France, Latvia, Slovakia, Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Luxembourg, Norway, and Denmark.

The following link brings you to a table that provides estimates of the numbers of Jewish inhabitants of each country under Nazi domination who were murdered, compared to the country’s pre-war Jewish population.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XgffnKu8s93t_4eg8NHxBqNzCoiwkDynekmKDXhXQzo/edit?usp=sharing (google spreadsheet comprising of the death tolls)

Racism in Germany

Before Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he was obsessed with ideas about race. In his speeches, he spread his beliefs in racial purity and in the superiority of the "Germanic race"—what he called an Aryan "master race."

For Hitler, the ideal "Aryan" was blond, blue-eyed, and tall. When Hitler and the Nazis came to power, these beliefs became the government ideology and were spread in publicly displayed posters, on the radio, in movies, in classrooms, and in newspapers. Hitler and other Nazi leaders viewed the Jews not as a religious group, but as a poisonous "race," which "lived off" the other races and weakened them. After Hitler took power, Nazi teachers in school classrooms began to apply the "principles" of racial science. Jewish students were often humiliated in the process. This made it hard for the Jews to live a proper life as they were looked down in society and could not get any job as job employers see the Aryan race more superior and would instead give them the job instead of the Jews.

Control over People

Concentration Camps

-Built to house a huge number of arrest for being anti-government

-Between 1933-1939, more than 200,000 Germans were arrested and sent to concentration camps where they were ill-treated and eventually died

Judiciary

-Granted the government permission to arrest anyone suspected of being anti-government

-Courts were under total control of the Nazis and only Nazis or Pro-Nazis could become judges. Hence, it was impossible to get an unbiased or an impartial trial

SS and Gestapo

-SS - Gestapo was Hitler's personal bodyguard unit

-Both units had unlimited powers and eliminated all forms of opposition to Hitler and the Nazi Party which instilled fear in Germans

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