1. By Toni A and Hannah E

2. “Aryanism – The Master Race; Blonde hair, blue eyes.”
“Untermensch – Subhuman”
Adolf Hitler was obsessed with a pure race – this was blonde
haired, blue eyed and athletic Europeans. He considered them
to be descendants from bloodlines between mortals and a
Greek God. He believed that Jewish people had a world-wide
conspiracy against the Aryan race and he believed they were
an enemy that must be eliminated. It would be expected that
this ideal race would include him as well, however, Hitler had
neither blonde hair nor blue eyes, meaning this „master race‟
was something he was not a part of. People were not
automatically a part of the Aryan race for just having blonde
hair and blue eyes, though. Their past was looked into, and if
three generations into their past proved to have non-Aryan
qualities or heritage, they were not Aryan.
The way he created this master race was through selective
breeding. Men were recruited into the SS only if they had
“Aryan blood”. The rules were strict on who they had to marry;
only women of pure Aryan blood. This way, it was certain their
children would be Aryan as well.
Other races, especially Jews, were seen as inferior. Nazi ideas
were that they should be removed as they were afraid that they
would prevent the creation of the Aryan race. Further races
were aimed to be used as slaves for the Aryan race as they
were the most important.

3. „The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service‟ was the first
major law against Jewish people. It said that Jewish civil servants and
employees were to be excluded from the state service. From 1933
onwards, German laws gradually restricted Jewish activity – from the schools
Jews attended to the jobs in which they had.
In September of 1935, Nazi leaders announced new laws; the Nuremberg
laws. They restricted Jews from Reich citizenship, and further activities. They
were not allowed to marry German people as they would make any future
children‟s blood impure.
Who was defined as a Jew? Not just people with particular religious beliefs.
People were defined as a Jew if they had three or four Jewish ancestors in
their past. Even if this person did not define themselves as a Jew, if their past
said they were then they were.
Anti-Jewish attacks moderated slightly during the 1936 Berlin Olympic
games, but after that, the attacks amplified once again. In 1937 and
1938, Jewish workers and managers were dismissed from their jobs and
Jewish businesses were bought and taken over by Germans who were not
Jewish. Non-Jewish people had to be treated by non-Jewish doctors.
Furthermore, Jewish people were required to carry identity cards, like other
German people. On their identity cards, there was a red „J‟ on them. They
were given new middle names – “Israel” for a boy, “Sara” for a girl. Jews had
to be identified easily.
It took five years, but over this time period the Nazi‟s gradually gained more
support on their views of Jewish people. People began to believe that the
Nazi‟s were right, and held a large amount of hatred towards the Jews.

4. September 15th 1935 – Nuremberg Laws are instituted.
October 18th 1935 – New marriage requirements are
instituted.
November 14th 1935 – Nuremberg Laws are extended to
other groups.

5. “Kristallnacht – Crystal Night a.k.a. „The Night Of Broken
Glass.”
On November 9th and 10th 1938, the Nazis finally started what they
had been planning to do for five years. It took them five years as they
needed to build up the support from others, and by this time, they
had the support they needed. After a young Jewish kid killed a
German diplomat in Paris, Hitler believe he had the perfect excuse to
attack.
On the night of the 9th and the morning of the 10th, members of the
SS and the Hitler Youth brutally attacked and murdered Jewish
people. They broke into their homes and wrecked them, whilst
causing further havoc in their shops and businesses. Windows were
smashed – hence the „broken glass‟ part of the name – and a large
amount of vandalism took place. The main targeted areas for
vandalism were synagogues all over Nazi controlled areas; sacred
Torah scrolls were desecrated and multiple synagogues were set
ablaze.
Furthermore, around 25000 Jewish people were rounded up and
transported to concentration camps and 91 Jews were killed.
There were many people who shared Hitler‟s views on the Jewish
people and also felt like they were to blame for everything that had
happened in Germany. On the other hand, many people were
outraged at what had happened, and this caused bad publicity in the
media.

6. “The Final Solution – The Nazi policy of exterminating
European Jews 1941-45.”
Hitler‟s plan for a “pure race” involved the task of completely
annihilating any race which he saw as “subhuman”. His way of doing
this was called “The Final Solution” and it was his plan to get rid of
certain races completely.
He began this by collecting as many Jews and other people he
thought to be subhuman – gypsies, disabled, homosexuals etc. The
Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, and here they collected as
many Jews as they could. SS units searched from town to town to
track down as many Jews as possible; some were killed on the spot,
but others were captured and taken to the concentration camps
which had been set up.
In 1941, mass killing took place. The original techniques of mass
murder were to shoot the people and dump their bodies in large pits.
This killed very few people, was extremely costly and took up too
much time for the Nazis. The first concentration camp was set up in
Dachau, and since that, more and more concentration camps and
death camps were set up all around. As more developed, the Nazis
could send more and more people to work and eventually be killed.
They were sent to these camps on crowded trains, and even then
moved on to live in cramped conditions with very little food. A large
amount of people died from starvation.

7. “The Final Solution – The Nazi policy of exterminating
European Jews 1941-45.”
After some time, gas chambers were introduced. Many people
were cramped into one room, persuaded that they were just
taking a „shower‟. Instead, poisonous gas known as Zyclon B
and cyanide gas was sent into the chambers, killing everybody
in there as they breathed it in. To the Nazis, this was an
effective way to eradicate the “subhumans” more quickly. More
than 6000 people would die from gas poisoning per day.
Further ways of murdering people were the Mobile Killing Units
which were also known as the Einsatzgruppen. They originally
killed just Jewish men, however, further into the year they killed
Jewish men, women and children. The people they captured
were lined up in front of a large pit and were all shot, eventually
falling and filling up the pit. Alongside gas chambers, shooting
was a common way of killing people.
All dead bodies were collected by people – often Jewish
workers in the camp who were hoping to live an extra day –
and were burned in a large crematorium. This let out a
disgusting smell into the air as hundreds of dead bodies
burned. Other bodies were pushed by bulldozers into a large
pit.

8. 7 million non-Jewish Soviet people killed.
6 million Jewish people killed.
2.8 million Soviet prisoners of war killed.
2.5 million non-Jewish Poles killed.
1.5 million non-Jewish Poles sent to forced labour
concentration camps.
500,000 gypsies killed.
400,000 people were forcibly sterilised.
250,000 disabled people killed.
15,000 homosexuals sent to concentration camps.
10,000 Jehovah‟s Witnesses sent to concentration camps.