25 Feb 2011

Did the Nazis achieve the aims of their Jewish policy 1933 – 1945?


          The Nazis policies against the Jews where mainly to waste as little money and reasourses as possible and use the Jews possessions to make money to support Germany. This was mostly a success but the different policies had minor setbacks and failures.
          In 1933 the Nazis started acting against the Jews and they started by sacking the Jews that were teachers and civil servants. This was done by finding who was a Jew and who was not. The Jews were instantly sacked as the schools were controlled by the Nazis. This policy was a slight failure as the Jews were trained at their positions and they lose that training. However the position is now free to the Germans and that reduced the Nazi’s unemployment as they ignored the Jews in their statistics. This increased their popularity so the public supported them more in their other policies.
          Also in 1933 all Jews were banned from public. They did this by having Gestapo and informant everywhere that told the Gestapo if Jews went into the public places. This was a success as there were only Germans in the public places, and as there was no Jews they could not show the public that the Jews were not thieves and evil. This made the public had no doubt against the Nazi policies and the public stayed loyal and unaware of the Nazis wrong-doings. This ban was limited because the public places were not always under watch but this was very rare.
          Then Hitler also declared a one-day boycott of Jewish business which was done again by the Gestapo. They saw anyone who went into the Jewish businesses and sent them to concentration camps. This was a success as the Jewish business lost the profit for a day and made the public a little more towards anti Semitism. This boycott was limited because if the businesses closed for the day it would only be a minor setback.
          Then in 1935 the Nuremberg laws were passed which restricted the Jews even more. The first law was that all Jews had to wear the Star of David as a symbol of their religion. This was done by identifying the Jews and making them wear the badge. The Jews complied through fear more than loyalty. This was a success as the Jews were very scared of the Nazis and Gestapo. Very rarely did Jews go out in public without the badge and when they did they were made an example of and sent to concentration camps. This was a slight failure as the Jews could lie about their religion and their would be no proof they were a Jew if they hid. Also this had limitations because anyone that stayed indoors was safe, for example the Jews on Oskar Schindler’s list.
          Another law was that the Jewish population could not be called a German citizen. This allowed the Germans to ignore their rights and attack them. The Jews were now persecuted more harshly from now on. This was limited as it still did not make random attacks acceptable or legal but it was another step to making the Jews alien to Germany.
          The third law was that Jew could not marry non-Jews; this was done through the Gestapo and enforced through fear. This was a success as the Jews could not increase the Jewish population. This meant that there would be less Jews in the future as the Nazis labelled someone as a Jew if they were even only one quarter Jewish. The failure was that the Jews would not have to be married to have children and so could boost the population.
          The final law in the Nuremberg laws was that all Jewish children were expelled from German schools and forced to go to Jewish schools. This was carried out by the secret police and their informants. This was a success because it stopped the Jewish children affecting the indoctrination of the German students. The Jewish students could have convinced the other students that the Nazi anti-Semitism was wrong as the Jews were just normal people and were not thieves and evil. By expelling them they ensured the indoctrination would work and the German children would hate the Jews. This stopped possible Nazi opposition in the future. This was limited as the Jewish children still posed a threat if they were not controlled and could meet with the German children.
          Then in 1938 a Jew in France killed a German diplomat, this gave Joseph Goebbels a reason to attack the Jews in Germany. The SA and SS attacked the Jewish communities and businesses. The SS and SA were strong believers in the Nazi policies against the Jews and so attacked them willingly. The night became known as the Kristallnacht, which means night of broken glass as the shop fronts and windows were all smashed. All the money and possessions were taken from the Jews and they were then sent to concentration camps. Ninety one Jews died and twenty thousand were sent to the concentration camps. To try to destroy the Jewish religion two hundred synagogues were burnt to the ground. This was a success in that the Nazis managed to get many Jews off of Germany's streets. This reduced the risk of the German public realising that the Jews were being unfairly used as scapegoats and punished. It was also a failure as the Nazis then had to clean up the broken glass which would cost a large amount of money. To cover this the Nazis fined the Jews in total one billion marks but this was also a failure as they got very little of that money. The money was taken from businesses and in possessions from the Jews.
          The Jews that obeyed these strict laws were sent to ghettos were the Gestapo could watch them and where they could not escape easily. There was a high wall built around the ghetto and the Jews were only fed 300 calories of food a day. This limit on food meant there was more food for the army and the Aryan race. The German public could not find out about the Jews living conditions due to the high wall. The Jews again complied through fear. This was a huge success as the Nazis could get more food for the army, take the Jew’s houses for Aryans and take the Jew's possessions and money to build the German economy. By 1941 almost all Jews in Poland were living in the ghettos and at the ghetto Warsaw almost half a million people were living where just over one hundred thousand had lived before. The crowding and living conditions made the captives rebellious and in 1943 Warsaw was taken over by the Jews inside. This was the failure and the limitation was that many man had to patrol the ghetto instead of fighting in the war.
          In 1942 a secret conference was made between leading Nazi officials. The public would not even know this meeting ever happened. That is where they decided that the final solution was the only way to stop the Jewish way of life. The final solution was the complete extermination of all the Jews in Europe. They came to this conclusion because the German army was taking control of neighbouring countries and ghettos were becoming too dear for the Nazis to afford. Killing the Jews was cheaper than keeping them in ghettos. Some of the concentration camps were converted into death camps and more were built. Many of the death camps were in Poland to stop the German public from knowing about the final solution but also many of the Jews were in Poland and it saved money to build the camps where the Jews where. The Jews were sent to the camps and if they were fit and healthy they would be worked into an early grave. If they were not healthy they were immediately sent to the “showers”. Before they were gasses all hair, rings and belongings were taken to be used or sold. Then they were gassed by Zyklon B. This created a small failure for the Nazis there were piles of bodies and they could not risk the SS to touch them for fear of death by gas. The healthy Jews had to move the corpses to the incinerator. The ashes are still around the death camps today. The death camps were a success for the Nazis as six million Jews were killed and it saved money and the Nazis even made money by make clothes and furniture out of the Jew’s hair. The Jews did hard labour and saved the Nazis employment costs. The final solution was limited as the bodies could only be incinerated one at a time and there were always piles of corpses on the ground that easily spread disease.
          The Jewish policies were mostly successes but many had minor setback like the Warsaw rebellion. The Nazis were able to save resources from limiting the Jews that were desperately needed during the war. Then they could also improve the lives of the Aryans and exploit what the Jews left behind: houses, money, possessions to build and supply Germany. The Nazis managed to use the Jews to fund and supply the German army and public, all with the support of the public as they were kept unaware of most of the policies.


No comments:

Post a Comment