Anti-Semitism, Hitler and the German People, 1919-1945

• Anti-semitism can be defined as a suspicion of, or a hatred toward, Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage

• It has been around for over 1000 years – it would be misleading to think of anti-Semitism as a twentieth century phenomenon – although this is natural with its strong emotive connection to the Holocaust and the death of millions of Jews

• Historically, the Jews have faced continued persecution - for example there were Pogroms against them which proceeded the First Crusade of 1096 and in 1290 they were even expelled from England

Problems with studying anti-semitism

• Dangers of being too emotional and not objective enough – for example labelling all Germans as guilty and the Jews as passive victims – the reality was much more complicated than that, as you will find out while studying this course!

• Also danger of not being emotional enough, reading the sources and accepting the de-humanizing language of the Nazis, when really they were simply euphemising mass murder

• Hindsight! We know that the outcome of Nazi policy was the Holocaust, and this can result in ‘reading history backwards’ – this could result in interpretation that the Jews of the 1920s/30s were simply waiting for the inevitable to happen, this wasn’t the case!

• Problem of ‘collective guilt’ – many historians have wrongly applied this concept to Germany as a whole when the reality is much more complex – many ordinary Germans knew nothing of the extermination in the east, yet, many who claimed to know nothing of what was happening clearly did – it is wrong to generalize

Timeline• 1918 – The German revolution and the proclamation of the republic• 1919 – Imposition of the Versailles Treaty • 1924 – Advances by anti-Semites in May elections• 1925 – Mein Kampf is published• 1932 – Nazis become the largest single party in Germany • 1933 – Hitler appointed German Chancellor, boycott of Jewish shops and businesses,

exclusion of Germans from the press • 1934 – Night of the Long Knives • 1935 – the Nuremberg Laws • 1938 – Anschluss with Austria, Jewish passports stamped with a J, Kristallnacht pogrom • 1939 – Hitler gives a speech in the Reichstag threatening ‘annihilation of the Jewish race in

Europe’, Nazi-Soviet Pact, German invasion of Poland and the start of ghettoization there• 1940 – Fall of France, Warsaw ghetto in Poland is ‘sealed’• 1941 – German invasion of the USSR, mass killings of Jews near Kiev in the Ukraine • 1942 – Wannsee Conference, mass deportation of Jews from Western Europe to Auschwitz• 1944 – Start of death marches• 1945 – Liberation of Auschwitz and other camps, Hitler’s suicide, German surrender

Interpreting sources

• Is the source reliable and credible? • What factual information can you glean from

the document? • What are the biases in the document? • In what historical context was the document

produced? • How should we interpret the source?

12 mark questionHow far do the views of in Source B

differ from those in Source A in relation to Hitler’s role in the

persecution of the Jews?

DIFFERENCES: • Source A is focusing on the role of leading Nazis, such as Goebbels and Heydrich, whilst

Source B is concentrated on Hitler’s ‘central role’• Source A states that there is ‘no doubt’ about Hitler’s role whilst Source B states that

certainty about his role is ‘complicated’ by him not issuing ‘explicit written orders’SIMILARITIES: • Hitler not being solely responsible for the persecution • That his role was often one of ‘authorising’ rather than initiating the policy followed by the

Nazis OWN KNOWLEDGE? • Kristallnacht? The Wansee Conference? Both are linked in with the role of Goebbels and

Heydrich • Kershaw’s theory of ‘working towards the Fuhrer’ JUDGEMENT:• HOW FAR the sources differ, need to state the degree of difference/similarity and make a

JUDGEMENT

‘Responses will make a developed comparison between the views expressed in the two sources and will apply own knowledge to evaluate and to demonstrate a good contextual understanding.’