A-LEVEL HISTORY_ P3 (9489)REVISION NOTES_HOLOCAUST

A-LEVEL HISTORY: P3 (9489) REVISION NOTES
EUROPEAN OPTION: TOPIC 2: THE HOLOCAUST


Part A: Subject content

Chapter 1: The background of European and German anti-Semitism and racist theories

Key question: How have Jews been affected by antisemitism? What impact does antisemitism
have on others?

Starter Video: https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/what-is-antisemitism/why-the-jews-history-of-
antisemitism



What is Anti-Semitism?

 Anti-Semitism - means prejudice against or hatred of Jews
❖ characterised by a combination of religious, racial, cultural and ethnic hatreds
❖ manifested in many ways, ranging from individual expressions of hatred
and discrimination against individual Jews to organised violent attacks by mobs on Jewish
communities
❖ Wilhelm Marr originated the term antisemitism, denoting the hatred of Jews, hatred of various
liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political trends of the 18th-19th centuries often associated
with Jews

Antisemitism in History
 most common manifestations throughout history were pogroms, violent riots launched against Jews and
frequently encouraged by government authorities;
 in the last third of the nineteenth century, antisemitic political parties were formed in Germany, France,
and Austria;
 component of political antisemitism was nationalism, whose adherents often falsely denounced Jews as
disloyal citizens;
 19th century "volkisch movement" (folk or people’s movement)—made up of German philosophers,
scholars, and artists who viewed the Jewish spirit as alien to Germandom—shaped a notion of the Jew
as "non-German.";
 theorists of racial anthropology provided pseudoscientific backing for this idea

What were the Völkisch Movements?

 meant love of the fatherland; it was a revolt against modern German life;
 "racial adoration"; anti-Semitism linked to ethnic nationalism;
 ideas of also included anti-communist, anti-immigration, anti-capitalist and anti-Parliamentarian
principles;

,  "national community" (Volksgemeinschaft) came more and more to exclude Jews in Germany;
 völkisch movements that developed during the late 19th century in the German Empire became
increasingly politicized as a banner for new forms of ethnic nationalism

How is Social Darwinism linked with the Nazis?

 Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had a major influence upon Nazi racial policies; Adolf Hitler believed
that the human gene pool could only be improved by using selective breeding;
 only those "races" with superior qualities could win this eternal struggle which was carried out by force
and warfare;
 Hitler’s focus was the development and implementation of policies designed to protect the ‘master race’;
 preventing ‘inferior races’ from mixing to reduce contamination of the gene pool;
 they argued that Jewish "racial intermixing," by "contaminating" and weakening the host nations;
 served as part of a conscious Jewish plan for world domination;
 the ‘master race’ belief was based on Darwin’s original ‘survival of the fittest’ theory;
 culminated in the ‘final solution’;
 Darwinism-inspired eugenics (selective breeding) clearly played a vital role in Nazi planning;
 Darwinism appeared to justify and encourage Nazi views on race and war
 the theory of evolution; Aryan Germans believed that their supposed evolutionary
superiority gave them not only the right, but the duty to subjugate all other peoples;
 Race was a major aspect of the Nazi philosophy;
 Darwinian racists’ views very slowly entered into many areas of German society which they had
previously not affected.

Volksgemeinshaft

 The idea of racially pure Germans
 The Nazi Party encourage voters to support them
 central issue in the Party
 collectively describe Weimar Jews as the volksfiend (folk enemy)
 volkisch aggression
 ‘German friend against Jewish enemy’
 Jews had profited from WWI
 The November Criminals
 Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
 Huge reparations
 Jewish financiers
 Jewish people were automatically Communists
 Volkgemeinshaft and Volksfiend was disseminated by mass indoctrination

Lebensraum

 1921-25 - Lebensraum was needed
 it shaped his foreign policy
 first created by Friedrich Ratzel
 people’s success determined by their adaptation to geographic circumstances
 species migration in social adaptation and cultural change
 spread naturally to others
 'peoples' (Völker), with one Völk effectively conquering another

,  Hitler used lebensraum to try and legitimately support his foreign and domestic policies towards the
Soviet Union and the Jews

Mein Kampf – 1923

 ‘Mein Kampf’ - rise to power and an outline of the Nationalist Socialist Party objectives
 own prejudices
 Lebensraum, his anti-communist ideas and anti-Semitism

What were Hitler’s Anti-Semitic Ideas mentioned in Mein Kampf?

 ‘Ein Reich’ - the idea of Germans being nationally superior to other races.
 ‘Ein Volk’ – the idea that the Aryan or Nordic people were naturally superior in physique and intellect,
and that the Germans were a ‘master race’ threatened with corruption by inferior races such as the Jews.
 ‘Anti-Semitism’ – As a struggling artist Hitler had been powerfully affected by the anti-Semitism in
Vienna which was based partly upon jealousy of the wealth of Jewish businessmen;
 ‘Untermenschen’ – Hitler outlined his plan to subordinate people who were untermenschen (sub-
human);
 ‘Lebensraum’ (living space) – Hitler believed that Germany did not have enough land, food supplies or
raw industrial materials. Hitler decided that he had to take land from Poland and Russia to create living
space and enslave the native population.

Reorganising the Nazi Party

 1923 - attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic
 new idea - play by the democratic rules and get elected
 'government in waiting'
 Hitler reclaimed his position as absolute leader of the Party
 Hitler’s speeches - same old threats against the democratic republic, Marxists, and Jews
 two year ban on public speaking
 reorganizing the Nazi Party
 reorganised the SA, his Nazi storm troopers
 The SA - "monitor troop"
 brown-shirted outfit with boots, swastika armband, badges and cap - important tools in providing
recognition and visibility, public awareness of the party
 Schutzstaffel, the staff guard
 The SS , Heinrich Himmler
 Adolf Hitler - had to wait