18
was initially a moderate movement that sought to challenge the rise of Communism, but evolved to
become something much more extreme. The party's last long-term leader,
was appointe
by President
in 1933. Hitler rapidly established an oppressive government known
as the
Following the defeat of the Third Reich at the conclusion of
in Europe, the Nazi
Party was "completely and finally abolished and declared to be illegal" by th
occupying powers.
Nuremburg Laws
At their annual rally held in Nuremberg in September 1935, Nazi party leaders announced new laws that
established many of the racial theories supporting Nazi beliefs. The Nuremberg Race Laws were the foundation of
the legalized persecution of Jews in Germany. They revoked German citizenship from all Jews and prohibited them
from marrying or having sex with persons of “German or German-related blood.” Additional ordinances to these
laws deprived German Jews of most political rights, including the right to vote or hold public office. The
Nuremberg Race Laws represented a major shift from traditional antisemitism, which defined Jews by their
religious belief. Under the new laws, Jews were now defined as members of a race. In other words, Jews were no
longer considered a religious group but instead an ethnic group. For this reason, the Nuremberg Race Laws did not
identify a “Jew” as someone practicing a particular religious faith but instead as someone with three or four Jewish
grandparents. Many Germans who did not actively practice Judaism or who had not done so for years found
themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to
Christianity could be defined as Jews.
Racially superior
The idea that one race is biologically/genetically better than another.
Roma/Sinti (Gypsies)
Roma, also called Gypsies because of the mistaken belief that they came from Egypt, originated in northern India
as a nomadic people and entered Europe in the thirteenth century C.E. This minority is made up of distinct groups
called tribes or nations. In 1939, about a million Roma lived in Europe, half of which lived in Eastern Europe,
especially in the Soviet Union and Romania.
The Nazis judged Roma to be "racially inferior,” and German authorities subjected Roma to random imprisonment,
forced labor, and mass murder. In 1942, the deportation of all Roma from Germany was ordered. There were
exceptions for certain categories, including persons of Roma descent who were considered integrated into German
society and therefore did not “behave like Gypsies,” as well as people and their families who had distinguished
themselves in German military service, although local authorities often ignored the distinctions during roundups.
Police authorities even seized and deported Roma soldiers serving in the German military while they were home on
leave. The Nazis deported approximately 23,000 Roma to Auschwitz altogether, of which at least 19,000 were
killed there. While exact figures or percentages cannot be established, historians estimate that the Germans and
their allies killed around 25 percent of all European Roma. After the war, discrimination against Roma continued
throughout Central and Eastern Europe. To this day, Roma face appalling discrimination all across Europe.
Sachsenhausen
The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was the principal concentration camp for the Berlin area. Located north of
Berlin, the camp opened on July 12, 1936, when 50 prisoners were transferred from another camp to begin
constructing it. In the early stage of the camp's existence, the police incarcerated mainly political opponents and
criminals in Sachsenhausen. Between 1936 and 1945, however, Sachsenhausen also held Jews,
Romas, and Soviet civilians. Almost 6,000 Jewish prisoners arrived in Sachsenhausen in the
days following the
Kristallnacht
riots. After anti-German demonstrations in Prague in November 1939, German
authorities incarcerated around 1,200 Czech university students in Sachsenhausen. The German authorities sent
some of the educated elite of Poland to Sachsenhausen in an attempt to prevent organized resistance. By the end of
