Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
293,735
edits
Changes
mLine 1:
Line 1: − + − + − + Line 40:
Line 40: − Like much of Europe, [[Germany]] had been anti-Semitic for centuries, but in the years immediately preceding Third Reich it had in fact been considered a good place, even a refuge for Jews, who in Germany had been “emancipated,” i.e, granted most of the same rights as gentile citizens, in the 19th century. The formation of the [[Weimar Republic]] in 1918 eliminated any remaining restrictions and German Jews could now act as complete citizens in German Civic life. <ref>Yadvashem Website Mhttp://www1.yadvashem.org/download/education/units/crystal_2.pdf</ref>+ Line 62:
Line 62: − + − + − − == Art and Culture in the Third Reich == − − The Weimar Republic that preceded the Third Reich was a remarkable and exciting time for the arts, with painters like [[Paul Klee]], [[Wassily Kandinsky]], and [[Max Beckman]], writers like [[Berthold Brecht]] and [[Kurt Weil]], filmmakers like [[F.W. Murnau]] working and becoming established in their fields. The rise of such avant-garde artists, especially in the visual arts, was an anathema to the Hitler and therefore to the Nazis, who regarded such art as “degenerate” and a symptom of the “degrading” influence of Jews and Marxists on German culture. When the Nazis came into power, they immediately took steps to ensure that only art and literature they deemed acceptable would be displayed and published in the Third Reich. The two most famous expressions of Nazi anti-intellectualism are the bonfire at Berlin’s Opernplatz across from the University of Berlin <ref>http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005852</ref> on May 10, 1933, when students at the Berlin universities burned some 25,000 books before a large and enthusiastic crowd, and the opening of the “Degenerate” Art Exhibit in Munich four years later. − − The book-burning followed a torchlight parade of students who, after amassing a pile of books and setting it aflame, tossed still more volumes onto the pyre. Volumes destroyed included works by Thomas and Heinrich Mann, [[Upton Sinclair]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Helen Keller]], [[Havelock Ellis]], [[Sigmund Freud]], Arnold and Stefan Zweig, and [[Erich Maria Remarque]]. Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] spoke to the enthusiastic crowd, declaring “these flames not only illuminate the final end of an old era; they also light up the new.” − − It was certainly a sign of what was to come. The Reich Chamber of Culture was established in that same year, divided into sections overseeing literature, music, films, radio, theater, fine arts, and the press. Only members of this Chamber could exercise their professions. Libraries, both public and private, were systematically purged of “objectionable” writers including Berthold Brecht. [[Maxim Gorki]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], and Erich Maria Remarque, The guidelines for “cleansing libraries” compiled by Berlin Librarian Wolfgang Hermann included weeding out “The works of traitors, emigrants and authors from foreign countries who believe they can attack and denigrate the new German,” “The literature of Marxism, Communism and Bolshevism,” “Pacifist literature,” and “Literature with liberal, democratic tendencies and attitudes, and writing supporting the Weimar Republic.” − − Books “blocked from check-out” were divided into three categories, according to Hermann: − − <blockquote> − Group 1 is to be destroyed (Auto da fé), e.g. Remarque − − Group 2 goes into the poison cabinet (e.g. Lenin) − − Group 3 contains dubious cases requiring future assessment as to whether they belong to group 1 or group 2 (e.g. Traven).<ref>http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/burnedbooks/documents.htm</ref> − </blockquote> − − The Third Reich’s infamous “Degenerate Art Exhibit” was opened by the Third Reich in Munich on July 19th, 1937, the day after Hitler spoke at the opening of the new House of German Art. It was intended to provide a contrast to the approved work at the House of German Art nearby, and it included thousands of confiscated works by modern artists, including [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Vincent Van Gogh]], and [[Paul Cezanne]], mixed in with paintings by the insane and displayed carelessly and without frames. Captions were put up that consisted of comments like “Thus did sick minds view Nature.” It is interesting to note that attendance at this exhibition of “degenerate art” was higher than attendance at the House of German art, which contained Nazi-approved art. − − Hitler’s own attitude towards the modern artists who’d thrived during the Weimar Republic was expressed quite forcefully in his speech at the opening of the House of German Art, when he said of modern artists: − − <blockquote> − “And what do [they] manufacture? Misformed cripples and cretins, women who inspire only disgust, men who are more like wild beasts, children who, were they alive, must be regarded as cursed of God…From the pictures sent in for exhibition it is clear that the eyes of some men shows them things otherwise than as they are – that there really are men who on principle feel meadows to be blue, the heaven green, clouds sulfur-yellow – or as they perhaps prefer to say, “experience” them thus…Here only two possibilities are open; either these “artists” do really see things in this way and believe in that which they represent – then one has but to ask how the defect in vision arose, and if it is hereditary, the Minister of the Interior will have to see to it that so ghastly a defect of vision shall not be allowed to perpetuate itself – or if they do not believe in the reality of such impressions, but seek on other grounds to impose upon the nation by this humbug, then it is a matter for a criminal court…There is no place for such works in this building.” <ref>Nazi Culture, “Hitler Defines Culture in Defining Art,” Page 15 by George L. Mosse.” </ref> − </blockquote> − − The press was rigidly controlled. Every morning, news editors and correspondents had to meet at the Propaganda Ministry to get their orders from Dr. Goebbels or a representative of the propaganda chief. Editors had to be Germans “of Aryan descent,” and not married to a Jew. Radio and motion pictures, two media that fascinated Goebbels, were also carefully monitored, with radio becoming one of the Reich’s most powerful and successful mediums for disseminating misinformation, and the Film Chamber of the propaganda ministry striving “to lift the film industry out of the sphere of liberal economic thoughts…”<ref> The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” pg 333-341 </ref> − − This press censorship was apparently quite effective. Shirer wrote: − − <blockquote> − “Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was…” <ref> The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” pg 342 </ref> − </blockquote> − − This systemic war on modernism and the avant-garde was also effective and described by Shirer as a “sickening decline of the cultural standards of a people who had had such high ones for so long a time.” … <ref> The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” William Shirer pg 334 </ref> It was, however, a decline that even some Hitler supporters could not entirely stomach. Professor Gerdy Troost, one of the judges for the House of German Art exhibition, resigned in protest the day before it opened over the quality of some of the pieces that had been selected and some that had been rejected. <ref> Adolf Hitler, John Toland, pg 415 </ref> Attendance at Nazi approved films was low, while the few foreign films that made it through the censors became increasingly popular. − − It’s therefore not surprising that in 1936 Goebbels himself declared serious criticism and analysis of literature and the arts forbidden. “The reporting of art should not be concerned with values, but should confine itself to description, He announced. “Such reporting would give the public a chance to make its own judgments. <ref>Nazi Culture, “Goebbels Forbids Art Criticism,” Pg 162</ref> − − Apparently, however, even the public’s judgment could not be relied upon entirely. “At one period in the mid-Thirties,” Shirer observes, “the hissing of German films became so common that Wilhelm Frick, the Minister of the Interior, issued a stern warning against ‘treasonable behavior on the part of cinema audiences.’” <ref> The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” William Shirer pg 341 </ref> − − == Women in the Third Reich == − − The Weimar Republic had seen the rise of another trend the Nazis hated, the emancipation of women, who were suddenly granted suffrage in 1918 by an interim Socialist cabinet. <ref> Mothers in the Fatherland, Claudia Koonz, pg 24 </ref>The hard times and dearth of male workers that resulted from World War I and its loss had also forced women from their homes and into public life and had given them a taste of independence that not all were eager to relinquish even when the soldiers returned to home and workplace. As a result women, while still a minority, had become increasingly visible not just in the workplace, but in city councils and provincial assemblies. − − The Nazi view of this newfound visibility was succinctly expressed by Englebert Huber in Das Ist Nationalsocialsismus “There is no place for the political woman in the ideological world of National Socialism…The postwar phenomenon of the political woman, who rarely cuts a good figure in parliamentary debates, signifies robbing woman of her dignity.” <ref> Nazi Culture, “The Nazi Ideal of Womanhood.” George L. Mosse pg 47 </ref> Hitler declared in a speech to the National Socialist Woman’s Council in 1935, “The so-called granting of equal rights to women, which Marxism demands, in reality does not grant equal rights but constitutes a deprivation of rights, since it draws the woman into an area in which she will necessarily be inferior. It places the woman in situations that cannot strengthen her position. <ref> Nazi Culture, “The Nazi Ideal of Womanhood.” George L. Mosse pg 39 </ref> Alfred Rosenberg, announced that “Emancipation of woman from the women’s emancipation movement is the first demand of a generation of women which would like to save the Volk and the race…” <ref> Nazi Culture, “The Nazi Ideal of Womanhood.” George L. Mosse pg 40 </ref> − − Much of this rhetoric was an attempt to soften an attitude that consigned women mainly to the role of child-bearers, and removed the question of whether or not to have children out of an individual woman’s hands and into the hands of the state. The unvarnished Nazi view of women was best expressed by a Nazi delegate who, on the floor of the Reichstag before they took power, shouted at a female Social Democrat delegate mourning her son who had died in the first World War, “That’s what you old nanny-goats are for! <ref>Time Magazine, May 9, 1942 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885973,00.html</ref> − − Immediately after taking power, the Nazis began excluding women from professions, higher education and government. In 1933 the admission of women to universities was restricted to “10 per cent off the annual intake.” <ref> The Racial State, Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, “Women in the Third Reich” pg 258 </ref> By 1935 not only were married women physicians denied the right to practice, but those female doctors who were left “(like Jewish physicians) could no longer receive payments from the state-sponsored health-insurance system.” <ref> Mothers in the Fatherland, Claudia Koonz pg 145 </ref> After 1936, women were barred from serving as judges or public prosecutors or serving on juries. − − Some of these restrictions, especially those surrounding university admissions, had to be rescinded once war broke out and the male labor and student population were significantly diminished by conscription, but the emphasis continued to be on child-bearing. “Racially valuable” women were rewarded according to the number of children they’d had—A “valuable” woman with three children under the age of ten received an “Honor Card,” which offered preferential treatment in shops. A woman who’d bourn five children got a bronze medal, six, a silver medal. A gold medal was awarded for the mother of seven, along with a blue ribbon so she could wear it around her neck and be acknowledged by members of the Hitler Youth, who were required to salute her. <ref> Mothers in the Fatherland, Claudia Koonz pg 186 </ref> Birth Control was outlawed for Aryan women, and penalties for abortion were increased. After 1939, performing an abortion on a “racially valuable” woman was a capital offense. − − Unwed pregnancies among blonde, blue-eyed gentile girls were supported by the Third Reich through SS “Well of Life” homes, where pre and post natal care were provided and an adoption service set up for the infants. This, at least one historian has noted, seemed to rest less on tolerance than Heinrich Himmler’s sneaking fondness for polygamy. <ref> The Racial State, Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann pg 252 </ref> The eagerness for “Aryan” children even extended to the ugly policy of kidnapping “racially valuable” children in occupied countries like Poland and the Soviet Union and shipping them back to Germany to be placed with “acceptable” German families. − − Those women deemed “unfit” to have children included Jews, socialists, pacifists, Roma, Poles and Russians. Within about five and half years after taking power, the Third Reich had performed compulsory sterilization on 320,000 people. Some 400 women died in that time frame as a result. <ref> The Racial State, Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann pg 253 </ref> “Schizophrenia” or “feeble mindedness” were the frequent rationalizations offered for the forced sterilization of German women, and ironically, given the regime’s eagerness to promote even unwed pregnancies among “acceptable” German women, the reasons cited sometimes included promiscuity. In the case of a factory worker sterilized in 1941, a woman with six children, five of them illegitimate, evidence cited for her “feeblemindedness” included, “During a personal interview she was noticeably indifferent towards her shifting sexual relationships.” <ref> The Racial State, Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann pg 258 </ref> − − ==Notes and references== − <references/>
Reverted edits by PF Fox (Talk); changed back to last version by Jaques
The Third Reich was the name given to the German government by the [[Nazis]], an extremist right wing political party formed as a reaction to the Versailles Treaty and the liberal policies of the Weimar Republic. "Reich" in German means "empire". [[Hitler]] believed that he was creating a third German empire, following the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (800-1806) what he called the [[First Reich]], and the one created by [[Otto von Bismarck]] which lasted from 1871 until 1918 or the [[Second Reich]].
The Third Reich was the name given to the German government by the [[Nazis]]. "Reich" in German means "empire". [[Hitler]] believed that he was creating a third German empire, following the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (800-1806) what he called the [[First Reich]], and the one created by [[Otto von Bismarck]] which lasted from 1871 until 1918 or the [[Second Reich]].
The Third Reich lasted from 1933 until 1945. Its birth and the death knell of the Weimar Republic, began on January 30, 1933, when [[Hitler]] was appointed Chancellor. Less than a month later, the Reichstag burned and Hitler seized power, effectively ending the Weimar Republic.
The Third Reich lasted from 1933 until 1945. It's birth and the death knell of the Weimar Republic, began on January 30, 1933, when [[Hitler]] was appointed Chancellor. Less than a month later, the Reichstag burned and Hitler seized power.
== The Reichstag Fire and Its Aftermath ==
== The Reichstag and Its Aftermath ==
On February 27, 1933, the [[Reichstag]] in [[Berlin]] was destroyed in a fire that had plainly been deliberately set. Exactly who set the fire remains a question never fully resolved. Most contemporary observers both in and outside of Germany blamed and still blame the Nazis themselves, though Shirer admits in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that “The whole truth about the Reichstag Fire will probably never be known.” <ref>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” William Shirer</ref>
On February 27, 1933, the [[Reichstag]] in [[Berlin]] was destroyed in a fire that had plainly been deliberately set. Exactly who set the fire remains a question never fully resolved. Most contemporary observers both in and outside of Germany blamed and still blame the Nazis themselves, though Shirer admits in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that “The whole truth about the Reichstag Fire will probably never be known.” <ref>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Book Two, “Triumph and Consolidation.” William Shirer</ref>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
As much of Europe [[Germany]] had been anti-Semitic for centuries, but in the years immediately preceding Third Reich it had in fact been considered a good place, even a refuge for Jews, who in Germany had been “emancipated,” i.e, granted most of the same rights as gentile citizens, in the 19th century. The formation of the [[Weimar Republic]] in 1918 eliminated any remaining restrictions and German Jews could now act as complete citizens in German Civic life. <ref>Yadvashem Website Mhttp://www1.yadvashem.org/download/education/units/crystal_2.pdf</ref>
As Jewish artists, writers, politicians and civil servants became more visible, however, anti-semitism became more virulent, and the Nazis were able to tap into the resentment that inevitably rises to the surface when members of a minority group begin to make strides in fields that had formerly been closed to them.
As Jewish artists, writers, politicians and civil servants became more visible, however, anti-semitism became more virulent, and the Nazis were able to tap into the resentment that inevitably rises to the surface when members of a minority group begin to make strides in fields that had formerly been closed to them.
In November of 1938, a young Jewish man distraught over the deportation of his family, assassinated Ernst Vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris. The result was November 9th, 1938, a night that would afterwards be known as Kristalnacht, a reference to the amount of broken glass littering the streets afterwards. Jewish homes in Germany were ransacked, Synagogues burned, Jews chased down and beaten to death. More than 30,000 Jews were taken to concentration camps. The German government responded by charging the Jewish community for the damage and a few days later, barring all Jewish children from German Schools. What most people remember as “The Holocaust” had begun in earnest.
In November of 1938, a young Jewish man distraught over the deportation of his family, assassinated Ernst Vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris. The result was November 9th, 1938, a night that would afterwards be known as Kristalnacht, a reference to the amount of broken glass littering the streets afterwards. Jewish homes in Germany were ransacked, Synagogues burned, Jews chased down and beaten to death. More than 30,000 Jews were taken to concentration camps. The German government responded by charging the Jewish community for the damage and a few days later, barring all Jewish children from German Schools. What most people remember as “The Holocaust” had begun in earnest.
Jewish populations within the Reich were separated from the general population into horribly overcrowded ghettos, 365 of which were set up in Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary. The most famous of these were the Lodz and Warsaw ghettos. <ref>http://www.fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/timeline/ghettos.html.</ref> Those ghetto residents who did not die from malnutrition or disease were eventually “deported” to concentration and extermination camps. Extermination camps, which existed primarily for the execution of inmates, included Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Sobibór. The primary method of killing in these camps was through poison gas, though beatings, hangings, and lethal injection were also used. In addition, the Nazis used Einsatzgruppen, mobile squads operating in the occupied Soviet Union who would typically round up Jews in Nazi occupied areas, herd them into remote areas, and shoot them en masse. These were discontinued in 1942 in lieu of the death camps. <ref>http://www.fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/timeline/camps.htm</ref>
Jewish populations within the Reich were separated from the general population into horribly overcrowded ghettos, 365 of which were set up in Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary. The most famous of these were the Lodz and Warsaw ghettos. <ref>http://www.fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/timeline/ghettos.html.</ref> Those ghetto residents who did not die from malnutrition or disease were eventually “deported” to concentration and extermination camps. Extermination camps, which existed primarily for the execution of inmates, included Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Sobibór. The primary method of killing in these camps was through poison gas, though beatings, hangings, and lethal injection were also used. In addition, the Nazis used Einsatzgruppen, mobile squads operating in the Soviet Union who would typically round up Jews in Nazi occupied areas, herd them into remote areas, and shoot them en masse. These were discontinued in 1942 in lieu of the death camps. <ref>http://www.fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/timeline/camps.htm</ref>
It is currently estimated that roughly 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Third Reich, along with roughly 5 million victims that included homosexuals, Communists, Roma, Sinti, and political opponents of the regime. The methodical murder of Jews did not actually end until 1945, when the camps were liberated by Allied Troops.
It is currently estimated that roughly 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Third Reich, along with roughly 5 million victims that included homosexuals, Communists, Roma, Sinti, and political opponents of the regime. The methodical murder of Jews did not actually end until 1945, when the camps were liberated by Allied Troops.
[[category: history]]
[[category: history]]