What were the main goals of the racial policy of Nazi Germany?
The racial policy of Nazi Germany aimed to establish an Aryan master race by excluding and persecuting groups deemed racially inferior, including Jews, Romani people, Slavs, and Black people. The policy began with legal discrimination and forced sterilization, escalated to deportation and internment, and culminated in the Holocaust, in which around six million Jews were killed.
What were the Nuremberg Laws and when were they introduced?
The Nuremberg Laws were two antisemitic and racist measures introduced on the 15th of September 1935, at a special session of the Reichstag during the Nazi Party's annual Nuremberg Rally. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour banned marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Germans, while the Reich Citizenship Law stripped Jews and other non-Aryans of full German citizenship.
How many people were sterilized under Nazi racial laws?
Between 1933 and 1945, between 300,000 and 400,000 people were sterilized under the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, passed in July 1933. The law authorized compulsory sterilization for conditions including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Huntington's disease, and even alcoholism.
Did American Jim Crow laws influence Nazi racial policy?
Yes. A Nazi legal memo from 1933, authored by a team led by Roland Freisler under Hanns Kerrl, explicitly cited Jim Crow laws in the American South as models for Nazi racial legislation. The Nazis adapted the mechanisms of Jim Crow into the Nuremberg Laws and the Reich Citizenship Law.
How did Nazi Germany classify and treat Han Chinese and Japanese people?
Nazi Germany classified Han Chinese and Japanese people as Aryans of the East and the Herrenvolk of the Orient. Han Chinese and Japanese soldiers were permitted to study in Nazi military academies and serve in the Wehrmacht. Germany supported the Republic of China militarily from 1926 onward and sent advisers including Alexander von Falkenhausen and Hans von Seeckt to assist China.
What happened to Romani people under Nazi racial policy?
Persecution of Romani people under Nazi racial policy began in 1936 with internment. Eventually 23,000 Romani people were sent to concentration camps. Heinrich Himmler proposed a dedicated Gypsy Law to separate Romani people from the German population, but no such specific law was ever formally enacted.