Weimar Germany overview - OCR BPersecution in Nazi Germany
The Nazi dictatorship was a totalitarian regime that aimed to control all aspects of its citizen鈥檚 lives, whilst persecuting its enemies, before war brought ultimate disaster for the German people.
Nazi ideology centred on the idea of the master race, the belief that the AryanA person of European descent - not Jewish - often with blond hair and blue eyes. The Nazis viewed Aryans as the superior human race. race of northern Europe was superior to all others and that some races were sub-human. Nazis also believed any weaknesses in the Aryan race, such as disabled people, should be weeded out to maintain racial purity. As such, many groups in Nazi Germany were persecuted, as well as the Nazis political enemies. This persecution involved sterilisation, 鈥euthanasiaThe deliberate ending of someone鈥檚 life for compassionate reasons.', imprisonment in concentration camps and the loss of civil rights.
The racial group targeted most by this persecution was Germany鈥檚 Jews. Their rights were progressively taken away, including their German citizenship, before the horrors of the Holocaust during World War Two saw 6 million Jews from across Nazi-occupied Europe murdered.
World War Two
The period ended in disaster for the German people. Despite Germany鈥檚 early successes, after 1942, World War Two brought rationing, bombing raids and labour shortages. Once the tide of war turned, from 1943 onwards, these difficulties intensified. In particular, the Allied bombing campaign had a brutal impact on the civilian population with hundreds of thousands killed, injured and displaced.
Opposition to the Nazis flared, culminating in an attempt by army officers to assassinate Hitler in 1944. The eventual invasion of Germany in 1945, by the USSR from the East and Britain, the USA and France from the West, brought total collapse and eventual occupation.