Study Guides

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils study a modern society and the issues that affected it in great depth over a shorter period. They learn about the key events, developments, people and stories that shaped this modern society over a period of around twenty to thirty years.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain how Nazi racial ideology influenced their treatment of minority groups.

Key Notes

• Nazi racial beliefs were shaped by earlier scientific ideas, but they distorted them for ideological goals.
• Nazi racial ideology divided people into a hierarchy, with Aryans at the top and others labelled as sub-humans.
• The Nazis used eugenics to justify sterilisation and the euthanasia of people with disabilities.
• Nazi policies targeted Slavs, Roma, Sinti, Afro-Germans and homosexuals as threats to racial purity.
• Concentration camps were used to isolate and imprison particular groups of people.

Vocabulary To Learn

• eugenics: the belief that human populations could be 'improved' through selective breeding by encouraging reproduction among those deemed 'fit' and preventing it among the 'unfit'
• Aryan: an ancient group of Indo-European peoples; the Nazis wrongly redefined 'Aryan' to mean a racially pure, northern European person who were biologically superior and destined to rule over other races
• sterilisation: the process of having a medical operation to make it impossible to have children
• hereditarily: relating to traits or conditions passed from parents to children through genes, such as eye colour or certain genetic diseases
• euthanasia: the act of killing someone who is very ill or very old so that they do not suffer any more; the Nazis used this term to justify murdering those they deemed 'unworthy of life'

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps were the same thing.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• 1923, the Ruhr and hyperinflation Study Guide
• Early unrest and the Treaty of Versailles Study Guide
• Economic recovery under Stresemann Study Guide
• Employment in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Goebbels and propaganda in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Hitler's creation of a dictatorship Study Guide
• How Hitler became Chancellor of Germany Study Guide
• Nazi control of the police and the legal system Study Guide
• Opposition and resistance in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Social and economic change 1924-29 Study Guide
• Stresemann's international achievements Study Guide
• The early development of the NSDAP Study Guide
• The First World War and the German Revolution Study Guide
• The growth in support for the Nazi Party Study Guide
• The growth of unemployment and rise in support for the Communist Party Study Guide
• The Munich Putsch Study Guide
• The Nazi Party and religion Study Guide
• The NSDAP's 'lean years' Study Guide
• The persecution of Jews Study Guide
• The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act Study Guide
• The Weimar Republic Study Guide
• Threats to the Weimar Republic from the left and the right Study Guide
• Weimar culture 1924-29 Study Guide
• Women in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Work and life in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Young people in Nazi Germany Study Guide