Study Guides

Unit Summary

In this unit pupils undergo a period study that provides an unfolding narrative which tells a story about a period that shaped the world we live in today. They look at the key events, developments, people and stories that defined the chosen period.

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
• Germany before the First World War Study Guide
• Germany's naval ambitions before the First World War 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
• Industrialisation, social reform and the growth of socialism Study Guide
• Opposition and resistance to Hitler and the Nazi Party Study Guide
• Stresemann's international achievements Study Guide
• The Final Solution 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 Nazi economy and WW2 Study Guide
• The Nazi Party and religion Study Guide
• The Nazi police state Study Guide
• The persecution of Jews Study Guide
• The putsches of 1919-23 Study Guide
• The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act Study Guide
• The Weimar Republic 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