3.2 How were Jews affected by the creation of ‘Greater Germany’?
3.2 How were Jews affected by the creation of ‘Greater Germany’? The Nazis came to power promising to build a bigger and stronger Germany. Like many Germans, the Nazis believed Germany had been treated unfairly at the end of the First World War. They wanted to reclaim land they felt was Germany’s and bring all German-speaking people together to live
in a ‘Greater Germany’. For the Nazis, this Greater Germany would be a national, People’s Community (Volksgemeinschaft) – a society organised around ideas of ‘race’ (see page 21). Importantly, the Nazis did not believe Jewish people – among others – could or should be part of this new Germany. N
SWEDEN North Sea
LATVIA Baltic Sea
DENMARK
LITHUANIA SOVIET UNION
EAST PRUSSIA Berlin
NETHERLANDS
Warsaw
RHINELAND Paris LUXEMBOURG
ETENLAND
SUD
Prague
Key
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
International boundaries, 1933
Vienna
FRANCE SWITZERLAND
0
POLAND
GERMANY
BELGIUM
150 km
Germany in1933 Remilitarised in 1936
AUSTRIA HUNGARY
Annexed in 1938 ROMANIA
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
Controlled by Germany, March 1939
Figure 3.4 The expansion of Germany from 1933 to 1939.
Events in 1938–39 By the late 1930s, the Nazi government felt strong enough to act aggressively towards other countries. From March 1938, first Austria and then areas of Czechoslovakia became
part of Germany. Each time Germany’s borders expanded, more Jewish people fell under Nazi control.
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