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- Year 11
- AQA
Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities
I can explain how Nazi racial ideology influenced their treatment of minority groups.
- Year 11
- AQA
Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities
I can explain how Nazi racial ideology influenced their treatment of minority groups.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- 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.
Keywords
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 misconception
Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps were the same thing.
Concentration camps were used for imprisonment, forced labour and punishment, not initially for mass murder. Extermination camps, built later, were designed specifically for killing on an industrial scale.
To help you plan your year 11 history lesson on: Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 11 history lesson on: Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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Explore more key stage 4 history lessons from the Germany 1890–1945, Democracy and dictatorship unit, dive into the full secondary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Language may offend
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Nazi labour policies aimed to create a People’s where all Germans worked together for the good of the nation, but only those who conformed to Nazi beliefs were truly included.
Q2.Match each Nazi labour organisation with its main focus.
improved workplace facilities and hygiene
replaced trade unions and controlled workers' employment
offered holidays and leisure activities to loyal workers