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Numerous
people fell victim to the Nazi regime for political, social, or
racial reasons. Germans were among the first victims persecuted
because of their political activities. Many died in concentration
camps, but most were released after their spirit was broken. Germans
who suffered from mental or physical handicaps were killed under a
"euthanasia" program. Other Germans were incarcerated for
being homosexuals, criminals, or nonconformists; these people,
although treated brutally, were never slated for utter annihilation
as were the Jews.
Roma and
Sinti (often called by the derogatory term Gypsies) were murdered by
the Nazis in large numbers. Estimates range from 200,000 to over
500,000 victims. Nazi policy toward Roma and Sinti was inconsistent.
In Greater Germany, Roma and Sinti who had integrated into society
were seen as socially dangerous and eventually were murdered,
whereas in the occupied Soviet Union, Roma and Sinti who had
integrated into society were not persecuted, but those who retained
a nomadic lifestyle were put to death.
The
so-called Slavs, the peoples of Poland, Russia, the Ukraine,
Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria, were also deemed racially
inferior by the Nazis. Yet it was not racial ideology alone that
determined how the Nazis treated particular ethnic groups – the
issues of realpolitik also came into play. Despite their supposed
inferiority, the Slovaks, Croatians, Bulgarians, and some Ukrainians
were allies of the Nazis. Russian prisoners-of-war died from neglect
or hard labor, or were murdered, because of the Nazis' racism and
loathing of Communism. Owing mostly to their plans to reorganize
Europe on racial grounds, the Nazis treated the Poles terribly. The
Nazi plans, however, did not target the Poles for complete
annihilation. Polish children who "looked German" were to
be raised as Germans, intellectuals and leaders to be murdered in
order to prevent rebellion, and the rest to be enslaved. |
