After World War II, it took a long time for countries to admit that Nazi Germany had committed a genocide against the Roma people. In 1982, West Germany admitted that a genocide of the Roma had happened. In 2011, the Polish Government ruled that Poland would honor the Roma genocide on the 2nd of August, every year.
The Nazis believed that people with disabilities were "life unworthy of life," and that they did not deserve to live. People with disabilities also did not fit into the Nazis' ideas about having a race of perfect "Aryans."
The Nazis forced about 375,000 people to be sterilized so they could not have children with disabilities. These people included people with physical disabilities, mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, and the Deaf.
People with disabilities were the first people the Nazis killed in gas chambers. In 1939, the Nazis set up a program called the T-4 Euthanasia Program. As part of this program, the Nazis sent children and adults with disabilities to hospitals like Hartheim Euthanasia Centre, where they were killed with poison gas. They also killed some children with disabilities right after they were born. By the end of World War II, the Nazis had killed about 275,000 people with disabilities. About 5,000 to 7,000 of these victims were children.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people were also victims of The Holocaust. The Nazis were especially cruel to gay men. They thought that homosexual people hurt Nazi Germany in a few ways:
By 1936, Heinrich Himmler was trying to use Germany's laws, and make new laws, to persecute gay men. At least 100,000 gay German men were arrested, and 50,000 were convicted and put in prison. Some were forced into state-run psychiatric hospitals. Courts ordered hundreds of European gay men living in Nazi-controlled areas to be castrated with chemicals.
Between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were imprisoned in concentration camps. They were often treated even worse than other prisoners. They had to wear a pink triangle on their shirts, just like men convicted of sexually abusing children and having sex with animals.
Lesbians were not usually treated as badly as gay men. They were usually not put in prison just because they were lesbians. In the concentration camps, they usually wore a black triangle.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Nazi Germany did not seek to kill all homosexuals. Nevertheless, the Nazi state, through active persecution, attempted to terrorise German homosexuals into sexual and social conformity, leaving thousands dead and shattering the lives of many more."
After World War II, many homosexuals who were liberated from the concentration camps were still persecuted in Germany. They could be charged under Paragraph 175, a law which made "lewdness between men" illegal. If they were convicted, they would be sent to prison. (The time they spent in the concentration camps would be subtracted from their sentences.) This was very different from how other Holocaust victims were treated. Other victims were compensated (given money) for the loss of family members and educational opportunities. Gay victims were treated like criminals.
The Nazis also killed many people who did not agree with the Nazis' political beliefs. They thought of these people as political enemies of Nazi Germany.
The Nazis were especially cruel to people who spoke out or fought against the Nazi government. When they arrested these people, the Nazis often killed them right after questioning them. Sometimes, the Nazis killed their families too. People who were not killed right away were sent to the political People's Court. This court was famous for the number of death sentences it gave.
The Nazis thought of leftists as political enemies. Leftists included communists, socialists, and social democrats/democratic socialists. German communists and Social Democrats were some of the first people to be sent to Dachau concentration camp. The Nazi Party hated communism, and was worried that German communists would be loyal to the Soviet Union, a communist country. The Nazis spread rumors about communist violence to get the Enabling Act of 1933 passed. This law gave Adolf Hitler his first powers as a dictator.
Hitler and the Nazis also hated German leftists because they did not agree with the Nazis' racism. When the Nazis took over a place, communists, socialists and social democrats/democratic socialists were usually some of the first people they abused. Sometimes they would murder leftists right away.
As part of their religious beliefs, Jehovah's Witnesses refused to serve in the German Army, salute the Nazi flag, or say "Heil Hitler" ("Hail Hitler"). They refused to go along with Nazi beliefs and laws that went against their religious beliefs.
Because of this, many Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps. Between 2,500 and 5,000 Witnesses died in the concentration camps.
The Nazis also attacked the Catholic Church during The Holocaust. Hitler wanted to destroy Catholicism and Christianity in Nazi Germany, and make Nazi Germany pagan instead. Thousands of German clergy, nuns, and Catholic leaders were arrested after the Nazis took over.
In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, beginning World War II. Poland was mostly Catholic. The Nazis wanted to destroy Poland. They started by destroying the Catholic Church in Poland. They arrested the Church's leaders and closed churches and monasteries. In 1940, the Nazis created a special barracks just for priests at Dachau concentration camp. Of 2,720 clergy imprisoned at Dachau, almost all (94.88 percent) were Catholic. About 1,700 were Polish priests; half of them died or were killed at Dachau. The Nazis even made it illegal for priests anywhere to give Catholic sacraments to Polish people. At least one German priest was sent to Dachau for taking a confession from a Polish Catholic.
In 1933, Germany had made an agreement with the Holy See to protect Catholicism in Nazi Germany. However, the Nazis often broke this agreement. They shut down the Catholic press, schools, political parties and youth groups in Germany amid murder and mass arrests.
The Church was treated especially badly in lands that Germany took over. In Austria, Catholic property was taken, Catholic organizations were closed, and many priests were sent to Dachau. In Czechoslovakia, the Nazis refused to let people follow religious orders; closed schools; made religious teachings illegal; and sent priests to concentration camps. Catholic people, bishops, clergy, and nuns protested and attacked Nazi policies.
In 1942, Dutch bishops protested the mistreatment of the Jews. When the Dutch Archbishop refused to obey the Nazis, the Gestapo rounded up Catholic "Jews" and sent 92 to Auschwitz A Dutch Catholic nun named Edith Stein was murdered at Auschwitz. So was Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest. Both were eventually made into Catholic saints by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s. Other Catholic victims of the Holocaust have also been beatified, including some of the Polish priests who died at Dachau.
Some Protestant Churches agreed with Nazi ideas. Others did not. To try to take over Protestantism in Germany, the Nazis formed the National Reich Church: an official state church that taught a state religion based on Nazism. The Reich Church:
They fired all clergy members who were not "Aryan." Church members called themselves "German Christians" and said they had "the swastika on their chest and the cross in their heart."
Protestant groups that disagreed with Nazi ideas formed the Confessing Church, a group of German churches. Martin Niemöller was one or their leaders. Nazis persecuted the Confessing Church. In May 1936, the Confessing Church sent a letter to Hitler criticizing his actions. The Nazis reacted by: