page_title: Persecution of Chinese people in Nazi Germany
section_title: Initial persecutions
hierarchical_section_title: Persecution of Chinese people in Nazi Germany / History / Initial persecutions
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: gedenktafel in der schmuckstraße hamburg st. pauli
context_page_description: Although spared from genocide, Chinese Germans were subject to large-scale and systematic persecution in Nazi Germany. Many Chinese nationals were forced to leave the country due to increased government surveillance and coercion. After the start of World War II and the subsequent collapse of Sino-German Cooperation, the Gestapo launched mass arrests of Chinese Germans and Chinese nationals across Germany and sent many to labor camps.
context_section_description: Initially the everyday life of Chinese people in Germany was unaffected by the Nazi government. Adolf Hitler praised Chinese culture and didn't consider the Chinese Untermensch. Nevertheless, the status of Honorary Aryan was not granted to the Chinese, in contrast to Japanese people.
  Later, Chinese people in Germany, some of whom adhered to a right-wing ideology, were targeted for persecution by the Nazi government. Although most of them were not politically active, the government conducted  surveillance on them. Under these circumstances, life became increasingly difficult for Chinese civilians in Germany. Beginning in 1936, Gestapo, local police and custom officers enforced unethical regulations in Hamburg's Chinatown. On January 25, 1938, the Reich Main Security Office founded the Center for Chinese (Zentralstelle für Chinese) under the control of Reinhard Heydrich, which was dedicated to controlling the size of the Chinese population.
  Most members of Germany's Chinese population chose to return to China, but some of them chose to fight in the Spanish Civil War. According to a report composed by the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Chinese population in Germany was reduced to 1138 before the outbreak of the Second World War.
caption: A memorial plaque on Schmuckstraße in Hamburg provides a brief history of the Chinese quarters in St. Pauli and its destruction by the Gestapo in 1944.
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