Who did the Nazis persecute?

The Nazis believed that only Germans could be citizens and that non-Germans did not have any right to the rights of citizenship.

The Nazis racial philosophy taught that some races were untermensch (sub-human). Many scientists at this time believed that people with disabilities or social problems were genetic degenerates whose genes needed to be eliminated from the human bloodline.

The Nazis, therefore:

• Tried to eliminate the Jews.
• Killed 85 per cent of Germany's Gypsies.
• Sterilised black people.
• Killed mentally disabled babies.
• Killed mentally ill patients.
• Sterilised physically disabled people and people with hereditary diseases.
• Sterilised deaf people.
• Put homosexuals, prostitutes, Jehovah's Witnesses, alcoholics, pacifists, beggars, hooligans and criminals - who they regarded as anti-social - into concentration camps.