Anti Semitism In Public Schools Case Study

One event that encouraged Anti-Semitism and increased tensions leading up to Kristallnacht and beyond was the announcement of the Nuremberg Laws in September of 1935. This set of laws created by the Nazi party made sharp distinctions between the rights and privileges of Germans and Jews (Sigward 291). This redefined citizenship in the Third Reich and laid the groundwork for a racial state. For example, the Reich of Citizenship Law stripped Jews of their citizenship, claiming they didn’t have “German blood” (Sigward 291). Those of Jewish descent were denied the right to vote and the ability to obtain a valid passport or visa to leave the country. This law completely dehumanized Jews living in Germany and made them stateless, which caused those of the Aryan race or pure German descent to feel superior. In the Nuremburg Laws, Article 5 of the First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law defined a Jew as a descendant of three or more Jewish grandparents or two Jewish parents (Sigward 293). These laws lead to the Jews being persecuted for who they were, rather than the faith they believed during previous years. As a result of these laws being carried out, German nationalism and Anti-Semitism across the Reich increased drastically .

Consistent with Rossel, Germany has had a past of anti-Semitism, starting in 1542 when the great German Protestant leader Martin Luther wrote a booklet called Against the Jews and Their Lies. Even earlier the Catholic Churches had taught that the Jewish people killed Crist and should therefore be hated (10). Early teachings of anti-Semitism lead to a hating of the Jewish community, but with the German’s calling themselves the “Aryan Race” and the Jewish people calling themselves the “chosen one’s” there was bound to be competition on who was superior.

At the end of WWI, Germany was directly blamed for causing the great conflict. Many Germans could not accept this blame, and believed designed by the Jewish people as part of a greater conspiracy. Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. The Nazi rise to power ended the Weimar Republic, the German democracy that was established after World War I. The Nazi state, also called The Third Reich, quickly became a regime in which citizens had no guaranteed basic rights. Hitler’s first objective was to eliminate political opposition. The assault against the Jews began with a boycott of Jewish businesses. A week later the Nazis dismissed Jews from civil service, and by the end of the month the participation of Jews in German schools was restricted. In May 1933, thousands of Nazi students and professors stormed university libraries and bookstores in cities throughout Germany to

Jews are a standout amongst the most stereotyped religious social orders ever, with the media every now and again utilizing negative pictures at whatever point they write about Judaism and the Jewish race. History demonstrates that Jews were constrained from their country and turned into an itinerant individuals, spreading all through Europe. Regarded as untouchables in Europe, local people were suspicious of the Jews and made numerous myths and pessimistic generalizations about them which are propagated today. Numerous limitations on callings were put on the Jewish individuals in the medieval times. The Catholic Church and numerous Christians accepted that loaning cash for premium was a wrongdoing and was prohibited. This pushed Jews into cash giving and rent gathering sort occupations which the congregation saw as second rate. This prompted the generalization that Jews are ravenous, shabby, mean and even degenerate.

Germans in the beginning of the Nazi era were campaigning to eliminate any signs of Jewish intellectualism or anti-socialist ideas within the public. This is eminent when the author states in the article “Book Burning” that, “German govt was trying to create support for the Nazi cause, by driving in the nazi ideas in social and cultural groups”(Book Burning, Holocaust

Racial antisemitism was born in the Nineteenth Century when laws were passed in many European countries posing the Jewish people as second-class citizens, not receiving the same rights as others in society. While they had reached a level of religious emancipation in some countries, Judaism had become recognized as an ethnicity as well, and this ethnic difference from the Aryans therefore made them “inferior.” Pogroms began across Eastern Europe in the late 1800’s which resulted in

German anti-Semitism played the main role in Holocaust and extermination of Jewish population in Europe during World War 2. There are different views on this subject among historians. Some support the fact that German society was anti-Semitic and ordinary

Anti-Semitism is the hatred and discrimination of those with a Jewish heritage. It is generally connected to the Holocaust, but the book by Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher’s Tale shows the rise of anti-Semitism from a grassroots effect. Smith uses newspapers, court orders, and written accounts to write the history and growth of anti-Semitism in a small German town. The book focuses on how anti-Semitism was spread by fear mongering, the conflict between classes, and also the role of the government.

People of mixed Jewish and Aryan races were referred to as Mischlinge, and even those who had married Jews were counted fully as Jews and accused of race defilement (75). These Germans were treated as such, including all laws and punishments. As for children, it became increasingly difficult to be in school. The next chapter goes into great detail on how it was very difficult for Jewish children to attend school.

During this time Jews were being arrested simply because they were Jewish. This lead me to think of just how time hasn't changed and how we have not learned from the past, because right after September 11 happened Arab, Muslim or any Middle Eastern people were being arrested being they were thought of as terrorists. During our survival panel lecture I remember hearing Betty talk about how the teachers and students used to harass her and her younger brother. I really could not believe that even the teachers, who were educated, I thought they would be a lot smarter that to follow the ideology of Hitler. I understand they could not really stand up against him but they could have not encouraged it in school.

The anti Jewish sentiment was already strong in many parts of Germany and whilst anti-Semitism might not have been in the forefront of everyone’s mind, it was already a conscious part of everyday life. And in early 1935, a second wave of anti-Jewish agitation followed, once again , following pressure from within the lower party activists within the SA and Hitler Youth. This renewed violence, whilst sanctioned by Hitler, once again proved relatively unpopular amongst the German people and Hitler recognised the need to draw this damaging campaign to a swift conclusion. But at the same time, Hitler did not wish to lose face with his party activists, which led to the Nuremberg Laws of September 1935.

The period after World War II up through the 1960s was arguably a “golden age” for American Jews on college and university campuses. However, college campuses are no longer a safe haven for Jews. Instead they have become a hotbed for anti-Semitism masquerading as “anti-Zionism”. Present trends for Jewish students who affirm their identity and don’t hide their love for Israel are not good—and getting worse. History is repeating itself in the worst way with patterns of discrimination and intimidation of Jewish students not seen since the 1930s. In the past, anti-Semitism was directed at the individual Jew. Today anti-Semitism is directed at Israel. Campus anti-Semitism is a national phenomenon that is growing increasingly prevalent. Jewish students

Children should not be taught to hate; no child is born with the intentions to hate another. School was one of the biggest factors to children’s thoughts about the Nazi Party. More teachers joined the Nazi party than any profession (“Indoctrinating Youth”). Most teachers would come dressed in Nazi uniform. The teachers in Germany that were Jewish were bullied and thrown out of their profession (“Children in Nazi Germany”).

This shows how the Nazi party persuaded the German people to hate all Jewish people, even German children. As part of their plan to revive Germany to its glory days and make it great after being punished by the treaty signed at the end of World War

Continuing on the thought of education, April 1933 Jewish teachers were soon told to leave the German schools and universities after the Enabling Act was soon passed. The Jewish population of students at those universities dropped to the lowest 1 percent to resemble to the amount of Jews in Germany, and this was all in the same year. For 5 years everything lasted at that standard until 1938 hit. When 1938 hit, every Jewish child was soon banned from attending the German schools officially, no matter their status of where they were in that school. Judgment and segregation in the educational system and society as a whole was steady. Germany made it to where education was where the Nazis’ can basically display and endorse their racial policies.