“The anti-Jewish policies of the Nazis from 1933 to 1939 paved the way for the Holocaust”. Do you agree?
The Legislation, policies and ideology’s put in place by the Nazi-government between 1933 and 1939 paved the way for the biggest premeditated mass murder of millions of innocent civilians.
Anti-Semitism and the persecution of Jews represented a central focus of Nazi ideology by Hitler and other senior members of the Nazi party, including Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. They were captivated in a racist ideology that regarded Jews as “parasitic vermin” worthy only of extermination of which the Nazis implemented genocide on the Jewish population in Europe on an unprecedented scale. The Holocaust
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This follows Hitler’s belief of the “stab in the back theory” which he wrote about in his book “Mien Kamph” which translates in English to my struggle. He wrote this book in his time in prison and was published in 1925. The “stab in the back theory” states that the German Army did not lose the First World War, but instead was betrayed by the civilians on the home front. Henceforth Hitler and his SS leadership team wrote and introduced the Nuremberg laws (also known as the Anti-Semitic laws) on 15th September 1935.
The Nuremburg Laws can be defined as “two laws which excluded the Jews from German life, as well as taking away some of their natural rights.” These laws were used to dehumanise all Jewish people and to also create a false sense of superiority for Germans.
The Nuremberg laws is a great foreshadowing of the devastation the German Leadership enacted through the German Army caused on “inferior minority groups” during 1939 and 1945. The Nuremberg laws that were created by the Nazi Party were created to preserve and continue their idea of the superior race of German Blood. The Nuremberg laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or German-related
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There is no question that the policies and implementation of them on Jewish society foreshadows the devastating impact that the holocaust had on society as a whole and is a reminder to society of the impact of racial vilification and anti-Semitism on a population and what happens when a race of people make another feel inferior and “not
At the end of WWI in 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins. There were very few jobs, and bitterness began to take over the country. According to the text, “Hitler, a rising politician, offered Germany a scapegoat: Jewish people. Hitler said that Jewish people were to blame for Germany’s problems. He believed that Jews did not deserve to live.” (7) This was the birth of Antisemitism--prejudice against Jewish people. Europe’s Jewish people have always been persecuted due to their “different customs and beliefs that many viewed with suspicion.”(7) Hitler simply reignited the flames, and a violent hatred was born.
September 15, 1935 was the beginning of the end for many Jewish people and their families. This day was when Nazi leaders put the Nuremburg Laws into action. There were six Nuremburg Laws that began anti-Semitism, revoked citizenships, and receded the rights of many underserving people. The laws applied to Jews, Gypsies and blacks. Jews were anyone that had three or more Jewish grandparents or anyone that had practiced Judaism (Nuremburg Laws). The Nuremburg Laws were a set of laws that took away the rights of Jews and began the harsh treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.
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 .
On September 15 1935, Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws, most Germans if not all already agreed with everything Hitler has been saying. The Nuremberg Laws gave these Germans an excuse to do hurtful things towards Jews and not be looked down on. Some might've even been praised.
In the essay “A 1938 Pogrom Against…” the American Holocaust Museum (AHM) says, “the two laws provided the foundation by which hundreds of thousands of Jewish people living in Germany had their rights steadily and systematically taken away” (46). In this quote the AHM is referring to the Nuremburg Laws, which removed the citizenship from Jews living in Germany, the laws also prohibited the intermarrying of Jews to non-Jews (46). Later, Jews were forced to identify themselves and were banned from using public facilities such as hospitals (46). The most impressive aspect of these laws is that there was no opposition from the German people when these laws were put into place, instead the German public were prepared for more radical measures (47). In the essay excerpt “An Overview of the Holocaust” college professor Christian Gerlach describes the first act of violence against Jews was Kristallnacht, in which more than 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, Jewish shops were robbed and looted and 91 Jews were killed (30). In the essay passage “An American Jewish Woman…” journalist Adam Biga explains that during the events of persecution the main perpetrators were the authorities, however, civilians also took part in similar attacks across Europe (159). During this time the authorities enacted laws into motion to antagonize the Jewish community so that the Jews would be hated by the people of Europe. The act of going after a specific racial group qualifies as a crime against humanity and an act of
"It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people an the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed."-Elie Weisel. Imagine you wake up one morning and everyone around you was being beaten, killed, put in jail, all because they are Jewish, Gypsies, Handicapped, Slavic people, Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many others. So many people suffered during the holocaust, and it all started when the Anti-Semitism Nazi leader Adolf Hitler decided that they were an "Inferior race" and a threat to German racial purity and community. It effects today by giving us remembrance of the sinister things that happened during Hitler's reign of power.
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 Holocaust was organized by Adolf Hitler and it targeted Jewish people. In the beginning, the Nazis only targeted their political opponents such as Communists or Social Democrats. These were the people that were sent to the first concentration camp. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 labeled anyone with three or four grandparents as a Jew and those with two Jewish grandparents as half-breeds. Under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution (“History”). The Nazis portrayed Jews as a race and not a religious group. Religious anti-Semitism could be resolved by conversion, political anti-Semitism by expulsion. Ultimately, the logic of Nazi racial anti-Semitism led to annihilation (Berenbaum 1). “Kristallnacht” was a night in November of
“Being a Jew or a German is a part of the blood” (Feldman,), this is a statement from the Nuremberg Laws, which was consigned to the Jews in September of 1935 ("United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."). The Nuremberg Laws consisted of five discriminating guidelines such as: 1. “The “Reich Citizenship” (it stated that only a person of “German or related blood” could be a citizen, have political rights, or could hold office), 2. the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor” (this made it illegal for Jews and non-Jews to get married or engaged in sexual relations together), 3. Jews were not allowed to have non-Jewish female servants under forty-five years old, 4. Jews were forbidden to fly the German flag, 5. (being a Jew is a part of a person’s blood) (Feldman,)”. Jews were not able to eat, shop, or even use the restroom in certain places. Children that went to school were taught anti-Semitic lessons, and the Jewish children were taunted and chaffed, not by peers’ alone, but teachers as well. This dreadful method compelled children to refuse attending school ("United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.").
2). Even though this was not a violent treatment of the Jews, it was an attempt to bankrupt and dehumanize them of everything they had worked for their whole lives (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). As a result, Jews became a segregated people. They had to ride on buses and trains only in the seat that were clearly marked for them (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Jewish children were allowed to be bullied at school in an attempt to keep them from coming to school. Hitler used this to brand the Jews as a lazy people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 gave even more power to the Nazis and took away more dignity of the Jews. The Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were not allowed (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). At this point, the Jews who could afford to pay a fine to leave the country were allowed to do so, but the ones who could not afford it had to stay behind and were not allowed to get food or medicine (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Hitler’s campaign against the Jews escalated in 1938 with “Krystalnacht” – The Night of the Broken Glass (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). After a Nazi diplomat was found shot to death, Hitler began a seven day war of terror against the Jews (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Shops that were owned by Jews were destroyed and robbed, homes and synagogues burned
Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis.
Most everyone reflects on and thinks of the Holocaust as a horrifying, heartless slaughter of the Jews. The Holocaust can be a very hard, depressing issue to discuss but it is a major part of history and cannot be ignored. The Holocaust affected countless numbers of people in the past and it continues to affect many to this day. The Jewish population was the population that most affected the most through the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler had way too much power and he used that position of excessive power to nearly destroy the Jews.
Hitler took advantage of the situation and rose to power in 1933 on a promise to destroy the treaty of Versailles that stripped Germany of land. Hitler organized the Gestapo as the only executive branch and secret terror organization of the nazi police system. In 1935, he made the Nuremberg laws that forbid Germans to marry or commerce with them. Hitler thought that the Jews were nationless parasite and were directly related to the treaty of Versailles. When Hitler began his move to conquer Europe, he promised that no Jewish person would live.
After Hitler comes into power, the laws of Jewish persecution become more often, stricter, and more deadly. The next law that passed was that of the Nuremberg Laws these laws stated that none of the Jews in Germany were allowed to marry Aryans or fly the German flag (The Holocaust Background info center). 1935 ended with another law against the Jews being passed, as did the start of 1936.
During World War II, the Jews were the primary victims of Germany’s most atrocious act, the Holocaust, where thousands of Jews were senselessly slaughtered in the name of Nazism. Countless innocent Jews perished in concentration camps, while the majority of the Nazis watched and did nothing. To them, the Jews were not human beings, but rather mere animals, who deserved concentration camps. This reasoning baffled the Allied countries, as they understood that regardless of race and religion, no one should be subjected to concentration camps. Yet, the Nazis completely disregarded and violated the basic rights of humankind. The Nazis successfully propagated this anti-Semitic mentality because ordinary Germans were consumed by their ignorance