The leader of the Nazi party learnt how to be successful in incorporating antisemitism into social reforms through Karl Lueger, a politician who was the mayor of Vienna around the time that Hitler had lived there. For many Germans, the defeat that came with the end of WWI was a difficult loss to accept, Hitler being no exception to this.
After the end of the First World War, the government of Germany signed a peace treaty that caused considerable backlash amongst its German citizens. This legend blamed the German defeat not on the performance in the battlefield, but rather through a betrayal back at home. One of the main groups of people who was blamed for this betrayal was the Jews. Defying this logic, around , Jews had served in WW1 and many of them had received badges of honour for their service.
Some of them were spared during the selection process at extermination camps, although many perished. Hitler enlisted for the army in , which may have been just the right outlet the leader of the Nazi party needed to immerse himself in the politics of what was going on in the world. Hitler got injured by a poisonous gas attack during his service, which has been rumoured to be a trauma that triggered his hatred towards the Jews, however there is no solid evidence of this being the case.
In many part of Europe prior to The Holocaust, particularly Poland, most Jews lived in Jewish quarters and were separate from mainstream society. So many people had not engaged with Jews beforehand or knew much about them. The ideas of Jews plotting or planning a global domination was an irrational idea that Hitler and the Nazis played on. There is no credible evidence that Hitler had any Jewish ancestors. Read Adolf Hitler: Early Years — to learn more. The Germans and their collaborators used paper records and local knowledge to identify Jews to be rounded up or killed.
Records included those created by Jewish communities of their members, parish records of Protestant and Catholic churches for converted Jews , government tax records, and police records, including registries of Jews compiled by local, collaborating police.
In both Germany and occupied countries, Nazi officials required Jews to identify themselves as Jewish, and many complied, fearing the consequences if they did not. In many countries occupied by or allied with Germany during World War II, local citizens often showed authorities where their Jewish neighbors lived, if they did not themselves help in rounding them up.
Jews in hiding everywhere lived in constant fear of being identified and denounced to officials by individuals in exchange for money or other rewards.
Of course, Hitler and many Nazis leaders did not have blonde hair or blue eyes, but as with all racists, their prejudices were not consistent or logical. This was especially true for Jewish men: circumcision is a Jewish ritual, but was uncommon for non-Jews at the time.
Jewish men knew they could be physically identified as Jewish. Read Locating the Victims to learn more. Similar to their fellow Germans, German Jews were patriotic citizens. More than 10, died fighting for Germany in World War I, and countless others were wounded and received medals for their valor and service. The families of many Jews who held German citizenship, regardless of class or profession, had lived in Germany for centuries and were well assimilated by the early 20th century.
At first, Nazi Germany targeted the , Jews in Germany at a relatively gradual pace, attempting attempted to make life so difficult that they would be forced to leave their country. Up until the nationwide anti-Jewish violence of , known as Kristallnacht , many Jews in Germany expected to be able to hold out against Nazi-sponsored persecution, as they hoped for positive change in German politics.
Before World War II, few could imagine or predict killing squads and killing centers. Those who tried to leave had difficulty finding countries willing to take them in, especially since the Nazi regime did not allow them to take their assets out of the country.
A substantial percentage tried to go to the United States but American immigration law limited the number of immigrants who could enter the country. The ongoing Great Depression meant that Jews attempting to go to the United States or elsewhere had to prove they could financially support themselves—something that was very difficult since they were being robbed by the Germans before they could leave.
Even when a new country could be found, a great deal of time, paperwork, support, and sometimes money was needed to get there. In many cases, these obstacles could not be overcome. By , however, about , German Jews had already left. Once Germany invaded and occupied Poland, millions of Jews were suddenly living under Nazi occupation. The war made travel very difficult, and other countries—including the United States—were still unwilling to change their immigration laws, now fearing that the new immigrants could be Nazi spies.
In October , Germany made it illegal for Jews to emigrate from any territory under its control; by then, Nazi policy had changed from forced emigration to mass murder. Visit the Americans and the Holocaust online exhibition and the Challenges to Escape lesson plan for more information. The idea that Jews did not fight back against the Germans and their allies is false. Against impossible odds, they resisted in ghettos, concentration camps, and killing centers.
There were many factors that made resistance difficult, however, including a lack of weapons and resources, deception, fear, and the overwhelming power of the Germans and their collaborators. Read a Holocaust Encyclopedia article about Jewish resistance for more information. In Europe, the Holocaust was not a secret. Even though the Nazi government controlled the German press and did not publicize mass shooting operations or the existence of killing centers, many Europeans knew that Jews were being rounded up and shot, or deported and murdered.
Many individuals—in Germany and collaborators in the countries that Germany occupied or that were aligned with Germany during World War II—actively participated in the stigmatization, isolation, impoverishment, and violence culminating in the mass murder of six million European Jews.
People helped in their roles as clerks and confiscators of property; as railway and other transportation employees; as managers or participants in round-ups and deportations; as informants; sometimes as perpetrators of violence against Jews on their own initiative; and sometimes as hand-on killers in killing operations, notably in the mass shootings of Jews and others in occupied Soviet territories in which thousands of eastern Europeans participated as auxiliaries and many more witnessed.
Many more people—the onlookers who witnessed persecution or violence against Jews in Nazi Germany and elsewhere—failed to speak out as their neighbors, classmates, and co-workers were isolated and impoverished—socially and legally, then physically. Only a small minority publicly expressed their disapproval. Other individuals actively assisted the victims by purchasing food or other supplies for households to whom shops were closed; providing false identity papers or warnings about upcoming roundups; storing belongings for those in hiding that could be sold off little by little for food; and sheltering those who evaded capture, a form of help that, if discovered, especially in Nazi Germany and occupied eastern Europe, was punished by arrest and often execution.
Although Jews were the main target of Nazi hatred, they were not the only group persecuted. American newspapers reported frequently on Hitler and Nazi Germany throughout the s.
Americans read headlines about book burning, about Jews being attacked on the street, and about the Nuremberg Race laws in , when German Jews were stripped of their German citizenship. The Kristallnacht attacks in November were front-page news in the United States for weeks.
Americans staged protests and rallies in support of German Jews, and sent petitions to the US government calling for action. But these protests never became a sustained movement, and most Americans were still not in favor of allowing more immigrants into the United States, particularly if the immigrants were Jewish.
That's incredible," Brukner added. The survey was carried out two months ago, prior to the anti-Semitic attack targeting a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle.
Within that group, over a quarter said they believed Jewish people have "too much power over world politics" and the economy. Read more: German groups combating far-right extremism face uncertain future.
Lauder added that Germany has an obligation to prevent the return of intolerance and hatred, and if one quarter of the population adheres to anti-Semitic beliefs, then the remaining three quarters must take action to defend democracy and a tolerant society in Germany. Read more: In Germany, memorials for Nazi terror victims vandalized. While anti-Semitism is spreading in Germany, the study found that the readiness to combat it is also growing. Two-thirds of "elites" said they would sign a petition against anti-Semitism, while a third of all the respondents said they were willing to take part in demonstrations against anti-Semitism.
One in four respondents said it was possible that "something like the Holocaust could happen in Germany again. Read more: German politicians slam right-wing populist AfD over rising anti-Semitism.
In December , two members of the Deutsche Reichspartei DRP right-wing extremist party painted swastikas and the words "Germans demand: Jews out" on the synagogue in Cologne. Anti-Semitic graffiti emerged across the country. The perpetrators were convicted, and the Bundestag passed a law against "incitement of the people," which remains on the books to this day.
For the first time in decades, a synagogue in Germany burned. Four right-wing extremists were eventually convicted of arson. Armed with paving stones, more than Palestinians from Lebanon attacked the Old Synagogue in Essen in October Zimmermann notes that historians and laypeople alike have become suspicious of new revelations and documents about Hitler, in particular those relating to Hitler as a youth and young man, both because there have been cases of fraud in the past and because of the challenges of corroborating information.
Dina Kraft Feb. Get email notification for articles from Dina Kraft Follow. Play audio. Open gallery view. Adolf Hitler,
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