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Alex Rogers
Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History P
21 March 2016
Identify some of the 20th century precursors to the Holocaust?
There were many precursors in the early 1900s to the tragic uprising of the Holocaust.
The creation of the Nuremburg Laws, Anti-Semitism, and pogroms, were all examples of
forerunners. All of these events were in relation to anti-Jewish ideology. Adolf Hitler made
the distinct decision to place stricter laws towards German-Jews. Anti-Semitism refers to the
definite hatred towards Jews, and was a very prominent factor during these times. AntiSemitism ultimately led to many brutal uproars concerning Jewish people and property.
When the Nuremburg Laws were set in motion, chills were sent across the Jewish
population. The Nuremburg Laws prohibited Jewish households from having German maids
under the age of 45, prohibited any non-Jewish German from marrying a Jew and outlawed
sexual relations between Jews and Germans (Website #1). By placing these certain
restrictions, Hitler was successfully isolating the Jews. These laws protect German blood and
honor through the means of potential genocide. Hitler was on a mission to discriminate and
expel Jews from German society (Website #1). He would do this by any means possible.
The laws that were set forth were actually thought to be too humane by Hitler himself. Hitler
believed that Jews were a completely separate race, and therefore would be against and

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conspire towards his idea of the Aryan race. He used these Nuremberg Laws to dene,
control, and dehumanize Jews and Mischlinge and eventually to expel them from "Aryan"
society (Website #1). Evidently, the Nuremberg Laws were only a precursor to future
harsher laws in attempt to get rid of Jews in Germany once and for all. Also due to the
Nuremburg Laws, Jews would have to be easily identified by authority. By being able to
identify who was Jewish versus who was not, it would be easier to, in laymans terms pick
through them. It is just like tagging your kill before you even go hunting.
Anti-Semitism is prejudice or hostility towards people of Jewish descent. According
to Hitler and the Nazi party, the source for a variety of political, social, economic, and
ethical problems facing the German people was the Jews (Website #2). To many, this was
true. But it was only a myth that stirred up the German people. Of course if Hitler believed
this, many others would as well. Hitler believed that it was the Jewish peoples fault that
Germany lost the first world war, therefore the want and need to banish and blame the Jews.
German officials would also spread false rumors that Jews used the blood of Christian
children for ritual purposes (Website #2). By doing this, the people of Germany would look
down upon Jews whether or not they were against them to begin with. Hitler wanted to turn
everyone against the Jewish, because he believed in the Aryan race. Turning everyone
against the Jews was only one step in removing them for good. The Nazi party also ordered
anti-Jewish economic boycotts, staged book burnings, and enacted discriminatory antiJewish legislation (Website #2). The Jewish people were allowed less and less, which not
only upset them, but also made them look lesser and lesser as compared to German-blooded

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people. By having the book burnings staged in font of people, it deliberately showed that its
okay to destroy and pick apart the lives of those that are considered to be evil and different.
A pogrom is a violent riot aimed at massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious
group, particularly aimed at Jews. One of the biggest pogroms was the Kristallnacht which
culminated in the attempt to annihilate the European Jews (Website #3). This is major in
relation to the Holocaust because it was a huge push in trying to succeed in removing the
Jews entirely. At this time, the German people felt fine with what was going on. This was
important in the fact that because of it, the Nazi party was able to take more drastic measures
without seeming torturous in the eyes of the Germans. The Nazis were also ordered to
should arrest as many Jews as local jails could hold, preferably young, healthy men
(Website #3). The last part of the order was highly imperative because by taking young men,
the Nazis were essentially nipping their potential enemies in the bud. With all the strong
Jewish men taken, there would be less of a possibility of the Jews having a chance of
fighting back. Moreover, Jewish cemeteries became a particular object of desecration in
many regions (Website #3). Cemeteries should be respected, this was not the case during the
early 1900s. The Nazis blatantly degraded and dishonored the Jews and their ancestors.
Kristallnacht was, as a whole, not only violent towards the Jewish population, but it greatly
swayed the German people towards the Nazis side.