Early Nazi persecutions

In the 1920s, most German Jews were fully integrated into German society as German citizens. They
served in the German army and navy and contributed to every field of German science, business and
culture. Conditions for the Jews began to change after the appointment of Adolf Hitler, as Chancellor of
Germany, who was the leader of the Nazi group, on January 30, 1933, and the assumption of power by
Hitler after the Reichstag fire.[6][7]

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, also known asReichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht,

and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and
parts of Austria on November 910, 1938.[1]

Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and villages, as SA stormtroopers and civilians
destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed windowsthe
origin of the name "Night of Broken Glass." Ninety-one Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish mena
quarter of all Jewish men in Germanywere taken toconcentration camps, where they were tortured for
months, with over 1,000 of them dying.[2] Around 1,668 synagogues were ransacked, and 267 set on fire.
In Vienna alone 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed. [3]

Among those expelled was the family of Zindel and Rivka Grynszpan, Polish Jews who had emigrated to
Germany in 1911 and settled in Hanover. At the trial of Adolf Eichmannin 1961, Zindel Grynszpan
recounted the events of their deportation from Hanover on the night of 27 October 1938: Then they took
us in police trucks, in prisoners lorries, about 20 men in each truck, and they took us to the railway
station. The streets were full of people shouting: Juden raus! Auf nach Palstina! ("Jews out, out to
Palestine!"

Concentration camps

The violence was officially called to a stop by Goebbels on November 11th, but violence continued
against the Jews in the concentration camps despite orders requesting special treatment to ensure that
this did not happen. On November 23rd, the News Chronicle of London published an article on an
incident which took place at the concentration camp ofSachsenhausen. Sixty-two Jews suffered
punishment so severe that the police, unable to bear their cries, turned their backs. They were beaten
until they fell and, when they fell, they were further beaten. At the end of it, twelve of the sixty-two were
dead, their skulls smashed. The others were all unconscious. The eyes of some had been knocked out,
their faces flattened and shapeless. The 30,000 Jewish men who had been imprisoned
during Kristallnacht were released over the next three months but, by then, over 2,000 had died.

Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws or Nrnberg Laws (German: Nrnberger Gesetze) of 1935
were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After
the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazismbecame an official ideology incorporating scientific
racism and antisemitism. There was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews.

The lack of a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish had, however, allowed some Jews to escape
some forms of discrimination aimed at them. The enactment of laws identifying who was Jewish made it
easier for the Nazis to enforce legislation restricting the basic rights of German Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws classified people with four German grandparents as "German or kindred blood",
while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person
with one or two Jewish grandparents was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood".[1] These laws
deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans. [2]

The Nuremberg Laws also included a ban on sexual intercourse between people defined as "Jews" and
non-Jewish Germans and prevented "Jews" from participating in German civic life. These laws were, to
some extent, an attempt to return the Jews of 20 th century Germany to the position that Jews had held
before their emancipation in the 19th century.

he Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour

(September 15, 1935) Moved by the understanding that the purity of German blood is essential to the
further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard
the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is
promulgated herewith:

Section 1

1. Marriages between Jews and citizens (German: Staatsangehrige) of German or

kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are
void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.
 2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.
Section 2

Extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or
related blood is forbidden.

(Supplementary decrees set Nazi definitions of racial Germans, Jews, and half-
breeds or Mischlinge --- see the latter entry for details and citations and Mischling
Test for how such decrees were applied. Jews could not vote or hold public office
under the parallel "citizenship" law.)
Section 3
Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or
kindred blood, as domestic workers.
Section 4

1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colours.

2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise
of this right is protected by the State.
Section 5

1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished

with hard labour.

2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished

with imprisonmentor with hard labour.

3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or 4 will be punished

with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.
Section 6
The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Fhrer and the
Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for
the enforcement and supplementing of this law.
Section 7
The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section 3, however, not
until January 1, 1936.
 Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict
hierarchy among "human race"; at the top was themaster race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the
Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.

Slavs were a Nordic race like the Germans. However, because of the military interests of the Nazi
government, the following propaganda was created: At the bottom of this hierarchy were "parasitic" races
(of non-Aryan/European origin) or "Untermenschen" ("sub-humans"), which were perceived to be
dangerous to society. In Nazi literature, the term "under man" ('Untermensch') was applied to the Slavs,
especially including Russians, Serbs (from South Slavic group), andethnic Poles.[1] Nazi ideology viewed
Slavs as a racially inferior group, who were fit for enslavement, or even extermination. [2] About 2 million
non-Jewish ethnic Poles were killed by Nazi Germany.[3][4] Lowest of all in the Nazi racial
policywere Gypsies and Jews, who were both eventually deemed to be"Lebensunwertes Leben" ("Life
unworthy of life") and to be exterminated during the Holocaust (see Raul Hilberg's description of the
various phases of the Holocaust). Not to be forgotten, Hitler did have people of Jewish descent working
for him. Coined as mischling (or 'Half-Jews'), they were often employed in the Wehrmacht, although they
were not allowed to be soldiers after 1940. One mischling, Werner Goldberg, was even called "The Ideal
German Soldier" by German newspapers.[5]

Richard Walther Darr, Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture from 1933 to 1942, popularized the
expression "Blut und Boden" ("Blood and Soil"), one of the many terms of the Nazi
glossary ideologically used to enforce popular racism in the German population.

Nazi Ideological Theory

According to Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler developed his political theories after carefully
observing the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born as a citizen of the Empire,
and believed that ethnic and linguistic diversity had weakened it. Further, he saw democracy as
a destabilizing force, because it placed power in the hands of ethnic minorities, who he claimed
had incentives to further "weaken and destabilize" the Empire.

The Nazi rationale was heavily invested in the militarist belief that great nations grow from
military power, which in turn grows "naturally" from "rational, civilized cultures." Hitler's calls
appealed to disgruntled German Nationalists, eager to save face for the failure of World War I,
and to salvage the militaristic nationalist mindset of that previous era. After Austria and
Germany's defeat of World War I, many Germans still had heartfelt ties to the goal of creating
a greater Germany, and thought that the use of military force to achieve it was necessary.

Many placed the blame for Germany's misfortunes on those whom they perceived, in one way
or another, to have sabotaged the goal of national victory. Jews and communists became the
ideal scapegoats for Germans deeply invested in a German Nationalist ideology.

Hitler's Nazi theory also claimed that the Aryan race is a master race, superior to all other
races, that a nation is the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations)
were the creation of great races. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from
races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits." The weakest
nations, Hitler said were those of impure or mongrel races, because they have divided,
quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic
Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled and so
called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben(Lifeunworthy Life) due
to their perceived deficiency and inferiority. The role of homosexuals during the Holocaust are
controversial among historians. Some, like the International Committee for Holocaust Truth
and authors Scott Lively and Kevin E. Abrams in "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi
Party", defend the perspective that many homosexuals were involved in the inner circle of the
Nazi party: Ernst Rhm of the SA, Horst Wessel, Max Bielas, and others. This perspective is
denounced as hateful propaganda by most homosexual associations and groups, stirring
heated debates and accusations of censorship and "hate-speech" from both sides.

People of the Eastern European Russian-dominated Slavic descent were also seen as
subhuman, but only marginally parasitic, because they had their own land and nations, though
many of them lived in German countries such as Austria, which Hitler saw as an ethnic invasion
of Germanic Lebensraum by foreign populations who would have incentive to force Austria's
loyalty to their lands of ethnic and cultural origin.

According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage multilingualism and

multiculturalism within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all
German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that
nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races, he thought of as
less-worthy to exist than "master races." In particular, if a master race should require room to
live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior
indigenous races. Hitler draws parallels between Lebensraum and the American ethnic
cleansing and relocation policies towards the Native Americans, which he saw as key to the
success of the US.

"Races without homelands," Hitler claimed, were "parasitic races," and the richer the members
of a "parasitic race" are, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race"
could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic
races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazi's later oppression and
elimination of Jews and Gypsies. Despite the popularity of Hitler and his living space doctrine,
some Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS soldiers found the duty repugnant. Only a small fraction of
them were actively involved in genocide.

Hitler extended his rationalizations into religious doctrine, claiming that those who agreed with
and taught his "truths," were "true" or "master" religions, because they would "create
mastery" by avoiding comforting lies. Those that preach love and tolerance, "in contravention
to the facts," were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognizes these
"truths," Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader," and those who deny it were said to
be "natural slaves." "Slaves," especially intelligent ones, he claimed were always attempting to
hinder masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines.
The ideological roots which became German "National Socialism" were based on numerous
sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th Century idealism, and from
a biological misreading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the
goal of an bermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were
later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden
(Germanic Order) or the Thule society.

Judenrte (singular Judenrat; German for "Jewish council") were administrative bodies during the
Second World War that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland,
and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union[1]

The first Judenrte were formed by Reinhard Heydrich's orders on September 21, 1939, soon after the
end of theGerman assault on Poland.

The Judenrat served as a liaison between the German occupying authorities and the Jewish communities
under occupation. The Judenrat operated pre-existing Jewish communal properties such as hospitals,
soup kitchens, day care centers, and vocational schools.

With the formation of ghettos, these bodies became responsible for local government in the ghetto, and
stood between the Nazis and the ghetto population. They were generally composed of leaders of the pre-
war Jewish community (with the exception of the Soviet Union, where Jewish organizations were
eliminated in 1930s). They were forced by the Nazis to provide Jews for use as slave labor, and to assist
in the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during the Holocaust. Those who refused to follow Nazi
orders or were unable to cooperate fully were frequently rounded up and shot or deported to the
extermination camps themselves.

In a number of cases, such as the Minsk ghetto and the achwa ghetto, Judenrats cooperated with
the resistance movement. In other cases, Judenrats collaborated with the Nazis, on the basis that
cooperation might save the lives of the ghetto inhabitants.