And, under the cover of war, the Nazis' ideological hatred of Jews became genocidal. However, World War II all but cut off the possibility of flight. But emigration was difficult, costly, and complicated, and few countries even offered chances to relocate. Many Jews looked for safe havens abroad, including the United States. Government employees, lawyers, and judges drafted and enforced laws and decrees that deprived German Jews of their citizenship, rights, businesses, livelihoods, and property, and excluded them from public life.īefore World War II, the ultimate aim of the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Jews was to drive them to emigrate. Members of Nazi professional organizations participated in excluding Jews from most professions. Active Nazis, including Hitler Youth, used intimidation against Jews and non-Jews to enforce the new social and cultural norms. Many Germans assisted or accepted the regime’s efforts. The Nazi regime sought to remove Jews from Germany’s political, social, economic and cultural life. Excluded from this community and viewed as threats to it were Jews, Roma, individuals with physical and mental disabilities, and others seen as racially inferior or whose beliefs or behavior were not tolerated by the Nazis. They promoted the ideal of a “national community” made up of “German-blooded” people. The Nazis established a dictatorship that limited basic rights and freedoms. Its constitution recognized and protected the equal rights of all individuals, including Jews. When Adolf Hitler took power in January 1933, Germany was a republic with democratic institutions. The Holocaust could not have happened without the Nazis’ rise to power and their destruction of German democracy. In exchange for a loss of individual rights and freedoms, they hoped that Hitler would improve the economy, put an end to the Communist threat, and make Germany a powerful and proud nation again. Having lost faith in the ability of democratic institutions to improve their lives, many Germans went along when the Nazis suspended the constitution, replaced the German republic with a dictatorship, and allowed Hitler alone to become the highest law of the land. They wrongly assumed they could control him. In 1933, leading conservatives, who supported authoritarian or non-democratic rule, lobbied for Hitler’s appointment as head of government (Chancellor). The leader of this young, extremist, and openly anti-democratic party, Adolf Hitler, skillfully played on the fears and grievances of Germans to win popular support. The inability of the old political parties to give the unemployed, hungry, and desperate Germans hope gave the Nazi Party its chance. The worldwide economic Depression, starting in 1929, hit Germany particularly hard. The country also faced severe economic crises. Leaders of the republic were forced to put down coup attempts, while no political party was able to win a majority after 1919. Its leaders were unable to control street violence waged by armed groups of Germans on both the extreme left and right. Many Germans blamed the Weimar Republic for their nation’s fall from greatness. The Weimar Republic, which replaced Germany’s monarchy and signed the Treaty of Versailles, struggled to gain support. In Germany, people of all political leanings were traumatized by war, the nation’s humiliating defeat, and the harsh terms of the peace settlement, the Treaty of Versailles. They also aimed to start revolutions all over the world, especially Germany. The Russian communist rulers abolished private property and banned religious worship. The Russian Revolution of 1917 that led to the downfall of the Russian tsar stoked fears of communist revolution in middle- and upper-class circles in western societies. In the wake of this instability, extremist movements such as Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism emerged.Ĭenturies-old monarchies dissolved in the face of widespread social unrest. The mass destruction and loss of life caused by World War I (1914-1918) ushered in a new era of instability. What were the conditions that made the Holocaust possible? Impact of World War I Key political, moral, and psychological lines were crossed until the Nazi leadership eventually set in motion the unimaginable-a concrete, systematic plan to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews. It was the result of circumstances and events, as well as individual decisions, played out over years.
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