What did hitler do to the jews
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Nazi persecution of the Jews
Once the Nazis came to power they introduced legislation intended to deny Jews freedom and restrict their rights. Boycotts of Jewish doctors, lawyers and shops began in 1933 and by 1935 Jews were not allowed to join the civil service or the army.
SA man enforcing ban on Jewish shops © Wiener Library
The introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in September 1935 further increased Jewish marginalisation. Jews were banned from marrying non-Jews and their citizenship was removed, including their right to vote.
As time progressed, more restrictions were brought in – Jews were barred from all professional occupations and Jewish children were prohibited from attending state schools. In 1938, further laws decreed that men must take the middle name ‘Israel’ and women ‘Sarah’. All German Jews would have their passports marked with a ‘J’.
On 9 November 1938 the Nazis initiated pogroms (organised attacks on a particular group) against the Jews in all Nazi ter
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Primary Image: Prisoners in barracks at the Buchenwald concentration camp. (National Archives and Records Administration, 208-AA-206K-31.)
The Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and genocide of approximately six million European Jews. The genocide of the Jews is also sometimes referred to as Shoah, a Hebrew word for “catastrophe.” The Nazis also persecuted other groups, perpetrating a genocide against the Roma (derogatorily called “gypsies”), in which more than 250,000 people were murdered, and killing over three million Soviet prisoners of war, nearly two million Poles, over 250,000 people with disabilities, over 1,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, hundreds of men accused of homosexuality, and other victims.
Antisemitism was a centuries-long phenomenon in Europe, but it reached its height in Germany during the Nazi era (1933–1945). On assuming power as absolute ruler of the German state, Adolf Hitler began a sys
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Antisemitism: an age-old phenomenon
Hitler did not invent the hatred of Jews. Jews in Europe had been victims of discrimination and persecution since the Middle Ages, often for religious reasons. Christians saw the Jewish faith as an aberration that had to be quashed. Jews were sometimes forced to convert or they were not allowed to practise certain professions.
In the nineteenth century, tro played a less important role. It was replaced by theories about the differences between races and peoples. The idea that Jews belonged to a different people than the Germans, for instance, caught on. Even Jews who had converted to Christianity were still 'different' because of their bloodline.
Hitler is introduced to antisemitism
The origin of Hitler's hatred of Jews is not klar. In Mein Kampf, he described his development into an antisemite as the result of a long, personal struggle. Supposedly, his aversion to everything Jewish came to fruition when he was living and working as