By what stages and why did the Nazi Regime increase it's persecution of Jews between the years 1933-39

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By what stages and why did the Nazi Regime increase it’s persecution of Jews between the years 1933-39.

Jewish people had been a traditional enemy for several hundred years before Hitler came to power and he made it quite clear in his book, ‘Mein Kampf,’ that he hated Jewish people. It should be no surprise that even before he rose to power he had already took steps to increase persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany in 1933-39. Before any of the momentous stages began, Hitler had displayed plenty of propaganda to advocate Nazi opinions of Jews, he realised that it wouldn’t be a good idea to persecute Jews to the highest level to begin with as he needed to be established as a great leader. Had he have began his stages with an event such as Kristallnacht the German people may not have accepted him as well as they did.

        Hitler began his stages with unorganised persecution, in 1933 he organised the April Boycotts which involved the boycotting of Jewish businesses, encouraging Aryan Germans to stay away from Jewish owned stores. The members of the Nazi party were eager to begin anti-Jewish measures so Hitler didn’t want to carry on denying them this. This stage kept the members happy for a short while and was also backed by churches; increasing its influential value. However the April Boycotts had to be kept fairly low key as Hitler did not want the public to resent him had they thought his measures were too much too soon; his suspicions were in fact correct, Hitler realised he didn’t have the public support he needed as despite the Boycotts the public seemed apathetic, they carried on shopping in Jewish stores; ignoring Hitler’s warning. Another factor controlling the force of the persecution was the fact that Hindenburg was still supreme to Hitler, he had already brought in the Hindenburg clause (whereby Jewish world war one veterans were exempt from the rule that Jews must be fired from certain professions) which hindered Hitler’s chance at early success. Hitler’s first attempt at unorganised persecution was supposed to last indefinitely, but in fact it only lasted a day.

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     The Nazi regime’s next step in 1935 marked a new phase in their bid to increase the persecution of Jews. Following Hindenburg’s death in 1934, Hitler introduced The Nuremburg Laws in August 1935 which basically stripped the Jews of their civil rights. Hitler had realised that the intense propaganda had succeeded in winning the public over and therefore decided to take his persecution to the next stage. He completely disregarded the Hindenburg clause and referred to the Jews not as citizens but as ‘subjects’ of Germany. This step was to separate the Jews from the rest of the ...

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