Jews had a distinguishable, almost comical portrayal in Nazi Germany, they were shown as having long noses with dark black hair, and this certainly did not match the ideals of an Aryan German with blond hair. Hitler believed that 75% of all Communists were Jews and that Jews were Lazy, yet he also believed that the German Jews were slowly taking over the country, a typical contradiction common in many Nazi policies.
The implementation of these beliefs would take immediate effect when the Nazis came to power however it would b a painfully gradual process for the many Jews across Germany.
In April 1933 the boycott of Jewish shops and businesses is declared, however many people are reluctant and it is soon called off, in the same month the Law for the restoration of the civil service banned all Jews from working in the civil service.
In September 1935, the Nuremberg Race Laws were declared stating that no Jew could claim German citizenship, no Jew could marry or have a sexual relationship with an Aryan and that all Jews would have to be medically inspected before marriage.
In the summer of 1936 Berlin held the Olympic Games exhibiting to the world how Hitler had transformed Germany back to its former glory, the ant Semitism had significantly declined during the Olympics so that no outsiders saw the true brutality of the German government.
In 1937 at the Nuremberg rallies Hitler made a powerful speech denouncing the Jews as the Nazi party looked forward to radicalising its policies and stepping up action against the Jews.
By now anti Semitic propaganda had been long introduced in schools were pupils were taught how to recognise a Jew and that students were to not go to Jewish doctors as they would victimise children, in this instance the Jewish doctor was compared to the devil with “Two criminal eyes” and “A long crooked nose”, features symbolic of a Jew in Germany’s culture at this time.
In April 1938 all Jewish property had to be valued over 5,000RM, later that year Jewish doctors and dentists were forbidden to have Aryan patients and Jews were forced to add Sarah or Israel onto their names, Identity cards were stamped with a J. On the 7th of November news reached Germany of the assassination of German diplomat Ernst Von Rath in Parish by a Jewish refugee, Herschel Grunspan, The whole event was in fact made up by the Nazis.
Krystallnact (Crystal night) would follow in an act of bitter revenge, Jewish shops, homes, and over 1,000 synagogues were burned or vandalised, 91 Jews were killed and over 20 thousand were sent to concentration camps.
Later that month a degree excluded Jews from economic life banning Jews from trades, shops or businesses and excluding Jews from Schools, Universities and Sports facilities. By now many Jews were pleading foreign embassies for refuge and in certain cases Jews would be seen queuing all the way around a block, many foreign governments limited the amount of immigrants.
By 1939 the hatred of Jews is blatant as Hitler described the annihilation of the Jewish Race in a speech and the Reich Central Office for Jewish emigration is set up, the Nazi message was clear, they wanted Jews out of Germany.
Those who did avoid the terrible years of the holocaust that would follow were fortunate, millions of others would not be so lucky.
In conclusion the persecution of the Jews was a gradual process were its brutality would not really be apparent until the late 1930’s, It I difficult to pinpoint the precise reasons as to why the Nazis targeted the Jews but I believe that it was predominantly driven by Hitler’s personal disgust towards them, It is widely believed that almost all of Hitler’s and the Nazi policy had anti Semitic motives behind them and the nation could only really be swept along in a wave of mass Nazism.
