Describe how Jews were discriminated against in Germany from 1933 to 1939

This was the foremost of many boycotts until eventually anyone seen entering a Jewish establishment would be beaten and sent to prison for 'allying' with the Jews and being explicitly against Germany. On 7th April, a law was made that expelled any Jew from working in the government and other similar laws were made later in 1934. Admissions to universities were drastically restricted. These unopposed actions encouraged him to initiate more discriminatory laws against the lesser races of Germany. This included banning Jewish or part-Jewish athletes from using sports facilities or taking part in competitive events. People's dislike of Jews was intensified through fear of opposing the Nazis, which would have resulted in being prosecuted severely. People were persistently reminded of how they should treat Jews through propaganda issued by the Reich, which showed negative images of Jews holding Germany back from power. It was not coincidental then that children were being taught Hitler's views because the young are very impressionable and so a generation grew up truly believing Jews were different and therefore unworthy to be German. The only point in Hitler's career when people were discouraged from openly persecuting Jews came in the summer of 1936 when Berlin held the World Olympics. The country could not be seen in a negative light. Despite this, support of Hitler and anti-Semitism continued to spread over Germany and in fact accelerated after the Games.

Further attempts to 'cleanse' Germany occurred in 1938 when on 28th October, seventeen thousand Polish Jews were deported from Germany. On 7th November, a Jew named Herschel Grunspan assassinated Ernst von Rath, a diplomatic official of Germany in Paris. This had devastating consequences for the entire Jewish community. In response to this Jewish protest, anti-Semitic riots were held all over Germany for the next three days. Kristallnacht (9th) known in England as the 'Night of Broken Glass' saw the fierce destruction of synagogues, homes and businesses owned by Jews. Thirty thousand Jewish men were sent to concentration camps and were not released until after one thousand were killed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fled the country in fear and poverty. The Nazis were known to have organised the violent outbursts but they still tried to conceal their involvement. This indicates that a lot of Germans candidly persecuted Jews because over the last five years they were confident enough to hate them. The destruction was not complete however, as decrees were issued by the Reich on 12th November. These said that the Jewish owner must pay for repairs of their buildings themselves caused by 'the indignation of the German people' and any insurance claims were invalid. An additional fine of 1,000,000,000 Reich marks was imposed on all the Jewish people in Germany. A Jew could no longer own a business and Jewish employees had to be dismissed after six months notice. This great exercise in anti-Semitism served to encourage people to use Jews as scapegoats. A lot of people now stood united with Hitler and his campaign to dehumanise the Jews.

Throughout 1939 more laws were set up to restrict the Jews in any way possible. Despite Hitler's various attempts at securing anti-Semitism in all Germans, there were those who were not in favour of his ideals, but could not do much to stop the endless outburst of hate directed at the Jews. When it became compulsory and military training was introduced, one million people refused to join the Hitler Youth Movement. People were afraid of being associated with Jews because Hitler used force as well as the legal system to prosecute any who opposed him. Hitler pitted himself against all those against the 'Aryan' way of life so Germany could become a 'pure' master state. The Jews were treated extremely unjustly from the very beginning of Hitler's seizure of power and the level of discrimination rose to such a height that it was immensely difficult and virtually impossible to end.