Nazis had several denigrating ideas about the Jews, which have no fundament and therefore sound stupid or even funny, although they had a great impact among the German population in the 1930´s. For example, German textbooks included drawings and phrases such “all Jews have crooked legs, fat bellies, curly hair and look untrustworthy”.
The German government approved several laws against Jews, for example, that all Jews over 6 years had to wear a Star of David. Also Jews were banned from all Shows, concerts, literature halls, sports centres, etc. Besides, they were not allowed to own shops. The name Israel was added to every Jew male and Sara to every Jew female.
In 1938, the Jews organised a riot opposing the Nazi oppression, in this riot, a Nazi general was killed. During that night the Nazis smashed over 10,000 Jewish shops and killed 91 men.
This last event was the turning point from only persecution to total extermination.
After this event, the Jews were forced to pay over one billion marks to the government for the disturbs and damages that the Jews supposedly had caused.
Between this dates in the holocaust the life of the Jews got worse all the time.
In what ways did the treatment of the Jews change from 1938-1945
The way in which the Jews were treated got worse as time passed by. From 1933 to 1938, the persecution of the Jews was severe, but after the night of the broken glasses which took place in 1938, the situation of the Jews turned into total extermination.
Some historians consider the Nazis were fighting two separate wars, one was the World War and the other one was the war against the Jews. Some of these historians agree in the idea that the Nazis wanted to exterminate the Jews before winning the World War.
As mentioned above, the night of the Broken Glass in 1838 was the turning point, several programs against the Jews were developed. At this point, concentration camps were opened, in this camps Jews were forced to work almost without stop, until they were exhausted, besides, Hitler ordered euthanasia and sterilisation programs, the sick, or “weak” people were murdered by the German doctors, over 70, 000 Jews were killed this way.
In 1942 when the Nazis realised that they were loosing the war or in fact that they already have lost it, the Nazis decided to exterminate all Jews in Europe. The Nazis created the death camps; most of these camps were built in Eastern Europe.
The most famous of these camps was Auschwitz, in this camp as in all other happened horrible things, the death of about 5,000,000. Jews were murdered including woman, old people and even babies.
Mainly, it could be said that there were three ways in which Jews were killed, one was being shot by a Nazi guard, the second by being gassed in the gas chambers and the third by extenuation, as they were not allowed to rest while working.
Whole families got separated cause these camps were split into men and women camps.
About 11, 000, 000 million Jews were exterminated along the entire holocaust, most of these from 1938 to 1945.
Every day in the period of the holocaust the Nazis thought more horrible ways to exterminate Jews all along Europe.
Pablo Hernández Chacón
What reasons did the Nazis give for the persecution of the Jews in Germany?
The Nazis gave many reasons for the persecution of the Jews.
The Nazis thought that they were a superior race called ¨the Aryan race¨. As they thought their race was superior, they thought that they could control and have the power in the world.
Germans, like some Europeans had disliked the Jews for a long time, because they were wealthy. Jews introduced the concept of banks, they owned them, therefore they became wealthy and people hated to owe them money. This is one of the reasons that the historians mention as to why Hitler hated Jews.
The Nazis were mainly catholic, hated those who believed in a Profet who killed Jesus Christ; this ideas gave them a good excuse to kill the Jews, because supposedly they wanted to impose their beliefs in the rest of the world.
Also, Nazis blamed Jews for WWI, as they tough that they caused the hyperinflation and that all Jews were criminals, they were in such need to blame the Jews of everything that they also blamed them for the fall of the Roman Empire. With these points against Jews, the Nazis considered the Jews to be a threat which needed to be exterminated.
It is interesting to notice that if Nazis classified Jews as being less than dogs, how could they consider them a threat?
German people, being Nazis or not, were very angry to the world because of the unfairness that they had suffered after WWI including the hyperinflation. The Nazis took advantage of the anger of the Germans, and gave them the option of taking their rage out by humiliating the Jews and by taking advantage of them, later this hate turned into extermination.
I think the main reason was the rage and anger that the German citizens had in that moment and they saw Jews as an easy target.
Nazis had many reasons for the persecution of the Jews. Most of these reasons look stupid to my eyes.
Pablo Hernández Chacón