(2) Hitler's hatred of Jews is known as "anti-Semitism." It has a long history in Europe and the United States. There were many anti-Semites in Europe, just as there were many racists in the United States who opposed civil rights for Afro-Americans. Hitler's hatred of Jews was so profound that several of his biographers have called it an obsession. Albert Speer, who was a close confidante to Hitler, wrote in 1977:
“The hatred of the Jews was Hitler's driving force and central point, perhaps even the only element that moved him. The German people, German greatness, the Reich, all that meant nothing to him in the final analysis. Thus, the closing sentence of his Testament sought to commit us Germans to a merciless hatred of the Jews after the apocalyptic downfall. I was present in the Reichstag session of January 30, 1939 when Hitler guaranteed that, in the event of another war, the Jews, not the Germans, would be exterminated. This sentence was said with such certainty that I would never have doubted his intent of carrying through with it.”
Hitler, however, did not just exploit the existing anti-Semitism in Germany; he changed it and built on it until it became an all-consuming obsession both for himself and for the rest of the National Socialist leadership. The most significant difference between traditional anti-Semitism and the philosophy of the Nazis was that the basis for the anti-Semitism was changed. Previous anti-Semitism had been based upon religious convictions - primarily on the questionable axiom that Jews were responsible for the execution of Jesus - and political attacks to exclude Jews from the rest of society. Both of these elements can be seen, for example, in Pope Innocent III who, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, stated that because of their involvement in the execution of Jesus, they were in a state of "perpetual subservience." He also required them to wear distinctive clothing and sanctioned barring Jews from certain professions.
Although he exploited this religious anti-Semitism, Hitler and the other Nazi leaders, who were opposed to traditional religions, found another basis for their hatred of the Jews. They relied on the theories of "eugenics" and "social Darwinism" which were then common in Europe and transformed them into "race science." They also used the political expression of anti-Semitism coupled with the myth of the Aryans. This myth had developed in Europe the last part of the 19th century. According to Hitler's philosophy the Germanic peoples, called "Aryans," were superior to all other races and had the right to rule over them. Hitler and the other Nazis claimed that other races, such as the Slavs and the Poles, were inferior species fit only to serve Aryan man. The Jews were, they believed, even lower than the Slavs. Hitler believed that "Aryans" were the builders of civilization while Jews were parasites fit only for extermination. This racism had a political agenda as well. Hitler blamed the Jews for the loss of World War I, which he called "the stab in the back" and made the focus of his political campaigns. The combination of religious anti-Semitism and political anti-Semitism with patriotism led many German people to accept Hitler's message.
One of the stumbling blocks to even wider acceptance of the Nazis' racism was the assimilation of Jews into German life. Unlike the Jews of eastern Europe, German Jews considered themselves different from other Germans only in the religion they practiced. They were merchants and scholars and professional people who went to the same schools and gathered in the same places as other Germans. And, for their part, the other Germans were used to dealing with Jewish businessmen and having their ailments treated by Jewish doctors. As Heinrich Himmler stated in a speech to SS officers long after the actual extermination began, every German had a "favourite Jew." When Hitler came to power he could not expect the masses of ordinary German people to agree to his program of extermination. Instead the Nazis led them to that end by gradual steps.
(3) The ‘White Rose’ is a shining example of resistance to Hitler, but also of the ruthlessness that the Nazis authorities showed when faced with any opposition. In early 1943, the fortunes of war were clearly turning against the Germans. The battle of Stalingrad had been a complete disaster, resulting in the surrender of the Sixth Army on January 31, 1943. Around this time, a small group of students, mostly centered in the University of Munich, began openly to agitate against the Nazi regime. They saw the war as lost; the good things they had thought would result from the Nazis in the 1930s as having been thrown away, and were horrified at the mistreatment of the Jews. The leaders of the student revolt were Hans Scholl (25), a medical student and his sister Sophie (21), a biology student. Hans Scholl had been an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth in 1933, but he quickly became disillusioned with Nazism as its inhumanity and barbarism became more and more clear with the passage of time.
People who have never lived under a totalitarian government have difficulty understanding how difficult it was - and how dangerous - to organize opposition to the government. The Nazis in particular were organized right down to the street level and people were encouraged to inform on their parents, relatives, and friends to the Gestapo; in short, anyone who manifested disagreement with the Nazis could be in serious trouble. Under the law of the Third Reich, over 5,000 people were executed for such trivial offences as making jokes about Hitler or listening to radio broadcasts from Britain.
Soon after the non-Nazi political parties were suppressed, Hitler dealt with his political rivals in the party. Roehm, the Chief of Staff of the S.A., was Hitler's chief political rival. Roehm differed from Hitler on three important issues:
(a) Roehm thought that the S.A. had helped to bring the Nazi party to power, so Hitler should reward the S.A. with government jobs.
(b) Roehm wanted the S.A. and the army to be merged into one National-Socialist People's Army.
(c) Roehm was interested in the socialist aspect of the party's programme that Hitler advocated in his rise to power. He wanted Hitler to confiscate the property of the wealthy people of Germany.
Roehm had at his command 2 million Storm-troopers (S.A.). This constituted a great threat to the political position of Hitler. Thus Hitler decided to get rid of the S.A.
(4) As Hitler consolidated power, he pursued his goal to eliminate "non-Aryans" from the social and economic fabric of Germany. By 1938, thousands of Jews had been fired or forcibly "retired" from their jobs as a result of laws (e.g. "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service") and decrees. Jews were barred from serving in government posts, practicing law, participating in cultural enterprises such as theatre, movies, arts, and literature (September 29, 1933), and serving in the press (October 4, 1933).
By 1938, with the reins of power totally in Hitler's hands, the Nazis began a program to systematically remove the Jews from participation in the German economy. This policy, called "Aryanization," made use of several government decrees:
January 5, 1938 - The "Law Regarding Changes of Family Names and Given Names" was issued, regulating name changes. One purpose was to make it more difficult for Jews to escape persecution by changing their names.
April 22, 1938 - It became a crime for a German to disguise the fact that a business was owned by a Jew.
April 26, 1938 - Jews had to report the value of their property, except for personal goods, if the value exceeded 5,000 Reichmarks.
June 14, 1938 - Jewish businesses were defined by decree.
July 6, 1938 - Many types of businesses were ordered to desist operation by December 30, 1938 if they were "Jewish" consistent with the June 14, 1938 decree.
July 23, 1938 - Jews were required to carry identification cards.
July 25, 1938 - Jewish physicians were given until September 30th to give up their practices.
September 27, 1938 - Jewish lawyers were barred from practicing their profession after November 30th.
October 5, 1938 - Jews were required to hand in their passports, so that the passports could include the designation of "J." This action was motivated by a request by the Swiss government, which did not want to admit Jewish refugees.
By September 1941 - the Jews of Germany were forced to wear badges or armbands marked with a yellow star. In the following months, tens of thousands were deported to ghettos in Poland and to cities wrested from the USSR. Even as that movement was under way, the stage was set for another innovation: the death camp.
The heaviest deportations occurred in the summer and fall of 1942. The destinations of the transports were not disclosed to the Jewish communities, but reports of mass deaths eventually reached the surviving Jews, as well as the governments of the United States and Great Britain.
In April 1943, the 65,000 remaining Jews of Warsaw offered resistance to German police who entered the ghetto in a final roundup. The battle was fought for three weeks.
When the war ended, millions of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, and others targeted by the Nazis, had died in the Holocaust. The Jewish deaths numbered more than 5 million: about 3 million in killing centres and other camps, 1.4 million in shooting operations, and more than 600,000 in ghettos. (Traditional estimates are closer to 6 million.) Pressure was placed on the Allied powers to establish a permanent haven in Palestine for Jewish survivors. The establishment of Israel three years after Germany's defeat was thus an after effect of the Holocaust.
