Figure 1.--German Jews were highly assimilated, but there were sections of Berlin with substanial Jewish populations. Here some Jewish children are are off to school in 1934. The NAZI repression of the Jews in 1933 and 34 was not as severe as some had anticipated. Jewisg children still attended state schools. The boy with his book satchel looks like any other German school boy. The schoolboy looks to be about 9-10 years old. His younger brothers and sister or perhaps school friends are playing with a top. He seems to be wearing a school cap with a peak although it is hard to be sure from the rear angle of the photograph. He wears typical schoolboy clothes for the period--a diagonally striped sweater (almost certainly worn over a shirt), gray flannel shorts, brown long stockings, and low cut leather shoes. These boys are all wearing overcoats and caps with peaks. The smaller boys mostly wear long stockings also, but one may be wearing knee socks.

It is not know with any certainty if Hitler conceived the murder of European Jews from the onset of his political career or if the Holocaust evolved over time after he seized power in 1933. We do know that Hitler spoke of the "extermination" of the Jews and described them as "racially unfit". This was not, however, widely seen in Germany as meaning he planned to murder German, let alone European Jews. President Hindenburg named NAZI leader Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany (January 1933). The first steps taken by Hitler was against the Cmmunists and Socialists, but actions against the Jews followed soon after. Hitler in his actions against Jews proceeded carefully, but relentlessy. There were three basic stages in NAZI policy. It is unclear to what extent these policies were conceived from the beginning as opposed to evolving overtime. The first stage was to restrict Jews ability to make a living in an effort to incourage them to emmigrate. Steps were taken to remove Jews from position of influence. The second stage was to segregate the Jews by denying their citzenship. Here the repressionn of Jewish children began when they were expelled from schools. The NAZIs also began confiscating Jewish property. The third stage was to deport Jews and incklude a more severe repression beginning with Kristallnacht. The fourth stage was the murder of the Jews. It is not precisely when Hitler made this decession.

NAZIs Seize Power (January 30, 1933)

Germany was becoming ungovernable because of the strength of the NAZIs and Communists in the Reichstag and growing street violence. An aging President Hindenburg was advised that Hitler could be controlled in a coalition government. President Hindenburg dislikes Hitler, but appoints him Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933. After becoming Reich Chancellor, Hitler quickly moves to seize control of the Government. The Reichstag fire provides the pretext for mass arrests of Communists andother political opponents. The worst features of the right wing anti-Semetic groups soon became German government policy. Hitler proclaims himself Füehrer of the Third Reich after President von Hindenburg dies. (August 2, 1934.) This opened the way for Hitler's total mastery of Germany.

Concentration Camps

The NAZIs on March 4, 1933 open the first concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich. The first inmates are not Jews, but political opponents. The camps play an important role in Hitler's seizure of total political power so that he could persue his political and economic program without opposition. The camp at Dachau would be the blueprint for a massive system of camps that would eventually extend throughout Western Europe and include both work and death camps. The concentraton ca,ps were necesary for both Hitler's seizure of power and the Holocaust. They lead directly after the start of World War II to the Death Camps opened in occupied Poland.

Beginning of the Anti-Jewish Campaign (April 1933)

President Hindenburg named NAZI leader Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany (January 1933). Hitler almost immediately on April 1, 1933, launched the national campaign against the country's Jews on April 1, 1933. The Nazis initiate a national boycott of Jewish shops and businesses (April 1, 1933). [Berenbaum, p. 21.] The NAZIs disniss Jews employed in the civil service, including schoolteachers and university professors. (April 7, 1933.) The NAZIs in the following 6 years before launching World War II introduced over 400 different laws to percecute Jewish Germans. The laws were carefully crafted to isolate, excluded, degrade, rob, and disinfranchise German Jews. Jews were excluded from the civil service by the Civil Service Law (April 7, 1933). This included teaching in state schols.

Book Burnings (May 1933)

Books were one of the first casulties of the NAZI regime when Hitler seized power in 1933. The NAZIs organized mass burnings of books written by Jews or expressing objectional ideas. Virtually all books by Jewish authors were destroyed. Hitler Youth members enthusiastically committed masterpieces of the German language as well as many foreign texts to huge bonfires. The book burnings were carefully prepared. The NAZIS seized power in January 1933. Throughout the spring of 1933, NAZI student organizations, professors, and librarians compiled an extensive lists of books they determined to be "entartet" (degenerate) and should not be read by decent Germans. NAZI SA Stormtroopers and student groups armed with this list on the night of May 10, 1933, stormed into libraries and bookstores all over Germany. They organized Wagnerian spectacles, marching in longlines by torchlight, singing Party songs, and chanting the twelve "theses,"--their manifesto for the "purification" of German literature and thought.

Emmigration

Following the initial NAZI actions against the Jews there was wave of emmigration. Eventually about one-forth of Germany's 0.5-0.6 million Jews emigrated in the period up and till Kristallnavht (1933-38). A number of early emigrants returned after the initial terror of 1933 declined and mass murder did not occur. Until Kristallnacht relatively few Jews were actually killed by the NAZIs.

Eugenics

The NAZIs adopt legislation permitting the forced sterilisation of gypsies, handicapped, afro-Germans, as well as others considered inferior to the Aryan race. (July 14, 1933) The Law for the Prevention of Hereditary and Defective Offspring was the first step toward genocide and the Holocaust. This provided the legal basisfor the surgical sterilization of any and all mentally retarded, genetically deformed, alcoholic, and/or mentally ill people. This objective was to prevent the reproduction of undesirable people, especially those that were seen as non productive as the carriers of hereditary diseases. Genetics had not progressed at the time to really understand the the heritary aspect of many diseases, but that did not stp the NAZIs and the not inconsiderable number of doctors that helped provide the pseudo-scientific basis of NAZI racism. The NAZIs claimed that Jews were carriers of genetic diseases. Herritary Courts were established throughout Germany to issue sterilization orders for handicaped children brought to their attention by teachers and family doctors. This was not a measure aimed at the Jews, but applied to all German children. The NAZIs of course did not stop with sterilizations. Eventually doctors actually were kiling physically handicaped children and adults. For many NAZIs the slow birth rate in Germany and the large Slavic population to the East was a great danger. Thus one of the medical experiments authorized by Himmler in the Death Camps which the NAZIs built in occupied Poland after the start of World War II was non-surgical sterilizaion measures that were faster and cheaper and could be employed on large numbers of people. [Padfield] The central interest of the NAZIs in eugenics was to accomplish the sacred missions of the German people which Hitler spelled out in Mein Kampf and described as "... to assemble and preserve the most valuable racial elements ... and raise them to a dominant position".

Signs (May 1935)

Signs saying "Jews not allowed" or "Jews not welcomed" begin appearing throughout Germany. Some are posted outside villages. Others in cities are placed on the windows and doors of restaurants and shops (May 1935). Signs are also placed on park benches as well as favcilities like beaches. Here the NAZIs were following practices common in the American South restricting the access of Blacks in public facilities. (American precedents wre also important in the NAZI eugenics pogram.) Some signs had been posted before, but the number of signs posted in May throughout German show that this was a centrally organized campaign. The public signs were erectede by NAZI controlled municipal authorities. These were more than an effort to humiliate and belittle Jews, they were part of the process of marginalizing and separating Jews from German society. In addition, Jews who ignored the signs could be suject to arrest. Jewish children were inviting attacks by Hitler Youth or other children.

NAZI Racial Policies (September 1935)

NAZI racial policies were at first difficult to enforce because they were no codified by law. Geman Führer Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Party Congress on September 15, 1935 announced three new laws that were to be cornerstones of German racist policies and the supression of Jews and other non-Aryans. These became known as the Nuremberg Laws The first 1935 law established the swastika as the official emblem of the German state. The second established special conditions for German citizenship that excluded all Jews. The third titled "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" prohibited marrige between German citizens and Jews. Marriages violating this law were voided and extra-marital relations prohibited. Jews were prohibuted from hiring female Germans under 45 years of age. Jews were also prohibuted from flying the national flag.

Shock

The Nuremberg Laws came as areat shock to many Jewish children. Many Jewish family were assiumilated into German life and were not practicing Jews. Some had converted to Christianity. Others had mArried partners ho were Christian. In some cases the childen were not even aware of theiur German heritage. Tne Nuremberg Laws made aewish identity no just a matter of religion, but of race. As a result, children over night had their lives irrecocably changed. The chance of professional carrers or even secondary education was closed off to them. They in many cases would be separated from their closest friends. Families of mixed marriage families would be sparated. Younger children could not even understand what was happening. [Crane]

Increasing Restrictions

After the adoption of the Nuremberg Race Laws, the NAZISs directed a steady stream of legal and quasi-legal actions the Jews. Jewish children expelled from German schools in 1935. Non-Aryan teachers were prohibited from teaching in public schools (October 15, 1936). [HBC note: Here I am not yet positive about the specifics of this regulation because by 1936 virtually all Jewisg teachers had already been dismissed.] Jews were prohibited as they were no longer citizens could no longer participate in parliamentary elections. Of course in NAZI Germany, parlimentary elections were not of any great significance. The NAZIs began taking increasing economic actions against Jews during the first half of 1938. Many laws were passed restricting Jewish economic activity and occupational opportunities. Slowly Jews were being deprived of making a living in Germany. A new law passed during July, 1938, required all Jews to carry identification cards. It became effective January 1, 1939.

Munich Olympic Games (August 1-16, 1936)

The Olumpic Committee befre Hitler seized power had assigned the 1936 Olympics to Munich. For the NAZIs it was an opportunity to show off the new Germany to the world. Because of the number of foreign visitor, the NAZIs in the late Summer began to temporarily take own many anti-Semitic signs. The anti-Jewish campaign, however, is only demphazied for a short time. Germany even fields one Jewish athlete--Helene Mayer. Germany with its state-supported atheletes were very successful at the Games. Hitler is offend, however, by the performance of Jesse Owens and other Black American atheletes. (Part of NAZI doctrine was that Aryans were stronger and phyically superior to other races.)

Obtaining Visas

The Great Depression during the 1930s caused many countries, including the United States, to limit immigration. NAZI policy at the beginning was not set out to murder millions of Jews. The NAZIs were intent on stripping Jews of all their assetts and driving them penniless out of the country. Few Jews wanted to laeve Germany when the NAZIs seized power in 1933. Gradually more Jews began attempting to leave, especially after the Nuremberg Race Laws were decreeed (September 1935). After Kristallnacht, a panic set in among the Germany community (November 1938). Jews were essentially free to leave Germany as long as theu did not take any valuables and had a visa to enter another country. The problem for German and Austrian Jews was obtaining a visa. Anti-semitism and the job shortages created by the Depression in many countries, including the United States, created severe bars to immigration. Thus obtaining visas were very difficult. Jews were thus trapped in Germany when in the months leading up to the War. One of the most tragic incidents was the liner St Louis which left Hamburg with 927 Jewish refugees in May 1939 for New York. The United States refused to allow them to enter. Cuba allowed 22 to land, but refused entry to the rest. An appeal to President Roosevelt was unanswered. Other countries also refused to accept the refuggess. Finally the St. Louis returned to Europe and the refugees were landed in Antwerp on June 17. More than 600 were accepted by Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Within months these countries overrun by the NAZIs. No one know for sure, but about 240 of these refugees are believed to have survided. Britain accepted 288 which did survive. The St. Louis reffugees were some of the last Jews to escape Germany. The NAZIs stopped allowing Jews to emmigrate. Some of the last Jews to get out of Germany were the children broughtout through the Kindertransport.

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler referred to derisively by the British as a chicken farmer was in fact an organization genius. The SS created by him began as Hitler's personal body guard and developed into the most sinister pseudo-military criminal gang in European history. Himmler helped Hitler establish total dominance in the "Night of the Long Knives" (1934). The supression of the political oppoition was made possible by extra-legal killing and brutalities in he concenbtations run by Himmler's SS. There were many in Germany that objected to the excessesses of the SA ad SS against the Jews. Those that spoke outto loudly might be killed. Others have over a brief incarceration in the camps knew better than to speal out. For many others rumors of the cincentration camps was enough to enduce silence and allow the NAZIs to do as they wished with the Jews. After World War II began, the SS provided the corps of individuals ready and willing to conduct the Holocaust. Himmler himself was anot among the most anti-semetic of the NAZIs. He was among those most willing to carry out Hitler's instructions and to create a New Order where Europe was ruled by a Greater Germany populated by a ethnically purified Aryan race.

The SS

Exit Visas

The NAZIs in 1937 begin to reconsider their policy of forcing Jews out of Germany. New regulations are issued allowing Jews to leave only under special circumstances (November 16, 1937). I do not know at this time just what prevented his change of policy. Certainly it enabled the Gestapo to extract bribes from Jews to obtain the needed exit dicuments.

Lebensborn

Counterpoint to the NAZI program of exterminating Jews and other groups considered to be sub-human was the Lebensborn program, a sectret NAZI program to enrich German racial lines with pure Nordic Aryan blood. The Lebensborn program was a pet project of SS Reichsführer Himmler. The program was launched in Germany in a small way to incourage and assist German girls to give birth to racially pure children, even if they were unmairred. We have noted some diference of opinion about the Lebensborn homes. After the Germans launched World War II and occupied large streaches of Eastern Europe, they proceeded to kidnap thousands of children who were deemed to be Aryan. Himmler indicated that these children had to be Germanized or killed because he though Aryan populations outside of the Reich were a threat. The Lebensborn program also affected other countries such as Norway--albeit on a smaller scale. Estimates suggest that 0.20-0.25 million children, mostly Polish, were eventually involved in this program. Only a small number were ever returned to their parents.

NAZI Education

The NAZIs gave particularly attention to education and control of the German educational system. They were well aware that it would be difficult to convert many adults and only a minority of Germand had ever voted for the NAZIs in democratic elections. The children were a different matter. They were thus determined to mold the new generation to accept NAZI pinciples. As the leader of the NAZI Teacher's League, Hans Schemm, put it: "Those who have the youth on their side control the future." As a result, after the NAZIs seized power in 1933, they quickly began applying totalitarian principles to all aspects of the German education system. Private schools were taken over or closed. Great emphasis was attached on racial "science", often termed "racial hygine", in NAZI education and this was quickly introduced into the curiculum. NAZI idelogy and physical-military training became other important aspects of the school program. Many teachers embraced the new Germany, but others were fired or left teaching. It is difficult to assess the relative importance of the two groups. It is known that many teachers were fired or replaced with political hacks during 1933-35, but HBC has no details on the numbers. Some of the best educators fled abroad. The quality of German education, once the leading system in Europe, declined. Again, however, it is difficult to assess this in quantative terms.

Jewish Students

When the NAZIs seized power in 1933, most German Jews attended state schools. Only a small number of students attended Jewish religious schools. Through a varaiety of methods including the introduction of anti-semetic curriculum materials, verbal amd phyical abuse from teachers and other students, Jewish children began withdrawing from the schools. Conditiojs varied, but in some schools it was dangerous for Jewish children to continue attending classes. The Nuremburg Laws in 1935 took away German citizenship from Jews resulting in the expulsion of Jewish children from the state schools. These children enrolled in schools set up for them and staffed by Jewish teachers who had been fired by the NAZIs.

Shopping

We are not sure what shopping was like for Jews in the years before World War II. There was no rationoing before the Kristallnacht (November 1938) and World War II (September 1939). Thus the only requirement was the money. Certainly the NAZI racial measures had by 1938 impoverished many Jews so that large numbers were having difficulties affording even the bare necesities. Jews were after 1935 increasingly prohibited from public facilities likes parks and I think, theaters, museums and libraries. Jew did not until 1941 hsave to wear the yellow star badge, but violation of yhese municipal ordinances could invite a beating or even arrest. At this time we have few details about shopping. As far as I know, until the War Jews could shop where ever they wanted. I do not think many merchants refuse to seve them, but this is a subject thar requires further investigation. Hopefully readers with some insights will add to our understanding of this subject.

Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth played an important role in bringing Hitler and the NAZIs to power. The orgnization played a major role in preparing German youth for both waging war and carrying out the Holocaust. I am less sure at this time to what extent the Hitler Youth was used to abuse Jewish children and adults as part of the various anti-Jewish campaigns waged by the NAZIs.

Anchluss (March 13, 1938)

There was considerable sentiment in both Germany and Austria after World War I to join the two German-speaking states. France adamently refused. Hitler after seizing power revived the issues. Austrain NAZIs were encouraged to promote the idea. Hitler and Austrian NAZIs throughout 1937 demanded an Anschluss with Austria. Belaegered Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg on March 9, 1938, announced plans to hold a plebiscite on the independence of Austria. Hitler used this opportunity to take action against the Austrian State. The NAZIs with the Wehrmacht on the border pressed Schuschnigg was pressed to resign. The NAZI surrogate, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, took over the chancellorship and formed a new government dominated by the Austrian NAZIs. The German Wehrmacht and the SS, armed with list of NAZI opponents, crossed the German-Austrian frontier. Hitler on March 13, speaking before a jubilent crowd in Linz, announced the "Anschluss" (Annexation) of Austria into the German Reich. Jouous celebrations occurred throught Austria. Even while the celebrations were going on, the SS and local NAZIs began rounding up those who had opposed the NAZIs. Violence occured against the Jews. Jewish students and [rofessors were attacked in universities. Jews at random were dragged into the streets to scrub the sidewalks on their hands and knees--surounded by taunting crowds. After the Anchluss, the fate of Austrian Jews became fused with German Jews, but they had much less time to escape.

Financial Sector (April 1938)

The NAZIs begin to give special attention to excluding Jews from the financial sectorn (April 1938).

Operation Anti-social (June 15, 1938)

The NAZIs launch Operation Anti-social. Jews in jails as wll as Jews with a criminal records are arrested and sent to concentration camps. Criminal records included both criminals and Jews who had violated the increasingly restrictive laws and regulations aimed at Jews.

Envian Confernce (July 6-15, 1938)

The anchluss had brought large numbers of Jews under NAZI control. The plight of the Austrian Jews was publivcized throughout Europe and Ameruc in the nespaprs. An internationl conference was organized, prompted espcially by Preident Roosevelt in America. There are 32 countries who send delegaions. At this time, the NAZIs almost certainly would have allowed Jew to leave Germany--once they had stripped them of all their belongings and property. The conference, however, failed because the participants were unwilling to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees. This outcomre was widely reported in the NAZI controlled German press.

Further Actions

The German government ordered Jews carry identity papers at all times (July 23, 1938). The NAZIs than require all Jews to take a middle name: Israel for men and Sarah for women (August 17, 1938). The Government began stamping Jewish passports with a red ‘J’ (October ).

Deportions(1938)

The NAZIs began deporting Jews in 1938. Most of those deported were technically non-Germam Jews. There weee quite a few Jews in Germany that did not have German passports. Many were families that had lived in Germany for years. Many Poles lived in Germany at the time of World War I. After the war some PPoles returned to Poland. Others remained in Germany but wither did ot seek German citzenship or were from parts towns that were now part od an independent Poland. Many Jews of Polish ancestry did not want to return to Poland because anti-Semitism was more pronounced in Poland than Germany under the Weimar Republic. Throughout 1938 the NAZIs deported Jews to Poland. The Polish Goverment objected to this nd Polish border guards began refusing to allow them to enter. Small groups of Jews stranded without food nd water suffered horibly in the standoff. The situation got worse with the onset of winter. Learning aboutvthe fate of his fasmily, a youthful German Jew, Herschel Grünzpan, assasinated a German diplomat at the German consulate in Paris (November 7, 1938).

Sources

Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know (Ed. Arnold Kramer. Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1993).

Crane, Cynthia A. "The plight of German children from Jewish-Christian 'mixed marriages': Often forgotten victims of the holocaust," Children and the Holocaust: Symposium, United states Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 3, 2003.

Goldhagen, Daniel

Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf.

Hobsbawm, Eric. Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life (Pantheon: 2003), 448p. Hobsbawm was born in Egypt of an English father and Austrian mother. He was raised in Vienna and Berlin. As a teenagr he became a Marxist and was recruited to a communist youth group. He engaged in anti-NAZI activities, but he and his parents left Germany within weeks of the NAZI take over. He writes that he remained a Communist in later years out of loyalty to his young friend who fought the NAZIs--few of who survived the Third Reich.

Nuremberg Tribunal. "Individual Responsibility of Defendants: Artur Seyss-Inquart," Nazi Conspiracy and Aggresion Vol. II. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pp.956-1004.

Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.

Created: October 12, 2002
Last updated: June 5, 2004