Introduction

The Nazis were not the only fascists in Europe, but they were the most extreme. Beginning in 1933, the Nazis built a powerful state that controlled most aspects of German life. They were defeated in 1945, but not before dragging the world into a truly terrible war. That war cost tens of millions of lives. Among the dead were the more than six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In this article, we look at how the Nazis rose to power in Germany, and how persecution of the Jews was a key feature of their rule.

Nazis take power

The Nazi Party (NSDAP)¹ was founded in February 1920. Its leader, Adolf Hitler, became chancellor—the head of the German government—in January 1933. Before 1933, the Nazis had limited political power. But those limits began to change after a fire nearly destroyed the Reichstag building in Berlin on February 28, 1933. As news of the incident spread, Hitler claimed the fire was a terrorist act by communists trying to overthrow the government. Using a combination of political tactics, violence, and intimidation, Hitler and the Nazis gathered enough parliamentary support to pass the Enabling Act (March 24, 1933), which transferred broad lawmaking powers to Hitler. It’s significant that this was done by parliamentary vote. By confirming this law with a two-thirds majority, the German parliament ended Germany’s democracy. They gave Hitler the powers needed to create a dictatorship. Within weeks, Hitler had dissolved all other political parties. He then assumed the powers of a dictator.

While the Enabling Act allowed the Nazis to take power, it also illustrated Hitler’s desire to look like he was playing by the rules. In fact, in many ways the Nazi state made use of institutions that were already in place. Hitler and the Nazi Party used the legal system to bring about sweeping changes and take control of more and more aspects of German life. On the surface, it seemed to at least some people that everything was normal. This is a key characteristic of totalitarianism. Thus, Hitler and the Nazis were able to push through enormous changes as if this were all business as usual.

Antisemitism and the Nazi state

Because the Nazis used familiar institutions to take over the government, it may have felt like nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. In truth, a revolution was under way. The laws the Nazis introduced dramatically changed how Germans related to each other and the relationship of German people to the state. The Nazi Party made use of, and encouraged, existing antisemitism. Legal attacks on Jews started right away in 1933, but perhaps the most significant act of Nazi legislation was the passage of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935.² These laws set the stage for the persecution of German Jews in two important ways: One, Jews were stripped of their citizenship because they did not have “German blood.” Two, marriage between Jews and ethnic Germans was outlawed. With the loss of citizenship came the loss of basic rights. Antisemitism had been common in Germany before 1935, but the Nuremberg Laws gave it the state’s official stamp of approval. After 1935, wave after wave of laws made things even worse for Germany’s Jewish population. Jews were denied employment in certain trades and industries, and many Jewish businesses were forced to close. Access to public education was restricted. The state often seized the property of Jewish families. These measures took a huge toll on German Jews. In just a few short years, a once thriving community was reduced to a population living at the complete mercy of the Nazis and their fellow Germans.

The purpose of the Nuremberg Laws was to terrorize Jews and remove them from German society. The goal was to first prevent Jews from legally participating in German society, and then prevent from being physically there at all. German fascists believed that Jews posed a threat to the well-being of the nation. But in addition to wanting Jews out of Germany, there was another goal behind Nazi racist ideology. German fascists portrayed Jews and communists—and particularly Jewish communists—as the greatest danger to the German nation and its people. The Nazi leadership used the fear this generated to win the support of everyday people. They told German citizens the removal of the Jews from Germany, and eventually all of Europe, would save Germany and, eventually, all Europe. Thus they used antisemitism to create a powerful, centralized state.

Defining the nation

The Nuremberg Laws and other laws didn’t stop there. Excluding and demeaning Jews contrasted what it was to be German with what it was to be Jewish. It meant that part of being German was not being Jewish, and vice versa. German citizens had rights, and Jews did not. Germans formed one racial group, the Jews another, and the two were not meant to coexist.

The anti-Jewish laws also sent a message to non-Jewish Germans. After watching the Nazis systematically ban Jews from German society and seize their property, other Germans could be certain of one thing: Hitler’s regime had enormous power over the lives of ordinary people. And it was not only the persecution of Jews that made this clear. Nazi policy shaped everything from the military and the economy to the healthcare system and elementary education. Even the film and radio industries became tools of Nazi propaganda under the direction of Joseph Goebbels.³ This kind of total control was meant to make people obey the regime in every part of their lives.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that the Nazis took over in Germany because of a vote. Anxious about security concerns raised by the Reichstag fire, parliament granted Hitler the sole authority to make laws. Using his new powers, Hitler obtained one-party rule. He and his party destroyed the liberal notions of equality before the law and individual rights. They built a totalitarian state to reshape German society in accordance with Nazi ideology. These are the basic elements of Nazi authoritarianism. From 1933 onward this state terrorized Jews and other minorities in an effort to remove them entirely from German society and, ultimately, from all of Europe. Antisemitism was central to German fascism, and German fascism was central to Nazism. Still, the Nazis’ enforcement of measures like the Nuremberg Laws wasn’t simply an attack on Jews. It was also used to strengthen a sense of German ethnic identity and to show how powerful the state really was.

1 NSDAP is the abbreviation of the German name Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. The full name translates to National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly referred to as the Nazi Party.
2 There were two Nuremberg Laws. One was the Reich Citizenship Law. The other was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. For more about these laws and English translations of their texts, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm.org).
3 Goebbels was a high-ranking member of the Nazi party. He served as national director of propaganda. His job was to shape how ordinary Germans thought.