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 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 their attack on Germany’s 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 Berlin’s Reichstag building on February 28, 1933. Hitler claimed the fire was a terrorist act by communists trying to bring down the government. He soon gathered enough parliamentary support to pass the Enabling Act (March 24, 1933), which gave him broad lawmaking powers. It’s significant that this was done by parliamentary vote. By confirming this law, the German parliament ended Germany’s democracy. They gave Hitler the powers needed to create a dictatorship. Within weeks, Hitler outlawed all other political parties.

Even as the Nazis took power, Hitler was careful to make it look as if they were playing by the rules. He used the already existing legal system to bring about sweeping changes. The Nazis quickly took 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 feature of totalitarianism. Hitler and the Nazis were able to push through enormous changes as if this were all business as usual.

Antisemitism and the Nazi state

As the Nazis strengthened their power, many Germans felt like nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. In truth, a revolution was under way. The laws the Nazis introduced completely changed the relationship of German people to the state. They also changed how Germans related to each other. The Nazi Party made use of existing antisemitism, and encouraged its growth. New laws aimed at Jews began to be passed right away, starting in 1933. Perhaps the most significant were the Nuremberg Laws, passed on September 15, 1935.² These laws 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 had been almost completely beaten down. It had been reduced to a population living at the complete mercy of the Nazis and their fellow Germans.

The Nuremberg Laws had two main goals. The first was to prevent Jews from legally participating in German society. Once that stage was complete, the next goal was to prevent Jews from being in Germany 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, the Nazis had another reason for their attack on Jews. German fascists portrayed Jews and communists—and particularly Jewish communists—as the greatest danger to the German nation and its people. Their relentless claims created fear among non-Jewish Germans. The Nazi leadership used this fear to win the support of everyday people. This allowed them to create a powerful, centralized state.

Defining the nation

The Nuremberg Laws and other laws also served to define what it meant to be German. They declared 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. According to the Nazis, the two were not meant to coexist.

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

Conclusion

It is important to remember that the Nazis took over in Germany because of a vote. Frightened 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 quickly built an all- powerful state. 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, measures like the Nuremberg Laws weren’t simply an attack on Jews. They were 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. Most often, that English name is shortened to “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.