The Nazis

The Nazis

With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the party ordered anti-Jewish economic boycotts, staged book burnings, and enacted discriminatory anti-Jewish legislation. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws racially defined Jews by “blood” and ordered the total separation of so-called "Aryans" and "non-Aryans,” thereby legalizing a racist hierarchy. On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria (an event now known as the Kristallnacht pogrom or Night of Broken Glass). This event marked a transition to an era of destruction, in which genocide would become the singular focus of Nazi antisemitism.

Adapted from: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005175

Questions:

  1. When did the Nazis rise to power?

  2. What was the “Aryans” and “non-Aryans” separation based on?

  3. What event marked the transition to an era of destruction and genocide?

Next: Genocide