Persecution of the Jews: From Discrimination to Holocaust

Nazi persecution of Jews followed a terrible escalation over twelve years, from legal discrimination to organised mass murder.

1933-1935: Boycotts and Legal Exclusion:

From April 1933, the Nazis organised nationwide boycotts of Jewish businesses. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (April 1933) removed Jews from government employment. Jews were progressively excluded from professions, education, and public life through hundreds of individual laws and regulations.

Nuremberg Laws, September 1935:

The Nuremberg Laws (Reich Citizenship Law and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour) were announced at the annual Nazi Party rally in September 1935. They stripped Jews of German citizenship (making them "state subjects" with no political rights) and banned marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans. A person was defined as Jewish if they had three or four Jewish grandparents. The laws provided a pseudo-legal foundation for all subsequent persecution.

Kristallnacht — Night of Broken Glass, 9-10 November 1938:

Following the assassination of a German diplomat by a young Jewish man in Paris, Goebbels organised a nationwide pogrom. On the night of 9-10 November 1938, SA men and ordinary citizens destroyed Jewish property across Germany and Austria: approximately 7,500 Jewish businesses had their windows smashed (hence "Night of Broken Glass"), 1,400 synagogues were burned or damaged, 91 Jews were killed, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The name Kristallnacht was used by the perpetrators mockingly — referring to the glass that covered German streets. The German government then fined the Jewish community 1 billion Reichsmarks for the "damage" they had supposedly caused.

War and the Holocaust, 1939-1945:

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, millions more Jews came under Nazi control. The initial policy was forced emigration and ghetto confinement. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Einsatzgruppen (mobile SS killing units) followed the advancing army, shooting Jewish communities: at Babi Yar near Kiev, 33,771 Jews were shot in two days (29-30 September 1941).

At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, senior Nazi officials coordinated the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" — a systematic programme of genocide. Death camps (Vernichtungslager) were built in occupied Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Chelmno, and Majdanek. Jews from across Nazi-occupied Europe were transported by rail to these camps and murdered in gas chambers. By the end of the war in 1945, approximately 6 million Jews had been murdered — around two-thirds of European Jewry.

Other Victims of Nazi Persecution:

Jews were not the only group targeted. The Nazis persecuted and murdered many other groups:

• Disabled people: The T4 Euthanasia Programme (1939-41) killed approximately 200,000-250,000 people with physical and mental disabilities in gas chambers — a precursor to the Holocaust
• Roma: Approximately 500,000 Roma were murdered, called the Porajmos ("the devouring")
• Homosexuals: Tens of thousands were imprisoned, approximately 15,000 sent to concentration camps
• Political opponents: Communists, Social Democrats, and anyone who actively resisted