In the interwar period between the late 1920 and the 1930’s German suffered great economic and social hardships. The Germans had been defeated in World War I. Under the conditions issued by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to pay a large sum of reparations and take full blame for WWI. As a result, Germans suffered runaway inflation and massive unemployment, and was looking for someone to blame.
The National Socialist Workers (Nazi) Party, led by Adolf Hitler was just one of the many racist groups that sprang up. The anti-Semitic philosophy of the Nazi party played a significant role in their rise to power during the 1930’s. Economic and political conditions in Germany between 1918 and 1933 played a major role in the creation of a climate that made the Nazi party appeal to the German population. There was widespread unemployment and economic misery and following the trend of German history since the end of the 18th century, the German people turned towards nationalism. The Nazi party captured the nationalistic fever of the country.
Throughout Hitler’s and the Nazi party’s rise to Power in January 1933, Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I. The Nazi party set the Jews up as the enemies and blamed them for all of Germany’s troubles. Anti-Semitism and the persecution of Jews were the central thought of Nazi ideology. In their 25-point party program, The Nazi party publicly declared their intentions to segregate Jews from “Aryan” society and to revoke their political, legal, and civil rights.
Hitler soon became a most effective anti-Jewish leader. His anti-Semitic blueprint was set out in the book Mein Kampf, and after he assumed power in the 1930's it became official policy. Although opposed to Christianity, Hitler used it in his anti-Semitic message. He wrote: “If... the Jew is victorious over the peoples of the world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity and this planet will, as it did thousands of years ago,...