A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The Third Reich 1029

Jewish financier who betrays a German state and is executed, to the cheers
of Nazi audiences.

Hitler's New Reich and the Jews

Hitler made anti-Semitism a cornerstone of Nazi ideology and state policy.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws, which made the swastika the official sym­

bol of Nazi Germany, deprived Jews (defined by having had at least one

Jewish grandparent) of citizenship. Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star

of David prominently on their clothing when they left their homes. In the

quest for racial “purity,” the laws also forbade marriage or sex between

non-Jewish Germans and Jews. Signs in restaurants, movie houses, and

parks warned that Jews were not allowed, such as one proclaiming “Jews

enter this locality at their own peril!” Yet some Jewish businesses, includ­

ing banks, at first continued to operate, if only because Hitler feared the

economic consequences if they were closed. Some of these were

“Aryanized” by removing Jewish owners and managers. By July 1938, only

9,000   of the 50,000 businesses owned by Jews were still open. Shortly

thereafter, the German state forced Jewish families to list the value of what

they owned and to turn over their assets to Gentile trustees, who could dis­

pose of these estates as they wished. Decrees established a list of profes­

sions and occupations from which Jews were to be excluded.

When Hitler came to power, some Jews emigrated immediately, or made

plans to do so. With Jews unable to teach in universities after early 1933 or

to attend university as of 1937, many distinguished Jewish scholars and

artists left for Britain or the United States, including the brilliant physicist

Albert Einstein (1879-1955). More than 1,600 scholars and scientists had

lost, resigned, or left their positions. Other intellectual exiles from Hitler's

Germany were not Jewish, among them the poet Stefan George, the writer

Thomas Mann, and the painter Max Beckmann. But one had to have some

Nazis post placards in a

Jewish shop window. The

notice reads “It is forbidden

to buy from this Jewish

shop.”