Before Hitler, many German Jews saw themselves as Germans first and Jewish second. The Nuremberg Laws changed all that. These laws were created to strip Jews of their rights as German citizens and separated them legally, socially, and politically. The Jewish population was identified as a race and the Nazi regime wanted to prevent their interaction with the rest of the German citizenship because Hitler wanted to enforce superiority over them.
Open antisemitism culminated with Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) when Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, encouraged violence against the Jews. Hundreds of synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish businesses were looted, and tens of thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to labor camps. When Germany invaded Poland, Jews in the conquered territories were forced in Ghettos, which were walled-off cities where Jewish populations were exploited and after deported to the east (euphemism for the concentration camps). |