The Nazis promised a united nation, but used racist laws and violence to strip Jews and other groups of their rights.
The Nazis spoke of a single national community united behind Hitler. But they used false ideas about race to decide who belonged. Antisemitism means prejudice or hatred towards Jews. Nazi claims that Jews caused Germany's defeat or economic problems were lies, used to justify shutting them out and attacking them.
From 1933, laws and boycotts attacked Jewish jobs and businesses. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 took away Jews' full citizenship. They banned marriage and relationships between Jews and people the state classed as having German blood. These were racist categories invented by the state, not facts about biology or simply about religion.
On 9 to 10 November 1938, organised attacks destroyed synagogues, Jewish places of worship, along with Jewish homes and shops. Huge numbers of Jewish people were arrested. This is called Kristallnacht, or the November pogrom. A pogrom is an organised violent attack on a community. It shows persecution growing from exclusion by law to widespread violence backed by the state.
Nazi persecution also targeted Roma and Sinti, disabled people, political opponents, gay men and Jehovah's Witnesses. These groups faced different accusations and policies, so their experiences were not identical.
During the Second World War, the Holocaust was the planned mass murder of Europe's Jews. For a question about the 1930s, use events from that time and keep them separate from the later genocide.
- Nuremberg Laws, 1935
- Took away Jews' full citizenship.
- Kristallnacht, 9-10 November 1938
- Organised attacks on Jewish synagogues, homes and shops.
- Holocaust
- Mass murder of Europe's Jews during the war.
Worked example: Test a promise against a law
The regime promised unity, but the Nuremberg Laws denied Jewish Germans full citizenship.
- The promise says all Germans belong to one community.
- The law shuts Jews out of equal rights on purpose.
- So this was unity only on racist terms.
Watch out for this
Nazi racial categories described real biological differences in people's worth.
They were false, racist ideas used to justify persecution.
Check your understanding
What did the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 do?
- Began the mass murder of Europe's Jews.
- Gave all Germans equal rights in a national community.
- Took away Jews' full citizenship and banned certain marriages.