Hitler's Antisemitism

During his imprisonment following the Beer Hall Putsch (April 1 to December 20, 1924), Hitler began writing Mein Kampf. In it, he defended his father against accusations of antisemitism, claiming the term "Jew" signified cultural backwardness. According to Hitler, as a child, he paid no attention to the Jews of Linz, who seemed no different from Germans. Even at the beginning of his time in Vienna, he did not notice them. Only later, influenced by the Viennese press, did he begin to observe Jews, noticing their "non-heroic" appearance, their smell, and their speech. He claimed that as "middlemen," they produced nothing; as "Marxists," they took over trade unions and undermined the nation's economic foundations; as "moneylenders," they controlled and monopolized the stock exchange; and as "artists," they destroyed German culture. Furthermore, he alleged they infected German women with their blood. Hitler found the sight of Jews repulsive, associating them with ugliness, degeneracy, filth, and syphilis. "It was like a plague," he wrote, "a spiritual epidemic worse than the Black Death, contaminating the people."

After his release, Hitler completed Mein Kampf.

In Hitler's view, Jews were Germany's primary enemy. He considered the fight against them a "war of defense" and wanted to hold them accountable for everything. However, he could not have exterminated Jews on a mass scale without the extensive machinery of power and the people who carried out his orders. Yet without Hitler, their antisemitic campaign would have been unimaginable. His leadership was indispensable.

Two months after his appointment as Chancellor, Hitler intervened directly for the first time regarding a proposed law. The Nazis declared a boycott of Jewish businesses and dragged Jewish judges out of courts. Relevant ministries prepared a law aimed at "restoring the professional civil service," considering the dismissal of all non-Christian judges and prosecutors. Hitler demanded the dismissal of all Jewish officials. President Hindenburg objected to the dismissal of Jewish judges who were war veterans, prompting Hitler to promise exceptions for them.

Subsequently, Hitler signed several laws excluding Jews from the judiciary, removing Jewish patent attorneys and tax advisers. The law on "restoring the professional civil service" particularly impacted academics at universities and institutions. The loss of highly skilled Jewish physicists and chemists caused great concern in German scientific circles. In 1933, physicist Max Planck discussed this with Hitler, mentioning Jewish scientist Fritz Haber, whose work on synthetic ammonia had enabled Germany to produce explosives without relying on Chilean nitrate imports. Without Haber's contributions, Planck argued, Germany would have "lost the war at the outset." Hitler responded, "I have no objection to Jews in general. But all Jews are Communists, and they are my enemies." When Planck pointed out the varying value of Jews to humanity, Hitler dismissed the distinction, saying, "A Jew is a Jew. It was their duty to differentiate themselves, and since they did not, I must treat all Jews the same." Despite Planck's warnings that the exclusion of Jews would cripple German science and benefit foreign nations, Hitler's response was a furious tirade.

By early 1935, Jews in Germany lived relatively untroubled lives. Although Jewish officials, teachers, lawyers, artists, and others lost their jobs, many private-sector employees retained their positions, and emigration slowed as Jews were still considered Germans. However, just before the Nuremberg Party Rally, Hitler ordered preparations for laws stripping Jews of citizenship and prohibiting marriages between Jews and non-Jews. The citizenship law was largely symbolic, as Jews still needed German passports to emigrate. Mixed marriages already contracted were not formally affected, but the inclusion of the word "Jew" in the text required the Interior Ministry to define it precisely. From then on, a Jew was defined as someone with at least two Jewish grandparents. Half-Jews were only affected if they were affiliated with Judaism or married to Jews.

On November 9–10, 1938, antisemitic riots broke out across Germany. These pogroms, known as Kristallnacht, were orchestrated by the Nazi Party, with Joseph Goebbels spearheading the violent attacks. Jewish shop windows were smashed, and synagogues were set ablaze. The sudden execution of these events was facilitated by local party leaders gathered for commemorations of the failed 1923 coup in Munich. Goebbels used the occasion to gain Hitler's approval for the attacks, which had significant domestic and international repercussions. Hermann Göring harshly criticized Goebbels, putting Hitler in the awkward position of agreeing with both Göring's reprimand and Goebbels' actions.

The Nazi Party sought to demonstrate public hatred for Jews through the violence, yet Hitler had previously warned against such actions in his first antisemitic pamphlet in 1919. Following the pogrom, Hitler ordered the liquidation of all Jewish businesses and the transfer of Jewish-owned industries to German hands. He also approved a special "atonement tax" imposed exclusively on Jews. To avoid further outbreaks of violence, Hitler rejected a proposal to mark Jews with identifying stars at this time. By 1938–1939, forced Jewish emigration was confined to Germany and annexed Austria.

Raul Hilberg "Täter, Opfer, Zuschauer "Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2003