Anti Semitism Becomes Law

How Hate Became Law

Germany in the 1930s wasn’t just a country—it was a pressure cooker. The scars of World War I were still fresh, the Great Depression was in full swing, and resentment was bubbling over. Into this chaos marched Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, ready to offer simple answers to complex problems. Their solution? Blame the Jews. Over the course of a decade, antisemitism went from hateful whispers to official policy, from ugly graffiti to broken glass on the streets, and from social exclusion to outright violence.

How did this happen? How did an entire country go from having Jewish neighbors, teachers, and shopkeepers to isolating, dehumanizing, and persecuting them? It’s a story of propaganda, laws, and societal change, and it’s one of the darkest chapters in history.

The word "Jew" in German and the Star of David spray painted on a Jewish shop owners window. This was done as a racist way of identifying Jews and singling them out.

Before the Nazis

Let’s be clear: antisemitism wasn’t something the Nazis invented. It had been around in Europe for centuries, lurking like a bad smell at a party. Jewish communities were often scapegoats for everything from economic downturns to plagues, and Germany was no exception. After World War I, things got worse. The Treaty of Versailles left Germany humiliated, broke, and looking for someone to blame. Enter Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, ready to point the finger.

In his book Mein Kampf (which translates to My Struggle, but could just as easily be called My Hate Speech), Hitler called Jews Germany’s biggest enemy. According to him, they were responsible for the country’s defeat in WWI, its economic struggles, and its moral decline. To say this was absurd would be an understatement, but desperate people don’t always make rational choices. By the early 1930s, Hitler’s ideas were gaining traction. In return for economic prosperity, people were willing to ignore the ridse of antisemitism in Germany.

1930–1933: Nazis Take Power and Antisemitism Gets Loud

By 1930, Germany was in political and economic chaos. The Great Depression hit hard, unemployment was skyrocketing, and extremist parties like the Nazis were thriving. The Nazi Party had a clear message: “Germany for Germans!” (Spoiler: They didn’t mean all Germans.) Jews, they claimed, were the ultimate villains, secretly controlling banks, media, and politics. It was all nonsense, of course, but that didn’t stop it from catching on.

Propaganda: Lies on Repeat

The Nazis had a secret weapon: propaganda. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda mastermind, made sure that antisemitism was everywhere—newspapers, posters, movie theaters, speeches, you name it. Papers like Der Stürmer published grotesque cartoons and stories portraying Jews as greedy, corrupt, and dangerous. It was all part of a strategy to make antisemitism feel normal. And sadly, it worked.

1933: Hitler Becomes Chancellor

In January 1933, Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, and the Nazis wasted no time turning their hate into policy. Within months, they had passed laws to consolidate power and silence dissent. Democracy? Gone. Free speech? Forget it. Germany was now a Nazi playground, and Jews were their first target.

Der Sturmer (The StormTrooper) - The unofficial Nazi newspaper regularly featured antisemitic articles like this one. The bottom caption reads "The Jews are Our Misfortune".

1933–1935: Laws, Boycotts, and the Start of Isolation

Once the Nazis had control, they started chipping away at Jewish rights. They didn’t go straight to mass violence—at first, they used laws to push Jews to the margins of society. It was like a slow-motion train wreck: each new rule made life a little harder, a little less free, and a lot more terrifying.

The Boycott of Jewish Businesses

In April 1933, the Nazis organized a one-day nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. Brown-shirted stormtroopers (SA) stood outside Jewish shops, scrawled “Jude” (Jew) on windows, and discouraged Germans from entering. While the boycott wasn’t as successful as they’d hoped—some people still shopped where they wanted—it sent a clear message: Jews were no longer welcome in German society.

Banning Jews from Professions

The Nazis didn’t stop at boycotts. That same year, they passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which banned Jews from government jobs. Teachers, judges, and civil servants were forced out. More laws followed, targeting Jewish doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. The message was clear: Jews didn’t belong in Germany’s workforce.

The Book Burnings

In May 1933, The Hitler Youth staged bonfires where they torched works by Jewish authors and other “un-German” books. This wasn’t just about destroying ideas—it was about erasing Jewish culture and intellectual contributions. Literary works by famous Jewish authors like Signmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Franz Kafta went into the fire. Non-Jewish authors like H.G. Wells (1984), Karl Marx (Das Capital), Jack London (Call of the Wild), and Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front) were targeted because they contradicted Nazi teachings.

1935: The Nuremburg Laws

In 1935, the Nuremburg Laws were passed. Jews, Gyspies, Slavs and other non-Aryan people were labeled as sub-humans. Those with physical handicaps, mental illnesses, or homosexuals were sterilized to" preserve the purity" of German blood. Signs on public facilities read “No Jews Allowed”. Anti-Semitic graffiti was freely sprayed across the windows of Jewish homes and businesses. Average Germans avoided their Jewish neighbors out of fear of the Gestapo ––who had spies everywhere.

What Did the Nuremberg Laws Do?

Stripped Jews of Citizenship: Under the Reich Citizenship Law, Jews were no longer German citizens. They became “subjects” with no voting rights or political voice.
Banned Intermarriage: The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor prohibited Jews from marrying or having relationships with “Aryans.” It was as creepy and controlling as it sounds.
Defined Jewishness by Blood: Even if your family had converted to Christianity generations ago, you were still considered Jewish if you had three or more Jewish grandparents. The Nazis weren’t interested in your religion—just your ancestry.

The Nuremberg Laws didn’t just strip away rights—they dehumanized an entire population. By defining Jews as “other” and isolating them legally, the Nazis made it easier for average Germans to turn a blind eye to what was coming next, the Holocaust.

In 1933, Jewish businessman Oskar Danker and his girlfriend, a Christian woman, were forced to carry signs discouraging Jewish-German integration. Two years later, their relationship would officially be illegal under the Nuremburg Laws.

The sign that on the left reads: I am a big pig and only associate with Jews.

The sign on the right reads: As a Jewish boy, I only ever take German girls to my room.

1936–1938: Turning Up the Heat

By the mid-1930s, the Nazis were feeling pretty secure in their grip on power. This confidence led to a new wave of antisemitic measures and an even bolder approach to exclusion and oppression.

Economic Exclusion

Jewish-owned businesses were systematically targeted and eventually “Aryanized,” a fancy way of saying they were stolen and handed over to non-Jewish Germans. Jewish workers were fired en masse, and Jewish professionals—doctors, lawyers, professors—were barred from practicing their trades. The goal? Force Jews into poverty and make them completely dependent on the Nazi regime.

The Berlin Olympics (1936)

For a brief moment, the Nazis toned down their antisemitic rhetoric to put on a good face for the international community during the Berlin Olympics. Signs reading “Jews Not Welcome” mysteriously disappeared, and Germany even let a single Jewish athlete, Helene Mayer, compete for the German team. But this was just a façade. As soon as the games ended, the Nazis cranked up their hate machine once again.

Outside-the-Jewish-department-store-Tietz-in-Berlin-1933-image-National-Archives-and-Recor

1938: Kristallnacht

The next step for the Nazi government was to confiscate Jewish owned businesses and homes. The money from the sale of these stolen properties went directly to support the Nazi war machine. To raise additional cash, the government encouraged Jews to pay a flight tax of about 25% of their assets in order to get out of the country.

If any Jews believed that things really couldn't get any worse, they were in for surprise on November 6, 1938. A German diplomat had been assassinated by a Jewish youth who took revenge on the way his family had been treated. The Nazi’s leapt at this chance to unleash a night of terror throughout Germany. Armed thugs of Brownshirts, SS, and Gestapo roamed the streets of German towns smashing the windows of Jewish stores and synagogues. Homes and businesses were looted and burned. Jews caught in the street were beaten and thousands were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Because the streets were littered with broken glass, the attack became known as Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.

The Nazi’s conducted an official investigation into the riots and came to an open and shut verdict. The Jews were responsible for the riots that caused so much damage. The Jewish community was required to pay a billion Marks (the currency of Germany) in fines. After Kristallnacht 100,000 Jews realized which way the wind was blowing and fled Germany. But millions more were trapped. Either too poor or unable to get a visa, many had no choice but to stay put and wait out the Nazi terror.

1939: The Final Stages of Exclusion

By the end of the 1930s, antisemitism in Germany wasn’t just a policy—it was a way of life. Jews were completely ostracized, forced to live in isolation and poverty. New laws required Jews to carry special identification cards, register their property, and wear the infamous yellow Star of David in public. They were banned from public spaces like parks, cinemas, and schools, effectively erasing them from German society.

Ghettos and the Road to Genocide

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, it gained control of millions of Jews in Polish territories. The Nazis began rounding them up into ghettos—overcrowded, unsanitary urban areas designed to isolate and dehumanize Jewish communities. These ghettos were a horrifying preview of the mass exterminations that would come in the 1940s.

Polish Jews were forcibly removed from their homes and marched off to live in segregated districts called Ghettos.

What Made This Possible?

It’s easy to look back and wonder how such blatant hatred became normal. The answer lies in a toxic mix of propaganda, legal oppression, and fear. The Nazis didn’t just rely on force—they relied on everyday Germans accepting, participating in, or ignoring their policies. By creating a system where antisemitism was not only legal but encouraged, the Nazis turned an entire society into enablers of hate.

Propaganda: The Nazis’ Secret Weapon

If you think social media algorithms are good at feeding you nonsense, meet Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister who made hate go viral in the 1930s. The Nazis plastered Germany with antisemitic posters, films, and speeches, all designed to make Jews the “enemy.” Newspapers like Der Stürmer churned out vile caricatures and conspiracy theories, making it nearly impossible for the average German to escape the constant drumbeat of hate.

The Nazi's wouldn't have been able to carry out their systematic targeting of Jews without the willingness of ordinary Germans to conform or look the other way.

"The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end. The breakthrough of the German revolution has again cleared the way on the German path...The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character. It is to this end that we want to educate you. As a young person, to already have the courage to face the pitiless glare, to overcome the fear of death, and to regain respect for death - this is the task of this young generation. And thus you do well in this midnight hour to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past. This is a strong, great and symbolic deed - a deed which should document the following for the world to know - Here the intellectual foundation of the November Republic is sinking to the ground, but from this wreckage the phoenix of a new spirit will triumphantly rise."

— Joseph Goebbels , Speech to the students in Berlin

Digging Deeper

Use the article to answer the questions below.

What were the Nuremberg Laws, and how did they restrict marriage and citizenship for Jewish people in Nazi Germany?
What types of jobs and businesses were Jewish people banned from under Nazi anti-Jewish laws?
What was Kristallnacht, and what happened to Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues during that event?
Why did Nazi leaders blame Jewish people for Germany’s economic problems and defeat in World War I?
How did anti-Jewish laws and violence gradually isolate Jewish people from German society?
How did Nazi propaganda portray Jewish people, and why did the government use it to gain public support?

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