Once Adolf Hitler had gained complete power of Germany as a dictator in March 1933, he set up policies to bring the country's people 'into line'. His desire to do this was fuelled by the belief that the German people were a superior race above all others, called the Aryans. He also believed that, in order to prosper, Germany needed to be 'purified' by setting the Aryans apart from such inferior races as the Jewish community.
As soon as he came into power, Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg of the Reich government, to issue decrees to suspend all given civil liberties of the German people and politicians. The Enabling Act that followed in March allowed Hitler and the Nazis to establish policies in order to 'cleanse' Germany of the Jews as they did not need to seek approval from the Reich. He was not greatly opposed in the beginning because there was already a proportion of anti-Semitic feeling within Germany and elsewhere.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Munich, Germa...
Mussolini (left) and Hitler sent their armies to N...
According to Bullock, Hitler was an opportunistic ...Although there were only a few Jewish officials who signed the Treaty of Versailles, the 'weakening' of Germany was seen as a Jewish plot. The economic crises during the years of the Weimar Republic were also blamed on the Jews without justification. Hitler did not create anti-Semitism, but he did encourage and use it to manipulate the German people saying the Jewish people were 'inferior and dangerous' to German society. He believed that eradicating the Jewish race from Germany would help it become a great empire again, which convinced people that the Jews were a problem.
The first official incident of anti-Semitism came on 1st April 1933 a month after Hitler became dictator, people were ordered to boycott all Jewish shops and professions for a day. This was the foremost of many boycotts until eventually anyone seen entering a...