Do Now
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What is the message of
hate on this sign?
Have you ever seen
these in your life
What is the intent of
purpose?
How would you feel if
you came home and
saw a message of hate
towards your family
based on your religion or
culture?
What is Anti-Semitism?
• Anti-Semitism is prejudice and/or
discrimination against Jews. Anti-Semitism
can be based on hatred against Jews
because of their religious beliefs, their
group membership (ethnicity) and
sometimes on the erroneous belief that
Jews are a race. Jews are, in fact, of all
different races.
• Have you ever seen any incidents of
Anti-Semitism in your life?
The Initial Assault
• On April 1, 1933 the Nazis launched a
national boycott of Jewish businesses.
Troops were stationed in front of the
shops to enforce the boycott and the
police were ordered not to interfere.
• Many people placed signs and painted
Stars of David on the windows of each
store.
• This was Hitler’s response
Gruelpropagnada (Atrocity Stories)
spread by German and foreign Jews to
discredit the Nazis
• Hitler was quoted as saying; “Perhaps
they (American Jews) will think better of
the matter when their racial comrades
in Germany begin to get it in the neck.”
Why do you think the sign on the store
window is also printed in English?
What lesson was Hitler teaching the
German people?
• Reaction to the boycott was mixed.
Some cities saw eruptions of
violence against Jews, while in
other areas Germans honorably
and defiantly entered Jewish shops.
• Some Jews “saw the light” and fled
the country, but most remained
optimistic and stayed. Many
believed the Nazi Regime to be
temporary, others could not
imagine Germany, a first world
industrialized nation, would
seriously harm any of its citizens.
• The boycott officially lasted for 1
day and was mostly ignored
• On April 7, 1933 the Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil
Service was passed. All Jewish
government workers, lawyers,
journalists, and teachers were fired.
All Jewish doctors could no longer
have German patients.
Question: What effect would firing
Jewish public professionals have on
German society?
Did you know? Albert Einstein
was one of the few German
Jews who fled after Hitler took
power in 1933.
“Buy from the Jews,
betray your people.”
How are these Jewish men
physically portrayed?
“Our people crucified their Christ on the
cross, and we do a great business on his
birthday.”
“Sucked Dry”
“The Beginning and the End”
The Poisonous Mushroom
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Children’s Book Published by
Julius Streicher in 1938
Der Giftpliz for “the toadstool”
or “poison mushroom)
Text by Ernst Hiemer
Illustrated by Philipp Rupprecht
How to tell a Jew
What is a Talmud
The experience of Hans and
Else with a strange man
Inge’s Visit to a Jewish Doctor
The Nuremberg Laws
• In 1935 Hitler decided it was time to
move to the next stage in his plan to
eliminate Jews from society. The
Nazis passed the “Law for the
Protection of German Blood and
Honor” and the “Reich Citizenship
Law”. Collectively they were known
as the Nuremburg Laws designed to
strip Jews of their rights.
• The Nuremberg Laws also defined
exactly who was Jewish and who
was not. The chart on the following
page shows how they thought of
every possible genetic scenario.
• Despite everything that Hitler did
most German Jews believed that
time would pass, and things
would get better. Their hopes
were destroyed when the largest
attack on a Jewish community
since the Middle Ages took place
in November 1938, called
“Kristallnacht”, or The Night of
Broken Glass.
Above and Left:
Herschel Grynszpan.
Right: Ernst Von Rath
Take a look at the following
pictures and decide what you
believe is happening.
Above: Firefighters prevent
homes next to a Synagogue from
catching fire, letting the Jewish
house of worship burn.
Right: Germans watch a
synagogue burn without
interfering.
Left: Germans watch the
furnishing and Torahs of the
local synagogue burn.
Right: Hundreds of Jewish
men are marched off to a
concentration camp.
The destruction of
Jewish businesses and
synagogues after
Kristallnacht.
Jewish Emigration after Kristallnacht
• The entire Jewish community in
Germany now knew it was time to leave
the country.
• Many nations, including the US,
prevented them from seeking refuge.
Nazi law prevented the Jews from taking
anything of value and most countries.
– Great Depression
– Anti-Semitism
• The international community held a
conference in Evian, France to discuss
Jewish emigration. It ended in failure as
no industrialized nation wanted to
accept the refugees.
Fact: When Canada was asked how many
Jewish refugees they would take, its
minister responded, “None is too many.”
The SS St. Louis carried hundreds
of Jewish refugees out of Germany.
Unable to find any nation that would
accept them, the boat had to come
back to Germany. ¼ of its
passengers later died in the
Holocaust.