Mira Costa High School
October 10, 1945
Background
Beginning in 1935, the Nuremberg Race Laws would be the major first step in a long journey marked by constant persecution of Jews and other non-German nationals within the German borders. It initially set about to denationalize any Jewish person, as identified with at least three Jewish grandparents, and separated the religion from the ethnicity, thus targeting even non-practicing German individuals. Marriage with a Jewish individual is outlawed and by November 14, 1935, this decree was extended to anyone not of pure German descent, namely Roma (Gypsies), blacks, or their offspring(USHMM). On December 9, 1936, the Supreme Court in Germany even recommended a wider and much …show more content…
The legal basis for the despotism that was created by the Nazi regime within Germany arose from the Enabling Act which made the formation of rival political parties illegal, robbing not just the Jewish people of an avenue to resist the consolidation of power within the Nazi party. Based on the ideas of Lebensraum, these laws would be justified by providing “true Germans” with the whole of the country for themselves. In 1938 geschlossener Arbeitseinsatz, meaning closed labor, was instated and in essence separated the German Jews from the rest of the work force, creating the conditions necessary for the widespread creation of concentration camps and the total exploitation of German Jewish labor necessary to fuel the war effort and production of armaments and war materials. Later taken over by the Reichsbank, The Decree for the Reporting of Jewish Owned Property was enacted in 1938 to categorically review the private property of German Jews that amounted to any value to the German government, allowing for later seizure of these goods from the German Jews to support the growing costs of the war …show more content…
Initially Hitler uses the restrictions placed under the Treaty of Versailles as a litmus test for European aggression towards Germany, repeatedly and deliberately breaking them to gauge any negative response. Occupying the Rhineland, increasing the size of the standing army, and interest in retaking the Sudetenland all became examples of the exploitation of a policy of appeasement within Western European powers opposed to the idea of another World War. As a result of this appeasement policy the Munich Agreement was signed, providing Germany with the Sudetenland officially but limiting further expansion. This too was broken by Hitler and Nazi Germany as he authorizes the reoccupation of the entirety of Czechoslovakia and invades Poland. With this military act, Hitler forces the hand of Britain and France who declare war on the country, thus ending the