Question

List at least 4 events that led to the Holocaust.

Answer 1

1. Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 by President Paul von Hindenburg; the Nazi party comes to power.
Conservatives believed appointing Hitler as Chancellor would bring stability to Germany. The people who appointed Hitler didn't want a Nazi Germany, just a strong authoritarian central government, and they believed they would be able to control him as a leader. In 1 1/2 years, Hitler manages to establish a one-party dictatorship. He calls for new elections. In March 1933, Hitler passes the Enabling Act, which basically puts Hitler in total power. Under this act the cabinet can make laws; anything can be decreed as long as it doesn't interfere with the Reichstag (parliament); and the laws were prepared by the Chancellor -- Hitler. The government creates special courts to by-pass the established justice system so they can basically do whatever they want. In May, all political parties except for the NSDAP dissolve.
2. Hitler becomes Fuhrer in August of 1934.
Hindenburg dies on 1 August 1934. Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor, becoming leader. The army takes a personal oath to him. He begins to construct a police state against all potential opponents -- the Gestapo is created to help create concentration camps. These opened in March 1933 and were NOT originally built to hold Jews; they were meant for political prisoners. Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich head the Gestapo. Between 1933 and 1939, there is little doubt that a majority of Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi regime, though not necessarily the EXTERMINATION of Jews. However, they did begin pressuring Jews to leave.
3. Defining who is a Jew through nuremberg laws
The Nuremberg Laws were an attempt to legally define who is Jewish. There are several of them that were enacted throughout the years. In April 1933, Jewish shops were required to be labeled as such. SS and SA men were stationed outside these businesses. That same month came the Restoration of Professional Civil Service - Jewish civil servants were forced to retire. The main laws were about deciding who was Jewish; if one's grandparents were Jewish (even if that person had converted to Christianity), then they were considered Jewish. Mixed marriages were prohibited and intercourse between an Aryan and a Jew was forbidden. There could not be any gentile housekeepers in Jewish homes. These laws also declared that all subjects of german blood were citizens, not mixed blood or Jews. In April 1938 all Jews were required to have a jewish name.
4. Hitler orders the T-4 Program and the building of the first concentration camps.
A decree issued on 1 September 1939 began the euthanasia, Program. Instead of sterilizing those who were mentally ill, physically deformed, those who had congenital diseases, venereal disease, or alcoholics, Hitler ordered them to be killed instead.

As I mentioned, the first concentration camps, were built in 1933 to house political prisoners after the Reichstag Fire in 1933. The number of camps grew between 1939 and 1942 as Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies, among others, were put into these camps.