The persecution of the Jews began systematically almost as soon as Hitler came to power. The Nazis established many new anti-Jewish laws. These were introduced slowly at first, so that the civilian population would not realise the extent of the Nazi party’s anti-Semitism. Below is a chart showing a small selection of the 2,000 Nazi anti-Jewish decrees passed between 1933-1945. It is uncertain whether Hitler planned to murder the Jews when he came to power. Originally it seems he intended to force them out of Germany but this eventually led to a plan to exterminate the Jews.

1933

• Public burning of books by Jews and anti-Nazis

  

• Random attacks on Jews and Jewish property
• Police and the courts no longer protect Jews
• April boycotts of Jewish shops – for one day, Germans are told not to buy from shops and business owned by Jews
• SA stand by shops to discourage people from…