After the Olympics, the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified with the continued "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses, which involved the firing of Jewish workers and takeover by non-Jewish owners. The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public school, universities, theaters, sports events and "Aryan" zones. Jewish doctors were also barred from treating "Aryan" patients. Jews were required to carry identity cards and, in the fall of , Jewish people had to have their passports stamped with a "J.
On November 9 and 10, , a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept Germany, Austria and parts of the Sudetenland. Nazis destroyed synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses.
Close to Jews were murdered. Called Kristallnacht , the "Night of Crystal" or the "Night of Broken Glass," referring to the broken window glass left in the wake of the destruction, it escalated the Nazi persecution of Jews to another level of brutality and violence. Almost 30, Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, signaling more horrors to come. Hitler's eugenic policies also targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities, later authorizing a euthanasia program for disabled adults.
His regime also persecuted homosexuals, arresting an estimated , men from to , some of whom were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. At the camps, gay prisoners were forced to wear pink triangles to identify their homosexuality, which Nazis considered a crime and a disease.
Between the start of World War II, in , and its end, in , Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of at least 11 million noncombatants, including about six million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. As part of Hitler's "Final Solution," the genocide enacted by the regime would come to be known as the Holocaust. German police shooting women and children from the Mizocz Ghetto, October 14, Deaths and mass executions took place in concentration and extermination camps including Auschwitz -Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Treblinka, among many others.
Other persecuted groups included Poles, communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and trade unionists. Prisoners were used as forced laborers for SS construction projects, and in some instances they were forced to build and expand concentration camps.
They were subject to starvation, torture and horrific brutalities, including gruesome and painful medical experiments. Hitler probably never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the mass killings. However, Germans documented the atrocities committed at the camps on paper and in films. In , Hitler, along with several other European leaders, signed the Munich Pact. The treaty ceded the Sudetenland districts to Germany, reversing part of the Versailles Treaty.
As a result of the summit, Hitler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for This diplomatic win only whetted his appetite for a renewed German dominance. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. By July, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the United Kingdom, with the goal of invasion. On June 22, , Hitler violated the non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin , sending a massive army of German troops into the Soviet Union. The invading force seized a huge area of Russia before Hitler temporarily halted the invasion and diverted forces to encircle Leningrad and Kiev.
The pause allowed the Red Army to regroup and conduct a counter-offensive attack, and the German advance was stopped outside Moscow in December Honoring the alliance with Japan, Hitler was now at war against the Allied powers, a coalition that included Britain, the world's largest empire, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill ; the United States, the world's greatest financial power, led by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt ; and the Soviet Union, which had the world's largest army, commanded by Stalin. Initially hoping that he could play the Allies off of one another, Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic, and the Axis powers could not sustain his aggressive and expansive war. The German army also suffered defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad , seen as a turning point in the war, and the Battle of Kursk As a result of these significant setbacks, many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that Hitler's continued rule would result in the destruction of the country.
Organized efforts to assassinate the dictator gained traction, and opponents came close in with the notorious July Plot , though it ultimately proved unsuccessful. By early , Hitler realized that Germany was going to lose the war. On January 16, , Hitler moved his center of command to an underground air-raid shelter near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Hitler's bunker was furnished with framed oil paintings and upholstered furniture, fresh drinking water from a well, pumps to remove groundwater, a diesel electricity generator and other amenities. At midnight, going into April 29, , Hitler married his girlfriend, Eva Braun , in a small civil ceremony in his underground bunker. Around this time, Hitler was informed of the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
He reportedly feared the same fate could befall him. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, , fearful of being captured by enemy troops.
Hitler took a dose of cyanide and then shot himself in the head. Eva Braun is believed to have poisoned herself with cyanide at around the same time. Their bodies were carried to a bomb crater near the Reich Chancellery, where their remains were doused with gasoline and burned.
He seized every opportunity to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship. German president Paul von Hindenburg died in August Hitler also continued to hold the position of Reich Chancellor head of government.
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For Teachers Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. Must Reads Introduction to the Holocaust What conditions, ideologies, and ideas made the Holocaust possible? About This Site. Glossary : Full Glossary. Key Facts. More information about this image. Imprisonment Rejecting political participation in Weimar elections, Hitler and the Nazi Party leadership sought to overthrow the government of Bavaria, a state in the Weimar Republic.
Using language fashioned to reflect the fears and hopes of potential voters, the Nazis campaigned for Renewing national defense capacity Restoring national sovereignty Annihilating Communism Overturning the Versailles Treaty Eliminating foreign and Jewish political and cultural influence in Germany and reversing the moral depravity that it allegedly created Generating economic prosperity and creating jobs Testing this strategy in the national parliamentary elections of , the Nazis received a disappointing 2.
Electoral Breakthroughs The Nazis made their electoral breakthrough in by combining modern technology, modern political market research, and intimidation through violence for which the leadership could deny responsibility. Chancellor of Germany The Nazi share of the vote declined to Discussion Questions What conditions, ideologies, and ideas made the Holocaust possible?
Article Nazi Racism: An Overview. Article Making a Leader. Article Third Reich: An Overview. Glossary Terms. He fought bitterly with his father, who wanted him to enter the Habsburg civil service. As Klara was dying of breast cancer in the autumn of , Hitler took the entrance exam to the Vienna Academy of the Arts. He failed to gain acceptance. In early , some weeks after Klara's death in December , Hitler moved to Vienna, ostensibly in the hope of renewing efforts to enter the Academy of Arts.
Hitler lived in Vienna between February and May He had grown up in a middle-class family, with relatively few contacts with Jewish people, in a region of the Habsburg state in which many German nationalists had been disappointed that the German Empire founded in had not included the German-speaking regions of the Habsburg Monarchy. Yet the legacy of the Vienna years is not as clear as Hitler depicted it in his political autobiography.
His impoverishment and residence in homeless shelters began only a year after his arrival and after he had frittered away a generous inheritance left by his parents and rejected all arguments of surviving relatives and family friends that he embark upon a career in the civil service. By the end of , Hitler knew real poverty as his sources of income dried up. That winter, however, helped briefly by a last gift from his aunt, he began to paint watercolor scenes of Vienna for a business partner.
He made enough to live on until he left for Munich in It is likely that Hitler experienced, and possibly also shared, the general antisemitism common among middle-class German nationalists.
Nevertheless, he had personal and business relationships with Jews in Vienna. He was also, at times, dependent in part on Jews for his living. Hitler was genuinely influenced in Vienna by two political movements. The second key influence was that of Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna from to his death in Lueger was still in power when Hitler arrived in Vienna.
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