Overview
Germany, in the early 1930s, fell under the influence of Nazi Power. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and his reign of terror would begin. Early signs of his power hungry desires were portrayed in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, which he wrote while serving time in prison. In this book, he outlined his hatred for the Jews and explained why they were to blame for much of the problems in the world, such as democracy. He believed Germany’s enemy was the Jews and was determined to exterminate the pests that were standing in the way. Once Hitler became dictator, there was nothing to stop him from trying to create, in his mind, the superior Aryan race which would be done so by eliminating Jews. Hitler began this genocide by rounding up all the Jews and forcing them to live in ghettos, separating them from the rest of society. Also, he forced every Jew to mark them with a bright yellow star that was to be worn out in public to further degrade them. Ostracizing the Jews was not enough to satisfy Hitler. Soon the trains would come and the selection process would begin to remove the Jews and bring them to forced labor camps stripping them of their identities and forcing them to work until their death. Many would die because of the poor conditions and lack of nutrition, but many were simply discarded as if their life had no meaning. Hitler’s methods to destroy the Jewish race left the Jews feeling like they were no longer human.