The Holocaust Was Small at The Beginning Too

Most Americans have some historical knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust from 1942-1945. That was when Germany built scores of concentration camps and a dozen or so death camps where Jews and others were rounded up and forced into gas chambers where they were murdered.

From there, the bodies were cremated, and the ashes were dumped into fields. This was done on an industrial scale so that the total number killed is believed to exceed 6 million.

Sadly, the younger generation knows far less about this because it is not taught in high schools and colleges except in some specialized courses. What is even less well known is the strong anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany in the period 1934-1938 prior to the worst of the inhumanity.

Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Party made a strong showing in German elections in 1932, and he was named Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. However, it took about a year to consolidate power following the Reichstag fire and the death of former Chancellor and President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934. It was then that Hitler combined the powers of chancellor and president and began to pursue his policies by decree. There were no free elections in Germany again until 1949.

Hitler’s persecution of Jews began with discrimination, termination from jobs, boycotts of businesses, and confiscation of property including homes and fine art. Some Jews left Germany while they could, but many remained in the hopes that the anti-Semitism would be temporary or at least not grow worse. In fact, it got much worse.

It culminated in Kristallnacht in November 1939 when Jewish businesses and homes were destroyed by anti-Semitic mobs. After that, there were no constraints and Hitler’s SS began murdering Jews on a wholesale basis.

What’s going on in the United States today bears a close resemblance to that early period of anti-Semitism in Germany. So-called pro-Palestinian marches are really just anti-Semitism in thin disguise.

Jews are being warned to keep out of Brooklyn. Jewish businesses are being boycotted. Death threats are rampant.

Those who understand the Holocaust and say, “It can’t happen here,” should think again because it is happening here. Those who are not familiar with the history of the Holocaust may be the most dangerous because they don’t understand the path they are going down.

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