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The group most heavily targeted for persecution by the Nazis were the Jews of Germany. The outbreak of World War Two brought the horror of mass killings and the Final Solution, but the period after 1933 saw a gradual increase in persecution, reaching a turning point during Kristallnacht in November 1938.

1933

• Nazis organised a boycott of Jewish businesses.
• Books by Jewish authors were publicly burnt.
• Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers were sacked.
• Race science lessons were introduced, teaching that Jews were sub-human.

1935

The Nuremberg Laws formalised anti-Semitism into the Nazi state by:

• Stripping Jews of German citizenship
• Outlawing marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans
• Taking away from Jews all civil and political rights

1938

• Jews could not be doctors.
• Jews had to add the name Israel (men) or Sara (women) to their name.
• Jewish children were forbidden to go to school.
• Kristallnacht - 9 November. The SS organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in retaliation for the assassination of the German ambassador to France by a Jew.

1939

• Jews were forbidden to own a business, or even a radio.

By the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939, the Jews were stateless, their employment options in Germany were severely restricted and they feared for their safety.