|
The pre-war
persecution of Jews in Germany took place under very different
circumstances from that of the Nazis' extermination campaign during
World War II. The operative aim of Nazi policy during the first
years was not yet the physical annihilation of the Jews but rather
their social and economic displacement and their removal from German
soil. In pursuing these goals, the regime was still subject to
internal and external constraints that restrained the brutality of
its antisemitic measures. Most of the anti-Jewish campaign was
carried out in the full glare of world publicity. Its typical
manifestations were discriminatory legislation, economic
deprivation, public defamation, administrative harassment, and
social ostracism rather than physical torture and murder.
A
distinctive feature of Nazi policy before the war was the confusing
interplay between repression and normalcy, the constant tightening
and untightening of the antisemitic pressure. Spurts of intense
antisemitic activity were buffered by prolonged periods of deceptive
stabilization. By and large, the pre-war antisemitic campaign
crested at three junctures:
-
The
boycott of April 1, 1933, and the ensuing wave of racial
legislation aimed at Jewish employees in the public services and
the various professions.
-
The
Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935, which put the final seal
on Jewish emancipation in Germany and defined Jewishness in
racial terms.
-
The
state-organized pogrom on the night of November 9-10, 1938, the
so-called Kristallnacht ( "Crystal Night").
|
