Hi everyone,
I am currently studying Jewish history and we've just finished the Holocaust unit. My professors lectures were relatively underwhelming and I am still puzzled by the years leading up to the Holocaust. My professor stressed that Hitler was not solely elected for his anti-semitism background, this much I agree with. However, I am confused on how we got to the point in 1941 where basically all Germans were fine with Jews disappearing. I know that many Germans were friends with Jews, but there's virtually no documentation of any sort of rioting, protesting, in terms of when the Jews started being relocated. How did Germany as a society get to the point of accepting Hitler's ideas towards the Jews? Of course propaganda was rampant, but what were the other factors? It's just so weird to me how a society that was doing so well with Jews in positions of power (Weimar period) can suddenly turn so fast on them and be accepting of the Nazi's plan. I would absolutely love for anyone to expand on how they got to that point or any further comments.
The 1930s were really vital in creating an atmosphere for the Holocaust. Saul Friedlander's book Nazi Germany and the Jews, and Christopher Browning's Origins of the Final Solution are really good texts for this. The first steps of the Holocaust were to remove Jews from public German life, and from the economy, to isolate Jews, and to fuel pre-existing antisemitism. Jews were removed from the government, from schools, and other public functions, and it became unacceptable to associate with Jews. All of these things acted to isolate Jews, and more importantly to isolate Germans from their Jewish neighbors. Now this cannot explain the Holocaust without a good deal of antisemitism, but I hope it helps. I am a graduate student in Holocaust studies so feel free to contact me with more questions