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The rise of the Third Reich
The Nazi rise to power brought an end to the Weimar Republic, the German parliamentary democracy established after World War.
The Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) came to power,a regime where citizens had no guaranteed basic rights. -
Fuhrer!
Hitler’s grip on power was secured soon after and he declared himself Führer, or leader.
"I swear: I will be faithful and obedient to the leader of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfill my official duties, so help me God." -
The antisemitism law
The Nuremberg Laws reduced Jews to second-class citizens because of their 'impure' blood. -
Escalating anti-Jewish propaganda
Nazis stepped up their erosion of civil rights in Germany. Several concentration camps became purgatory for Jews.
Mass propaganda throughout the nation portraying Jews as the enemy of the state. "It is a horrible thing that a race of people should be attempted to be blotted out of the society in which they had been born"
- Winston Churchill, about the holocaust -
The World War II
While the world was waging war at each other the Nazis moved several Jews to camps outside the country and were shot dead.
Alongside this, Hitler approved a new program of euthanasia to exterminate the handicapped and mentally ill. "Patients considered incurable, according to the best available human judgment of their state of health, can be granted a mercy killing"
Decree from the Fuhrer, October 1939 -
The Final Solution
The systematic murder of the Jews started taking place. Whole communities of Jews were shot dead over night and the plan to devise gas chambers and ghettos were initiated. -
The year of the Holocaust
Mass murder of Jews started taking place all around the Nazi regime.
These years saw systematic deportations of millions of Jews to increasingly efficient killing centers using poison gas. -
The Jews fight back
Germany is loosing the war. Yet they put their whole resources into the final solution - the complete extermination of Jews from Europe. -
Victory for the Allies.
The world war comes to a close with the victory of the Allied forces. Hitler commits suicide in his bunker.The Allies found camps that were catastrophically over-crowded with no food or sanitation.The true horrors of the Holocaust is revealed -
Justice at Nuremberg
The international military tribunal delivered its verdict on 21 senior Nazi officials. 18 were found guilty and three were acquitted.
Many Nazis evaded justice altogether and were never tried.
