Question

When and why did Nazi policy toward the Jews move from forced emigration and expulsion to mass genocide by July 1941?

Answer 1

Germany's defeat in WWI and subsequent accepting the defeat under the treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 Germany was forced to make payment of 132 billion gold marks app US$33 billion in lieu of damage caused to the civilian.

It was understood that Germany had started WWI and influenced its alliance country Austria-Hungary to fight against Serbia. Germany intended to become the world superpower by curbing Russia and France.

During WWI Hitler was a soldier in the German army. It was a common belief in Germany that the defeat of the German Empire was due to betrayal by his own people especially Jews. By believing this Hitler had stereotyped hatred towards the Jew community.

Hitler spent his life from 1907 to 1913 in Vienna city that was having a large number of Jews communities. The Mayor of Vienna was anti-Jews, and Hitler developed this hatred from the beginning. After WWI and Germany making payment as a penalty for starting WWI and damage caused to civilians Germany's hatred towards Jews increased because he felt Jews were responsible for deteriorating economic conditions.

In 1932 with a promise to make economic reforms Hitler came into power. During 1933 his Nazi party started propagating against the people on the racist ground. According to them, the Germans are of pure Aryan blood and a superior race and all other non-Aryans are subhuman. They started the policy of sterilization and extermination of those whom they saw as sub-human that included slaves, Jews, handicapped persons, men women, and children.

After coming to power Hitler’s stereotype hatred towards Jews increased and he started the policy of forced emigration.

With the start of WWII, the German started forced emigration of Jews and other sub-human categories from Germany. With the influx of refugees from Germany the other countries especially the US became strict in giving shelter to Germany with the fear of traitorous threat from Nazi agents infiltering in the US border. With lesser countries giving shelter to German emigrants the Nazis decided to exterminate Jews by killing them. Hitler ordered his subordinate to kill the Jews in agony they should be tortured and killed. They killed them by starvation, putting them in Gas chambers, or through firing squad and concentration camps.

The Nazis had killed not only Jews they killed Gypsies, disabled, dissidents and homosexuals. Around 70,000 mentally ill Germans were put to death through  Euthanasia and killing of disabled continued in secrecy. The German had become ruthless and killed 500,000 Soviet Jews during their occupation of that territory. As per a memorandum dated July 31, 1941, it was made mandatory for every Jews to wear yellow star thus making them the soft targets.

Beginning in late 1941 they started transporting the Jews and others from Ghettoes of Poland and transferred then to the concentration camps according to Germans they were least useful and have no right to live. They made five more concentration camps and from 1942 to 1945 Jews were transported to these camps. During fall 1942, around 300000 Jews were transferred from Warsaw ghetto to these gas chambers and were killed. The exact number of people killed by German especially Jews cannot figure out but around 600, 000 Jews were killed during WWII.