Nazi Germany: from the seizure of power to dictatorship

Thanks to the 1929 economic crisis, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) gained momentum and progressed over the electoral polls. Adolf Hitler at the head of the party since 1921, takes advantage of the failures of the Weimar Republic and exploits the nationalism generated by the Treaty of Versailles signed after the First World War (June 28, 1919). Exceptional speaker, Hitler develops, on a ground where conservatism, frustrated nationalism and social resentment mingle, a propaganda that uses arguments both new and secular. In 1930, in the general elections, the party obtained 18.37% of the votes becoming the second party of Germany, and on January 30, 1933, Hitler became chancellor. He then takes the lead of a government with a national-conservative majority in which the Nazis are a minority compared to conservatives who are determined to use them to liquidate the Weimar Republic for the benefit of a traditional authoritarian regime.

It only takes a few months for Hitler to seize power without sharing. The burning down of the Reichstag on 27 February 1933 is the pretext to ban the Communist Party whose leaders and 10,000 activists are interned. It allows Hitler to obtain from Marshal von Hindenburg, still President of the Reich (official name of the Republic), the promulgation "of the decree for the protection of the people and the State", on 28 February 1933, and also to obtain exceptional police powers in the Länder. In this political climate, the Nazis won 44% of the votes in the parliamentary elections on 5 March 1933, or 288 seats out of 640 in the Reichstag. The deputies of the center (Zentrum) join the Nazis and the German nationals to vote, on March 23, 1933, the enabling law (promulgated on March 24) which grants Hitler full powers for 4 years, renewable in case of need.

Nazification of Germany

On July 14, 1933, all political parties are banned in favor of the Nazi party, declared a single party. The unions are replaced by a new corporatist organization, the 'Labor Front', controlled by the Nazis. The skilful and intensive propaganda of Goebbels, appointed on March 11, 1933 minister of Propaganda, is implemented. On May 10, 1933, students and librarians "cleaned up" the libraries of university towns, literary works and "undesirable" - liberal authors, socialist and Jewish pacifists. Faced with this direct threat, many writers and artists take the path of exile. The press, radio and cinema are strictly monitored and used by Nazi propaganda. From 1934, civil servants are forced to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Youth is the subject of special care: under the aegis of the National Socialist League of Education, schools become places of indoctrination. The youth movements, foremost among which are the Hitler Youth, recruit and mobilize young people from adolescence, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS (protection group) is vested with full police powers. Taking more and more importance since the "Night of the Long Knives" (liquidation of the SA by the SS), the SS penetrates all sectors of public and private life and strives to establish by all means, including terror, a new model of man in line with Nazi biological references.

The first measures against the Jews come into effect two months after Marshal von Hindenburg entrusted the constitution of the government to Adolf Hitler.

Economic exclusion

On 1 April 1933, an unofficial committee organized a huge boycott of Jewish businesses, law firms and doctors. This campaign is presented as a response to protest reactions abroad "at the initiative of the Jews" against the policy of the German government. The SA stand guard in front of shops, doctors' offices and Jewish lawyers. This day symbolically marks the beginning of the eviction of Jews from economic life. On April 7, 1933, the first two laws excluded Jews from public service and from the bar. The Jews of Germany are gradually being driven out of liberal professions, the army, justice, cultural professions, and the press. A numerus clausus was established in the universities and from 1938 Jewish children had to leave school. The Nazi party and its activists invest in the aryanization of Jewish-owned property by intimidating the Jewish population: 41,000 of the 50,000 retail businesses are "voluntarily" sold by their Jewish owners between 1933 and 1938.

The Nuremberg laws

On September 15, 1935, the civil law of the Reich and the law "for the protection of German blood and honor" prohibit unions and sexual relations between Jews and "non-Jews", "generating defilements".
The Jews are deprived of their citizenship and become subjects of lower status, to whom it is even forbidden to 'boast in the German national colors.' At the same time, the implementing decree of 14 November 1935 defines who is Jewish: "a Jew is one who comes from at least three Jewish grandparents; a Jew is one who belongs to the Jewish religious community." The racial criterion and religious affiliation are therefore both taken into account. Implementing orders, provisions related to the case of Mischlinge (mixed-race) or half-Jews, follow a few weeks later. These laws trigger a series of denunciations: in the city of Hamburg alone, about 5,000 people are arrested and interrogated while 1,150 investigation procedures are opened. After serving a sentence for an offence under the Blood Protection Act, these people are usually interned in concentration camps.

The Reichstag fire on the night of 27 February 1933. Berlin, Germany, 1933.
Cr said photographic: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.

Autodaf de livres, Berlin, Germany, 10 May 1933.
Cr said photographic: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.

«The d goal of the exodus of the Jews from the Jewish aquarium Bad Herweck, Mannheim, Germany,» 1935.
Cr says photographic: Wiener Library.

Man holding a sign calling for the boycott of shops belonging to Jews. Germany, April 1, 1933.
Cr says photographic: Yad Vashem.

Text of the Nuremberg Laws. September 16, 1935.
Collection: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.