Why did Hitler dislike the Jews
Germany as a country did not dislike the Jews anymore than any other country at that time. There was a lot of resentment in many countries in that period towards people of Jewish faith which mainly stemmed from their religious viewpoints. It was not simply a matter of hating Jewish people because they did not believe that Jesus was their Messiah. It also stemmed from the fact that Jesus had outwardly banned monetary lending and dealings so many Christian people had to turn to Jewish people for borrowing and so forth. In the time of Hitler, the world had recently suffered from the Great Depression and many Jews had remained in successful and prominent positions despite this. It was therefore easier for them to visualise the Jewish as a greedy and gluttonous people taking away from them their hard earned money. Hitler was able to sway the country into using Jewish people as a scapegoat for the countries ailments. After the first world war the Treaty of Versailles was constructed which stripped Germany of it’s submarines, limited it’s army to a mere 100,000 men and divided up three key areas of resource within the heart of Germany and gave them to surrounding countries. The second generation of Germany grew up with the world squashing them and they resented this harsh action against their country. It’s already well known that Hitler was a fantastic and powerful public speaker so it’s not surprising the German people were taken in by his words and promises of a better Germany.
Hitler himself only began to really display anti-Semitic views later on in life and after the First World War. Hitler had a deep seeded belief that Jews were behind communism. Much like a conspiracy theory, Hitler was intently suspicious of a Judeo-Bolshevist Conspiracy. Germany itself suffered from suspected Communist aggression including the unsolved mystery of the Reichstag Building which was set on fire in 1933. While a known communist Marinus Van Der Lubbe was found inside the building and arrested the evidence was scarce at best. Hitler used this opportunity to gain power as the German public was afraid the fire marked the beginning of a communist revolution. Hitler, already suspecting the Jews were communists, leapt at the opportunity to enforce a totalitarian state, granting himself extra powers in order to thoroughly quell the communist threat to Germany. At this point Hitler no longer needed the German Government to approve or deny his legislation allowing him to properly eradicate the “Communist threat” which according to his paranoia was the Jewish people.
This power was known as the Enabling Act which activated in March 1933. Over the next year Hitler disbanded all political opposition and outlawed communism. By July, Germany was officially a one party state with Hitler at the helm. The line between communism and Jewish beliefs was non-existent in Hitler’s mind. Hitler convinced the Nazi party and the German people through his powerful speeches and rallies in which he used the words Bolshevism and Jews to mean the very same thing. Later on Hitler expressed the belief that Jews were also Homosexuals and were therefore corrupting and undermining the men of Germany leaving them weak and defenceless. This not only threatens German families but also refers to the weakened state of Germany after the Treaty of Versailles.