Million germans unemployed in 1932 less than 2

6 million Germans unemployed in 1932, less than 2 million received unemployment
insurance. The others received emergency charity and relief. 850,000 unemployed Germans
received nothing.
Did the Jews cause Germany’s economic problems before World War Two?
 It is important to realise the Germany’s economic troubles after World War I were partly due to
the damage of the war itself, partly due to the punitive measures in the Versailles Treaty and
partly due to Germany’s own economic policies.
 They had nothing to do with the Jews. The idea of a secret conspiracy of mysteriously powerful
Jews was concocted by Hitler and his followers.
 Far from being a drain on Germany, Jewish people were active contributors to the German
economy. Hitler was disturbed and angry that many Jews held high-paying jobs and were
contributing to the economy in such a way that they became very important.

 Jewish people were involved in the media, banking and a range of other industries. Many were
teachers, psychologists and doctors. When they were forced to emigrate, currency regulations
and other measures prevented most of them from taking their wealth. Many rich Jewish families
found themselves taken into custody so that their wealth could be confiscated.
 In view of the relatively large number of Jews in Germany before 1933, what possible motive
would they have had for damaging the German economy? None!
 Most German Jews were highly integrated into German society and played their full part in World
War I as patriotic Germans either at the front or in war work on the home front.
 The notion that they were subversive arose largely from events in Bavaria in 1918-19 and from
the fact that a high proportion of the early Bolshevik leaders were Jewish.

3. The Racial State, 1933–1939
• Action taken in law including the Civil Service Laws (1933); Nuremberg Laws (1935); Decrees of
April/November 1938
• Nazi Propaganda: attempts to enforce views, for example, through education and the media
especially the press and cinema
• Nazi violence: terror; the SS and the Concentration camps; actions such as the boycott of Jewish
shops
(1933) and Reichkristallnacht (1938)
• The practice of racism in society: aryanisation, discrimination and sterilisation
• Emigration: voluntary departures; the work of the Reich Office for Jewish Emigration
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