Jews Essay Example

Jews Essay Since the beginning of Christ, Jews have been fated from the mainstream of society. They have often been outcaste and therefore marginalised. Germanys defeat in World War 1 and a worldwide depression in the 1930s left the German economy in ruins and made many Germans angry and resentful. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, came to power in 1933. In the beginning, when Hitler took power, a steady series of laws eliminated all rights of German Jews until ultimately they were even deprived of the right to live. They seized Jewish businesses and destroyed synagogues. Many German Jews managed to flee Germany, many more were less fortunate and were trapped because no country would admit them and they had no means of self defence. Most nations had restrictive immigration policies and the depression led workers to fear that Jewish refugees would take their jobs. At the beginning of 1937, the United Kingdom bowed to Arab pressure and limited immigration to Palestine. Anyone with three o r four Jewish grandparents was automatically a Jew, regardless of whether that individual was a member of the Jewish community. Half-Jews were considered Jewish only if they themselves belonged to the Jewish religion or were married to a Jewish person. The proclaimed objective of the Nazi regime was Jewish emigration. The hostility towards Jews in Germany increased. This was reflected in the decision by many shops restaurants not to serve the Jewish people. Germans were also encouraged not to use Jewish doctors lawyers. Jewish civil servants, teachers those employed by the mass media were sacked. On the night of the 9th and 10th of November 1938, following the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jew, all synagogues in Germany were set on fire, windows of Jewish shops were smashed, and thousands of Jews were arrested. In almost all large German cities some smaller ones, over 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed a