Editing History of Germany (section)

===Antisemitism and the Holocaust===
{{Main|History of the Jews in Germany#Jews under the Nazis (1933–1945)|The Holocaust}}
[[File:Buchenwald-bei-Weimar-am-24-April-1945.jpg|thumb|U.S. Senator [[Alben W. Barkley]] views the bodies of prisoners at a liberated [[Buchenwald concentration camp]] in April 1945.]]

The Nazi regime was particularly hostile towards Jews, who became the target of unending [[antisemitic]] propaganda attacks. The Nazis attempted to convince the German people to view and treat Jews as "subhumans"<ref name="Marchak2003">{{Cite book |first=M. Patricia |last=Marchak |title=Reigns of Terror |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press&nbsp;— MQUP |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-7735-2642-6 |page=195}}</ref> and immediately after the [[March 1933 German federal election|1933 federal elections]] the Nazis imposed a nationwide [[Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses|boycott of Jewish businesses]]. In March 1933 the first [[Nazi concentration camp]] was established at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]{{Sfn|Evans|2003|p=344}} and from 1933 to 1935 the Nazi regime consolidated their power. The [[Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service]] forced all Jewish civil servants to retire from the legal profession and the civil service.{{Sfn|Majer|2003|p=92}} The [[Nuremberg Laws]] banned sexual relations between Jews and Germans and only those of German or related blood were eligible to be considered citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights.{{Sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=345}} This stripped Jews, [[Romani people|Romani]] and others of their legal rights.{{Sfn|Evans|2005|p=544}} Jews continued to suffer persecution under the Nazi regime, exemplified by the [[Kristallnacht|Kristallnacht pogrom]] of 1938, and about half of Germany's 500,000 Jews fled the country before 1939, after which escape became almost impossible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedlander |first=Saul |title=Nazi Germany and the Jews |date=1998 |volume=1: The Years of Persecution 1933–1939}}</ref>

In 1941, the Nazi leadership decided to implement a plan that they called the "[[Final Solution]]" which came to be known as the [[Holocaust]]. Under the plan, Jews and other "lesser races" along with political opponents from Germany as well as [[German–occupied Europe|occupied countries]] were systematically murdered at murder sites, and starting in 1942, at [[extermination camps]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Interpreting the 20th Century: The Struggle Over Democracy, The Holocaust|first=Pamela |last=Radcliff |pages=104–107 |url=http://anon.eastbaymediac.m7z.net/anon.eastbaymediac.m7z.net/teachingco/CourseGuideBooks/DG8090_EFF59C.PDF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714184534/http://anon.eastbaymediac.m7z.net/anon.eastbaymediac.m7z.net/teachingco/CourseGuideBooks/DG8090_EFF59C.PDF |archive-date=14 July 2014 |access-date=10 June 2014}}</ref> Between 1941 and 1945 Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, communists, homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled and members of other groups were targeted and methodically murdered – the origin of the word "[[genocide]]". In total approximately 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Jennifer |last=Rosenberg |title=Holocaust Facts |url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm |website=About.com Education |access-date=10 June 2014 |archive-date=19 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219040820/http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>