1. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
About 9 a.m. on August 2, 1934, the much anticipated death of President Hindenburg finally occurred. Within hours, the Nazi Reichstag announced Adolph as der Fuhrer of Deutscheland.

2. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
On August 19, about 95 percent of registered voters in Germany went to the polls and gave Hitler 38 million "Ja" votes (90 percent of the vote). Thus Hitler could now claim he was Führer of the German nation with the overwhelming approval of the people.

3. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Of the 503,000 Jews living in Germany in 1933, about 70 percent lived in big cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Breslau.
Although Jews made-up less than one percent of Germany's overall population of 55 million, Hitler considered them by nature to be the "mortal enemy" of the German people.

4. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
There would be, during the twelve years of Hitler's Reich, over 400 separate regulations issued against Jews prohibiting everything from performing in a symphony orchestra to owning a pet cat.

5. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Local Brownshirts, upset by the bureaucratic bungling, often took out their frustrations on local Jews in their neighborhoods, and by mid-1935 there had been dramatic rise in the number beatings in the streets.

6. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Hitler accepted their suggestion and settled on the idea of a law forbidding intermarriage between Jews and Germans. Thus came the Nuhrenburg Laws

7. Nuhremburg Laws Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
I. 1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the protective union of the German Reich, and who therefore has particular obligations towards the Reich.
2. The status of subject is acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and State Law of Citizenship.
II. 1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the German people and Reich faithfully. .

8. Nuhremburg Laws
Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, September 15, 1935
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following law, which is promulgated herewith:
I. 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad. 2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.
II. Relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German of kindred blood are forbidden.

9. Nuhremburg Laws
III. Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood under 45 years of age as domestic servants.
IV. 1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors. 2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.

10. Nuhremburg Laws
V. 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section I will be punished with hard labor. 2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section II will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor. 3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections III or IV will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.

11. Nuhremburg Laws
VI. The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Führer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.
VII. The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section III, however, not until January 1, 1936.

12. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
The announcement of the Nuremberg Laws had the unexpected result of generating a lot of confusion and heated debate among Nazi bureaucrats as to how one should define a Jew, given that there had been widespread intermarriage up to this point.

13. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Surprisingly, many German Jews reacted to the Nuremberg Laws with a sense of relief, thinking the worst was now over

14. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
High above the town of Berchtesgaden in southeastern Bavaria, Adolf Hitler spent many hours in solitude at his mountain retreat with its magnificent views of the Alps and the valleys below. It was here that the Führer came to contemplate the future of Germany and to make all of his big decisions.

15. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
On Friday, March 15, 1935, Hitler departed his mountain retreat and returned to Berlin. He then announced a major decision he had just come to - Germany would openly defy the military limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles and re-arm.

16. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
The press was told the Führer had decided Germany was going to reintroduce military conscription (compulsory enrollment) and build a new Army consisting of 36 divisions, totaling 550,000 men.

17. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Everyone waited to see how they would respond to the news. Some of Hitler's more cautious Army generals thought there might even be an immediate military attack by France. But absolutely nothing happened, except for a few diplomatic protests. All of their past enemies had their head in the sand.
They wont hurt us, would they?

18. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Hitler's method of diplomacy in dealing with the gun-shy Western democracies was thus established. His original bombastic announcement was usually made on a Saturday to catch other governments off-guard. It came in the midst of an ongoing action, or after the fact, and was followed by a conciliatory speech full of reassuring promises. P.6
Don’t be alarmed I wouldn’t hurt a flee…well maybe I would

19. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
March 7, 1936, three battalions of the German Army crossed the bridges over the Rhine and entered into the industrial heartland of Germany known as the Rhineland. P.1

20. Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust
Once again, the whole world waited to see how the French and British would react. German troops entering the Rhineland even had orders to scoot back across the Rhine bridges if the French Army attacked. But in France, the politicians were simply unable to convince their generals to act, and were also unable to get any British support for a military response.