ler's tyrannical rule in Europe and of his 'Final Solution.'Adolf Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews as part of his aim to conquer the world, and he did, at least six million of them. In addition to Jews, the Nazis systematically killed millions of other people whom Hitler regarded as racially inferior or politically dangerous. The largest groups included Germans who were physically handicapped or mentally retarded, Gypsies, and Slavs, particularly Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Nazi victims also included many homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, priests and ministers, members of labor unions, and Communists and other political opponents. On April 1, 1933, Hitler's government sponsored a nationwide boycott of Jewish stores and other businesses. In the next several months, the government passed a number of laws that barred Jews from specific occupations. Jews were excluded from civil service, for example, and from the fields of education and culture, and they could no longer farm the land. The Nuremberg laws of 1935 stripped Jews of citizenship. Jews were forbidden to marry non-Jews. The laws set forth a definition of who was a Jew and who was a part-Jew, also known as a Mischling which meant 'mixed blood'. For example, a person who had at least three Jewish grandparents was classified as a Jew. The Nazi persecution reached a new height on Nov. 9, 1938. Beginning that night and continuing for about twenty-four hours, Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish owned businesses and burned most synagogues in Germany and Austria. They beat Jews in the streets and attacked them in their homes. They killed dozens of Jews. They arrested about 30,000 Jews and sent them to concentration camps. The night became known as 'Kristallnacht', a German word meaning Crystal Night. In English, it is called the Night of Broken Glass.After World War II began in 1939, Germany's powerful war machine conquered country after country in Europe. Millions more ...
