The loss of World War I and subsequent drastic changes in the socio-political and economic structure in Germany produced a deep-seated sense of personal insecurity, inferiority and, in much of the German population, existential fear. The loss of well being was based on a downward trend of social mobility, economic status and accustomed lifestyle, resulting in frustrated expectations and that existential fear (angst) which rendered the affected susceptible to political and ideological demagoguery. Adolf Hitler persuasively placed the blame for the discontent of the masses on the traditional scapegoats, the Jews, and also provided to the people a desirable frame of reference which distinguished "superior Aryans" from "inferior subhumans." Needless to say, both of these labels were based on unsubstantiated prejudicial and discriminating concepts, concepts which gave Hitler and his cohorts the meaning and value embedded in their new movement, or political party.
The appealing absolutist ideological demagoguery of Adolf Hitler, accompanied by traditionally glittery Germanic pomp and circumstance, had a tremendous impact on the German population. Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi propagandists, with an effective use of pageantry, radio broadcasts and Nazi publications, successfully penetrated the minds of susceptible Germans.
An original document; an anti-Semitic decree issued by Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria, to the effect that Bohemian Jews who marry without governmental permission and the rabbis performing the unauthorized marriages will be flogged and forcibly deported from Austro-Hungarian territory. It was issued in Prague, September 3, 1778. An earlier decree of October 6, 1726, called only for the couple involved to be punished.
"Humorous" Jewish Anecdotes from 1913, one year before the Great War (WWI). Observe the early stereotypical racist imagery adopted later by the Nazi propaganda machine.
The Program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 1927
Knorke [Terrific]! A New Isidor Book For Contemporaries. 1929. Edited by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who after Hitler's assumption of power in 1933, became Reich-Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment. This book is a blueprint for Nazi racial doctrines, illustrated with anti-Semitic cartoons.
Notice the lettering on the cover, which imitates Hebrew script. It is the same kind of lettering used for the inscription "JUDE" on the Star of David badges which, on Sept. 1, 1941, became the identification symbol all Jews were required to wear visibly on the upper left part of their attire.
The National Socialist State, Its Basis and Structure. Documents of the infrastructure of the Party, speeches and lectures, with photographs of leading Nazi officials of that time, i.e. 1933-1935.
The book is an overview of the early National Socialist leadership.
The Myth of the 20th Century.
This 1930 treatise by Alfred Rosenberg was one of the fundamental sources for Nationalist Socialist ideological indoctrination. Many editions of this book were published and widely read and quoted.
Burr McIntosh Monthly, March 1906, "People of Note."
Dr. William Osler, professor of clinical medicine at John Hopkins Medical School and prominent author of medical texts, advocated euthanasia for "..men and women who mentally and physically had outgrown their usefulness..." Hitler used the ideas of Dr. William Osler and other early American eugenicists in establishing his racial policies which eventually made the holocaust a reality.