ABSTRACT
Violence, Franz Neumann argued, "is the very basis upon which the [Nazi] society rests." He regarded violence as a technique of dominating the masses from above, and the ministerial bureaucracy, the armed forces, the industrial and agrarian leadership and the Nazi party all aimed to dominate German society by using violence. The first wave of anti-Jewish violence by the Nazi party, its divisions and affiliates, was launched right after the elections of March 5, 1933. This violence was part of a broader impact on German banks, department stores, and chambers of trade and commerce and belonged to the massive "Party revolution from below" with which the Nazi Party began its metamorphosis into the Third Reich. In 1936/37, the anti-Jewish violence of the local leaders took on two main directions – they forced landlords to break their leases with all Jews and "non-Aryans" regarding lodgings and business premises; and they pushed ahead the illegal identification of Jewish business.
