ABSTRACT
After the First World War Germany flourished as a federal republic, but the depression of 1930–1932 brought about massive unemployment. As a consequence extremist parties gained considerable support forcing the government to rule by presidential decree. After several unsuccessful conservative coalitions, the president, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, appointed the leader of the National Socialist Workers' Party (the Nazi Party), Adolf Hitler, as chancellor. The ideology of the Nazi party was based on German nationalism, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism. According to Hitler, the Jews were responsible for Germany's defeat in the war as well as the economic and cultural decline of the post-war period. Later in 1938 the Nazi party organized an onslaught against the Jewish population in which Jews were murdered and Jewish property was destroyed. This event, known as Kristallnacht, was a prelude to the Holocaust which brought about a new stage of modern Jewish history.
