Legal History of the Nuremberg Laws - Essay Example

To understand why Adolf Hitler would want to gain political and legal backing to “cleanse” Germany of the Jews, there must first be a familiarity with their connection of Hitler to the Jewish people and how this personal connection and ideologies could have led to the anti-Semitic fanaticism that he successfully infected a great majority of the pure-blooded German population with. There are some theories that Hitler grew up in a community that was headed by an anti-Semitic mayor whose ideologies influenced the young Hitler. There are rumors that he was bullied by Jewish children as a child. But the most popular and perhaps provable of these beliefs was that he used the Jews as a scapegoat for the failures of Germany during World War I. He saw them as the enemy because, in his mind, they caused the end of the rule of the German monarchy and the economic hardships of the German people during the aftermath of the war, the Jews being the owners of banks and lending institutions at the time. The Jews were at the time, considered to be some of the most financially stable and affluent members of German society.

What is more amazing about the story of the Nuremberg Laws and the rise of Hitler to power is that he was not German himself. He was born Austrian and only grew up in Germany where his ideologies were shaped. For someone who was not born a German to be a purist is something that continues to boggle the mind of Hitler experts and scholars to this day.

Before the installation of Adolf Hitler as the Fuhrer and ultimate dictator of Germany and leader of the Nazi party, the Germans, Jews, gypsies, and other races existed in harmony and cooperation within the land. Each of them went about their duties as good citizens and participated in all activities that could bring about the further improvement of the German economy. None of them thought worse of the other nor begrudged them the status in the life of one another. However, the Jews were somehow ahead of the Germans when it came to economic and political leadership as they somehow ended up in positions of power and sensitive responsibilities in Germany. Thus making them the target of envy of some of the pure born Germans. This was small envy that Hitler managed to build upon and cultivate into the ultimate form of hatred and discord in a country.

As such, Hitler felt that these people who had taken so much from the Germans and had not given anything back in return needed to be punished for their acts against the pure-blooded citizens of Germany. They needed to be stripped of their identity, homeland, and human rights for they did not deserve the rights and privileges that Germany had so kindly bestowed upon them. His ascension to power led to the almost complete eradication of the Jewish race of people and the death of thousands of others who were merely “different” in his point of view and ideology.

Historical records show that Hitler's mother was treated by a Jewish doctor for breast cancer, which was then known as a “poison in the blood”. Her death in 1907 has such a profound effect on young Adolf that he carried his ill will towards the Jews, as caused by his mother's doctor, well into his adult life. Therefore, it is quite possible that Hitler's hatred of the Jews began early on in his life. Long before he served Germany during World War I and before his eyes were opened to the highly successful Jewish leaders residing in Germany.

He came into adulthood in a Germany that saw the Jewish community as the leaders of the banking, business, and other venues of economic importance. It was Hitler's opinion that because of the non-German leadership of the country, its economy, and its position as a world leader were compromised to the point where the country lost its quest to win the 1918 World War (Hall, 2009). Perhaps it was because he experienced the fall of the German monarchy on November 9, 1918, that he became delusional about the Jews. He saw the Jews as the enemy who had stolen victory from the Germans. "And since this delusion revived the traumatic experience of the death of his mother, he developed the fanatic will to annihilate the "Jewish poison" – and thought that killing the Jews was the way to lead Germany to world domination (Hall, 2009). These events connected with Hitler to create his ideology that the Jewish people weakened Germany and prevented it from taking its rightful place as the leader of the world. Thus began his quest to rid Germany of its Jewish population.

Hitler's rise to power was not without controversy. He used every opportunity before him to climb the ranks of German leadership until he finally achieved what he desired the most. He was declared Fuhrer and, without wasting any time, he set about the destruction of the Jewish population in Germany. It was time for him to exact his revenge upon innocent people and he was going to make sure that he could do all of the “cleansing” legally. It was After the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933, that Germany saw the declaration of the “Protective Custody” rules which suspended all the basic rights all of the basic rights of citizens and imposed the death sentence for arson, sabotage, resistance to the decree, and disturbances to public order. Arrests could be made on suspicion, and people could be sentenced to prison without trial or the right to counsel. The suspension was never lifted throughout the entire period of Nazi rule, and the decree of February 28th destroyed fundamental guarantees under the Weimar democracy (Grobman, 1990). The succeeding actions of Hitler and his Nazi party would become the legal basis for the destruction of the German constitution and the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws.