Anti-Semitism
Hitler and the Nazis had a strong hatred for the Jews and even considered them to be Untermenschen, which means "subhumans". There were boycotts of Jewish businesses, dismissals of Jews from the civil service, and burnings of books written by Jews and other non-Aryans. The Nazis believed that they would need to fully rid Germany of these "vermin" in order to eliminate political opposition.
"Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people."
-Heinrich Heine, German poet of Jewish descent
"From this first lie that Jewry is a religion, not a race, further inevitably follow.”
- Adolf Hitler
"We bow down before God; we stand erect before man."
- Rabbi Leo Baeck, German-Jewish Rabbi
"The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect.
Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their
fear."
-Heinrich Himmler, Reich Leader of the SS of the Nazi Party
“The Jew always lives from the blood of other peoples, he needs such murders and such sacrifices. The victory will be only entirely and finally achieved when the whole world is free of Jews.”
-Julius Streicher , founder and published of the Der Stürmer Newspaper