WHAT IS ANTISEMITISM?
The word 'antisemitism' is the prejudice against or hatred of the Jews, a huge example of this is the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazis showed great hatred against the Jews, so much in fact that 6 million Jews were killed.
HOW WAS ANTISEMITISM SHOWN BEFORE WWII?
In 1879, German journalist Wilhem Marr originated the term 'antisemitism,' denoting the hatred of Jews, and also hatred of various liberal, cosmopolitan and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated with Jews. The trends under attack included equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, finance capitalism and Pacifism.
HOW WAS ANTISEMITISM SHOWN DURING WWII?
Inspired by Adolf Hitler's theories of racial struggle and the 'intent' of the Jews to survive and expand at the expense of Germans, the Nazi's, as a governing party from 1933-1938, ordered anti-Jewish boycotts, staged book burnings and enacted anti-Jewish legislation. In 1935, the Nuremburg Laws defined Jews by race and mandated the total separation of 'Aryans' and 'non-Aryans.'
WHY HAS THE JEWISH POPULATION BEEN PERSECUTED?
Jewish people were believed to want to expand at the expense of the Germans, the Germans wanted to be the 'superior race' and the Jews were overtaking them. The Jews flourished during the Great Depression while Germany was suffering. Hitler developed a hatred for the Jews during this time.