Germany’s 1918 defeat by the Allied nations (principally the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States) left it reeling from a loss of identity as a world power. The nation was economically devastated due to hyperinflation and war reparation payments, and its citizens were humiliated under the forced change from a monarchy to a republic. The Weimer Republic governed from 1919 to 1933, but several uprisings broke out. It was this unstable political climate and opposition to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that led to the formation of the National Socialist Workers Party, or the Nazis. Party leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as chancellor on January 30, 1933. Hitler went on to build up the nation’s military and entered treaties with Japan and Italy in an effort to fulfill his goal of world domination. His invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, marked the start of World War II.

National pride and the belief that Jewish sabotage had contributed to the defeat in WWI were the center of Nazi ideology. Antisemitism and exclusion of Jews from mainstream European society dated to the establishment of Christianity, but the bias and persecution had primarily been religious in nature.