Anti-Jewish sentiments were common in Germany for hundreds of years, dating back at least to the Middle Ages. The Churches had played an active role in this, especially by promoting the myth that Jews were collectively responsible for killing Jesus. Representatives of the German elites had also actively spread antisemitism. Many Germans, therefore, considered that Jews were a Fremdkõrper ("alien body") in society and demanded a clear separation of Jews and Germans.

In the wake of emancipation and industrialisation, however, by World War I the Jewish community was highly integrated into German society. Jews played distinguished roles in all aspects of German life, including the professions, education, the public service, the economy, culture and even in the armed services. Hitler therefore had to play on the latent antisemitism of Germans to promote his racial theories and put them into practice after assuming power in 1933.

A major part of this was to give antisemitism a pseudo-scientific gloss to define the Jews as inferior and subhuman, threatening the purity of the German master race. The Nazis also propagated false claims such as the supposed role of Jews in the “stab in the back” - the alleged betrayal of Germany’s Army that led to the Versailles Treaty with its loss of territory and large reparation payments.

In the immediate postwar years, Germans suffered runaway inflation and massive unemployment. The National Socialist Workers (Nazi) Party was just one of many racist groups that sprang up in the midst of this chaos, but Hitler soon became the most effective anti-Jewish agitator. His antisemitic blueprint was set out in his book Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), and after he assumed total power in the 1930s it became official policy. Although opposed to Christianity, Hitler used it in his antisemitic message. For example, in Mein Kampf he wrote:

“If … the Jew is victorious over the peoples of the world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity and this planet will, as it did thousands of years ago, move through the ether devoid of men. Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the creator: By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

This message - fusing racism and religious teaching - was accepted by many Germans, whose nationalism was often linked to Christian values. Many saw Jews as the opposite of everything good in their nation.

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