Anti Semitism
Before you start thinking about writing an essay on Anti- Semitism, you have to know where the term has come from. In 1879, the German journalist Wilhelm Marr coined the term anti-Semitism, noting the hatred of Jews, as well as several political liberal, cosmopolitan or international movements in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, have been often associated with Jews. These trends included the equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, capitalism, and pacifism. The hatred of Jews, however, preceded the modern era. Among the most common manifestations of anti-Semitism through the ages there were the pogroms (attacks on Jews by the local populations, often encouraged by the authorities). Pogroms were often prompted by rumors that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes. In the modern era, anti-Semitism has developed a political dimension. In the last third of the nineteenth century, anti-Semitic political parties were formed in Germany, France and Austria. Publications such as Protocols of the Elders of Zion or helped generate theories of international Jewish conspiracy. An important component of anti-Semitism was political nationalism, which often adhered to falsely denouncing Jews as disloyal citizens.
The Nazi party, founded in 1919 and led by Adolf Hitler, gave political expression to the theories of racism. In part, the Nazi party gained popularity with the spread of anti-Jewish propaganda. Millions bought the book written by Hitler, Mein Kampf (My struggle), which called for removal of Jews from Germany. With Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the party organized anti-Jewish boycotts, organized mass book burnings and made anti-Jewish legislation enacted. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws defined Jews by blood and ordered the separation of "Aryans" and "non-Aryans." On November 9, 1938, Nazis smashed the windows of synagogues and Jewish businesses throughout Germany and Austria (Kristallnacht). This event marked a transition to the era of destruction, which is now referred to as the genocide of Jewish people.