Question

Which of the following explains one reason for a lack of Jewish resistance to the Nazis before the Holocaust began?

A. Jewish communities expected the German military to protect them from Nazi aggression.
B. The Nazis initially focused on persecuting a variety of different groups before focusing on the Jews.
C. Jews had dealt with anti-Semitism before without seeing it escalate into genocide.
D. Jewish communities were not aware of the anti-semitic stance of the Nazis.

Answer 1

The correct answer is "C".

The Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler started a gradual process of antisemitism. It first started to hinder Jews rights on the legal side, as made laws making it harder for Jews to subsist. The first of these laws was "The Law for the Restoration for the professional Service" in 1933, which began excluding Jews from certain professions. A series of subsequent laws followed and then came the Holocaust, which was the actual extermination of Jewish people. It wasn't an abrupt decision to decide to eradicate Jews but rather a gradual process that led Jews to fully understand the situation they were involved when it was actually happening.