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In March 1933, Adolf Hitler addressed the first session of the German Parliament (Reichstag) following his appointment as chancellor. -
Communists, Socialists, and other political opponents of the Nazis were among the first to be rounded up and imprisoned by the regime. -
Among other things, the laws issued in September
1935 restricted future German citizenship to those
of “German or kindred blood,” and excluded those
deemed to be “racially” Jewish or Roma (Gypsy). -
Members of the Hitler Youth receive instruction in racial hygiene at a Hitler Youth training facility. The Nazis divided the world’s population into superior and inferior “races.” -
Although Jews were their primary targets, the Nazis also persecuted Roma (Gypsies), persons with mental and physical disabilities, and Poles for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. -
Jews in Vienna wait in line at a police station to obtain exit visas. Following the incorporation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, and the unleashing of a wave of humiliation, terror, and confiscation, many Austrian Jews attempted to leave the country. -
Residents of Rostock, Germany, view a burning synagogue the morning after Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”). On the night of November 9–10, 1938, the Nazi regime unleashed orchestrated anti-Jewish violence across greater Germany. -
After the U.S. government denied permission for the passengers to enter the United States, the St. Louis returned to Europe. Some 250 of the refugees would later be killed in the Holocaust.