Adolf Hitler supported the Treaty of Versailles and believed that the German government was right to try to end World War I.

Germany prospered economically prior to the worldwide Great Depression.

Adolf Hitler tried to seize control of the German government in 1923, ten years before he became chancellor. 

Prior to 1933, Hitler’s desire to eliminate European Jews was kept a secret.

Hitler seized control of Germany in a military coup.

The Nazis used propaganda to gain supporters, offering simple solutions and blaming scapegoats for Germany’s problems. 

The Nazis never received more than 38% of the vote in a national election before 1933.

Jews were the first group to be sent to concentration camps.

The Nazis rejected stories of Germany’s patriotic history and did not try to reassure average Germans about Hitler’s leadership.

German soldiers swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler, not to Germany

Nazi racial ideology labeled Jews, Slavs, blacks, and Roma as racially inferior

The Kristallnacht attacks in November 1938 were spontaneous and surprised Nazi authorities. 

Jews could be released from concentration camps in the late 1930s if they promised to immigrate to another country. 

The German invasion of France was unpopular among the German people.

German soldiers were trained in Nazi racism.

Nazi Germany refused to allow local collaborators, like police, to aid in mass murder.

At least two million Jews were murdered in mass shootings in Eastern Europe.

Many Jews, especially in Eastern Europe, were centralized in ghettos, sometimes for years, before being deported to forced labor, concentration camps, and killing centers.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, all Jews were sent immediately to gas chambers.

The word “genocide” was created to describe crimes like the Holocaust.

When did World War I take place?

While downplaying more extreme goals, President Hindenburg offered simple solutions to Germany’s problems, exploiting people’s fears, frustrations, and hopes to win broad support.