What made the Jews so successful that they became the target of Hitler?

Question

Theories mention that Hitler was jealous of the Jews since they're rich and successfull and own businesses. How did the Jews became so successful? Where did all the riches come from?

Did something happen in history that triggered their success?

For example:There are natural rights because of Enlightnement

Answer 1

Jewish culture has some characteristics that helped especailly Jews play a key role in the economic development of Europe.

First was land ownership. Jews could not own land. So there was a concentration on buying reselling and moving goods from here to there. In the feudal age, barter was not so great. When you had a lot of potatoes, so did everyone else.

But as money came to be more interchangeable, it was the Jews who were in a position to move money around and manage surplus on on part of the market. Transportation from one willage to another was less risky when you had relatives along the way.

Second, education. Jewish society educated every child to learn to read write and 'rithmetic. (Women too.) So even the water carrier, or the porter, or the pushcart seller, knew how to calculate whether 3 gallons for 5 kopeks was more than 4 gallons for 6.
And remember that because of the expulsion from the Rheinland in teh 1200's, Jews all across Europe spoke the Rhennish dialect of German, now called yiddish, in addition to whatever other languages they picked up along the way.

The expulsion and travel as a way of life was well-suited to the movement of goods across the trade routes.

The third element: call it a knack for survival -- turning some people's junk into someone else's treasure.


As Europe emerged from a feudal society, Jews were the right people in the right place and the right time with the right set of cultural values. And as banking became an industry all of its own, it was increasingly the Jewish fianciers, who a generation before had been shrewd small time investors and merchants, who came out ahead.

A wonderful story about this is the memoir of a Jewish woman, Glikl Haml, who lived in northern Germany during the 1600s

Answer 2

Hitler wanted to paint and his Doting stupid mother told him he was good but in Austria the art galleries were owned By the Jews and told hitler he could Not paint if you look at his paintings I would Not let him paint My house he hated his father who was part Jew as was his Grandmother Hitler was an evil little boy who would burn his fathers Bee Hives because his father beat him with a Belt in the trenches all his officers were Jews he was only a cpl there are Rumours that he actually stole his Iron cross from a Jewish officer he was Gassed in the Trenches and was in hospital and when he heard of the Armistice he went into a rage Blaming the Jews Hitler Grew up a Bullie and with all Bullies it is always the fault of the Victim and the easiest and weakest were the jews

Answer 3

> "Theories mention that Hitler was jealous of the Jews since they're rich and successful and own businesses."

Those theories should know better. Germany, like most Western European countries, had mostly working-class and lower-middle-class Jews. There were also poor Jews.

That "Rich Jew" theory is a typical "straw man" argument used by all racists and apologists.

Answer 4

Brains and hard work is what made them so successful then , same as today. The reason Hitler hated them is the same reasons the Muslims hate them, they have something they want. The Muslims aren't smart enough to get it any other way so they fall back on their hatred, and they wonder why the rest of the world won't back them up. Instead of hating the Jews maybe people should start learning from them, they are not the enemy.

Answer 5

I guess it's the way it is today , just that nobody was about to stop Herr. Chancellor. A fair percentage of folks who may not otherwise know Jewish people might be inclined to feel that the "Jews" are in some sort of conspiratorial relationship collectively. Basically this is a combination of a number of factors.

1. The Jewish faith predominatly considers persuing an intellectual course of work a worthy pursuit and so there tend to be a dispropotionate number of Jews in media, literary an intellectual circles. This causes and to some extent supports the largely conspiritorial suspiscion by some segments of society that as a result or as a matter of course, there is concerted collusion or are acts of control exerted by the Jewish community upon the media or in universities etc.

Taken objectively, since academic and "desk" jobs are to this day considered "easier" than other jobs, there is a bias that somehow, "they" are getting it easier than everyone else.

Hitler like many conservatives in Weimar Germany was still coming to terms with many of the conditions of modernity which were in fact if not just in rhetoric "tearing" Germany appart, forcing urbanization and agrarian poverty. General German sentiment/grievance against the terms of the terms of the settlement of WW I , made xenophobia and nationalism powerful elements of the political scene of the Weimar German Republic. Many "radical" ideas in intellectual circles were being developed in Germany, advances in Chemistry, Industry, social sciences (notably communism and mass production capitalism) both came into their own during this timeframe in Germany.

2. Since the older variants of Jewish faith also tend to also promote a separateness from general population by both exclusive cultural arrangements (Kosher foods/food prepration/ ritual dress, and generally strong cultural and ethnic identity which - to this day - is often in independent and which may be in contrast to the prevailing cultural identiy, Jews are not difficult and nearly "ideal" to point out as "different" , "alien" or basically "other".

If you are looking to isolate an ethnic group for promoting your political goals, you could do alot worse than to "Blame the Jews" and then start piling on the accusations.

Finally the ball really gets rolling on the road to concentration camps or wherever you want to go pretty mcuh when you take these two preconditions of the Jewish faith and tradition and mix with the common prejudices of perceived or actual arrogance on the part of indvidually identified Jews, coupled with the nascent bias towards teachers, academics, authors etc, that they "must" view themselves with a perception of intellectual superiority, plays into this unfortunate sterotype.

Oddly your point about Jews owning businesses is in no small way a conseqeunce of European and American laws which were enacted after the 1600's and which prevailed - in many cases until the 1950's and 60's in parts of the US, which forbade Jews from owning large properties or being involved in various forms of commerce, and the restrictions were such that that many chose or were compelled by circumstance to enter the mercantile or retail marketplaces to rent shops or rent warehouses, but they could not own the properties, from there family tradition and time causes there to be areas of modern commerce which have again a somewhat disproporationate amount of Jews in them.

For example, once upon a time, wholesale to retail distribution was and in some places still contain a large Jewish community. Finance - again due both to commercial restriction and the dependence on academia has a disproportionate amount of Jews involved in the marketplace.

What it is not, is a necessarily conspiritorial circumstance, it is the function of ALOT of history.

Since like any other activity there are isolated occasional incidents where such collusion or just the appearance of such actually occurs, that it just feeds into the circus of paranoia which often fuels anti-jewish sentiment.

An excellent modern example where the facts fit this perception is with the modern neo-conservative political movement. Until late 2004, there was in fact, an unfortunate and real relationship between individuals working at the Pentagon "Office of Special Plans" and operatives of the Israeli government. (See investigations of Douglas Feith and Richard Perle , Lawrence Franklin http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/4/5984)

This then tends to create a perfect storm, so whether it's Islamic extremists, Backwater Clansmen, or National Socialists, you end up in a bad situation.

More plainly speaking the average Jewish person is no more likely to be in a conspiratorial relationship than the average Irish person, or the Italian or Catholics or Mong, or Chinese or British or French or anyone else.

Moreover, and put another way, it would be just plain wrong and profoundly naieve in the extreme to think or say that Israel or France or China or Japan or Germany, has not or does not conduct industrial, military and commercial espionage, sabotage and political activities within and against the interests of the American people and republic.

When you think about it in this way you realize that we are all motivated by the same thing - self interest, and that is something almost every person on the planet is guilty of.

Answer 6

There are two parts of the old testament that hold the answer. The part the Christians feel is more important says Thou shalt not lend money. The part the Jews feel is more important says Thou shalt not lend money AT USURY (usury means high rates of interest)
Because of this, Christians felt they could not lend money, and asked the Jews to do this....forcing them to become bankers.
One cute trick was a God Fearing Christian would borrow a lot of money from a Jew, then complain about the Jew to a few cronies, getting a crowd together who would burn down the Jew's business...destroying all records of the loan. Which the Christian denied any knowledge of.

Answer 7

The Real Secret lies in Hitler (and his other Nazi Party) members love affair with the Occult.

There was even a History Channel special on it not long ago.

He only borrowed from others....

Answer 8

I heard that his hatred stemmed more from the fact that the two biggest rejections of his life stemmed from the Jewish Community. First Hitler's Father was Jewish, and If I remember correctly he beat Hitler continuously from a young age, and two Hitler really aspired to be an artist. He submitted his paintings to a Jewish art school, and they rejected him, and said he wasn't talented enough to attend the school. So that is why he developed a hatred for them despite the fact that he was half Jewish....that's what I remember reading anyways.

Answer 9

I don't think that it was so much their success that made them a target..Hitlers Mom was Jewish but his Father was'nt,which did'nt go very well in the old neibourhood. He was looked down on and unfortunetly took his hate out on them years later.

Answer 10

Only a few Jews were rich and successful. Most led pretty unremarkable lives.