Even prior to WWI, a sense of anti-Semitism was shared among many citizens across Germany. In fact, these anti-sematic views had been deeply ingrained into Europe for centuries. In 1880, two-hundred thousand German students signed a petition calling for the exclusion of Jews from government service, public and professional life (Gotlieb 29). These anti-Sematic ideologies stemmed from old-age Christian anti-Sematic beliefs. Jews were accused of murdering Christian children and using their blood in Jewish rituals. Anti-sematic views began to spread across Germany when Hitler published Mein Kampf, a book he wrote while he was imprisoned from 1923 to 1924. In his book, he describes his childhood, the Nazi Party, his future plans for Germany, and his opinions on race and politics. In his book, Hitler divides humans into different categories based on physical appearance, with the Germanic man (white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes) being the most important. He states that these people are known as the Aryans, and they are the supreme form of human. He also described his hatred for the Jews.
Many Germans likened to Hitler's ideas as described in Mein Kampf, and began to support his cause by joining the Nazis. These people are known as perpetrators because they took action to support the Nazis. Next come the by-standers. These are people who didn't share the same ideas the Nazis did, but did nothing to fight stop the Nazis from persecuting the Jews. Most of the time, the SS left these people alone as long as they cooperated with them. Lastly is the resistors. These are people who openly resist Nazi ideas and try to stop the persecution of the Jews. The SS would kill these people if they were found. Thus, Germany was a country rule by fear during Hitler's reign. This is one of the reasons the Holocaust was not avoided and became so widespread. Anybody in Germany who opposed the Nazis were killed, so they couldn't stop it.