Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

On Saturday, April 1, 1933, a Nazi Storm Trooper posted a sign on the window of an elderly man's shop: "Don't Buy From Jews". This was witnessed by Gaston Ruskin, the grandson of the man, who was nine years old at the time. The Storm Trooper then beat up the Jewish grandfather.

This was part of a larger nationwide boycott on Jewish goods and services. Jewish shops were vandalized with crude Star of David images painted on the windows, et cetera. Hitler and many other Germans blamed Jews for their defeat in World War I, and for economic troubles. They believed Jews held undue sway in banking and other professions.

In 1935, anti-Semitism (persecution and hatred of Jews) became official Nazi policy. German Jews were stripped of their citizenship, and marriage between Jews and non-Jews was made illegal. Passports of Jewish people were marked...