The German Question, Part One Hundred Sixteen

Hitler Rules Germany, Part One/B
"Consolidation of Power/The Nazi War On Jews Begins"

German Jews undoubtedly "hoped" the Nazis would settle down and govern the country now that Hitler was "empowered" to rule Germany, by law. Any such hopes were soon to be dispelled, but far worse was to come. Shortly after passage of the "Enabling Act" (see previous article for more info), the Nazis instituted a boycott of Jewish business concerns. There were more than five hundred thousand German Jews at that time, most living in major cities, especially Berlin. The Nazis posted signs everywhere, "Germans, defend yourselves. Don't buy from Jews" ("Deutsche, wehrt euch. Kauft nicht bei Juden"). Stormtroopers shouted anti-Jewish slogans from cars or directly from the streets, while crude paintings of the "Star of David" were often painted on windows of Jewish shops and stores. Many Germans, not yet frightened enough of the Nazis, continued their shopping habits at various Jewish shops and department stores, and the boycott was ended after just a couple of days.

It didn't take long for other measures to come into effect. Laws were decreed that prohibited non "Aryans"* from holding positions in the German civil service, thus forcing Jews to leave these types of positions, and shortly thereafter, Jews were prohibited from holding any type of positions in government. Further, Jewish lawyers were restricted in the practice of law and even Jewish doctors and dentists had their professions restricted. Jewish children were put on a quota system for admission to German public schools. Albert Einstein, the brilliant German-Jewish scientist and thinker** left Berlin and settled in the United States, as did many other "fortunate" German Jews who feared what was coming. Another prominent immigrant to America was film maker Fritz Lang, whose mother was a Jew who had converted to Catholicism (Lang was raised Catholic). Billy Wilder, the famous movie director, and of Jewish heritage, also left Germany. Unfortunately, there were those who left, but who did not go far enough, like the Frank family of Frankfurt am Main, whose daughter, Anne, became famous for her diary kept during the family's hiding from the Nazis in World War Two Holland.

Next..."Hitler Gets Full Power"

* "Aryan" was a term much abused by the Nazis and other racist groups. These groups believed (believe) Indo European speakers; that is, original speakers of languages from the Indo European family of languages, were also a specific race of people who were so highly talented and well-bred, that they were genetically predestined to rule the world, as a sort of "master race." There are variations of this nonsense, but that's the gist of it. The term actually only relates to a specific branch of the Indo European languages, one of the major components of which is "Hindi," one of the main languages of India. Therefore, Mohandas Gandhi, better known to most as "Mahatma Gandhi," should never have been discriminated against, since he was part of the "master race." As I have noted in various "Word Histories" here, "Hindi" is Indo European, and thus related to English, but further down the family tree.

** Einstein was born in Ulm in southwestern Germany (the region known as "Swabia"), also the home of someone who would later become famous for his military exploits, Erwin Rommel (he was born not far from Ulm). Rommel later came to oppose Hitler, and he was forced to commit suicide for his knowledge of the most famous plot to kill the son-of-a-bitch...ah...I mean Hitler. Then again, I believe I'll let that stand..."the son-of-a-bitch!"

WORD HISTORY:
Might-This is a slightly updated history for the noun form meaning "power, strength." (The original history I did was for Part 77 of this series on "The German Question," published 2-10-11, https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-seventy-seven.html ) It goes back to the Indo European base word "magh," which had the notion of "be able to do, have power, have the power to do." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "maghtiz" or "mahtiz," with the same basic meaning. This gave Old English "maeht," and then later, "miht," then "might," and the "gh" was once pronounced in English. Common in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German have "Macht," Dutch and West Frisian have "macht," Norwegian and Swedish have "makt," Danish has "magt," and Icelandic has "máttur." Over time, the meaning "influence" as a form of power has also developed in virtually all of the Germanic languages. In the previous article, the title of the law known in English as "The Enabling" or "Empowerment Act," is "Ermächtigungsgesetz," in German. You can clearly see the German word so closely related to English "might" within the entire word. The "ä" has an umlaut in this specific case, which modifies the sound of a typical "a."