A century earlier Heine had stated, "Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." Heine could scarcely have imagined how true his statement would become, specifically for the European Jews who found themselves under Nazi domination during the Third Reich. German Jews were harassed, beaten, arrested and imprisoned. Their businesses were boycotted, and Jewish lives were proscribed by a long list of new anti-Jewish laws.

Though antisemitism in Germany had simmered for centuries, it had reached a boiling point by 1933. The reasons were largely economical. In the early '30s Germany was suffering the effects of a severe worldwide economic depression. It put millions out of work, increased social unrest, and undermined confidence in the post-World War I German government, which was known as the Weimar Republic. These discouraging conditions were made even worse by the bitterness many Germans felt over Germany's defeat in World War I. They wanted decisive leadership and national rebirth, yet political instability left both of those aims in doubt.