By 1935, Hitler had been in power for two years. Instead of public displays of force, Nazi authorities now focused on systematizing violence. They did so by coopting existing institutions, concentrating power in the hands of a few, and passing laws to make their brutality appear respectable. These measures — among them the imposition of compulsory military service and the criminalization of sex and marriage between people defined as "Aryans" and "Jews" — were not as dramatic as the torchlight parades of 1933 or the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938, but they were essential steps in the Holocaust. This presentation explores the pivotal year of 1935 from multiple perspectives. We will end by watching a relevant scene from the classic movie, Judgment at Nuremberg.

 

Join Professor Doris Bergen from the University of Toronto in Part II of our professional development series “The Holocaust: One Year at a Time” with an in-depth examination of 1935.

 

Doris Bergen is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author or editor of six books, including Between God and Hitler: Military Chaplains in Nazi Germany (2023; winner of the Yad Vashem International Book Prize); and War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (4th edition 2024). Bergen is a member of the Committee on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.