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For those Jews living under German control (or the control of German puppet states like Slovakia and Croatia) everyday life before the Holocaust involved growing isolation and an increasing petty-minded and unpleasant restrictions. As for isolation, in Germany after the outbreak of war in September 1939 Jews were forbidden to own radios (they had to be handed over to the authorities); the Jews were not allowed to enter shops till 3 pm, by which time the shelves were often half bare; they had special ration books, marked with a large J, that entitled them to less food than Germans ... They were forbidden to own pets ... They had to live in designated apartment blocks, and the Star of David and that letter J was placed over the entrance. They were allowed much less fuel than others. They were not allowed to use public transport, so they had to walk everywhere they went. (At one stage there were a handful of trams marked with a J, but then even these were abolished). They were banned from downtown areas, from restaurants and cafes, from cinemas and theatres. In Germany, they were not allowed to work, except for other Jews. At every turn they were reminded that they were Jews, that they 'different' ... They had to wear that yellow Star of David on their outer clothing when outside their apartment blocks. Outside Germany, the conditions were much worse, especially in the ghettos in Poland. Then came the deportations.

Watch "Schindler's List" and it will eplain all you need to know. You were not human, dogs were treated better and had more rights than you did. Any German could shoot you for simply looking at them, they could do anything they wanted to you and no matter who you had been prior to the war, you were now "nothing", nothing at all. And you had no recourse to any authority, no one would even listen to your complaints, let alone do anything about it. If a German shot your baby in your arms all that would happen to them was that they would be told, "Good German". Jews were blamed for all that had happened to Germany after the Treaty of Versille and the Great Depression, even though the same problems occured all over the World, in German occupied areas Jews were blamed. It was an insane nightmare of suffering and cruelty. The Germans could do whatever they liked to Jews because the Nuremburg Laws declared that Jews were not human being and so could be treated the same as a chicken. Imagine that happening to you!

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16y ago

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