Why did Hitler target Jews?

The Kaiser blamed the "enemy within" for the destruction of Germany.

The Kaiser named the Jews as the enemy within.

The military accepted the Kaiser's conclusion.

The Jews were believed to be socialists - "Enemies of the state".

Marx, Trotsky et al.

Something to do with a crackpot theory of inferior races.... I dunno!

War is war!!

Has it got anything to do with them claiming to be the chosen people.

MOTR wrote on May 15^th, 2012 at 8:53pm:

Has it got anything to do with them claiming to be the chosen people.

No. Hitler was not concerned with religious claims, Jewish or Christian (except for expediency in the case of the latter).
He believed them to be the root of communism and a fifth column.

But was this built on a preexisting hatred of Jews.

MOTR wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 7:04am:

But was this built on a preexisting hatred of Jews.

Yes. Although Jewish culture was deeply associated with German culture (even the language, Yiddish, was a German-Hebrew dialect) to the degree that, prior to the 1930s, most Jews would have believed that, of all European nations, Germany held the best hope for Jewish European identity and acceptance.

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 7:37am:

MOTR wrote on May 16th, 2012 at 7:04am: But was this built on a preexisting hatred of Jews. Yes. Although Jewish culture was deeply associated with German culture (even the language, Yiddish, was a German-Hebrew dialect) to the degree that, prior to the 1930s, most Jews would have believed that, of all European nations, Germany held the best hope for Jewish European identity and acceptance.

I didn't know that.

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 15^th, 2012 at 7:56pm:

Why did Hitler target Jews? The Kaiser blamed the "enemy within" for the destruction of Germany. The Kaiser named the Jews as the enemy within. The military accepted the Kaiser's conclusion. The Jews were believed to be socialists - "Enemies of the state". Marx, Trotsky et al.

Would you concur with Reuth?

Middle class bigotry morphed into murderous hatred as the Jews were turned into scapegoats for the ills of the world - Germany's defeat and the Soviet Revolution.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194194/Has-historian-finally-real-reason-Hitlers-obsessive-hatred-Jews.html

Because they were annoying

SOB

MOTR wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 7:48am:

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 15th, 2012 at 7:56pm: Why did Hitler target Jews? The Kaiser blamed the "enemy within" for the destruction of Germany. The Kaiser named the Jews as the enemy within. The military accepted the Kaiser's conclusion. The Jews were believed to be socialists - "Enemies of the state". Marx, Trotsky et al. Would you concur with Reuth? Middle class bigotry morphed into murderous hatred as the Jews were turned into scapegoats for the ills of the world - Germany's defeat and the Soviet Revolution.

Yes... The Kaiser's "enemy within".

The prominent role jews played in the bolshevik revolution had not escaped the attention of the germans. 

... wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 1:13pm:

The prominent role jews played in the bolshevik revolution had not escaped the attention of the germans.

More urgent was that Germany in the late 20's / early 30s was on the verge of civil war with the socialists in the east threatening to divide Germany or overrun the west.

National Socialism had its roots in the preservation of the German state.

Jew-hate became a significant galvanising phenomenon when augmented by the memory of the Kaiser's abdication lament.

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 15^th, 2012 at 7:56pm:

Why did Hitler target Jews? The Kaiser blamed the "enemy within" for the destruction of Germany. The Kaiser named the Jews as the enemy within. The military accepted the Kaiser's conclusion. The Jews were believed to be socialists - "Enemies of the state". Marx, Trotsky et al.

Jews werent all hitler targetted though.

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 1:18pm:

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 15th, 2012 at 7:56pm: Why did Hitler target Jews? The Kaiser blamed the "enemy within" for the destruction of Germany. The Kaiser named the Jews as the enemy within. The military accepted the Kaiser's conclusion. The Jews were believed to be socialists - "Enemies of the state". Marx, Trotsky et al. Jews werent all hitler targetted though. SOB

No, they weren't.

Slavs were considered scum... Along with Gypsies among others.

There is also the issue of his biological grandfather Leopold Frankenberger, who came from a prominent Jewish family in Austria. His father Alois was probably the illegitimate son of Maria Schickelgruber by the young Leopold Frankenburger, while she was working as a maid in his father's house in Graz. She was subsequently fired by the Frankenburger family, and even sunned by her own family and left destitute.

Hitler's father was born Alois Schicklgruber, but when his mother Maria  (Hitler's grandmother) eventually married Johann Georg Hiedler, Alois took on his name, which changed spelling somewhere along the line.

Hitler's lawyer, Hans Frank was aware that some of Hitler's relatives were trying to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his Jewish ancestry. His lawyer made sure that history was officially changed to be more acceptable.

So Alois Hiedler and his son Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped bearing the name of Schicklgruber, which means "sump digger" in the Waldviertel dialect.

Of course, there is a certain amount of speculation in this account, because there are no extant records of Hitler's biological grandfather, like most other Jewish families following WWII.   

muso wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 2:03pm:

There is also the issue of his biological grandfather Leopold Frankenberger, who came from a prominent Jewish family in Austria. His father Alois was probably the illegitimate son of Maria Schickelgruber by the young Leopold Frankenburger, while she was working as a maid in his father's house in Graz. She was subsequently fired by the Frankenburger family, and even sunned by her own family and left destitute. Hitler's father was born Alois Schicklgruber, but when his mother Maria  (Hitler's grandmother) eventually married Johann Georg Hiedler, Alois took on his name, which changed spelling somewhere along the line. Hitler's lawyer, Hans Frank was aware that some of Hitler's relatives were trying to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his Jewish ancestry. His lawyer made sure that history was officially changed to be more acceptable. So Alois Hiedler and his son Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped bearing the name of Schicklgruber, which means "sump digger" in the Waldviertel dialect. Of course, there is a certain amount of speculation in this account, because there are no extant records of Hitler's biological grandfather, like most other Jewish families following WWII.

185 Words.

In regards to Hitler and the Jews it's bound up in the theory of "racial biology." Those descendant from the Germanic tribes were biologically superior because they were the "creators of culture," and the Jews were biologically inferior because they were the "destroyers of culture."   

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 7:56pm:

In regards to Hitler and the Jews it's bound up in the theory of "racial biology." Those descendant from the Germanic tribes were biologically superior because they were the "creators of culture," and the Jews were biologically inferior because they were the "destroyers of culture."

It's easier than that. Hitler and the German military high command post WW1 believed the Jews to be a fifth column - just as the Kaiser had decreed at his abdication. For Germany to rise again - to match the British and the French in Empire - the enemies within, as they perceived them, had to be destroyed.

I think it's a mixture of the two.
Racial biology was popular at the time.
I think the hatred of the Jews came first and then the racial theory was added afterwards.
Hitler goes into this and the "culture creating" and "culture destroying" stuff in Mein Kamf

NorthOfNorth wrote on May 16^th, 2012 at 8:22pm:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on May 16th, 2012 at 7:56pm: In regards to Hitler and the Jews it's bound up in the theory of "racial biology." Those descendant from the Germanic tribes were biologically superior because they were the "creators of culture," and the Jews were biologically inferior because they were the "destroyers of culture."    It's easier than that. Hitler and the German military high command post WW1 believed the Jews to be a fifth column - just as the Kaiser had decreed at his abdication. For Germany to rise again - to match the British and the French in Empire - the enemies within, as they perceived them, had to be destroyed.

Within and without, because the enemy is 'rootless, cosmopolitan' (code for Jewish).