How did Nazi Germany use an external enemy to justify persecution?

Nazi Germany utilized the concept of an external and internal enemy to consolidate power and justify the systematic persecution of targeted groups, most notably the Jewish people. By identifying a common enemy, the Nazi regime sought to unify the German Volk (people) under a single, racially defined identity, effectively suppressing internal dissent and promoting absolute obedience to the Führer.12

The Nazis employed propaganda to portray Jews as a "cosmic evil" and a "dangerous cancer" responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I, the economic devastation of the Great Depression, and the spread of communism. By framing these complex societal problems as the result of conspiracies by "Judeo-Masonic-bolshevik" forces, the regime argued that the purification of the German race was essential for national survival.1324

This scapegoating provided the ideological and legal foundation for state-sponsored discrimination, including the Nürnberg Laws, which stripped Jews of citizenship, and ultimately the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored murder of millions. This dehumanization of others is a profound moral failure that stands in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of human rights and the inherent dignity of all individuals.13526