How did the Nazi government persecute Jews and other targeted groups?

The Nazi government’s persecution of Jews and other targeted groups was a systematic, state-sponsored campaign rooted in a racial ideology that viewed these populations as enemies of the state or "subhuman".12

Legal Persecution and Exclusion

Beginning in 1933, the regime used legislation to strip Jews of their rights, dismissing them from government and professional roles. The Nürnberg Laws of 1935 formalized this exclusion by revoking Jewish citizenship and forbidding marriage or sexual relations between Jews and those of "German blood". These laws established a racial definition of Jewishness that made persecution inescapable, regardless of religious practice.13

State Terror and Violence

The Gestapo and SS operated without judicial restraint, using "preventive arrest" to imprison political opponents, homosexuals, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others in concentration camps. Violence escalated during Kristallnacht, a state-directed pogrom that led to mass property confiscation.145

The Holocaust

The regime’s ultimate goal was the final solution to the Jewish question, which evolved from mass shootings by Einsatzgruppen to the industrialized murder of millions in extermination camps. Victims were subjected to forced labor, starvation, and medical experimentation, resulting in the death of 6 million Jews and millions of others targeted by the Third Reich.1425