Why did Nazi Germany persecute Jewish people?

Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jewish people was driven by a virulent antisemitic ideology that evolved from religious and political roots into a radicalized form of racial hatred. The Nazi regime characterized Jews not as a religious group, but as a biological "subhuman" (Untermenschen) race and a "dangerous cancer" that threatened the purity and survival of the German people.123

This ideology, central to the worldview of Adolf Hitler, posited that the elimination of Jews was essential for the "redemption" and salvation of the German nation. Hitler viewed Jewish values—such as compassion for the weak—as obstacles to the natural order of power, which he believed the "master race" must dominate.32

Following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, this ideology was codified into official state policy through measures like the Nürnberg Laws, which stripped Jews of citizenship and rights based on their ancestry. This systematic dehumanization and legal exclusion ultimately culminated in the Holocaust, the state-sponsored, industrialized murder of six million Jews, which the Nazis termed the "final solution to the Jewish question".453