The Limited Solution
Overview
When the Nazis came to power in 1933 they had a clear idea of their goal for Germany: total extermination of the Jewish people and the advancement of the master German Aryan race. In order to enforce their anti-Semitic policies, the Nazis enforced two euphemistic "Solutions": The Limited Solution, The Situational Solution, and most famously, the Final Solution. The Limited Solution refers to the time between the Rise of the Nazis in 1933 into 1939. During the Limited Solution, the Nazis began to persecute Jews, Communists, and Gypsies by passing legislation such as restricting them from working in certain places, forcing Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothing, and regulating intermarriage between "true Germans" and those of "impure blood" through the passage of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. At this point in time, Hitler was concerned with the international spotlight that persecution could bring, and so at international events such as the Berlin Olympics in 1936, anti-Jewish propaganda was removed from Berlin in order to paint a picture of an accepting Germany. However, at the same time, the Nazis were also implementing programs such as the T-4 program of euthanasia, and engaging in acts of violence against Jews on nights like Kristallnacht. So, during the time of the Limited Solution, the Nazis may not have seemed to the international community like the violent, angry killing machine that history knows them to be, but underhandedly, they were already implementing the very policies that would eventually lead to the Holocaust.