The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers or death camps. It began with words, laws, and the deliberate construction of a societal hierarchy that placed Jews at the bottom. From the moment Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, the Nazi regime’s antisemitic ideology became state policy. Jews were stripped of their rights, starting with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which banned them from government jobs. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws institutionalized racial discrimination, prohibiting Jews from marrying or having relationships with "Aryans" and formally revoking their citizenship. These laws were not just legal barriers; they were the building blocks of a system designed to dehumanize an entire people.