Between 1933 and 1945, Germany's National Socialist (Nazi) government under Adolf Hitler used its monopoly of authority to attempt to rid German territory of people who did not fit its vision of a "master Aryan race." Foremost among the so–called racial enemies, according to the Nazis' antisemitic ideology, were the Jews. When Germany's pursuit of "living space" led to World War II and the conquest of much of Europe, the Nazis undertook the systematic murder of every Jew in Europe.
