Nazi is associated with cruel ruthlessness and stripping everyday people of rights and freedoms. it's not a word employed well at times.
I am a history major who had a particular interest in WW2 - here's the deal, before WW2 - Germany went through hyper-inflation, prices were rising so fast that wages had to be adjusted frequently to keep up.
Businessmen, including Jews, profited from this.
Now, keep in mind that up until about the turn of the century, and even later than that, Jews could not go to university, could not vote, could not own land, could not live anywhere they wanted except in Jewish ghettos, could not teach, and they were often forcibly evicted. So, this create a near impossible situation for them and they had to find ways to prosper despite all those restricitons. One of them was moneylending (in the middle ages, moneylending was considered a sin and it was not done by christians so they tolerated jews moneylending as a "necessary evil" - this is what led to Christians viewing Jews as greedy). Anther would be peddling. Yet another would be jewels (they are small, easy to hide and easy to transport should the family be suddenly uprooted and forced to leave on short notice).
Jews were also forced to pay much higher taxes to the government, when I was in Poland and reading about Polish Jews, it was rather shocking. jews had to pay a very high toll to any town to order to gain entry, even if they lived in that town. If one looks at Medieval paintings, the jews are usually portrayed as demons, half man/half animal, or doing very profane acts.
Europe did their damnedest since the Middle Ages to make life nigh impossible for Jews and imposed every sanction and tax they could think of to drive them out, is it any surprise Jews would naturally turn to moneymaking/finance to support themselves given most other professions, let alone university and land-owning were forbidden to them?
