Treaty of Versailles
As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was severely punished for their army’s involvement in WWI. The Treaty required Germany to “accept the blame for the war and to pay extensive reparations for Allied losses...and reduce the German military to one hundred thousand men who could only maintain order within German territory” (Blight 18). These punishments fueled Germany’s hatred for the allies, and believed these repercussions were too harsh, and it did not deserve this kind of treatment from its European neighbors. The treaty took many colonies from Germany that were acquired in times before and during the war, and the reduction of troops left Germany weak and vulnerable. The repayment for Allied losses proved too much for the German economy to handle, consequently causing hyperinflation and extreme economic downturn, causing further hatred for the nations that put them in this predicament. The German public, looking for a scapegoat to blame all of their recent perils on, believed that Jewish government officials were to blame for all of their suffering. This was the beginning of German anti-semitism, and set the backdrop for the holocaust in World War II.